Up and out this morning, we took a walk down to Barcelonetta, had a cappuccino with, again a Filipino waitress – this time we asked and she said yes, she was Filipino and has been living in Barcelona for 15 years. 

Back at the hotel we wasted as much time as we could before checking out and hailing a cab on the street.  We were lucky and found one right away, as he was letting someone off in front of the hotel.  Then it was a quick ride over to the pier where check in was the easiest we’d ever had!  We had completed all our paperwork online, including scanning our passports and uploading a photo.  All we had to do was show them our Set Sail pass and we walked right one. Seriously!  The security guard scanned the sea pass, our photos were in the system and on we went.  The keys were waiting for us on the door to our cabin, and voila!  We are aboard the Vision.

Our cabin is awesome – aft balcony that is huge and mostly covered so we are protected from the rain.  The cabin itself is really large, nice big bathroom with tub and a great seating area with two really comfy chairs along with a sofa. Oh, we’ll be so spoiled at the end of this short 8-day cruise!

One suitcase is in the hall so we snag it, bring it back to the cabin and unpack. After a couple of unsuccessful trips up and down the hallway looking for the other case, we give up, put our gym clothes on and go for a walk on the upper decks and get our bearings around the ship.  This is a really nice size ship, but its what we call the backwards ship.  The buffet restaurant, Windjammers, is in the front.  The gym and spa are in the back.  You get used to it (and the NCL Dawn, our next ship, is the same, so we’ll be old pros by the time we board her next week) plus there are a lot of entertainment venues – the lounge at the back of the ship, the Lounge up on 11 and the theater.  And of course there is always entertainment in the centrum. 

We grab our first beer and wine at the pool bar then head back to the cabin, finding our other bag on the way and completely unpacking.  Well, ok, almost completely.  We kept all the cold weather gear in the big suitcase – no need for that now. In another week, different story, but for now, we’ll be fine with our summer gear.

Organized and cleaned up, we head to the dining room for our 7pm reservations.  Oh my!  It is crazy time.  There is a huge line on the reservation side, equally long as on the no reservations side. Sigh. First night crazies.  Everybody wants a 2-top, no one wants to share, including us, so it takes forever to get in to eat. Over ½ hour in line just to get a table.  We are finally seated in a nice table in between a row of 2-tops and an 8-top. Everybody is slam packed in here, not the most comfortable, but hey, what can you do? At least we have a table.

Service was slow at first, but to be honest? Our waiter was a champ, we never even saw the assistant waiter!  Surachai, the waiter, had the best personality – so nice and talkative and on the ball – even with a full section. We were really impressed. When he had a couple of seconds, he would chat with us. We found out he once lived in Chiang Mai – and we really wanted to talk more about that – but no way were we doing that with the craziness around us!  He sold the house to a foreigner – because, well, why not?  So there is a great story there we’d love to know.  But not tonight!

Dinner was good, Surachai was really on the ball, he even walked us out when we left. So sweet.  Oh, and when we left?  The lines stretched so far down the hall, we’re thinking it will take these people at least an hour to get a table.  Crazy time!

The show tonight didn’t appeal to us, and there is only one at 10:15, so we figured, we have this huge balcony – we’re heading back there!  Went to the pool bar, which is our closest bar and will end up being our go to place for drinks, picked up a wine and beer and headed out to the balcony for the evening.

And we are off and headed to Sete in the morning!