Day 5

Tuesday 14th February: Valentine's day in Casablanca! We got up earlier today, Mark and I had bought Valentine's cards before we left so exchanged them in the cabin, Charlie and Courtney opened them for us. We ate breakfast in the Bora Bora restaurant before disembarking for our trip into Casablanca. Originally we were going to book an excursion for here but on further research we decided we only wanted to see the Hussain II mosque and a market so no need for a trip. We could see the mosque as we walked out of the port and after making our way past the entourage of taxi drivers we followed the crowd! It was a fair walk! Charlie is amazing us how much he is walking on this holiday, he only asks for pick ups occasionally and seems happy walking all other times. The weather was lovely, it's so nice to feel the sun after being so cold lately at home. We arrived at the mosque, it is a stunning building.





Not surprisingly there is another entourage of taxis at the mosque and some drivers are quite pushy, much more so than the ones at the port. In the end we do decide to take a taxi to the Medina, it only cost 5 euros for us all so not too bad! The market was almost as we'd expected, a lot of leather goods, camels and polished wooden boxes etc. We thought we might see stalls selling spices but there were none.

The streets in Casablanca are unbelievably uneven! We had to be very careful and pushing the pushchair was not easy at all but it was an interesting experience! All we bought was a bottle of water for on the ship! The Medina wasn't too far from the ship so the walk back wasn't quite as bad as going, although saying that even once we entered the port area again it was still a good long walk back to the ship! Once back on board we had a late light lunch in the Bora Bora restaurant before looking into the afternoon's activities in the kids club. We arrived just in time for the video club and he stayed for the Duck, Duck, Goose session and balloon party! Mark, Courtney and I came back to our cabin whilst he was there so she could have a little snooze. We then went for afternoon tea before picking him up. It was a nice surprise that Charlie was in there having a snack too. As they were led back to the play centre past us Charlie had a huge smile on his face and was talking to a little girl. It made me happy to see him so confident and happy. We picked him up shortly after and he was full of kid's club, he'd really enjoyed it! We came back to the cabin and got ready for dinner in the Villa Verde. The Americans weren't there this evening so we had the table to ourselves. After dinner we decided to go and watch the show in the Strand theatre. On our way there, there were a few Valentine activities. We had our photo taken with a huge balloon heart shape and entered a romantic words competition. The best wording wins a prize. I wrote a sentimental message for Mark and looked up to see Charlie had wanted to enter too. He had written his name and I, drawn a love heart and asked Mark to spell out Mummy. Bless him, I was so emotional. It was totally un prompted and a clear winner in my mind.

The show had just started when we arrived, we found a seat and Charlie and Courtney clapped away, danced and were amazed by a magician. It was an excellent show, a great variety of singing, dancing and illusions! My favourite part was a tribute to Michael Jackson, it was fantastically put together! We walked past the photo stand on the way back to our cabin and tried to look for the Captain's photos from last night but they're not ready yet. Just as we arrived back we left the port of Casablanca so put the front camera on the TV. We then relaxed whilst Charlie and Courtney slept.

Day 4

Monday 13th February: A day at sea! We decided to use today to chillax and unwind after a previous busy 2 days. We had a little lie in and then went to the Bora Bora restaurant for a light breakfast. We then further investigated the ship, had a look at the photo gallery and enquired about the kids club as Charlie is keen to go. Unfortunately Courtney is just too young, she is 3 next month, bless her, so cannot go. We decide to eat lunch in the Villa Verde, I can't believe that it is just like last night, a great choice of menu and up to 5 courses! I can't imagine eating that much food twice a day! We opt for 2 courses each and again the food is delicious.
We had another wander around the ship, one of my favourite things (and Courtney's) are these sparkly steps, aren't they gorgeous!

We then returned to our cabin where we all had a nap. We must have been tired as we all slept for 2 hours! We had intended going swimming but as it was a Gala dinner we decide there isn't really time for a swim so instead we all have a leisurely shower and take our time getting ready.

The Gala dinner was splendid, again a good choice and up to 5 courses. Please excuse the quality of this photo, it was the best one we got at the dinner!

The children all had a lovely time playing for a short time after the meal.

After dinner we made our way to deck 7 where we met our Captain! He shook our hands and made a really nice fuss of Charlie and Courtney.
It was then bedtime so we retired back to our cabin.

Day 3

Sunday 12th February: Cruise day! But first we had another day in Barcelona. It was time for my treat of the trip! I like the Olympics and although I did visit the site of the 1992 games last time it was part of a coach tour so I remember the Olympic part being quite rushed. We took the underground and funicular to the Olympic park, after a short walk we found a museum on the history of the games and some general sports. It was really well presented, there was quite a bit to see and some fun interactive parts for Charlie and Courtney.



At the end there were all the original relics from the opening and closing ceremonies of the games. They were fantastic to see, I remembered them from the games!


After the museum visit we went to the stadium.



We had a quick snack there before making our way to the cable cars. We misunderstood the cable cars a little, we'd researched them before we left home and bought a single trip as we knew they went down to the harbour as that's where we wanted to end up. Only this cable car went up not down! It ended up at the castle and it turned out there were in fact two cable cars in Barcelona! We stayed on it to the half way point back down, which is where our single terminated and were directed to the other cable car which we were told was a 10 minute walk downhill so not too bad and I would say the cable car ride we did was nice! We found the correct cable car no problem, only there was a problem, it wasn't working!!! There was one nice thing about this unfortunate occurrence, the viewpoint there enabled us to have our first view of our ship, the MSC Splendida.

At this moment I will admit I had a little panic as it was 2:00ish and we were supposed to be boarding the ship at 3:00! We walked a little and saw a sign for the funicular, a little relief as that was the way we'd arrived! It ended up quite a walk but we made it and arrived back at our hotel to collect the cases in plenty of time. We took a taxi to the port and again I'd checked us into the cruise online so after a quick security check we went on board our cruise liner. We were welcomed at the entrance, issued with children's life jackets for Charlie and Courtney (ours were in the cabin) and they were given a wristband with our cabin number on it, a very good idea, I thought. We were then guided to our cabin, 13188. What luxury! Our cabin is fabulous, we decided to treat ourselves to a balcony cabin and at the time of booking were upgraded to a category 11 cabin, the highest rated cabin other than the yacht club ones! I tell you, the cabin was pure luxury! Mark and I cruised the Caribbean for our honeymoon and had a twin bedded very narrow cabin with a porthole! Which was fine, of course but this cabin is more like a hotel room! There are so many special touches like robes for when we go swimming and liquid soap that's really lathers! We were surprised too to have a television, the channels are ok, nothing great but there's a channel that has cameras around the ship, there's one at the front of the ship so we have a captain's eye view and one that overlooks the pool so we can see if it's busy before setting off.



After unpacking we went to the safety briefing and attended the 'getting to know your ship' meeting in the theatre but to be honest it was more trying to sell excursions!

So after we did a recce of the ship, it's huge!!! I bet you burn a million calories just walking from the front to the aft, lol! Even now as I'm typing this, 2 days into our cruise we still get lost! Mind you, according to the info in our ticket pack there are 3274 passengers and 1332 crew! It doesn't feel like that many though.
We are on first sitting for dinner so went to our restaurant, Villa Verde at 6:00pm. We were taken to our table, 930 and took our seats. It's an 8 seater table and we were joined shortly after by an American family, Shaun, Kim and their 2 daughters. Shaun is based in the U.K at the moment in the Navy. There is so much choice on the menu and 5 courses every night! The food is delicious! During our meal they performed a dessert ceremony! Music was played and the waiters paraded around the restaurant with huge desserts! We swung our napkins above our heads, it was great fun!


After dinner we returned to our cabin to settle Charlie and Courtney, we went to sleep not long after them.
Here's how our beds looked made up.

Day 2

Saturday 11th February : Golly, I didn't like the other 5:00 in the day, I can't say I've seen it often but once a year is plenty enough! We got dressed and made our way to the meet and greet parking to leave the car. We were flying from terminal 2, I'd checked us in online a couple of days ago so it was just a case of dropping our suitcases off. We had a quick breakfast at the airport then got on the plane. We were sitting quite some time, we were due to leave at 6:40am but were still sitting on the plane at 07:10! Eventually it came over the tannoy that there was a fault with the plane and we had to transfer to a new one. Although a little inconvenient it did actually work out well as we ended up sitting together in a row whereas on the first plane we were dotted across 3 rows but kind of together, Charlie and I were on aisle seats opposite each other and Mark and Courtney were on the row behind me! (we flew with Ryanair which is free seating, almost like getting onto a bus! You can pre-book your seats but at an extra £80 we decided not to!)
We eventually set off around 1hour 40 minutes late but the captain made up the 40 minutes so we were only actually an hour late into Barcelona. We took a bus into the centre and then took a taxi to our hotel. We wondered where the taxi had taken us! We were aware the hotel was down a side street but there was nothing else there! Still it was just around the corner from the Ramblas and an underground station. The hotel itself was basic but clean and comfortable, perfect just for the overnight stay. After settling in we made our way out to the Ramblas, there was a good atmosphere along there, lots of market stalls, cafes and street entertainers.

Mark had researched the underground system before we left and we knew we could get T10 ticket, which meant we could have 10 journeys for 9.25 euros. This turned into a real bargain, we did everything we wanted to in Barcelona using them! After walking a good stretch of the Ramblas we got on the underground to the 'Sagrada Familia' church, one of Gaudi's creations.

The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is a work on a grand scale which was begun on 19 March 1882 from a project by the diocesan architect Francisco de Paula del Villar (1828-1901). At the end of 1883 Gaudí was commissioned to carry on the works, a task which he did not abandon until his death in 1926. Since then different architects have continued the work after his original idea.
It has always been an expiatory church, which means that since the outset, 130 years ago now, it has been built from donations. Gaudí himself said: "The expiatory church of La Sagrada Família is made by the people and is mirrored in them. It is a work that is in the hands of God and the will of the people." The building is still going on and could be finished some time in the first third of the 21st century. (Info taken from www.sagradafamilia.cat)
I had visited Barcelona around 1994, I can't say I remember the church well but know I did visit it and couldn't comment on how much progress has been made in that 18 years but with it being such a long project I can't imagine it will have changed much, lol! One thing I really liked about the church is how much you can see the difference between the old and new stones, it was noticeable in quite a few places.

We got back on the underground and made our way to the 'Nou camp' football stadium, This was Mark and Charlie's treat of the trip! We weren't sure at first whether we'd do the tour but to be honest you couldn't see much without it. It actually was very good! We got to see the ground from the top and also grass level, changing rooms, press boxes, pre and post match interview area and the trophy cabinet(s)!!!




After a quick browse in the club shop we made our way back to the Ramblas for tea. We ate in the Hard Rock Cafe! It was a little later than we'd anticipated getting back to the hotel, by which time we were all extremely tired and just fell into bed!

Day 1

Friday 10th February: checked into East Didsbury Travelodge but after finding the only room available was on the 3rd floor and a broken lift, with 2 children, 2 suitcases, 2 travel bags and a pushchair it really wasn't ideal. They offered us a transfer to the Airport hotel which worked our much better. After helping Mark settle Charlie and Courtney in bed I went to visit my friend Sue for a cuppa as she lives near to the airport. We didn't want to be too late to bed as we were to be up at 5:00 so when I returned from Sue's I quickly booked the airport parking and went to sleep. (originally we were going to the hotel by train but decided just before we set off to take the car, hence the parking wasn't booked)

Our perfect holiday!

I had booked the last 2 weeks in February off work as holiday so I could be off for half term. Only half term was early this year and, you guessed it, my 2 weeks off were the 2 weeks after the school holiday! Unfortunately I couldn't swap my holiday as a full timer was off half term week (it's all to do with holiday percentages!) Thankfully I managed to get around it by covering a holiday at the beginning of February to take the time in lieu.
I'd looked at the cruise company (MSC Cruises) last year but we didn't go in the end. Mark had seen a deal on Travelzoo with them and that re-ignighted my interest. I looked into where they were sailing over half term and found this cruise.

We haven't travelled to mainland Spain together before and I've wanted to go to Gibraltar so it was ideal! We took in Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar (GB), France and Italy, it was fabulous! I kept a journal on my iPad of our trip to blog when we got home, so here it is!

A round up of the last few weeks!

I was going to do individual posts to catch up with my blog but after much thinking figured this would be the best way instead! So....

28-29th January - We went away to Yeovil for the weekend. Mark and Charlie went to watch PNE play football on the Saturday whilst Courtney and I shopped and then on Sunday we went to Stonehenge, a place I've wanted to visit for a long time. We've been close to going a couple of times but finally made it that weekend.



6th February - Courtney got her very first stamp at nursery! She earned it for tidying up without being asked, what a good girl! We are very proud of her♥



7th February - Mark and I celebrated our 14th Wedding Anniversary♥

11th-19th February - We had a fabulous holiday! We went on a Mediterranean cruise, a full post to follow.

22nd February - Pancake Day! Yummy!



4th March - Courtney's birthday party! We held it at Pizza Hut in Lancaster, it was great fun! The children all got to create and eat their own pizza! Followed by the ice cream factory!


7th March - Courtney's 3rd Birthday! Happy Birthday beautiful girl♥




9th March - Charlie's class assembly, the theme was fairytales and rhymes. He did really well, he had one line to say and spoke it perfectly. 'We made these castle pictures'


11th March - Courtney started Sunday School. She had a good time and I think Charlie was delighted to have his little sister there.

18th March - Mother's Day. I love my children with all my heart, after spending so many Mother's Day's yearning to be a mummy this is the one day of the year I adore. (Photo taken in Knott End)


23rd March - Sports relief day. At school Charlie was allowed to wear something sporty! Naturally he chose his PNE shirt!