Mar 20 2026

2026 Port of Disembarkation – Barcelona (Pick Pocket Warning)

Plaça de Catalunya Rodalies Platform

Disembarking after a cruise is like ripping off a sticky bandage from a nasty cut. After experiencing disembarkations in Athens, Los Angeles, Southampton and Barcelona in the last four years, we can clearly state that cruise ship companies make a major mistake in customer relations. We do understand the need for speed if the ship needs to depart with a new batch of guests less than 12 hours upon arrival in a port.

The rush procedure is cruel and confusing to much of the targeted cruise ship customer profile. Retired people do not take well to measures of crowd control. I would not mind paying extra for a later, and more dignified check out.

Having said that, the four of us decided to take a taxi cab from the cruise ship to Barcelona’s Plaza de Catalunya where the underground train stations and subway platforms served the city in all directions.

TJ and I had been in Barcelona in 2022 and walked up La Rambla and saw a good part of the city and our friends Darcy and Caralee had decided to explore the city after our stay in Pinar de Mar, before returning to Barcelona Airport and their flight back to Canada.

We were going to take the regional train service Rodalies de Catalunya Line 1 from Plaça de Catalunya to Pinar de Mar, about an hour north of Barcelona. Sounds easy and clearcut. But now add a total of 7 suitcases and several backpack and a couple of carrying bags and you become a pickpocket target, especially if you’re in your 60s and 70s and look lost. We looked like victims and we became victims of an elaborate scheme of grifters.

A woman, normally dressed, approached us in cautious way in passable English, if we needed some help. We showed her our tickets and she directed us to a platform where we supposedly had to pay additional coins to get through the gates to enter the platform. Of course coming of a transatlantic cruise, we did not have Euro coins, so she advanced us some and we gave her some paper money in return. Caralee had her wallet underneath her shirt, tucked away in her skirt. But now they knew where the money was on her. TJ had her coin wallet with some credit cards and a couple of hundred dollar bills in her backpack, which she forgot to close up after giving some cash to the woman. Well, we don’t even know how they got to the money, but when we finally had gathered all our suitcases and bags and sat down in a protected spot on the platform we needed, it turned out that Caralee missed several hundred dollars and TJ missed her cute wallet she had bought years ago in Bruges, Belgium with cards and dollar bills and her travel totem.

Lesson learned is one way to look at this whole smelly ordeal; lesson applied is our wish for the future.

Travelers have long been targets for pickpockets going after cash-filled wallets. While money belts historically offered a sense of security, the global shift toward cashless societies means petty thieves have moved on to a new target: our phones.

“Be mindful that when you bring out your phone, you’re waving dollar signs around,” travel expert Rick Steves told Travel + Leisure. “Somebody can snatch your phone and use the credit card on it.”

And today’s pickpockets are getting more tech-savvy about it. Getting their hands on a phone can mean access to digital credit cards through Apple Pay and Google Pay, funds stored in apps like Apple Cash, and tickets for flights, trains, and attractions sitting in your digital wallet. That’s all in addition to the device itself, which can be wiped clean and resold. In early March this year, police in Taipei warned travelers to stay alert on its typically safe metro system after professional pickpockets—with possible ties to international criminal groups—were spotted there. London has seen a similar surge, with a recent wave of phone thefts on the Tube linked to foreign nationals. Locals have been sounding the alarm for months, warning travelers to keep both hands on their phones, especially in crowded areas.

Here is some more comprehensive advice for protecting yourself from all forms of pickpocketing. But really it all starts before you leave home. Getting familiar with every app you’ll be using, including your digital wallets, is essential, so you’re not fumbling around with your phone in an unfamiliar setting, while also trying to keep an eye on your belongings. For expensive devices,www look into theft insurance.

Make sure you’ve got a ‘find my phone’-type app, back up your data, and enable password protection. “While traveling, use the Wi-Fi at your hotel to back up your phone and its photos each night. If you don’t know how to sync your stuff to the cloud, learn before your trip.“

When you’re out exploring, it’s easy to get lost in the experience, but not at the cost of letting go of your most valuable travel tool. Never, ever set down a phone on a train, bar, or restaurant table or supermarket, where it’s easy for a thief to grab or you to forget. Keep it tucked away, ideally in a front pocket (not back pocket!!!) or get a lanyard to keep it around your neck. Some thieves are bold enough to snatch something right out of your hands. Always be aware of who’s around you. With phones now serving as our cameras, maps, translators, and wallets all in one, they’re only going to become a bigger target.

Travel & Leisure Magazine in the Dec 2025 issue published a great article on travel safety and Anti Theft Essentials.

Our train trip up to our Costa Brava resort town Pinar de Mar was fine and the train station where we got off  was just 200 yards from the hotel Aqua Promenade and Spa entrance.

We did the important thing and forgot as quickly as possible that we were materially violated. It was not going to spoil our vacation or travel experience.

Mar 18 2026

2026 Port of Call – Palma de Mallorca

TJ in front of the Catedral

It was our second visit to the capital of de balearic island Palma. But since our friends Caralee and Darcy had not been to the island, we decided to do the same excursion as our last call. The Old Town: a maze of narrow streets, home to the Cathedral (La Seu), Almudaina Palace, and Plaza Mayor.

With more time than an 8 hour portcall, cruise passengers could have more choices such as the quaint former fishing villages of Santa Catalina, Portixol and Molinar.

The city of Palma was founded and developed during the early Roman times around 123 BC. In its history are traces going back to the Phoenicians (800 BC) and the rules of Carthage. The Moores ruled in the early Middle Ages, Spain’s early incarnations superseded in the later Middle Ages and by the Renaissance the islands were fully under Spanish rule, except for some irritating occasional incursions from Barnary Coast corsairs. Lots of cultural changes and exchanges over the centuries. Today Mallorca is the 4th largest island in the Mediterranean Sea with close to a million inhabitants in some 55 communities around the island and close to 20 million annual visitors. Many international celebrities over the decades have built homes on the island, but to visit for a limited one day stop, the choice of the Old Town as exploration destination is no doubt the best.

The Princess bus would take us from the ship to the parking lot across from the famous Catedral-Basílica de Santa María de Mallorca. The trip itself takes you along the waterfront of Palma with all its stores, restaurants, ancient windmills and everything that excessive tourism has to offer. Modern day Maseratis were racing 1960s Iso Rivoltas alongside our bus. 

The Catedral is a very prominent sight on the hill, with the 14th century Royal Palace of La Almudaina next door across the cobblestoned square.  Until today it still is the official residence of the Spanish King and Queen during their stays in Mallorca. On the day of our visit there was a special event for military recruits at the palace, so visitors were not allowed.

Instead the four of us decided to have a refreshment at the Cappuccino Café Palau March that used to be part of the palatial gardens at the foot of the steps up to the Sea. Rich and pricey, but chic, the Café serves many versions of popular coffees, pastries and Mediterranean dishes. 

Afterwards we actually struggled ourselves up the steps to the cathedral, but once arrived there, the lines to go in were too long for our taste and Han, a catholic raised atheist, refused to pay $11 admission fee. “Rome has enough money’, was his stoic statement.

Walking the stairs back down we decided to walk some of the small streets, away from where tourism happens, and savored a bit of local flavor.

The bubble blowers we had noticed a couple of years earlier were still active in the parks and pedestrian shopping streets, showing their expanded creativity in tooling. The island hosts all sorts of events, including agricultural fairs in the spring and autumn, live music and DJs in the summer, religious fiestas and international sporting events. Some of the most popular are the Mallorca 312 cycling race in April, the Copa del Rey sailing regatta in July and the Moors vs Christians mock battle in September.

As the sun moved quietly westward all of us tired people strolled back to the bus that would return us to the ship. The last port of call behind us. Tomorrow morning in all of its early morning glory, we would disembark in Barcelona and a long day of packing and traveling was ahead of us. We wished we would have had enough time to meet up with our Matanzas Cuba friends Acela and Julio who had moved to Mallorca, via Lisbon, several years ago. Maybe next time, since we had now moved to Europe.

Palma de Mallorca- port entrance
Caralee & Darcy at the bus stop
Steps up to the Catedral with Sun Princess in the Distance
The Catedral and Palace Garden
The steps up to the castle and catedral
Details of the Catedral
One of the catedral's entrance doors
Military recruits at the Castle
Is the inside worth $11 admission after you've seen St.Peter in Rome?
Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria- the men who started tourism and conservation here
Squares, fountains and everyday life in Palma
Horse and carriage to get up the hill
The Summer Palace for the King
Palma is filled with benches to rest and admire
Mallorca shopping, strolling, relaxing
How about making this your office?
A commanding view of the catedral - coming and going
A Palace in the Midday sun

Mar 17 2026

2026 Port of Call – Cartagena

Calle Mayor Shopping Street

This second port of call on this cruise, Cartagena, was a true delight.

Founded in 227 B.C. by the Carthaginian Hasdrubal the Fair, Cartagena, a vibrant port city on Spain’s southeast Mediterranean coast, has a long history with a plethora of monuments documenting the passing of at least five civilizations.

Being a rather small city, it’s easy to walk from one site to the other, starting with the remains of the Punic Walls.

In the small, very protected harbor our massive cruise ship was parked right in the town’s square so to speak.

 

 

 

 

 You walk through customs and immigration with smiling and waving officials and you are on Calle Mayor, a vast pedestrian shopping street with numerous sidekicks, restaurants, eateries and museums and delightful churches within minutes from your cabin on the ship. Our Canadian friends Caralee and Darcy joined us for a very pleasant day out on the town.

This Mediterranean, southern Spanish city is known for five major historic cultures that swept through the area from the Phoenicians to the Romans, to the Moors and the Spaniards, dating more than 3,000 years back. The background of the city is elevated by low hills-sides moving to medium mountains in the further distance and many of the peaks have defensive historically military installations like castles and forts ornamenting the summits.

What is truly remarkable is that  when you walk onto Calle Mayor, almost immediately on the right, there is the Roman museum built around and with the old Roman Amphitheater attached. As seniors we paid only $6 admission per person and you have the choice between elevators and escalators when it comes to getting around the museum into the well preserved Colosseum-like amphitheater. Very worth a visit.

Since this cruise signified our departure from the US with an extended period of country traveling in AirBnBs, we are not doing any souvenir shopping anymore, since we currently don’t even have a refrigerator for our hundreds of destination magnets. So shopping is a very limited option.

A quick stop at the drugstore for some replenishments of needed medical and supplement vitamin stuff and the prices pleasantly surprised us. Walking the cobblestoned street, admiring the great varieties of architectural creativity, was followed by a stop at a sidewalk café for some Cappuccinos and sweets and boy was that good. It just tasted real.

It was a day of relaxed picture taking under a blue sunny sky, an afternoon that made us understand the concept of “taking a siesta” and Cartagena entered definitely our list of places to revisit in the future.

Cartagena Square with Banyan Trees
Cartagena Roman Museum
Cartagena Roman Amphitheater
Cartagena Historic Roman Stage
Amphitheater stage floor
Historic Civilizations in Cartagena
Building Façades in Calle Mayor
TJ's lunch stop
Lunch on a sidewalk café
The Amfitheatre in Cartagena
Harp Music on the Square in Cartagena
Shopping Street in Cartagena
Entering Cartagena from the port area

Mar 16 2026

2026 Port of Call Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Santa Cruz de Tenerife city panorama

Unfortunately TJ got full fledged sick with a head cold the night before we got to Tenerife and I got about half sick, which invited us to stay aboard rather than climbing hilly streets and get all clammy and sweaty in the midday sun. But our friends Darcy and Caralee were up for a trip ashore and went by themselves.

We had been to Santa Cruz in 2025 during our Transatlantic cruise so we didn’t want to stretch our uneasiness into a full cold. Here are some of the things you may want to consider doing when in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Our favorite is a visit to the Market of our Lady of Africa,  right in town.

If you want to see some more of the island there are cruise line organized tours that take you to THE BEST OF SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE

1. Las Canadas National Park

Declared a national park in 1954, Las Canadas is dominated by an enormous volcanic crater. Dormant since 1909, the crater is over 29 miles in circumference. Mt Teide, Spain’s highest mountain peak, rises some 12,300 feet from the crater floor. Stop at Humboldt’s Belvedere and take in sweeping views of the Orotava Valley, the garden of Tenerife. Over 200 years ago, the naturalist Humboldt described the view as the loveliest prospect in his travels.

2. Puerto de la Cruz

This seaside town has been Tenerife’s premier resort since the turn of the19th century. Visit the Orchid Garden, founded in 1774, and enjoy free time to browse the shops, relax in a café, or stroll the seaside promenade. Everything caters to tourism these days.

3. Taganana & Anaga Mountains and local Wine Tasting

This village in Tenerife’s interior is famed for its vineyards, its goat milk and its cheeses. During your visit, enjoy a wine and cheese tasting at some of the local restaurants.

4. Tour of La Laguna

The island’s old capital is a city of graceful colonial houses and convents dating from the 17th and 18th Centuries. La Laguna is the cultural and religious capital of Tenerife.

5. Pyramids of Guimar

Visit the step pyramids of the Guimar Valley and learn about the alignments during Summer solstice and the direction of the rising sun on the Winter solstice. Construction dates back to the early 19th century. Tour the site, visit the museum, and view an audio-visual presentation.

6. La Orotava

Visit La Orotava, a municipality located on the north coast of Tenerife.The streets of the old town are lined with Renaissance mansions and dotted with architectural treasures.

As permanent travelers we do recognize that islands like Tenerife offer some historic insight in the development of the former Spanish Empire, but these days the Canary Islands are exclusively appreciated as a place to vacation in the sun; suntan on the beaches during the day and enjoy dinner at night at one of the sidewalk terrace restaurants around town. Historic religious sites, if any, wine tastings and the enjoyment of local dishes are mostly created with tourism in mind.

We spent the day aboard the ship , doing not much at all. Recuperating for the next stop Cartagena. Our friends bought us some Aloe Vera presents produced exclusively on the island of Tenerife.

 

Mar 15 2026

Our Third Transatlantic Princess Cruise

The Sun Princess in full Glory

We were very much looking forward to catching up with our Canadian friends Darcy and Caralee, whom we had befriended on our 2025 transatlantic Princess cruise to Southampton, England and who upon learning that we had booked this cruise, excitedly booked the same one with a 5 day after cruise extension in Spain’s resort town of Pineda de Mar, north of Barcelona. Our friends live near Vancouver, Canada, so we’re talking half way around the world travel. That is what we call friendship!

Our reasons for once again taking a transatlantic cruise came down to more luggage availability, less effect of jetlag, 14 days of luxury treatment and rest, and…the refund for the return part of the original airline tickets we had bought last April when we flew from Amsterdam to Nashville, pretty much paid for the cruise. With all the horror stories about air traffic control, TSA not being paid and more of the same, we decided a cruise would suit us better.

Our Canadian friends Darcy and Caralee

The Sun Princess

Following is our reasoning why in future. we prefer to book royal class ships like the Regal Princess over sphere class ships like the Sun Princess or the Sky Princess..

The Sun Princess (launched in 2024) is the lead ship of the new Sphere-class, representing the largest and first LNG-powered vessel in their fleet. It features a 21-deck design focusing on expansive views and modern, sustainable technology. It carries 177,882 Gross Tonnes over a length of 1,133 ft. and a capacity to accommodate 4,300 guests served by a crew of 1,600.

First and foremost, the entire crew was marvelous. Superior to any other cruise we’ve done. Unfortunately the ship’s layout has a number of “design” shortcomings, many loyal passenger don’t particularly like. During the following we will touch upon them. 

It took us a couple of days to adjust to the ship’s entirely different floorpan. We were used to the familiar naming of Lido deck etc. instead of the boring numbering system all the way up to the 21st deck. Of course this could have something to do with the AI driven elevator system.

No more library, no Churchill, much smaller gym, now located midship, more attention to exterior spacing with sun decks and a long list of eateries. The Eatery on deck 9 is a confusing directional buffet where guests bumb into each other using both directions. Quite irritating. After a couple of time trying we decided to mostly dine in the Soleil Dining room or the Americana Diner which served excellent chef inspired dishes.

The elevators are now computerized with a form of artificial Intelligence, which means you press the floor you want to go to outside in the elevator hall and the screen will let you now which elevator will take you there. Strange in the beginning, but you quickly adjust and it eliminates standing on side of the hallway and having an elevator arrive on the opposite side, with you having to run to it to make it, yelling: “Please hold the door,” or people inside of the elevator yelling “Can someone push 10 for me.”

the Sphere rooms with extended balconies

Our stateroom was in the sphere on deck 10, just to the front of midship which means that we had a slightly expanded balcony with more seating space on the Starboardside, (not enough for a lounge chair however) with the sun coming in beautifully every day of our trip over. Note: if you like to get a suntan on your way over to Europe, you need a stateroom on the Starboardside, from the 10th floor up, with a balcony. Anywhere else you will mostly experience shadows.

It also means on deck 10, we have just a short distance to many of the eateries just one or two decks below us. 

The entire floorpan of the ship is totally different from previous Princess ships we sailed on. The feel is much smaller, kind of cut up, although the entire ship is one of the biggest on the 7 oceans. Time will tell what we like and won’t like, I guess. Right now it feels much more like a commercial enterprise than a welcoming resort on the ocean. Even the entertainment venues have severe limitations

The Dome on the Sun Princess

The only time we visited the famous “Dome”, promoted as the quiet, introspective place aboard the ship was during the Captain’s Welcome for Elite, Platinum and Sanctuary Guests. Ironically during this one glass presentation the Captain, a jolly, friendly Italian from Messina, Sicily with a 27 year work record for the company, showed an audio visual presentation of the growth of Princess Cruises since its founding in 1965. I couldn’t help but silently admire those first early years’ small ships where you knew most of your co-passengers and there was a certain grandeur implanted into the design.

Today’s ships seems to all suffer from a Disney Dream design abundance. Yes we had been upgraded to a Sphere Cabin, which still could not accommodate a lounge chair to enjoy the sun away from the overloaded pools. During In-port maintenance exercises most of the  hassle happened for starboard cabins and the smoking decks, as they are typically held on that side of the ship. On the positive: the check in and check out procedures on deck 6 are much more spacious and therefore much better streamlined than on other ships, which helps greatly disembarking and returning at Port of Calls.

The nicest thing about this crossing were the eight days on the Atlantic Ocean before we would hit Santa Cruz on the Canary Island of Tenerife for our first port of call. We were enjoying the Sea Days so much that this first Port of Call was totally neglected. But its significance was that we had finally exchanged the USA for a retirement of adventure travel and charity contributions across the pond.

Sunset developing
An angry Sunset on the Atlantic
Smart angles or Confusing architecture
Caralee&TJ on the smoking deck
Not his best picture, says Han
Delicious Dessert Options

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