Boundless Horizons

Day 1 – May 20 – Barcelona (embarkation day)

We had a 12:15pm Port Arrival Time and the port is a 15 minute drive from the hotel. We got ready and headed down to the lobby at 11:30am to check out, and ordered a taxi using Free Now. We wanted to build in some contingency time knowing that we could just wait outside the terminal until it was time to go in, in case it took a while for a driver to pick us up, and we weren’t sure how busy traffic would be.

We only had to wait a few minutes for a taxi – though there was a hiccup when the driver cancelled on us just as he arrived because he pressed the wrong button in the app. While he was trying to pick up our booking again, another driver picked it up – so the original driver missed out on the fare, but we were able to get on our way quickly with the second driver.

Embarkation went so smoothly for us. I’ve seen others comment on the cruise Facebook group about how chaotic embarkation was, so it seems that we got lucky as lines built up over the afternoon. The ship had just arrived from the Eastbound Transatlantic sailing so this was the first 2023 Barcelona cruise. Our driver dropped us off at 12:07, we dropped off our luggage and joined the line for 12:00-12:30 arrivals. There were lines for 12:30-13:00 and 13:00-13:30, and port staff were checking Port Arrival Forms to direct people to the right line. After a few minutes, we were through security, and we heard them calling boarding groups 1-8 as we headed to the check in line.

Check in was nice and easy, they checked our documents then directed us to the waiting area. We heard them announce boarding groups 1-13 at that point, so they were moving quickly through the groups. We were boarding group 4 so we headed straight to the ship! There were a couple of photographers waiting to take photos, and then we headed up the escalator to the bridge to deck 3.

The atrium was decorated for the 25th anniversary and looked stunning! We headed straight to deck 2 to speak to the dining team outside Enchanted Garden. I’d tried to book the Remy dessert experience but it was sold out so I wanted to join the waiting list (in the end we didn’t hear back from them so I guess a place didn’t open up), and I wanted to check our request for a private table had gone through.

The dining team said our preferred second seating was full so they had put us on a table of 8, with three other couples who’d all requested private tables. They were able to offer us a private table if we switched to main dining, which was less popular on this sailing due to the long days in port. Since main dining was 6pm on the Mediterranean sailings (second dining was 8:30pm), we decided to switch to get a private table.

After speaking to the dining team, we headed to Animator’s Palate which was open for lunch. From the timestamps on my photos, I can see we were seated by 12:55pm. We both had the leek and potato soup, then I had a chicken caesar salad and Rhys had the beef sirloin. For dessert Rhys ordered the Welcome Aboard sundae. I was going to skip dessert, but our server suggested a Mickey bar, and I couldn’t resist!

Over lunch we planned our next steps. At check-in we’d been told the rooms would be ready by 3pm, maybe a little earlier. We took a slow stroll up to deck 5 and arrived about 2:20pm to find the barriers were down so we could access our room!

We had room 5536 assigned to us on our VGT rate, I’d originally hoped for a higher deck but that extended verandah was amazing! Deck 5 is where the lifeboats are stored and the staterooms on either side of them have extended verandahs as the ship is wider there. So our verandah was much longer than normal, with room for both the usual table and two chairs, and another two reclining chairs! The trade off is that they felt a little overlooked – the room above us seemed to be empty as we never saw anyone on that verandah, but we were really aware if we stood at the rail that people could see us. I had to sit further back to enjoy a coffee in my pyjamas in the morning! Being able to see a little of the bridge was fun, when we were casting off on the starboard side we could see the officers watching from the windows.

I was initially concerned about noise from the theatre as we were just above it. We heard noise one night when we’d headed back to the room after dinner while the early show was still running. Dinner was 6pm, the early show was 6:30pm and one of the shows ran for 1 hour 15 minutes so we could hear some noise from the last few minutes of the performance. Other than that, we were either at dinner during the early show or attending the later show so it wasn’t a problem.

The room is a category 4E due to the oversized verandah, but the rest of the room is a regular sized category 5 room sleeping 3 people (there was no pull-down bed in our stateroom). It’s a perfect size for the two of us, though I noticed it was a little smaller than the rooms on the Magic. The location was great, we could get to the balcony seating in the theatre quickly and it didn’t take too long to get to the restaurants for dinner. We tended to take the elevators up to deck 11/12/13 and walk down, we didn’t have to wait too long despite the ship being 75% full.

Our onboard gift purchases were waiting for us when we arrived in our room. We’d pre-ordered the beer mug and the Luxury at Sea package. The beer mug had a special 25th anniversary design, and it made for a good souvenir. The Luxury at Sea package included two bathrobes, a box of chocolates, a bottle of Prosecco, and a rose. This was a great deal because the robes are such great quality. They’re so large and soft, and we use them all the time at home.

After dropping our bags in the room, we realised the Oceaneer Club open house was going to close at 3:30pm ahead of the muster drill, so we didn’t have time to do it. Our muster point was in the Walt Disney Theatre (station D), so we strolled along and had a look through the shop windows until it was time for the drill.

As our first cruise was 2021, we had covid protocols in place so we used the app to check in to our muster point and there was no Sailing Away party, so this was our first time doing the full drill. I was glad we could take a seat in the theatre as there was quite a bit of waiting. Once the drill was done, we headed up to deck 12 for the party! Summer 2023 was 25 years since DCL launched, so the characters were all dressed up for the Silver Anniversary.

After the Sailing Away party, we headed to the Oceaneer Club Open House to check it out. That place is so cool! I got to try the Ports of Call simulator where you try to steer the ship, I have to admit I wasn’t very good at it, but I probably shouldn’t have set it to hard mode on my first attempt. The Star Wars themed area also had a chance to pretend to pilot the Millennium Falcon.

We went back to our stateroom to get ready for dinner, and we set sail just after 5:30pm which we got to watch from the verandah with a glass of Prosecco. We sailed by a ship called Mein Schiff 2 where lots of people were out on their verandahs to see us go. We saw them again as we sailed out of Civitavecchia which felt like meeting old friends!

We had a dilemma on our first night. The shops opened at 6pm and as we were originally on second dining we’d planned to go right away in case items sold out quickly. The shops ran out of a lot of items on the first night of our UK Staycation cruise and the shelves were almost bare at the end. I’d hoped it would be better this time, but I’d heard the 25th anniversary and sailing-specific merch sold out in ten minutes on the transatlantic sailing. Moving to main dining meant dinner began when the shops opened. We also weren’t really ready for dinner because of our embarkation lunch.

We decided to go to the shops first and risk missing dinner. It was pretty chaotic – I told Rhys to wait in line with a few items while I dodged the crowds to look around. Word got around quickly that there was no 25th anniversary merch at all, other than the Pandora charms. In the end our 25th anniversary haul for the whole cruise amounted to the beer mug, popcorn bucket, Castaway Club print, and the bookmark/coaster from the Jubilee by the Sea cocktail – nothing from the shops! Rumour is that a shipping container was delayed reaching Barcelona so they didn’t get the stock in time for us, but later sailings had the 25th Anniversary collection.

I was able to pick up a few pieces from the Dream of Europe collection, and grabbed some things that I didn’t want to risk selling out. It turns out I shouldn’t have worried as the collection stayed well stocked throughout the cruise. At least I could relax and enjoy the rest of my evening!

We got to dinner almost 30 minutes late. We apologised to our server and assistant server and explained we only wanted two courses. Our first MDR was Animator’s Palate, and I asked for a double serving of black truffle pasta purseittes as a main course while Rhys had the grilled tuna steak. For dessert I had the crunchy walnut cake and Rhys had the cookies’n’cream sundae. We didn’t miss any of the Crush show, and we were still finished before some other tables, so I was glad we didn’t cause too much inconvenience.

After dinner we took photos in the atrium. I’d pre-ordered the photo package so we made sure to get as many photos as possible. It’s pricey, but it’s nice to have photos with both of us in them. We ended up with 187 photos over the course of the week and there’s no way I could have chosen just a few! We ended the night with a walk around deck 11 to grab drinks to take back to the room, then headed to bed.