Dale & Laurel's Adventures: Celebrity Ascent - Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale

We arrived in Barcelona around noon and picked up a car to drive out to Vilassar de Mar, about 1/2 hour north of the city. We stayed at a really cute/funky AirBnB with delightful hosts. (Marianna AirBnB - Carrer de Sant Pere, 2, 08340, Vilassar de Mar, Barcelona, Spain) By the time we settled in and got some groceries, it was time to turn in. In the morning after breakfast, we did a nice long walk on the beach and found lots of sea glass. Another walk later in the afternoon and we were done for the day! The next day we drove up to Montserrat for a visit to the monastery. It was amazingly busy for being the end of October, but well worth the crazy drive. We got tickets to see the Black Madonna, the Basilica and the Museum. We were very lucky with the weather as that evening it poured and our hosts said that it was very unusual to rain that much!

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monasterio_de_Montserrat

https://www.montserrat-tourist-guide.com/en/attractions/black-madonna-montserrat-spain.html

And then we found out how much rain was that much! Our car got stranded in the parking lot as the only road out was completely submerged!!! Apparently it happens (infrequently) and this was not our lucky day! Our hosts called Hertz and arranged to drop off the key for us, but the car company wouldn't be able to pick it up until the culvert was cleared. Meanwhile, we had to get to the ship before it sailed, so our hosts called a taxi for us and off we went (hoping that the rest of the trip was not quite as big an adventure as that).

We got onboard and had to dry off - even our luggage got damp and we had to hang a few things out to dry! However, we made it and started to relax a bit. We had a lovely dinner in the Normandie Dining Room then enjoyed our evening's entertainer - Andrew Derbyshire. We had seen him perform a couple of years ago, and felt that this show was even better than before. After that we watched the True or False game show then headed to the Grand Plaza to watch a performance by with the Theatre Production Cast. Definitely a nice change of pace from our morning.

Day 2 - Alicante, Spain - We had a leisurely start to our day and then took a trip into town to see what there was to see. It ended up being an amazing day! Because we started a bit late, we caught a taxi (7 euros) to the top of the Santa Barbara Castle. So glad we did as it was uphill the whole way (being on the top of a mountain). The history was long 711AD and varied. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting and were very lucky with the weather. After a quick ride back down, we stopped at the Concatedral de San Nicolás for a quick look before walking back to the ship (just in time to miss the rain).

It was Chic night, so we dressed up for dinner and joined some lovely fellow guests in the Tuscan Dining Room. Our evening's entertainment started with a very fun talk from Captain Tasos followed by the Production Show - Bridges. Afterwards we watched the game show Pitfall where you had a choice of answers on the screen and you kept going as long as you kept picking the right answers. Another late night as we then headed to Eden which is a very interesting venue, and watched a performance called Shimmerbox. As with Bridges, the Eden cast had such amazing talent with aerialists, acrobats and dancers giving it their all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_B%C3%A1rbara_Castle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concatedral_de_San_Nicol%C3%A1s,_Alicante

Day 3 - Gibraltar - Another slow start to our day, as the weather was a bit iffy. We ended up having a nice walk into town, and lucky enough getting back to the ship before the heavens opened again. After lunch we did a little activity - table bowling - it was a lot harder than it looked, but it was fun.

Dinner was at the Tuscan Dining Room followed by AJ Jamal - a comedian we have seen a couple of times. The game show was the Whisper Challenge with another late night as we went to Jazz at the Club with the Ascent Orchestra.

Day 4 - at sea. What a busy day. There were three guest lecturers that took up the whole morning - Caleb Crawford on sharks, Dr. Gary Kramen on dogs, and Andy Fridenberg on movies, specifically Spanish actors and films. They were all very interesting and informative. After lunch we watched the 007 movie - No Time To Die followed by a dog training workshop, again with Dr. Gary Kramen and his wife.

Dinner was at the Normandie Dining Room followed by the Chernov Brothers in the Theatre with a circus type performance, and the game show was Yes or No.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?q=chernov+brothers#action=view&id=2&vid=588ce4573a0a82e68ef3cfe0589cfc56