Time to say adiós to Barcelona and Espana. Despite our bad start we found Barcelona interesting but more fast paced than Madrid. Stopped for a coffee in town as it was too early to board our ship. We were all very protective of our luggage especially passports! We found a maxicab big enough for Col's maxi suitcase and everyone elses regular ones. The driver was a very friendly Pakistani with great English, poor Spanish after 10 years in Barcelona, and a big desire to go to Australia. He thinks we are the lucky country. Greg asked if he had been a rally driver before his cab driving days! We had a few laughs along our very quick trip to the port where we were greeted immediately by porters who labeled our bags and whisked them away. After a queue for screening and one for checking in, another one for the obligatory welcome aboard photo, another to register our solo allowance of a bottle of wine each and finally a card swipe, we were on board and headed to our adjoining staterooms on Emerald deck 8 and were delighted with the roomy layout, walk in robe and adjoining balconies.
After unpacking, we familiarised ourselves with the ship to get our bearings. In cruise ship terms the Island Princess is quite small, 14 decks,1900 passengers and 600 staff. We found our way to the all day buffet, Horizon Court on deck 14. The food was really good with so much choice no one could possibly go hungry. Drinks our balcony as we set sail and a formal a la carte dinner was a perfect way to end our first day on board.
