A European Dream - Disney Dream Med 2023 5/20-5/27 - update 11/21

[Flossbolna]

I HATE the barn doors on bath rooms, especially the ones that are glass. We had one "fall" off the track and almost hit our daughter, but even if that had not happened, there is just no privacy with them.

We once had one of those barn doors fall off as well and it got stuck, so that you couldn't close it anymore. It was late at night and the hotel gave us the key to another room to use the bathroom in (the toilet luckily had its own door within the bathroom) so we did not have to move. It was a bit ridiculous but the good thing was that we now had two showers!

Love Five Guys and these burgers look even better.

The Goiko is a definite recommendation for Barcelona!

 

[Flossbolna]

We flew into and out of Cologne, which is how I know that there are often crazy cheap tickets available on this route.

That makes sense, I do remember that there was some further travel involved. Didn't you also go to Mainz?

I have very fond memories of this, too. I would happily eat a Spaghetti -Eis right now

We went for ice cream today with my sister - she had a Spaghetti Eis as it seemingly isn't that common in Berlin!

Technically the closes proper park was Holiday Park, but even then Phantasialand was in a different league.

Oh, I never heard of Holiday Park. I guess it is more a regional park like our Schloss Thurn...

I like the look of that Disneyland book.

We can definitely recommend that one!

They all sound great, but I do have a soft spot for anything Chines.

There are some people who say that Ling Bao was dumbed down in the recent renovation, but for us it was still totally wonderful.

I love this. I had not realised that this is not available in Bavaria. I suppose this is one of the advantages of living pretty much in the centre of the country. When I grew up, specialities from all over Germany were readily available.

You were already north of the Weißwurst-Äquator though, I think, so that explains a lot. We here in the South are really far more detached from other German culture (not necessarily thinking that's a good thing... Think of the CSU...)

I remember we had one cruise like this on DCL. people were joking that we would get the lifeboat suite.

I am sorry you had to go through this as well! It did stress me at times and I am sure that you can relate!

How nice that she was able to meet you. Was this good old Ryanai?

I think you missed an R here and it took me ages to figure out you were talking about the airline, not the visitor. And of course you guessed correctly!

I would have been like kid in the candy store.

I think we spent well over 30 minutes looking at books!

That makes the construction of Sagrada Familia look speedy.

Yes, one could nearly think the Berlin airport aspired to be a cathedral considering that it took nearly as long to build.

I am sure I read somewhere while we were there that they found a way to reinforce the bridge to cope with the weight of the locks.

Oh, that makes sense!

I am sure it was worth the wait.

Yes, I think waiting so long for that Elton concert will make sure that it will stay fresh in our memories!

That really was a good day. Professionally, when I hear Rail and Fly, I break out in a cold sweat. We call it Rail and Schrei in the office.

It can be a very decent deal. Especially if you want to catch the train after your flight home as it is an open ticket. But I do understand why your office doesn't like it as the DB issues land with you instead of them... Michael often says that while we usually are able to fare through the difficulties DB is throwing at us quite well, it is only due to me being such a train expert - I grew up in a train loving family and we didn't own a car for many years in the 1980s. And my father taught me to read time tables when I was 10 which lead to evenings planning routes to all kind of far away places. Pair this with over 50 years of experience travelling a lot by train, I can navigate the system. And I also know which chances I would never take. In my opinion you need a buffer of at least 2 additional hours if you take a train to your flight. Ideally I like to go to Frankfurt or Munich the night before if it is a morning flight. That's why I love it that Lufthansa now offers the trains as part of your tickets. With that it becomes there issue if the train is delayed.

Oh, what a pain. At least our flight was only 30 minutes delayed. However, this still meant that it was 3:00 AM by the time we fell into bed.

So that was a very late flight to begin with!

The hotel prices in Barcelona are insane. We always stay in a nearby town called Molins de Rei when we are cruising out of Barcelona.

This sounds interesting! I will need to remember to ask you about it if and when we are going back to Barcelona for a cruise!

Apart from the rucola, this sounds amazing.

I see, you belong into the "hates weeds" camp!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Definitely a very nice view!

The cathedral across the river is such a great feature of that hotel.

That really is something!

I know that my long time readers would see how extraordinary this is!! Hasn't happened since Tokyo Disney Seas!

Actually it sounds like Beef Tartare with Pork, I'd try it!

That's exactly what it is! And I am happy to hear that you are adventurous! I am already planning on which German/Bavarian delicacies I need to introduce you to because I know that you will appreciate many of the "strange" things so much more than any of our other foreign visitors so far!

Interesting. I don't think Jill is even reading. I have to tell her when I post update on my TR....

She was there at the beginning, I sent her a bat signal. But I will tell Michael to send her a note about new updates here to check out. I am sure he doesn't want her to miss out on his attention here...

I have so many of those types of books and I can't even put them on the coffee tables because the cats might puke on them.

We have loads of these type of books as well - and we don't even have a coffee table! So they aren't on display either. But Michael actually reads most of these books and doesn't just get them for display. I mainly just flip through the pictures...

That is very fine wool!

It is wonderful, but unfortunately the pattern is difficult to figure out and I need to try it again with wool that is easier to take apart again as I am not sure what I am doing. You need to use the three colours at the same time and I don't understand how you are supposed to go from one color to the other,

Most of those price tags say 6 Euros which I looked up as $6.50US, that's insane, all of those are $1 in the US, or maybe now $1.25 because of inflation.

Yes. We actually think that these stores must be some sort of money laundering operation as we don't ever see people buying stuff in there.

I think I visited there in 1988!

That's very possible since you hit all the big sites and this is one of the big things in Germany. I am sure if they had ever built the Rhine River Cruise in the Epcot Germany pavilion it would have been a major feature there.

Yeah, I would be too. That's A LOT of locks!

Corinna says she heard there was additional fortification added for the locks, so I am going with that story!

That looks delicious. Different than I make or have had in France, but delicious nonetheless.

The food there was really good and the lamb was delicious. Very tender!

That would have been interesting to see him spit out the food!

Yes, in part I am a bit sorry I told him. He might have even liked it despite it being fish. (Just as I am sure he would like lamb and duck if he just gave it a chance!)

I think your hatred is falling on deaf ears, plus you haven't actually said exactly why you hate her....she only saw Elton four times, not 32.....

You never noticed that Michael has a tendency to hyperbole????

That's because no one was willing to shell out the $$$'s for their rug rats to not enjoy themselves. Sorry, I don't have a Euro on my keyboard and I'm too lazy to copy one of yours.

on the €€€ comment! And that's what I told Michael, too. Also it was in the middle of the week. I think he had one concert on a weekend night, I think that would have more kids.

Yay! Moving forward!

And then we came to quite a stop with this report yet again... Sorry!

I know what you mean. I just started researching Napa for a quick weekend for Jill and I and it's SUPER expensive.

It seems that hotel prices in the USA are all over the place right now...

That is truly weird.

The window was actually very cool. There was a lot of palm fronds shapes in the room actually, like a lamp with a strange shadow, on the glass wall to the bathroom etc, without being obvious and I thought they pulled it off very well!

Don't tell me you two haven't seen each other naked?

I could say: no comment... But then the issue is: there is naked and naked. And I don't necessarily need someone watching me washing my feet...

I relate to that. Fran and I always slept with separate twin comforters. Evidently I like to hog the covers.

Michael and I both want to hog the covers - does not make for a good nights sleep!

At this point I would have been in full panic mode!

I was sure my peeps here would understand!! Michael kept making fun of me!

 

[Flossbolna]

Hooray! Longtime fan of yours, looking into my first cruise and saw your report.

If you are interested in reading my first time cruise experience, the 2013 trip report (From the Sea to the World: https://www.disboards.com/threads/from-the-sea-to-the-world-completed.3117206/ looks like the link in the signature is broken!!) is my first cruise. But maybe you already read this!

Just joining to follow along! Love your trip report so far and can't wait to see the rest. My DD went to see Elton John in Vancouver this year and loved it. I've never had a chance to see him - it looked like an amazing show!

Hopefully I get to post more soon! And great to hear that Elton was great in Vancouver too!

 

[dolphingirl47]

That makes sense, I do remember that there was some further travel involved. Didn't you also go to Mainz?

Yes, we did. We were originally going to come to Germany by train, but then we were barred from going to Belgium and then to France. The cheapest way to get to Germany by air was flying to Cologne so we added a bonus day there.

We went for ice cream today with my sister - she had a Spaghetti Eis as it seemingly isn't that common in Berlin!

That really surprises me.

Oh, I never heard of Holiday Park. I guess it is more a regional park like our Schloss Thurn...

Holiday Park was a bit larger, but family owned.

I am sorry you had to go through this as well! It did stress me at times and I am sure that you can relate!

I definitely can.

I think you missed an R here and it took me ages to figure out you were talking about the airline, not the visitor. And of course you guessed correctly!

Oops. The pleasures of typing on an iPad.

I see, you belong into the "hates weeds" camp!!

Definitely.

Corinna

 

[Flossbolna]

5/18 - Poble Espanyol de Barcelona - Part 1

With the late night, even I slept in. I still woke up earlier than Michael and worked on updating the notes for this trip report. I did it on my phone this time (something I learned from @franandaj) and that was really helpful as I already have a document to work with when I started to write it all out. The view in the morning through the oddly shaped window was quite nice!

I then headed up to the roof to check out the pool. In this picture you can see the two towers that made up the hotel connected by a staircase and lots of plants, they called it a vertical garden.

There was a lovely looking roof top pool, but unfortunately the weather was never warm enough to really enjoy it.

The hotel from the outside during the day:

We then headed into town; my plan was to see the Poble Espanyol. I had been in Barcelona once a very long time ago, in 1989. My aunt’s husband was a teacher and he did get a posting to the German school in Barcelona in the late 1980s. German schools around the world are supported by the German government with teachers being sent there.

My sister and I spent a two weeks school vacation there in the early summer of 1989 and got to explore a lot, some of it with my aunt’s family, some just the two of us. We saw everything, but the city has changed so much since then! When we were there, we kept being told that this and that is currently under renovation for the Olympics, but some things were done already. It was so obvious how much of a transformation there was happening after the dark years of Franco and making use of the development funds that became available with entry into the EU (then still EC, European Community) in 1986.

I had been to Barcelona a few times before, including as part of the second ever Disney Magic TA EB cruise in 2010. I fell in love with the city and nothing has changed.

The one thing I did remember as totally impressing me was the old 1929 World's Fair area. And then a little while before our trip someone on our cruise Facebook group who lived in Barcelona was recommending things to do that were a bit off the beaten path and the Poble Espanyol. After @dizneeat (who was part of that cruise as well) commented on that that she really enjoyed it, it became top of my list.

It is an artificial village that was built using the styles of the various regions for buildings from all around Spain. Most of the buildings are based on real buildings. Imagine it as a massive World Showcase pavilion for Spain.

Google maps told me that we should go there via bus and when we left the hotel, I realized that I had no clue as to acquire a bus ticket. Michael suggested I ask at the reception and the very nice guy there explained to me that he would recommend the local train (which also had an underground station right where we were, but was different from the metro). So that’s where we headed.

We got off at Plaça d’Espanya and were supposed to walk up the hill to a fountain.

Unfortunately there was some sort of car show that blocked that street.

This made me very grumpy (I might have started to get hangry at this point). So I found another way to walk through a side street and we started climbing up a hill.

It was a major annual auto show.

On our way we passed the German pavilion (or the reconstruction of it) for the 1929 World's Fair. It was designed by Mies van der Rohe. The founder of the Bauhaus and most certainly the best-known German architect. It looked very sleek, but going inside was quite expensive and we felt that we wouldn’t gain that much from seeing the inside.

A view back:

Walking further up the hill we heard very loud birds and Michael kept saying that these were parrots. We finally got to the entrance which was guarded by two very large figures. These are in the style of traditional Spanish figures that are being carried around for certain types of festivals.

Once inside we went in search of some food. But first took some pictures:

Continued in Part 2

 

[Flossbolna]

5/18 - Poble Espanyol de Barcelona - Part 2
And as is usual for us, we had a hard time to decide. I am always scared of making the wrong decision and Michael says he will be fine anywhere and I should pick. Of course, that then makes me scared that I would pick a place that he then hates. We also didn’t want to spend a lot of money. So, I finally picked a place that seemed to have a large variety of things, including sandwiches and we sat down. It turned out to be a great choice. We both got sandwiches, Michael with chorizo and I had ham. There were different types of ham and it was explained to me that the one was hand carved on the premises while the other was bought pre-sliced. I chose the hand carved as that sounded more interesting. There was a bit of a scare after we had decided to get sandwiches that the bread had run out and the new bread delivery hadn’t arrived yet, but while we sent the server away to look at the menu again, he came back quickly to inform us that the bread had arrived!

We were overlooking the big market square where they were setting up for some sort of event and we were mesmerized by the amount of beer they were bringing in. We could not imagine that the people fitting into the square would be able to safely consume those quantities of beer!

Very likely a major party for said auto show.

After we had enjoyed our delicious sandwiches, we started to actually do some sightseeing. I really enjoyed walking through the alleyways, exploring the buildings.

Quite a few had explanations as to where they were from and what they represented The buildings are grouped by region and every region also has a little room with a movie showing off that specific region’s highlights and one on the Way of St James - and old pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. Here you see St. James:

The little stone sports one of the waymarks: it’s a shell, or more precise a scallop shell. The German name for St James is actually Sankt Jakob - and the German word for scallop is Jakobsmuschel (Muschel meaning shell).

These regional displays were very well done. There was also a "multimedia-show“ (mainly a movie) about Feriá in Spain. They highlighted about five different traditional festivals. This was very well done! Some of the rituals seemed a bit archaic and it made me wonder if these traditions were still common in the Spain of 2023. But then I figured you could make something similar about Bavarian traditions and while they were no longer followed by the majority of the population there would still be people holding up these traditions.

This fountain (in its original place) actually is spouting sparkling wine once a year!

At the other end from the entrance there is a sculpture garden and overlooking this were trees filled with the parrots that Michael had identified earlier!

They are the same, or very close relatives, to what we have had in South Florida since Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992 and did huge damage to Zoo Miami. The parrots escaped and easily took to life in the wild. We had a large colony down by our community pool for years before they moved. They are mostly green with some grey. And they squawk and screech all the time.

I truly enjoyed our visit there and can absolutely recommend it. It really made me want to plan a trip to Spain to see more of this beautiful country!

Continued in Part 3

 

[Flossbolna]

5/18 - Poble Espanyol de Barcelona - Part 3

Compared to the rest of Barcelona which at times feels very overrun with tourists, this place was very manageable. There were a few Spanish school groups and we saw one cruise line excursion. Funnily enough they were from Oceania, which is a line that friends of Michael really love and we had been looking at them as an option in the future as they run much smaller ships.

I always thought they were too pricey, but said friend said 'If you can afford Disney, you can afford Oceania.'' I've since done a fair amount of looking into them, aided by the fact we seem to get weekly brochures in the mail, and, indeed, they are quite comparable to Disney on many cruises, although, decidedly, higher-end.

They had some nice shops there, but the only shop we bought something in was a candy store. They got us with offering free samples. Which we loved, so we bought some stuff there. They are mainly dealing in torrone, a hard nougat. We later found out that this store is to be found everywhere in Barcelona and also in Palma. It is called Vicens.

We then sat down for a moment to figure out where we would head next and I I decided it was 4:20 pm, equaling 10:20 am in Florida, so Florida offices opened over an hour ago and maybe they finally assigned us a stateroom.

I pulled up the app without much hope and couldn’t believe it, but a room number popped up! The room number was 7508. With being on deck 7 I knew we had a very good chance that we got something better than the standard Oceanview stateroom. And it was, it was a Family Oceanview which is slightly larger and has a lovely large porthole. We had a stateroom like that on our 2016 cruise on the Fantasy and I really liked it. Of course, I went ahead and checked room reviews online and they all seemed positive. I was so happy that this final puzzle piece was in place and was very happy with our room assignment.

It was like the weight of 15 elephants were lifted off her broad Bavarian shoulders!

We headed out of the open-air museum and started heading down the hill to the metro station on a slightly different route. It led us through a residential neighborhood where we came across a small grocery store where we got some cold drinks for very cheap. We really needed those. The day wasn’t that warm and it was rather overcast, but we had been walking for quite a while and I was totally parched. We also encountered some more of the parrots and Michael chatted to one for quite a while. What I really liked was that there were these metal chairs installed on the side walk in little groups where you could sit outside and chat with the neighbors. I was also impressed with the amount of public recycling stations - especially the one for your fish skeletons!

I guess Barcelona is a more seafood heavy place than Nuremberg!!

Our plan was to head into town to do a little bit of shopping, so we took the metro to Plaza Catalunya. There Michael spotted a Starbucks and we ended up there (with a lot of other American tourists). It was actually a very nice Starbucks and the cold coffees we got there were what we needed to get some energy back.

Starbucks knows it can't survive in a coffee rich place like Spain by giving the same product it does in the USA (or Germany), so it has stepped up its game. That's typical of many US brands abroad.

Our next stop was the large Cortes des Ingles department store. We had really loved that store when we were in Madrid a few years back (Michael knew them from previous visits to Spain as well).

I love their stores. Of course, I love quality department stores to begin with (I am not like the young kids who buy all their crap from Amazon on an iPhone while sitting on the toilet! I bet Jill does this!) Unfortunately, they are dying in the USA and Germany (in both nations, regulators allowed the top chains to merge with disasterous results on competition and actually keeping stores open. But they remain strong in Spain. And these are great stores.

There we made the tactical mistake of heading into the food department first. Just out of curiosity. It was a lovely food department, amazing fruits and vegetables, eight different varieties of tomatoes, whole aisles with canned beans and lentils, whole Spanish hams, chorizo etc.

A whole aisle of canned sardines:

The hams:

But the problem was that we started to pick up drinks and snacks to take on the cruise with us. I ended up picking up three cans of beer from Spanish craft beer breweries and Michael picked up some cans of soda for when he would be too lazy to go to the drink station at night or even for our stay in France after the cruise. I think we also bought some bags of chips The issue was that we then had a fairly heavy shopping bag to drag around with us…

But we did not let that slow us down too much. We had fun looking around the store.

Michael bought a pair of shorts, I got a t-shirt and a charging cable for my Kindle. We looked at all kind of stuff and were amazed how you can be in Europe, but a lot of the merchandise was quite different form home. I have to say, I really liked a lot of the clothes that I saw and could imagine going on a shopping trip for Barcelona if I need to update my wardrobe!

Dinner was then Michael’s request. Spain is one of the countries in Europe that attracts North American chains more than others it seems. For example, in Madrid there were a couple of Tim Hortons. Barcelona didn’t have those, but it has several Taco Bells. So, Michael had told me well before the trip that he really wanted to eat there.

Taco Bell in Spain is NOT Taco Bell in the USA. Similar in some ways/menu items, different in others ...

Luckily, there was one just around the corner from the department store and that’s where we headed. We spent quite some time looking at the options on the self-ordering screen and then ended up with a cheap and tasty dinner - including drinks that you could refill, which is a rarity in Europe and which Michael misses very much.

Dinner was quick and we also had a reason to head to the hotel fairly quickly as we had been told at reception that there would be some kind of event this evening at the roof-top pool. We also had been told that we would get a free drink there.

On the way back there, we somehow made a mistake with our transport tickets. I had thought that you could make changes, so we took the metro back to Plaza Espanya and then wanted to take that local train back to our hotel. But it turned out that we could not change from metro to local train without paying again. That was a bummer as the way back was suddenly double the price.

Once back at the hotel we headed up to the bar and there was quite a party going on with people drinking and a choir singing old pop hits. Afterwards a band started playing. There was also some artist decorating a large „R“-sculpture. However, when we inquired about the free drinks, we were told that the reception had made a mistake and there were no free drinks. Since the drinks were not really cheap, we did not feel like buying a drink just for having one. We did hang out up there for a bit though and enjoyed the lovely space up there.

Singers were quite talented. Views were amazing. This was 24th floor. Near pool. But the drink deal was a fiasco and knowing how much we were likely to drink on the cruise, I didn't feel like dropping 25-40€ for drinks that we were specifically told would be free by front desk staff. I thought about mentioning the next day at check-out but didn't. Yes, I'm getting soft in my middle age.

Back in the room we got organized for our big day tomorrow: we had booked a day trip to PortAventuraWorld, a theme park that was originally built by Busch and then owned by Universal for 4-5 years. Now it is independent and one of the bigger parks in Europe. It also has the fame to be in a location that was under consideration for the European park Disney was planning - and which in the end became Disneyland Paris.

Lots to say about this place, not much good. But stay tuned. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel.

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

Your trip report is great! For some reason Michael’s interjections remind me of mystery science theater— in a good way. The contrast between your European attention to detail and Michael’s concise American bluntness is delightful. It really comes through that you guys are having a great time!

 

[glennbo123]

I’m caught up! Great photos as always…food and architecture. Glad you finally got your stateroom number. That would have me concerned also.

When we were in Madrid a few years ago, we had some very late dinners and saw people still being seated well after 10 pm. So, yes, your experience is still valid. It’s just that restaurant.

I got to travel to the Asturias region of Spain (in the north) for work a few years ago and I remember ordering food around 8pm (once the kitchen opened) and being the only person eating, while everyone around me was just enjoying drinks. I had to get back to my hotel room and get some sleep!

I saw Michael mention his favorite sister-in-law a while back…how’s @nodnol ?

Oh, one more comment, your dining at Taco Bell reminded me. We had a family trip to Aulani last summer. Marlene and her boyfriend are living in Japan now and met us there in Hawaii. The one thing they wanted to do was get a meal at Taco Bell because as much as they enjoy trying Japanese cuisine, they wanted to get a fix of some good ol’ Taco Bell. (I can go years without it. )

 

[franandaj]

That's exactly what it is! And I am happy to hear that you are adventurous! I am already planning on which German/Bavarian delicacies I need to introduce you to because I know that you will appreciate many of the "strange" things so much more than any of our other foreign visitors so far!

I'm definitely looking forward to what you're planning for me, but there are so many other adventures that I've got in the works, I've hardly started thinking about that trip!

She was there at the beginning, I sent her a bat signal. But I will tell Michael to send her a note about new updates here to check out. I am sure he doesn't want her to miss out on his attention here...

I sent her a link to it a while back, but I haven't seen her post yet.....

And then we came to quite a stop with this report yet again... Sorry!

No worries, I fell off the grid for a while too. I'm hanging out at my folks house for the rest of the week, so I have a little down time.

I could say: no comment... But then the issue is: there is naked and naked. And I don't necessarily need someone watching me washing my feet...

Well Fran and I had no problems with privacy, our lives were fully intertwined. In fact I helped her wash her feet!

I was sure my peeps here would understand!! Michael kept making fun of me!

The struggle is real!

I did it on my phone this time (something I learned from @franandaj) and that was really helpful as I already have a document to work with when I started to write it all out.

I'm glad I could give you something to help! If I didn't put my notes in my phone, I wouldn't be able to write longer multi day trip reports!

We both got sandwiches, Michael with chorizo and I had ham. There were different types of ham and it was explained to me that the one was hand carved on the premises while the other was bought pre-sliced. I chose the hand carved as that sounded more interesting.

That is an interesting looking sandwich. I can see the hand carved part of the ham. European sandwiches are definitely different than American Sandwiches.

They are the same, or very close relatives, to what we have had in South Florida since Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992 and did huge damage to Zoo Miami. The parrots escaped and easily took to life in the wild. We had a large colony down by our community pool for years before they moved. They are mostly green with some grey. And they squawk and screech all the time.

We have flocks of them in Long Beach. They are very noisy.

I pulled up the app without much hope and couldn’t believe it, but a room number popped up! The room number was 7508. With being on deck 7 I knew we had a very good chance that we got something better than the standard Oceanview stateroom. And it was, it was a Family Oceanview which is slightly larger and has a lovely large porthole.

Yay! Finally!

I was also impressed with the amount of public recycling stations - especially the one for your fish skeletons!

Fish Skeletons! That sounds creepy!

A whole aisle of canned sardines:

I can do without sardines.

Back in the room we got organized for our big day tomorrow: we had booked a day trip to PortAventuraWorld, a theme park that was originally built by Busch and then owned by Universal for 4-5 years. Now it is independent and one of the bigger parks in Europe.

Sounds adventurous!

 

[T.wilkes]

When are we going to more of this wonderful reporting? Hope all is well with the trip!

 

[Flossbolna]

When are we going to more of this wonderful reporting? Hope all is well with the trip!

Thanks for the nice comment! Hopefully we will have the next update up this week. We were away (another cruise - Alaska this time) and ended up with a stolen suitcase (Michael) and a broken foot (stress fracture, Magdalene). We need to deal with claims to airline and insurance this week, but once that’s done I really want to get back to writing!

But besides those mishaps we had an amazing cruise to Alaska and I hope to do a TR for that after this one will be finished.

 

[Flossbolna]

Your trip report is great! For some reason Michael’s interjections remind me of mystery science theater— in a good way. The contrast between your European attention to detail and Michael’s concise American bluntness is delightful. It really comes through that you guys are having a great time!

Thank you very much for your nice comments! I am really sorry that we took such a long break, but next update coming today - finally!

 

[Flossbolna]

I’m caught up! Great photos as always…food and architecture. Glad you finally got your stateroom number. That would have me concerned also.

It was such a relief!

I got to travel to the Asturias region of Spain (in the north) for work a few years ago and I remember ordering food around 8pm (once the kitchen opened) and being the only person eating, while everyone around me was just enjoying drinks. I had to get back to my hotel room and get some sleep!

I think this where the siesta comes into play. If you take a two hour nap during the afternoon you can play longer in the evening. Very different lifestyle!

I saw Michael mention his favorite sister-in-law a while back…how’s @nodnol ?

She is doing well! But we haven't been able to get her to do some Disney travel with us for quite some time.

Oh, one more comment, your dining at Taco Bell reminded me. We had a family trip to Aulani last summer. Marlene and her boyfriend are living in Japan now and met us there in Hawaii. The one thing they wanted to do was get a meal at Taco Bell because as much as they enjoy trying Japanese cuisine, they wanted to get a fix of some good ol’ Taco Bell. (I can go years without it. )

I think that's funny - didn't Marlene get a degree in nutrition or something like that? Michael definitely gets home sick for American food - not just the dishes, but prepared the American way. I think it is also different about wanting a Taco Bell if you theoretically could have it any day to wanting it if it is not possible to get at all!

Japan is a big step! We were there in 2017 and loved it and want to get back there next year. But I have to admit I often felt very out of my comfort zone while there! Can't imagine living there.

 

[Flossbolna]

I'm definitely looking forward to what you're planning for me, but there are so many other adventures that I've got in the works, I've hardly started thinking about that trip!

I love that you keep busy with the adventures!!

Well Fran and I had no problems with privacy, our lives were fully intertwined. In fact I helped her wash her feet!

You know, I think if it is a necessity I will be fine with it, but I wouldn't want to choose it....

I'm glad I could give you something to help! If I didn't put my notes in my phone, I wouldn't be able to write longer multi day trip reports!

It's so much easier! Also it means I always have my notes on me to work on them if there is an opportunity!

That is an interesting looking sandwich. I can see the hand carved part of the ham. European sandwiches are definitely different than American Sandwiches.

The interesting thing is that even within Europe sandwiches are different from place to place. Central Europe actually has a big open faced sandwich culture - from Denmark to Austria that's the traditional way.

Fish Skeletons! That sounds creepy!

Haha! I didn't mean to be creepy. I just didn't know whether there was a specific English term for that. In German it would be Gräten.

 

[Flossbolna]

5/19 Port Aventura - Part 1

So today was going to be our day trip to Port Aventura. As mentioned in the last update, it was originally opened in 1995 being partly owned by Busch (as of Seaworld and Busch Gardens). It then was sold to Universal and was the Universal Studios Europe. They didn’t keep it for that long. Now it is owned by some private equity firm. It is actually part of a whole resort with water park and a second park: Ferrari World. There are several themed hotels there as well.

Welcome back to any of our readers still alive. Yes, we are attempting to pick up where we left off a long time ago. I know we've since had a weekend at the Ritz in Berlin, an almost week at DLP in July and a B.C. Canada visit/Alaskan cruise on the Wonder/San Francisco trip that turned into a disaster of lost or stolen luggage, a broken foot for M and my first (hopefully only) bout of the 'rona. Are we looking for your pity? Not really. It's just not been a trip report writing vibe mixed with our/M's overpromising and chronic underdelivering on writing these. Should I get a divorce? Probably not. But here we are …

Ok, I know that Michael’s rambling here will cause all kind of questions, so before we delve into the trip report again, here a quick update with a bit more details. Yes, we did some traveling this summer. We spent Michael’s birthday at DLP which was wonderful. We also had some Marriott Points that needed to be burned and the Ritz Carlton in Berlin was less points than a Courtyard Inn in Orlando would have been, so that’s where we went with our points. We saw my sister and just enjoyed the big city. Then the next big summer trip came quicker than expected. We originally had booked two cruises for this summer with the idea we would later decide which of the two we would take. I don’t think we will make that expensive mistake again! We ended up doing both. So we spent the second week of August on the Disney Wonder sailing to Alaska. While on the ship I had some annoying foot pain that wouldn’t go away. When I got home and went to see my orthopedic doctor he ordered an MRI and it turned out to be a stress fracture. I have been in a boot for over 5 weeks now and hope to get out of it this coming week finally! After the cruise we spent a couple of days in Victoria and then flew to San Francisco to see a couple of friends and my 84 year old aunt and to tour a bit. Upon arrival in San Francisco Michael’s suitcase wasn’t there. By now the mystery has been resolved as the luggage thief has been identified by SFPD thanks to the video surveillance of the luggage claim area. She actually is in custody already in Nevada for a similar crime. But the worst was that Michael had nothing to wear and lost all his toiletries, his sneakers and some souvenirs. So we scrambled to buy stuff for the time in San Francisco and then even a new suit case. We have since had fun with filing claims with both the airline and the travel insurance. Loosing your stuff is also really traumatic, especially since Michael had packed quite a few items that he really loved and also new stuff. So, he wasn’t doing so well. On top of that he also caught Covid (only symptom was one evening of having a slight dry cough, otherwise he was fine and didn’t give it to me) for the first time. Which then made us cancel the dinner with my aunt and uncle - we saw them for 15 minutes wearing masks in their driveway…

Just to add a bit, word today is that PortAventura World as the resort is known these days apparently is now on the market for a cool billion dollars. So, if you can afford say a Club 33 membership or 17 kids or any DCL cruise, you likely can buy it and be Spanish theme park royalty. Universal only owned the majority of the park from 1998-2004 when it itself was owned by GE and not looking to be a huge player in the global parks game. Most of the expansion into a resort has happened post UNI's ownership.

This is a link to a story on their newest attraction that we missed out on by a month :https://www.inparkmagazine.com/uncharted-the-enigma-of-penitence-opens-at-portaventura-world/


Getting there from Barcelona isn’t that easy if you don’t drive yourself. Supposedly there is an option by train, but I could never figure out how that would work. But there is one tour operator that runs a coach from Barcelona to the park in the morning and back in the evening. The price included the entrance fee and wasn’t too bad. The problem was that they left from the main long distance bus station and that was kind of on the other side of town from our hotel - and most frustrating: on the other side of town from Port Aventura as well. We had to be there at 8:30 am, so it was an early morning for us!

We got up at 7:15 am. Neither of us was happy. I had slept really badly because I had cold feet when I went to bed and couldn’t fall asleep for ages because of that. Also, I did not like the mattress in our room. I thought it was totally hard and it hurt my shoulders.

Beds were comfy. Issue was getting up on like 5-6 hours of sleep. If I had the chance to do it over again ... I still probably would have done it.

But we managed to get ready in time. I had researched how to get there and I figured if we took metro with one change we would avoid yesterday’s issue with having to pay twice when we tried to change from metro to train. It did work out as I had hoped. We had to change at Torassa station which was quite an experience! The other line was deep in the ground and we had to go on escalator after escalator to get all the way down to the platform!

We found the bus station without issues and went to Julia Travel - the tour company - to check in. The bus station is actually a former railway station and very nice looking.

We were first in line and therefore ended up with front row seats on bus, which was very nice! Both of us had to battle with falling asleep on the bus. I had a flapjack oat bar that I picked up at home three weeks ago that was great to tide me over.

The drive itself was uneventful, but when we got close to the park we hit a massive traffic jam of cars trying to enter the parking lot.

It did take the bus 30 minutes for last mile! Very frustrating, but kind of an omen about the operation of this park…

Yes, because it was right about this point that I started to develop tummy trouble (no, not the cute 1990s Roger Rabbit short, but the kind that makes you turn green and desperately need a toilet. It was horrible. Just sitting there waiting to go thru the gates.

We then got dropped off in the middle of the parking lot. We thought it was a bit strange since we got the instructions that we are to meet the bus back exactly where we were dropped off. Really strange there was no drop off zone or such. Obviously, the first stop was for Michael who needed a bathroom. The first option was in group sales courtyard and he came quickly back because he did not want to get into a long line of teenage boys. He decided to try to find another one. In front of the park is this lovely fountain:

While we were walking to the entrance, there were huge crowds everywhere. And loads of large groups, kids and/or teenagers as groups, but also large family/friend groups. But we manage to swim through the crowds to the entrance quite quickly and get in without long lines. Michael was also happy as he found very nice large and clean facilities.

Yes, I can highly recommend the restrooms of the entire park. Large and clean and ... that's enough except to say this was not my first visit to them of the day, nor would it be my last. Did I mention yet that this was the worst day of the trip yet? SPOILER ALERT: IT WAS!!!

The next problem is: My husband loves all printed material and especially theme park maps. But there were no maps available. However, we saw loads of people holding maps as well as empty racks where maps are supposed to be available (in numerous languages). It was unclear to us, where these come from. I suggested asking at guest services, but the line there was massive… I downloaded the app, but it is not very good. If you think WDW’s app has issues, it is a dream compared to this one!

We decided to head into the park and it seems to have just this one winding road into the park for a very long walk and we are still surrounded by a sea of people. I was getting a bit scared about what kind of experience this will be.

NOTE By American M: German M largely copied her notes into this report, so everything is in present tense. If you get confused this is not happening now, unless you believe the Multiverse is real or temporal loops are not simply the stuff of Star Trek. I was going to edit them, but have decided against that. As to the point about the people, this was unpleasant surprise No. 2 after I had just realized my stomach was not right. Seemed like huge local groups were there as well as a large amount of Dutch tourists. Not what we expected on a random Friday in mid-May at all. I thought the park would be relatively empty.

A nice looking restaurant in the entrance area:

We quickly come across a place which sells coffee and pastries without a massive line and decide to stop there. This was a very good choice! Not expensive at all (coffee 2,40€, croissant 2,20€) and delicious.

While we sit we still see a constant massive stream of people. We check show schedule and decide to do a tiki dance show. On the way there we come across a tip board with wait times and it seems to indicate that everything has at least a one hour wait, some things 4 hours!!!

I will admit that unlike what I always do when visiting a new park, I did almost no research on what was here and what we should do. And that added to the misery. The park is a weird mix of top theming in places, huge coasters, kiddie rides, flat rides and shows. Not a lot in the middle. And while there are parts that literally look ripped out of UNI's parks, especially IOA, there's not a lot of family type rides. Now, we both love coasters, but the idea of waiting hours to ride one for two minutes OR paying for their version of Express (signs literally still have the UNI font and language, just UNI has been removed), my option is to do neither.

The Tiki show was quite good! But unfortunately we got there too late and had to sit in sun.

The next stop is a bird show. I think Michael got more out of it than me as he understands some Spanish. But it was well done and showcased quite different birds than what you would usually see. They did the trick with the bird picking up a Euro bill from a guest and it happened to be a German family who was made fun of. I think this added to Michael’s amusement.

It was a very good show. But making fun of Germans always kicks it up a notch for me.

So, thus far we had done two shows, zero rides. The park seemed to be very pretty, the landscaping was beautiful and the theming very well done. But it also seemed to really lack in rides. Our next stop was Sesame Street Land. This also looks lovely, but it desperately needs a paint job.

There was a trolley ride that Michael thought would be like the one at Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Seuss Land. It did not have a wait time posted. But we could see how many people were in line and decided that it should be about 20-30 minutes. It turned out to be 45 minutes. Mainly because they were not operating it very efficiently. We were not thrilled with our choice. The ride was a bit boring, but it gave you a nice overview over the land.

Imagine Seuss Landing just themed to the Sesame Street characters and you get the land. It is very well done, but largely for the younger set. As an aside, I find it fascinating how IP has been licensed globally and how you have the SS characters here, but in Orlando they're at Sea World ... but if you go to Asia, they're at Universal Singapore. People who don't follow the business could easily assume that one company either owns the characters outright or licenses them.

Afterwards we contemplated getting some food, we also looked at the tip board and everything still had long waits. There was a train station for the train through the park and considered that. At the train station Michael wonders what the attraction is that is next to the train station is. I look it up and see that it’s the one dark ride they have in the park. And we see that it has a 40-minute wait. After having waited 45 minutes for the trolley we think waiting less for a dark ride might be a sensible decision, so we decide to do it. The attraction is called Street Mission.

We waited quite exactly as long as expected. But most of the line was indoors, so not out in the sun and there was even a cute preshow. The attraction was a lot of fun!. We got to hunt for cookies! This was by far the best thing we did all day!

As near as I can tell, this is the only classic family ride. And it was great. Absolutely Disney/UNI quality and made by Sally rides out of Jacksonville that works with all the big boys. From animatronics to effects to screens to interactivity, it checked all the boxes. Basically, it's Cookie Day and someone (you can figure this out even if you're from Delaware!) stole the world's largest chocolate chip cookie and your job, should you wish to accept it, is to search for clues with your flashlight that lead to discovering the dastardly perp.

Continued in Part 2

 

[Flossbolna]

5/19 Port Aventura - Part 2

We continue to wander through the park and pass the two big coasters of the park which had over 100-minute wait times.

At that point we were getting very hungry. We had seen a lot of places offering burgers and chicken strips that didn’t look good on the menu pictures nor on people’s plates. We then came across a Chinese themed noodle restaurant. Michael got veggie noodles, I had pad thai.

Not a good choice. The food was rather bland. And it was a very long wait to get it despite there only being a handful of people ahead of me. I chatted with lady from the UK while in line and she was not thrilled with her experience there, too little to do for smaller kids, too crowded.

Food was lousy. Very. Like lowest quality theme park food, I've had in many years. Mall (remember those?) food court Chinese would be quite a few steps better. Not that it mattered as I enjoyed the China restrooms quite a bit of the time we were in this area. BTW, I can't remember, but did we tell you that they had some of the best theme park coffee at the place we stopped for a light breakfast on the waay in? If not, they did. Absolutely great coffee, like best in a theme park coffee and reasonably priced.

One thing on the overall operations, they were terrible. Worst I have seen in any major theme park in Asia, the Americas or Europe. And, to be fair, I was warned of this by friends in the business. Those coaster waits are not all about crowds. There are rides where they have four trains and opt to run one or two. This greatly increases waits. This also pushes people to buy their Express Pass, although those lines looked long too. They are very understaffed as well.

Entrance to one of the coasters:

And a view of the other coaster:

From the Asian area with the coasters we made our way to Mexico.

We came across one of the wait time signs which still was not promising…

There we did an indoor maze. This was fun, but ultimately something I can find at the local carnival. From Mexico we made it to the Far West - the Cowboy town that can’t miss in any European park. Here it started to rain. Of course I had not packed the ponchos I had brought on the trip in my day bag, they were back at the hotel. So we explored the big shop there first which amused Michael as it was full of Woody Woodpecker merchandise. From the shop it was only a short hop to the carousel, so we did that next.

It amused me because he is like the mascot of the park. And he is still a part of UNI-FL, even if his coaster is being themed to Dreamworks now. What bothered Michael was that every park shop had exactly the same merchandise and most of it was Woody or Sesame Street character stuff. We didn't buy a single thing, which never happens to us in a park. ... As to the western area, the theming was very nice, but didn't have much to do. There was a mine train coaster with 'only' a one hour wait, posted, but we saw most of the track layout and it didn't seem to be worth half that. There was a carousel, which we rode. There was a rapids ride that we could have gone on, but the idea of sitting on a cold bus soaking wet didn't appeal to me. I should note that the weather turned here (something that happened frequently on our trip). What started as sunny day with temps in the 70s, turned into a cool rainy day with temps in the 60s for our last few hours in the park.

The western area did look good in places even reminding me of Knott's. They actually still have a review show in their saloon and we thought this would be a good place to get out of the rain. And the show quality was high on the others we saw. Alas, it was not to be because they actually have a cover charge. You want to see the show, then you have to buy something to eat/drink. Well, we had recently eaten lousy Asian and my stomach was not doing great, so the idea of food just was a non-starter. A shame we didn't know this before because we would have had lunch here with a show. It couldn't have been any worse than the noodles.

After this it was still raining, so we decided to catch the train from here. Unfortunately, it was getting late, so we didn’t do a full loop, but got off at the next station and walked through another part of the Far West.

Here we come across an Oscar Meyer branded hot dog stand. We both agree that would have been a better choice for our lunch. But ultimately, I don’t think we will be back there, so it doesn’t matter if we remember it for the next time.

I am not saying we won't go back. But it depends on who buys the resort and what happens. If I did go back, I'd go in summer and stay at one of their hotels for three nights and do the water park and the Ferrari park too and get a real idea about what the place offers. But I am in no hurry. We absolutely loved the Warner Bros park in Madrid in 2019, so I know Spain can offer great parks. And this one has the bones, but you can tell it has gone through a lot of different ownership groups with different agendas. There are some amazing looking coasters and great areas for young kids and then you have carnie/flat rides thrown in. It all makes for an odd mix, but between exhaustion, intestinal issues, crowds and weather, it just was not a good day. It's the first park I've been to in literally forever where I felt we did not get our money's worth. ... Of course, considering some of what happened on our recent trip, I'd gladly take another day like this, toilet runs included, instead.

By then the rain had died down and we headed out of park to meet the bus in middle of parking lot. Of course, while we stand there it starts to rain again and the bus is late. There is a parking lot worker directing traffic not so far away and he has a fairly large umbrella, so we head there to wait with two other passengers for our bus. Everyone else decides to get wet…

M was crazy paranoid about missing the bus so we rushed out when we easily could have spent another 20-30 minutes wandering, even if not riding. She did let me go into Guest Relations where they had piles of maps (all in Spanish only though) out on counters. And when I came out of the office, I noticed the racks had all been refilled, but none of the international ones, just the Spanish.

All in all, I don’t regret we went there, but as theme parks go, this was the first time I went to one where I really had trouble finding stuff that would bring me back. I really cannot recommend anyone to go there unless you go in the total off season. Michael was told by friends that the park has operational issues and I would agree with that. Far too few attractions for the amount of people they let in. And then it seems that they are not efficient at loading at all. We would have liked to try some of the coasters, but if the shortest wait time is multiple hours, what’s the point?

Since the bus gets there late it also leaves late and it is a long way back. Somehow it takes a different route which seems to take longer. We are finally back at hotel at 9 pm. After walking around in the sun all day and then in the rain, we need some relaxation and head to the indoor pool and hot tub on 26th floor or the hotel, the outdoor pool is closed by then. It was really nice to relax there!

For dinner we head back to Goiko as we know that they are open late.

Michael has the Kevin Bacon burger, I have a chipotle burger.

This my mine:

And here is Kevin Bacon:

We also get some lemon mint slushy which is very good. Michael loves burger. It has a special preparation, somehow it is chopped and then fried and then put together and has the cheese mixed into it.

Yes, I loved eating Kevin Bacon. He was so, so yummy. And the pool was relaxing, which was nice. I was getting into cruise mode. The day was not great, but every day, even on vacation, will not be.

After the very late dinner we only did a little bit of packing as tomorrow we would finally get on the Disney Dream! I also did my nails in lovely Shimmering Seas turquoise! (The Disney Cruise Line 25th anniversary had Shimmering Seas as a motto and turquoise as its color).

 

[jedijill]

Well, I'm not putting that park on my list to go to! Sorry to hear it was such a miss.


Jill in CO

 

[franandaj]

That park did not sound like such a great time. I'm sure there are others that I would rather hit first. Sorry the food (at the park) wasn't so good, and that Michael had tummy problems. That's the worst.