nyyhoneybee Posted September 7, 2012 #1 Share Posted September 7, 2012 DH and I just got home from the end of our trip and now as I start to sort through pictures and everything, I figure it's time to start our trip review. Chances are I will just post pics and a link to the photobucket where all my pics are at the end. Some background: We are both 27, foodies and love to have fun. Neither of us are into parting or lots of drinking, he will spend some time in a casino but I won't. We disagreed a lot about what to do for a honeymoon but when DH saw the website for The Haven he agreed to do a cruise as long as it was NCL. It was my first NCL cruise but I figured it couldn't be much different from what I was used to. We booked it the end of last Sept, giving us almost a full year wait. We had a spa suite that gave us our own hot tub in the cabin as well as access to all the spa services. We flew out on Tues night getting into Barcelona on Wednesday afternoon giving us 3 1/2 days in Barcelona pre-cruise. Post cruise we flew to Paris for 3 1/2 days there, including our one year anniversary. I have to thank everyone who has played a part in helping us decide what to do and planning our trip, and everyone who we cruised with. From a great pre-cruise meet & greet to the CC Meet & Greet on board to 4 great days of touring (and sadly a missed 5th) and some awesome new friends it was a great week on board. Get ready for day 1....our flight and our first day/night in Barcelona! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willysgrandma Posted September 7, 2012 #2 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Congratulations on your marriage and can't wait to read your review - I'll be on the ship Oct. 10! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyyhoneybee Posted September 7, 2012 Author #3 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Congratulations on your marriage and can't wait to read your review - I'll be on the ship Oct. 10! Thanks! I am going to work on it hopefully a bit tonight and more over the weekend hope to have most of it posted by early next week! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boopsahoy Posted September 7, 2012 #4 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Looking forward to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b00kbug Posted September 7, 2012 #5 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Looking forward to it! We'll be honeymooning on the Gem this new years! Can't wait!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meltingmoments Posted September 7, 2012 #6 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Congratulations on your marriage and looking forward to sharing your Epic journey :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willysgrandma Posted September 7, 2012 #7 Share Posted September 7, 2012 My favorite NCL ship after the Epic. You'll love it. Looking forward to it! We'll be honeymooning on the Gem this new years! Can't wait!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travelqueen555 Posted September 7, 2012 #8 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Looking forward to hearing all about "your" trip!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kugamuga Posted September 8, 2012 #9 Share Posted September 8, 2012 DH and I just got home from the end of our trip and now as I start to sort through pictures and everything, I figure it's time to start our trip review. Chances are I will just post pics and a link to the photobucket where all my pics are at the end. Some background: We are both 27, foodies and love to have fun. Neither of us are into parting or lots of drinking, he will spend some time in a casino but I won't. We disagreed a lot about what to do for a honeymoon but when DH saw the website for The Haven he agreed to do a cruise as long as it was NCL. It was my first NCL cruise but I figured it couldn't be much different from what I was used to. We booked it the end of last Sept, giving us almost a full year wait. We had a spa suite that gave us our own hot tub in the cabin as well as access to all the spa services. We flew out on Tues night getting into Barcelona on Wednesday afternoon giving us 3 1/2 days in Barcelona pre-cruise. Post cruise we flew to Paris for 3 1/2 days there, including our one year anniversary. I have to thank everyone who has played a part in helping us decide what to do and planning our trip, and everyone who we cruised with. From a great pre-cruise meet & greet to the CC Meet & Greet on board to 4 great days of touring (and sadly a missed 5th) and some awesome new friends it was a great week on board. Get ready for day 1....our flight and our first day/night in Barcelona! Hi Caryn. Happy to see that you had a wonderful cruise/honeymoon. We are really sorry that we were unable to join you but we are looking forward to cruising vicariously through your photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdvmd Posted September 8, 2012 #10 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Can't wait to hear more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anniversay/grad trip Posted September 8, 2012 #11 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Anxiously awaiting...we will be on the Epic in 3 weeks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyyhoneybee Posted September 9, 2012 Author #12 Share Posted September 9, 2012 Hi Caryn. Happy to see that you had a wonderful cruise/honeymoon. We are really sorry that we were unable to join you but we are looking forward to cruising vicariously through your photos. We will sail together one day :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyyhoneybee Posted September 9, 2012 Author #13 Share Posted September 9, 2012 We left New York on Aug 22 landing in Barcelona after a short layover in Geneva on Aug 23. We got our luggage fast and got outside. Because we stopped in Geneva, there were no customs to clear and we got out a bit earlier then expected. We booked a car and a 4 hour tour with Barcelona Day Tours....which they contracted out to Top Day Tours which I didn't know until after I got an email from them (Top Day Tours). Not important, but worth mentioning. When the agreed upon time past and we still didn't see our driver, I called Barcelona Day Tours to find out where our driver was. He said he would call him and call me back. I hung up and we almost bumped directly into a man holding a sign with our name. Perfect timing I guess he was just running a few minutes late. Dave (aka DH) and Paco loaded the luggage into the car and we left. I made it clear before we left that I didn't want to do anything Gaudi, as we had a full day Gaudi tour planned. Paco was amazed by this and to be honest, kinda seemed a bit lost how to fill 4 hours without Gaudi. We told him that we want to do Olympic Stadium but besides for that we were open to anything. He took us first to the Gothic Cathedral. We took a ton of pictures and walked around a bit but we decided that we didn't want to go inside. Then he drove us down by the beach and stopped so we could take pictures. All along he was talking about Barcelona and some of the highlights and history and answering any questions we had. He suggested a stop at the Arc de Triomf which we quickly agreed to. We got a bunch of pictures of it. I should mention that Dave is a pastry cook and he loves checking out cooking and baking type things. Hearing this, Paco suggested a stop at the chocolate museum. He didn't have to push us that hard! I have to say, we were both amazed by some of the creations inside. For example, this: It's a small place, if it's not crowded (it wasn't when we went) you can do it in about 45 minutes, including a stop to buy stuff. Which we did figuring we would enjoy it at the end of the night when we were in the hotel room, which we were right about! Then we did Olympic Stadium, which was pretty nice and we both enjoyed seeing it. After that Paco suggested one of the parks with amazing views of the city. We very much enjoyed our 4 hours with Paco, but it was time to get to our hotel. We decided on Hotel Espana after doing some research, and it was perfect. The rooms were nice and clean, the front desk staff was friendly and helpful and it was the perfect location. We checked in, showered and we were more then ready for something to eat. We wanted tapas somewhere casual and local. We asked the front desk for a recommendation and they sent us around the corner to Canete. The food was amazing, the staff was friendly and the meal wasn't that expensive. We enjoyed so much that we wound up back once more before we left and sent other people from our cruise who were spending time in Barcelona post-cruise there. We were so stuffed that we were glad it was a short walk back to the hotel, but we decided to walk Las Rambals for a bit to get a feel for it and work off some of dinner. For both of us, it reminded us of Times Square and we did our best to avoid it as much as possible the rest of our time there at night. We were exhausted and quickly fell into bed once we got back to the hotel, knowing that the next day would be a busy day...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyyhoneybee Posted September 10, 2012 Author #14 Share Posted September 10, 2012 We booked a tour through Barcelona City Tours for the next day...actually two tours. We found out that they also contract out to other tour companies. This is an important fact for today, the reason which will become clear. In the morning we were going to Montserrat and a winery. When we got there we found out that we only got about 45 minutes at Montserrat because we booked the half day tour. If we wanted to upgrade to the full day and get more time there it was doable. For us it wasn't, as we wouldn't have gotten back in time for our tapas tour that night. The guide stayed with the full day people and the driver took us to the winery and then back to the city. I was very unhappy with this and had we known this, we would have done the full day. Montserrat was really amazing, the little that we saw. I wish we had more time there, I really do. It's on the list for the next time we go to Barcelona for sure. If you tend to get car sick or you don't like windy roads, be aware that your dealing with some crazy windy roads to get up there...but it's worth it. The views are amazing and can't be beat. Our short time on Montserrat quickly finished and we headed out to the winery, Oller Dl Mas. Right now they are only producing 2 red wines and a rose wine. The winery is huge, we had a private tour just the two of us with one of the woman who works there. I forget her name but she was really nice and friendly. The tour that we got was really good with a lot of detail of how the wines were made and the difference in producing the red and white wines. After our tour we got to see where they store the wines both while they are being aged and after when they are already in the bottle. After we got treated to a light meal of bread, meat & cheese along with our wine tasting inside the castle that they use for the wines. We are white wine drinkers primarily so we decided not to buy any bottles and we got back in the car for the drive back to Barcelona. We didn't get back until after 2. We had enough time to grab something for lunch and head back to our hotel to get ready for the tapas tour that we had at 5. Looking back on it, we should have just skipped the tapas tour and did the full day Montserrat and winery tour. But that will have to wait for the next post due to the limit of 6 pictures per entry! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyyhoneybee Posted September 10, 2012 Author #15 Share Posted September 10, 2012 We figured out where we had to go to meet our guide for the tour and we started walking there. We stopped along the way at a few different stores picking up some goodies. We met up with our guide and we were told we were waiting for 2 more people who never showed up. I forget her name but she was nice and really helpful giving us some great little tips and hints about the city. We found out that the company that the tour was contracted out to (I forget the name I know I have the business card somewhere) did a gourmet tour as well, we were signed up for the basic. Barcelona Day Tours only had one option not two. The desert place for the basic? The chocolate museum. To go to the higher end desert place was an extra 5 euro each which we agreed to pay. Our first stop: For wine, bread, cheese and meet. 1 tiny plate with just a few bites to eat each. It's a wine and olive oil store with a nice place in the back to chill out and relax a bit, which was welcomed with the heat. This was a walking tour with a lot of talking and explaining as we walked, and we were able to take a lot of pictures of stuff along the way from place to place which was nice. Our second stop: We were told we could pick 2 things each to try. They cost under 2 euros per choice. Everything was out and we just picked what we wanted. This is what they looked like: Yes, that was two full dishes. We were pretty hungry at this point. I asked Dave to get me a can of soda because I didn't like the cava and she said not to worry she would get it for me....and she came back with a bottle of water. Our third stop was by far the worse. We were taken to: Which is this little tiny place with limited choices. We couldn't figure out what we wanted to eat there. We both finally settled on something, we had 2 choices here as well. We didn't finish a single one, to give you an idea of just how awful it was. She was nice enough to let us chose a drink each, as the normal drink that came with it was something that neither of us wanted. I ordered a sangria and was served a glass of red wine with a piece of orange in it. Our last stop: Finally someplace that was good. We both enjoyed and finished up what we got and we brought some stuff to bring home as well as some macrons for the hotel. This is the only place that we both really liked and was worth going to. The price of this tour wasn't cheap (it was something like 70 euros or so each if I remember right) and we had to pay extra for this. This was no where near where we started but she left us here with directions on how to get back. A big turn off by far. We grabbed a cab halfway back and then walked the rest, stopping for more food. We stopped in for oysters at a bar that had them and had awful service. We both feel it was because we didn't speak Spanish. Honestly, it was a waste of money this tour. I would not recommend it to anyone. Save your money and do some research and find some good places and do your own tour. Once we got back to the hotel, we went up to the rooftop bar and had a few drinks. Knowing we had a full day of Gaudi the next day, we still made it a semi-early night, we were back in the room by midnight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willysgrandma Posted September 10, 2012 #16 Share Posted September 10, 2012 Thanks for the info on Barcelona Day Tours. We also have a city tour booked with them when we go and I was totally confused as to why I was getting emails from Barcelona and Top Day Tours! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyyhoneybee Posted September 10, 2012 Author #17 Share Posted September 10, 2012 Thanks for the info on Barcelona Day Tours. We also have a city tour booked with them when we go and I was totally confused as to why I was getting emails from Barcelona and Top Day Tours! I didn't understand it at all until I asked Top Day Tours when I had a tour with them. I'm glad I was able to help someone out! Stay tuned there is much more to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoraJ Posted September 11, 2012 #18 Share Posted September 11, 2012 Enjoying your review and pics. :) We leave in a couple of days to Barcelona and sail on Sunday. I was wondering if you remember what night the chocolate buffet is and what time does it usually start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PathfinderEss Posted September 11, 2012 #19 Share Posted September 11, 2012 Thanks for doing a review of your cruise, your pictures are wonderful. Looking forward to the rest of your great adventure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare conandrob240 Posted September 11, 2012 #20 Share Posted September 11, 2012 No chocolate buffet on Epic med. cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYGirl1002 Posted September 11, 2012 #21 Share Posted September 11, 2012 Great review! I'm really enjoying it. I love your pictures! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoraJ Posted September 11, 2012 #22 Share Posted September 11, 2012 No chocolate buffet on Epic med. cruise. Awww, too bad. Oh well. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruisinTexan86 Posted September 11, 2012 #23 Share Posted September 11, 2012 Loving your review and pictures! Can't wait to see more! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BaseballMomof4 Posted September 12, 2012 #24 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Please keep it coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyyhoneybee Posted September 13, 2012 Author #25 Share Posted September 13, 2012 Sorry for the delay, on top of everything I came home sick! I will try to get another post or two up today or tomorrow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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