DAY 1---BOARDING DAY

 

        Jose had a taxi ready for us to depart the Hilton at 11:10.  I was just a 15 minute ride to the ship.  Upon arrival at the cruise terminal they took our 3 large suitcases to be loaded on the ship.

        We got through security and to the check-in desk by 11:28 and they informed us check-in would begin in just a few minutes.  Perfect timing as no line at the priority line.  We were onboard by 11:45.

                                                   This is our home for the next 27 nights.

        As we entered the ship we were met by Luca, the General Manager, and were handed the traditional glass of champagne.  Luca took Rebecca's rollaboard and escorted us to our suite.  That was a definite first!!!  

        Not long after arriving in our suite Saga, our steward, showed up.  I told him he had an interesting name.  He said it was "a long story" how he was named.  Get the pun??  He had foam pillows and a non feather duvet on the bed.  Rebecca is allergic to feathers.  They have our preferences stored in the computer.  He also knew we did not want the fruit bowl.  I took the below photos of our suite before we messed it up.

                          There is also a walk in shower besides the tub.  We are not tub folks!

                                                                  Nice walk-in closet.

        Ok, as Diamond status (over 1000 nights on Regent) we get a very nice (read $$$) bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne and a box of Leonidas candies.  We had also requested 3 cases of La Crema chardonnay and 2 bottles of Makers Mark bourbon be put on the ship just for us.  You see 2 bottles of the chardonnay and the Makers Mark here.  No extra charge for this.  Yes, they do spoil us!!

                                            The fresh flowers are also a Diamond benefit.

                            I'm the world's worse selfie taker.  Us in from of our mirror.

        Next we went down to the reception desk to order our Dallas Morning News paper to be printed and delivered daily.  Another Diamond bene.  Then we stopped to speak with the internet manager to get hooked up on "streaming" so Rebecca can watch her soaps.  Streaming service costs $20 per day but we have a lot of ship board credit to use.  Unfortunately, so far she cannot get Paramount Plus so may do without paying for streaming.

        It was now well after 1pm so up to La Veranda we went for some lunch.  Of course, Rebecca had an Atkins bar but I had some pasta and lobster nachos.

                                   Budi is a sommelier whom we have known since 2010.

        This is Dara, a waitress, whom we have known for nearly 10 years and one of our absolute favorite crew members.

        This is Kadek from Bali.  Long story but we call him our adopted son.  We have visited his family when on a cruise that stopped in Bali.  He has 3 children whom we call our grandkids.  On this cruise he is the head sommelier.

        Several other crew members stopped by our table to say hello.  I will get photos of them later.  

A lady passenger, whom we had not met, stopped by our table and remarked that we much be someone special because so many crew member stopped by our table.  Well, we are!!

        Before we left La Veranda Rebecca asked Rey, maitre d of Compass Rose (main dining room) for a plate of gouda cheese.  Room service delivered it not long after that.

        It is now 2:40 and our luggage has not been delivered yet.  It takes awhile so in the meantime I will unpack my roll aboard and get organized and settled in.

        Our luggage showed up at 3pm.  We're almost totally unpacked at 4pm.  Saga lifted the bags up on the bed but my back is killing me.  The suitcases fit under our bed and are stowed there now.  Our air conditioning works great.  I had to turn it down initially but unpacking had me turning it back up.

               Three different soaps and lotions to pick from.  We use the middle photo ones.

        It is now 5pm and they are making the emergency instructions over the PA from the bridge.  Just prior we received a call from Luca, the General Manager.  Same gentleman that escorted us to our suite after boarding.  He asked if we would like to join him for dinner tomorrow evening and what restaurant we preferred.  We said yes, if it would just be the three of us.  He agreed and we chose to meet him at 7pm in Compass Rose.  Tomorrow is a formal optional dress evening and the Compass Rose menu is always very nice then.

        I down turning in our tour tickets back in for tomorrow's planned tour.  We received a letter saying the market part of tour was cancelled so not going.  When passing back through the Coffee Connection I ran into Vladan, the Food & Beverage Manager.  He remembered my name because he saw the La Crema chardonnay down in the store room.  We are infamous for that wine!!

        Ok, that's about it for today's post.  We are heading down to the Meridian Lounge around 6pm (it opens then) for cocktails.  We are meeting our friends, Cathi & John Begg from the LA area, for dinner in Prime 7 (steakhouse) for our 7pm dinner reservation.

BARCELONA

 

        This is our home for two nights.  The service here is impeccable!  Joel, when we checked in, Jose, our bellman, and Paula, Executive Lounge attendant.  We have a view looking down at the pool area.  It was a dermatologist's dream today because of all the chairs full of folks working on getting skin cancers.

        Yesterday afternoon we walked across the street to check out the mall.  Very interesting looking architecture of the building down the street.  The mall was incredible!  One whole floor was fast food restaurants.  The bottom floor was one HUGE grocery store.  Biggest all grocery store I have ever been in.  We were looking for a chardonnay for our room.  Not easy as 95% of the wines here are red wines.

Finally found one and only $8.  Opened it last night and tasted like $8.  Beggars can't be choosers!

        The wine was not chilled so we put it in the wine chiller with ice in what most all European bathrooms have.  I think it is called a bidet.  

        This is the Executive Lounge.  I took the photos mid afternoon. We went up at about 5pm for happy hour and the place soon filled up.

        I brought these "meds" from home as I knew GOOD bourbon is not found here.  Woodford Reserve bourbon is a good one.  Makers Mark is my favorite but had these at home in minis.  The two on the left I filled with sweet vermouth and Woodford cherry bitters to make my Manhattans with the others.

        This is some of the canapes we enjoyed.  They had a very drinkable white wine that Rebecca had and I had Absolut vodka on the rocks.  Ok, maybe two or three!  My back was killing me this afternoon after sluffing luggage to get here.  I needed some "medicine".

        At 6pm we decided we need something else for a small dinner.  So off to the mall food court we went!  Nothing seemed good so finally settled for a very small order of chicken tenders at Polo Comparo.  We brought it back to the Exec Lounge and had a glass of wine to wash them down.

        After asking for a couple wine glasses (clean and empty) to go, we headed back to the room.  I retrieved the bottle of chardonnay from our bathroom and now we are enjoying a glass or three.

        After a long search through the tv channels offered, I found one, "CSI Las Vegas", in English.  I have been working on this blog post but hitting the hay shortly!

FRIDAY 

        Neither of us slept real well last night but did get some rest.  Up at 8am and heading down for the breakfast buffet,

         Nice restaurant.  Good timing for our arrival as it got much busier by the time we left.

                                                                     Outside seating.

                                                          They were serving mimosas today.

                                                                            Cheers!  

                                                         Meats and cheeses station.

                                                           Breads and sweet rolls.

There was a cooked to order omelet station that we ordered at.  Also got some potatoes and bacon.

         After breakfast I went for a half hour walk around the neighborhood.  Not too hot yet.  Front of our hotel.

                                                                     Big park nearby.

                                 Not sure what this was.  Walked all around it but no signs.

                                            Tree lined street.  Lots of buses on all the streets.

        After returning from MY walk and resting a bit, then Rebecca wanted to go walk.  Our first stop was at a pharmacy near by.  I wanted to see if Zolpidem (their version of Ambien) required a prescription.  It did so I got some Melatonin to use at bedtime tonight.  I use it sometimes at home.

        Then we headed into the mall for our walk.  Rebecca did not want to get any sun as did not bring suntan lotion.  It was 11:30 and most of the fast food places had not opened yet.  I guess they don't open until noon.  People in Spain (Europe) dine late.  They have lunch after 2pm and dinner after 8pm.

        After returning to our room we both showered and now feel much better.  Oh, my!  Only US news tv stations at our hotel is CNN and CNBC.  We are FOX NEWS folks.  So watching BBC and Sky News (UK stations).

        I just wanted not much for lunch so got a small chicken sandwich (for $1.75 and two drinks.  Rebecca had her usual Atkins meal bar.  She has one EVERY lunch.  We than did a little more walking in the mall before heading back across the street to the Hilton.

                                 There are many of these food delivery bikes around here.

        When we got back I asked to speak with the hotel manager.  Albert came out for our chat with him. I wanted to compliment some of his staff members by name as the service here is beyond outstanding.  Jose, our bellman, was standing nearby so I called him over and told Albert he deserved a raise.  That remark brought laughter.  I told Albert we would be back to his hotel in December of 2026 for the inaugural cruise of Regent's new ship, Prestige, that is coming out then.  Albert said to email him prior so he could have a suite reserved for us.

        I have been wearing this t-shirt today and have had several men ask me if they could take a photo of it.  I could sell a lot of these,

                      Happy hour in the executive lounge.  Thankfully, I bought my own libations.

         I went over to the mall to get this not so good pizza.  We at half of it for dinner.  We enjoyed the Executive Lounge one last night.  Great service as usual.  Now it's time for bed time.  Boarding the Splendor tomorrow.

 

                             

 

        

WE MADE IT TO BARCELONA

 

          We were the first ones to board our plane yesterday at 4:40 and got settled into our business class seats.  Soon after that the F/A brought us a glass of champagne.

        

        Of course I had to go up and checkout the cockpit and have a chat with the guys.  On this international flight there were two F/O's assisting the Captain.  Our flight time for this trip was to be 8 hours and 52 minutes.  Flights over 8 hours require 3 pilots.  It was 5320 miles from DFW to BCN.

        We left the gate 15 minutes late due to late arriving passengers.  No problem as we had a tailwind to make up the time.  It was a quick taxi and we took off at 6:00.

        When we reached our cruising altitude the F/A's began their cocktail and dinner service.  I had Woodford Reserve bourbon and Rebecca had chardonnay.

                                                                           Cheers!

                              You'll have to click on this photo of the menu to enlarge it.

        We started with grilled artichokes and eggplant with feta cheese (on right side) and a romaine salad.  We do not like eggplant but this was good.

        I chose the braised short rib with lobster mac & cheese, and broccolini.  The rib was excellent.  Hot, tender, and juicy meat.  Rebecca opted for pan roasted chicken with garlic mashed potatoes, and broccolini.  She loved her dinner also.  Bravo American Airlines, great chow!

                For dessert I had the hot fudge sundae.  Of course Rebecca passed on dessert.

        After dinner it was time for some shut eye.  Our seats reclined fully into a flat bed.  Nice blanket and pillow.  I went right to sleep but Rebecca went up to have a long chat with the F/A's in the galley before she retired.  My back was not bothering me so I got some rest.

        An hour prior to landing we were served some fruit, honey roasted sweet potatoes, blistered tomatoes, and a mushroom, leek, & asparagus frittata.  Hot coffee also.

        We landed early at 9:50 (schedule was 10:10).  Unfortunately, we had to park away from the gates so had to use this stairs and then board a bus that took us to the terminal.  It was not easy for us to come down the stairs with our carry-ons but we made it.

        Once in the terminal we had to pass through immigration control to have our passports checked and stamped.  There was a bit of a line but they had several officers and we were on our way to baggage claim within 10 minutes.

        Now the wait began!  It was over an hour waiting for our luggage to come out.  Our Blacklane limo driver called us several times and I told him NOT to call us as I did not have an international cell phone plan.  We were glad to see all 3 of our bags to come out finally.  Our driver was waiting with a sign with our names on it as we departed baggage claim doors.

        The Mercedes SUV was very nice for our 30 minute ride from the airport to the Hilton Diagonal Mar.  We arrived at the hotel at 11:30.  Joel checked us in and thankfully our room was ready.  We have a view of the beach (not a great beach) and pool from the 13th floor.

                              View from our window of pool, and what they call, the beach??

        This is the view from elevators out the other side of the hotel.  We are in a residential area but just outside of the hotel is a mall.  Click to enlarge.  There is a McDonalds down there!  Probably wait until tomorrow to check it out.  

        We normally stay at the Hilton closer to the city but wanted to try this hotel out on this trip.  Glad we did as service here is incredible.  The bellman brought our luggage up right away and got extra luggage racks for the room.  Later I went down to get a couple electric plug adapters so I could plug our phones in to charge.  There was one US type outlet for my computer.  There was a long line at reception so again the bellman came to be aide and got them.

        A couple hours after we got to the room there was a knock at the door and this box of candy was delivered from the hotel manager.  We are Diamond status with Hilton so they do nice things for Diamonds.  There is an Executive Lounge on the 15th floor that we get special access to.  Happy hour there with drinks and canapes is from 5 to 7pm.  Yes, we will be there!!  Also, unlike Hiltons in the US, we will get a free breakfast buffet in the restaurant.

        So it is now 2pm here but in Dallas it is 7am (7 hours change).  I am going to publish this blog post now and lie down for awhile.  Rebecca is snoozing already.  More tomorrow!

OOPS!  Almost forgot!  Just prior to landing a F/A brought this bottle of champagne to Rebecca.  I guess they enjoyed her visit in the galley.

       

       

        

        

DEPARTURE DAY

         At long last we are on our way!!  Mike picked us up at The Tradition at 2:15.  We have used him before as he only charges $50 (I give him $10 tip also) and has a nice SUV.  We arrived at DFW at 2:50 with very little traffic enroute or to get to our terminal.  Mike dropped us right outside the entrance with our "priority" check-in just inside.  

                                     No wait to get our bags checked and then on to TSA check.

               No wait at TSA either so on to the American Airlines Admirals Club we went.

        Our departure gate (A21) was right after we exited TSA and our aircraft was already sitting at the gate.  It had arrived from JFK airport at 12:30.  Our departure time is 5:30.  We will be flying on a very nice Boeing 787-900.  One of AAL's newer aircraft.  Nice to know our aircraft is here waiting for us.  Looks like the weather will hold too as there were passing thunderstorms this morning.

        We are not members of the Admirals club but as business class international passenger we got access.  It was PACKED and had a hard time finding seats.  It is a huge club but was full.

        We had a glass of very bad chardonnay to "cool our jets" while waiting to head down to the gate for boarding.  We will leave here at 4:30 for our 5:30 departure.

        Not sure if American is offering free internet yet on their planes but it is in the works.  If so, I will add to this post once on board.  If not, next post will be from Barcelona.  Scheduled landing time is 10:10am on 21st.

PACKING DAY

REMINDER:  CLICKING ON THE PHOTOS WILL ENLARGE THEM

         We started packing at 9am and finished at 2pm.  Rebecca kept saying we will need four bags but we managed to get everything in just three.  Each bag weighed just under the airline limit of 50 pounds.

SUCCESS!!

        We also have our two carry-on bags for the overhead.

                                                                  Let the fun begin!!

                                                 Bags packed and ready for attaching the locks.

        We will be flying business class tomorrow and Rebecca asked if I had selected what dinner entrees we would like.  OOPS!  Done now!  Chicken for Rebecca and ribs for me.

        Our ride to DFW is scheduled to depart here at 2:45pm for our 5:30pm flight direct to Barcelona.  Just 30 minute ride (normally) to DFW.

        Planning another post tomorrow from American Airlines Admirals Club.

ITINERARY