Day 1-3, Friday -Sunday

After tearfully dropping off G&S with my brother and Kara and their fabulous kids, I made my way back home to finish packing in an incredibly silent house.  The next day, Larry and Jenn arrived and picked us up and we were off to the airport!

We only had to turn around and come back to the house once to get my sweatshirt that I would need for the airplane.  I thought that was pretty remarkable that we only had to come back once.

Chris, Tara, Larry and Jenn - Day 1, Jacksonville Airport!

Our excitement gradually turned to dismay, however, as our plane sat longer and longer and longer at the gate.  Atlanta banned all flights from even coming in because of a storm in their area.  We were instructed to get back off the plane and wait.  Riot conditions were imminent.  Finally, we were allowed to reboard, elbowing our way through angry passengers wanting their turn to get to Atlanta, too.

The chaos of the Atlanta did nothing for our moods.  We had missed our flight to Spain.  We tried every which way and sideways to get any flight to Europe (thinking we could get a train to Barcelona once we got there) but there was nothing going out.  We were left with a plan to fly out in the morning to NYC and from there flying to Barcelona and we were told NOT to get our luggage.

Not a good plan, we would later learn.

We arranged for a hotel near the airport and joined other displaced passengers in a quest for a meal.  We sought out free toiletries as well.  No, we were not clever enough to pack an extra outfit and toiletries with us.  We would come to regret this in the days to come.

At o’dark’thirty the next morning, we took the shuttle back to the airport to take a flight to La Guardia airport in New York City.  (Am I the only one who still hears the old Pace Salsa commercial tag line “New York City?!”)  We then took a cab (Jenn’s first cab ride in NYC!) to JFK airport to await our flight to Barcelona many hours later.  Our excitement went through the ceiling when we realized we were bumped to first class for our troubles.

Can we say “Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet?!”

It was like flying overseas with our very own recliner and 5-course meal.  Oh my stars!!  We also met lots of people in our situation who missed the flight in Atlanta and on the way to the same cruise.  We later learned we all had also lost our luggage together.

Flying over Spain the next morning was gorgeous – the terrain was beautiful.  Flying over the Mediterranean was surreal!  I love seeing new things I have only seen in pictures before.  Fascinating!!  The Barcelona airport is a stunning piece of architecture.  All marble floors and glass walls, incredibly clean.  Just gorgeous.

And then we learned where our luggage was.  We were set to board the Voyager of the Seas in a few hours.  And our luggage?

It was still in Atlanta.  Half a world away.

I was ready to cry.  Well, actually, I did cry.  I’m a girl after all.  Wearing 3-day old underwear.  Even our clothes were tired of US.  What could we do?  Nothing at all.  Shopping you say?  Oh no.  Stores in Barcelona are mostly closed on Sundays.  Oh yes.  So what could we do?  Head for the port with the clothes on our back smelling powder fresh (the only flavor of deoderant the hotel in Atlanta had offered.)

We exited the final stage of customs and there were a few Royal Caribbean staff awaiting passengers.  Not us, mind you, but we decided to see if we could make use of their knowledge and services anyhow.  And they were indeed helpful!  The sweet gal indicated they would be helpful with our luggage, what to tell the taxi driver as to where to go to get to the port and for shopping, and other useful things.

Barcelona, Spain

It’s surreal driving in a foreign country with itty-bitty cars when you are used to America with it’s giant-sized everything, but it sure was fun!  I loved seeing the sites.  One of the most unusual was the cemetary built into the hillside.  Wow.  I’ll have to find a pic of that online for you.  How unusual!  We finally made it to the port were the luggage porter was quite confused as to our lack of luggage for a 7-day cruise but then a nod of understanding a look of pity accompanied our explanation that all four of us had lost our luggage.  Ah, well.  What can you do?  Make do.  That’s what you do.

After checking in and a men’s final quest for any open store, we boarded the ship (lovely ship, btw) where we were blown away by the customer service of Royal Caribbean.  Where Delta failed us on so many levels, RC over-exceeded our expectations.  Larry gave them all of our luggage information and RC proceeded to deal with Delta completely after that.  We would get our luggage two days later, in Naples (Napoli, Italy).  RC gave us complimentary t-shirts, toiletries, laundry and tux vouchers and our stateroom attendant got us robes as well.

Port of Barcelona

So how about dinner and those dress codes?

Oh no.  We paid for it.  We were going to eat it.  Smelling bad, stiff clothes or not.  We explained we’d lost our luggage and the staff really could’ve cared less and waved us through!  Yea!!!  We had a FABULOUS time at dinner and met our tablemates for the rest of the cruise!  More about Donna and Joe later…this post is long enough!

Suffice it to say, wow.  It was a rough start to the vacation for sure, but it could only go up from here, right?  :)