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Old 22 Jan 17, 04:49 PM  
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Scruffette
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Join Date: May 12
You've got a friend in Me(d) - Day 1 - Travel Day

Hello and welcome to our 2016 Disney Magic cruise trip report. Your cast is:

Me, Lucy (25) and Ollie (also 25)

Our itinerary was 2 nights in Salou, 2 nights Barcelona and a 7 night Mediterranean cruise on the Disney Magic.

So without further ado, on with day 1…

Day 1 - Travel to Salou

As is often traditional on a travel day, the alarm went off at a less than acceptable time – 2.45 am to be precise! It wasn’t the most relaxing wake up – Ollie had set ‘Holiday’ by Greenday as his alarm tone. I get the sentiment behind this, but I’m sure you’ll agree this is not a song I enjoy full volume at quarter to 3 in the morning.

We got ready and did our last minute check, and were driving away by 3.22am. (Don’t worry, this kind of precision won’t continue past day 2 – my notes didn’t make it that far!)

The drive to Manchester Airport at this time in the morning was less than half an hour. We parked up, took a photo of where we were parked (as I definitely wouldn’t remember this) and were on a bus by 4am. We booked the Jet Parks Ringway car park for a very reasonable price (they always seem to have a 10% off deal).





We had a giggle at a family on the bus who were trying decide if they could fit Gran’s electric scooter in the overhead locker…. I think they concluded that they’d have to wait and see on the plane

At that time in the morning the bus journey was minutes to Terminal 1. We went through an automated bag drop process with no queue. The bag weighted in at 19.6kg. This was close to the limit of 20kg, but not bad considering this was the only case between us for two weeks (the carry-ons weighed in at 5 and 4 kg).

They’d just opened the overflow security in Terminal 1, the queues looked long but the lines moved efficiently, meaning we were through by 4.40am.

I hadn’t expected to have this much time, so hadn’t made a breakfast plan! Error. Terminal 1 has lots of choices (I’ve only ever flown from Terminal 3 at Manchester, which is tiny by comparison!)

We settled on Bar MCR. Ollie went up to order, and they let us use an Eat Drink Fly voucher from his phone.



We both went for the English breakfast – scrambled egg, back bacon, Cumberland sausage, grilled vine tomato, grilled flat mushroom and herby potatoes (£7.85). This did the job of filling us up well.



We ordered a toast to share for a £1. I was expecting a bit more than one piece…

Ollie ordered a pint of Aspalls – because what else would you want to drink at 5.05am? I had a water and a hot chocolate.



Before heading to the gate I picked up some water from Boots - £2 for two 750ml bottles, not bad for airport prices I thought.

Our flight was Thomas Cook direct to Salou. We were a few minutes late taking off, but found we had a row to ourselves. After take off, Ollie moved to the window seat.



He was glad of the extra space – the leg room left a lot to be desired.



I did what I do best and slept (if you’ve read any of my trip reports, you’ll know I’m capable of falling asleep anywhere!).

However, we did have a very loud two year old behind us who cried and kicked the seats for a good hour of the flight. The parents did nothing.

We landed around 9.40am (local time). Another flight landed at a similar time, but a bus took us from the plane to passport control, instead of walking, so we made it before them.

Passport control and luggage pick up was smooth. The next bus to Salou wasn’t until 10.50 am (we asked at the tourist information desk), so we sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine.

Standard airport decoration





The bus arrived a bit early and the bus driver asked us our hotel. He hadn’t heard of it, which worried me. He even googled it to check we were in the correct place! He found it in the end and we were shortly on our way. The bus cost 6.95€ for both of us.

We were dropped off in Salou and had a short walk (although it felt longer with luggage) to Hotel Acqua. The lady at the check in desk wasn’t particularly friendly. Our room wasn’t ready yet, but we were able to drop our luggage off and went for a walk.



We walked down to the Salou beach. I was never convinced that Salou would be my type of holiday destination, and this confirmed it for me. The beach was absolutely packed with people in varying shades of red. Not my kind of thing at all, but each to their own. We were only in Salou for Port Aventura, I’m sure a theme park on holiday would be a nightmare for other people! I was enjoying the sunshine though
We sussed out where we wanted to go for lunch, but they weren’t open until 1pm. Instead we headed back to the hotel where our room was ready.

We got lucky, we had a corner room which meant extra space and a second balcony (although one balcony was enough!)











We struggled with the safe (and the phone) so Ollie went down to reception to explain the problem to the frosty receptionist. Turns out we had to pay, which was fine, I just wished they had mentioned it somewhere!

Anyway, we took the short walk into town (5 minutes or so), to O Mar, our restaurant of choice. Before the trip we had checked out restaurants on Trip Advisor. Many were advertising ‘real British food’, which I definitely wanted to avoid.



O Mar was rated highly on trip advisor, and even better did a lunch menu for 12.90€. It was very quiet with only a handful of tables occupied. It was pretty inside and I imagine it’s even better at night.

We got the choice between bread or a glass of wine (weird option) and obviously went for the wine! We also paid for some water to share.



To start, we both went for the cannelloni with home made truffle béchamel (there was a 90 cents supplement for this). This was piping hot and so tasty.



For mains we both went for Medallions of pork tenderloin with mushroom sauce.



There was a lot more pork than I was expecting.

For dessert, I went for the Crème catalan, which was like an orange crème brulee. Ollie had the cheesecake. There were no menus for dessert and our waiter did a good job of explaining the desserts to us in English.





Overall we were both really impressed with the meal. We went in around 1.40pm and had a nice leisurely lunch.

Afterwards, we stopped at a nearby convenience / alcohol shop. We picked up some water and cans of fruit cider for 1€ each. We took these back to the room and sat on our balcony and just relaxed for a bit. This is something we don’t always take the time to do when we’re on holiday, as we’re too busy trying to cram as much in as possible. In that way, it was nice to have the day to just relax and get used to being on holiday.





We took what was intended to be a short nap and set the alarm for 45 minutes. One of us turned the alarm of when it went off, and we then slept for an hour and 45 minutes in total. We clearly needed it, it had been an early start!

We went down for a swim in the pool next, which was freezing! This wasn’t helped by the fact that the pool was in the shade. I tried to find a lounger in a bit of sun to warm up a bit with my towel over me to keep warm!

Eventually I gave up and went to the room to shower and freshen up.
Dinner was at the hotel – we got a good deal to add on dinner both nights.

I’ve never really done a hotel with included dinner/ half board, and I can imagine that it gets a bit repetitive night after night, even though they do try to vary the options.

We ordered a bottle of Rosé to share, which we could roll over to the following night which was nice. We also got some water (I hate not having the tap water option in Europe!) There was salad area, a cooked area, dessert area and a grill where a chef cooked meat to order. I think I chose poorly and had an eyes bigger than my belly moment. I went for too much meat and not enough salad/veg as well. I left feeling a bit disappointed.

After dinner we walked into Salou to check out where to get the bus to Port Aventura in the morning. There was a Plana bus shop with lots of reps, so they filled us in. It was nice to have an evening stroll and it was still a lovely temperature outside.

Back at the hotel I fell into bed, it had been a long day!

Day 2 - PortAventura

Edited at 05:04 PM.
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Old 27 Jan 17, 03:34 PM  
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stecee
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Great travel day. Your hotel room looks lovely.
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Old 1 Feb 17, 08:52 PM  
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Scruffette
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Originally Posted by stecee View Post
Great travel day. Your hotel room looks lovely.
Thank you It was lovely and spacious.
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Old 25 Apr 17, 10:00 PM  
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Bobsledwheels
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Good travel day - we are totally the same on Salou - went for the theme park but the rest I could easily avoid. Especially the 'real british food' restaurants!

Your hotel looks lovely though

Looking forward to reading about your Port Aventura day and your cruise!
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Old 30 Apr 17, 01:41 PM  
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Fat mickey
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Looking forward to reading your Disney cruise experience DH is trying to persuade me to try a cruise!
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Old 4 Jun 17, 04:31 PM  
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Scruffette
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Originally Posted by Bobsledwheels View Post
Good travel day - we are totally the same on Salou - went for the theme park but the rest I could easily avoid. Especially the 'real british food' restaurants!

Your hotel looks lovely though

Looking forward to reading about your Port Aventura day and your cruise!
Thanks for reading along We can never resist a theme park!

Originally Posted by Fat mickey View Post
Looking forward to reading your Disney cruise experience DH is trying to persuade me to try a cruise!
I hope your DH manages to persuade you! I'm now a big fan of cruising
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Old 10 Aug 17, 09:45 PM  
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Wow, that was an early start! Glad you got there OK.

I'm surprised you couldn't have tap water free in the restaurant? We've had it abroad in lots of places. Or weren't you sure of the quality?
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Old 12 Aug 17, 03:56 PM  
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Scruffette
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Originally Posted by Gill H View Post
Wow, that was an early start! Glad you got there OK.

I'm surprised you couldn't have tap water free in the restaurant? We've had it abroad in lots of places. Or weren't you sure of the quality?
Yes very early! At least we got a full day when we arrived.

I've tried to ask for tap water a few times abroad and always ended up with bottled. However, this may be down to my limited language skills! Never had a problem in the States. I'm not too picky with water abroad. I will try and attempt to ask for tap water again next time!

Thanks for reading
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