Heading home

Disembarkation day is crazy. We had the option of a seated breakfast with our waitstaff team at 6:30 am or head to the Cabana’s buffet. Regardless, we had to be out of our rooms by 8 am. Our large suitcases were taken last night so we only had to worry about our backpacks, diaper bags, stroller and car seat.

Kids were pretty quick this morning so we had plenty of time to eat breakfast overlooking the Barcelona harbor. Eggs, muffins, Mickey waffles and more. Our group was called so we made our way to Deck 3. They scanned our Key to the World cards one last time and we were off. Our driver, Roman, was waiting for us at the terminal and took us to the airport. We had a few hours to kill at the airport so we looked at some shops, the kids played in a small play area, and then we boarded our long flight to Chicago. Keely sat with Liam who got sick after eating too fast, and Whitaker who was generally impossible and just wanted to walk and bother everyone. I sat with Odin and Ainsley and we cuddled, watched movies, and generally had a nice time. Whitaker joined me for his nap and immediately started screaming for Mom when we woke up. Arrival and switching planes in Chicago was a mess as usual and reminded us of how how nice and pleasant the Barcelona customs process was for us. Grandpa picked us up from the airport and four kids were fast asleep before we left the airport parking lot. Everyone was happy to be home after a great trip.

A few observations about the trip in no particular order:
- Everyone in Spain and generally across our whole trip, loves kids. When Whit was upset, random strangers would play peek-a-boo or make funny faces to try to help - even on the subway!
- Barcelona was so easy to navigate and walk. Everyone follows the traffic rules and is respectful of pedestrians. Pedestrians always wait for the crosswalk signal. The city is incredibly clean and there are garbage and recycling bins everywhere. Italy was the opposite. It was a game of Frogger to get across the street. Pedestrians just walk into traffic.
- Disney does a great job with hospitality. The wait staff all have small squeakers in their pockets and play games making the kids hands squeak. Everyone says hello to the kids and smiles. The three people dedicated to our stay were excellent. We loved our hostess/housekeeping person Naydi from Columbia. Wayan and Katrina were our waitstaff and they were also great and loved our kids. When we didn’t order the best dish, Wayan would bring it to us along with what we ordered so we could try it.
- About half of the people on the cruise were first timers and half were returning cruisers. We would see a lot of the same people throughout our week - on excursions, the shows, pools, etc. But there was also a whole group of people we never saw who spent their time in the adults areas or the teens and tweens areas and we didn’t see until the last day.
- Some Disney adults are really weird. There were two ladies who were at the front of every character line to get pictures with Mickey and friends every single time. There was one lady that had her own full Disney outfit every day - a seashell shirt with fish scale patterned leggings and shoes or a Mickey shirt with Mickey ears printed jeans and shoes. There were two guys who dressed identically every single day. All very, very odd!
- There were a ton of birthdays. We swear every night there were 10+ birthdays at dinner.
- We never had a problem with sea sickened but the seas were also really calm. Most of the movement is at night but even the sea day, there just weren’t a lot of waves out on the Mediterranean Sea. We barely felt the boat at all.
- We easily got our 10,000 steps on the ship and often over 15,000. We took the stairs a lot because the elevators were always busy but it was very easy to get our steps.
- The activities on the ship go so late! We rarely had the kids in bed before 10 and there were plenty of nights where we were much later than that. For the most part, everyone did great with the late nights and we had limited meltdowns. However, when Ainsley gets overtired she’s ungovernable and completely crazy. We got smart later in the week to send Whit to the nursery because he’s always ungovernable!

The cruise was incredible and we’ve already put a down payment on a future cruise! Stay tuned for where we go next!