In April, my teaching job ended 3 months early. At first we considered a big trip in May or June but then Rob realized it would be hot in the places we were looking. Plus, he had a work trip to Europe in the plans, but they couldn't finalize the date until much closer--the possible dates varied from June to September. We don't like to travel to touristy places in the summer.
Rob started looking at cruise options and we had also examined a number of all-inclusives. We were really close to booking a few times, but then one more video would spoil it. Then he saw a 14 day trans-Atlantic cruise on Virgin Voyages' Resilient Lady, from Barcelona to Miami, late October.
100% different than any cruise we've done. He went from "I'm never cruising again" to "lets try a new company, a new continent, and the longest cruise we've ever done, with 8 sea days in a row!" I wasn't about to say no!
We booked their Insider Lock It In rate--basically, an inside guarantee which means you pay a cheap fare and they choose your cabin within that category. Usually there'll also be an option to bid on an upgrade closer to the sail date.
Next up was choosing flights. We were going to go to Barcelona 2 nights in advance, but his co-worker said we needed 3 nights there. So, Wed. Oct 23. There was only one direct flight available from Toronto so we chose it. Air Canada, 8:35pm, arriving about 10:35am Barcelona time. It was about $966 each.
We couldn't find a return flight from Miami that we liked, so we waited on that one.
Choosing a hotel in Barcelona was just as much of a struggle as choosing the vacation. It is a tourist city (though that is changing!). There are hotels everywhere! At the airport, downtown, uptown, beach. We wanted to walk everywhere and get an authentic experience, so no Holiday Inns! At first, we thought $250Cdn a night. There were lots of options but they were small rooms, and either a double bed or two twins (that get pushed together). Almost none had an included breakfast, or free cancellation. Very quickly we raised our budget. I think it was about $400+ per night. Seems absolutely crazy but we went with the Hotel Jazz. More on that later.
One thing we quickly learned with Virgin Voyages was that information they gave was often contradictory, and often hard to find. We called about when we could bid on an upgrade. Multiple calls gave different info, from we had to pay in full first, to we can't bid because we got a Lock It In rate. Yet, they sent the email with the upgrade options! We did bid, but then cancelled for a few reasons.
Air Canada's pilots had been without a contract for awhile. As the summer progressed, they threatened to strike. They announced a date in mid-September. You can imagine the panic this was causing. People were buying refundable tickets on other airlines, just in case. Rob called customer service and asked what will happen since our tickets were fully NON-refundable. The agent said she couldn't confirm or deny there'll be a strike, but since our travel date was a month after their potential strike week (they were giving a week they'd stop service), we "would be fine." But how would she know?! We really thought they wouldn't strike that long (or would be forced back to work by the government), but then if the plans (and pilots) hadn't been flying that ups the fear level! We waited patiently and indeed, it was settled quickly.
We were getting notifications still on prices for the flight and noticed that it had dropped by 50%. WTF. We did a pretend booking and noticed we had been charged a 'carrier surcharge' of $769 on top of our two fares that were (a total) of $966. WHAT?! The link provided in the invoice had no info on what exactly this surcharge was, except that airlines can add a surcharge. The same flight in September no longer had that surcharge! Why?!
Another call to Air Canada and they could only explain that when we bought the tickets, there was a higher demand for the flight so there's a surcharge. We were basically penalized for buying our tickets 5 months in advance, hoping to avoid price increases closer to the date. We were not happy with Air Canada after all this. They refused any sort of refund or compensation.
It took awhile to figure out the return trip from Miami. Flights were expensive and not at good times (just morning flights which would have meant staying a night). We looked at Ft. Lauderdale, but it wasn't much better. Suddenly, mid-summer, Porter Airlines started flying to Florida! We got a flight with a great departure time from Miami for half of what other lines were charging.
Last to plan was transportation to the Pearson International Airport. We went with Mr Limo from Bowmanville as Rob's parents use them a lot (we had before too).
I started re-learning Spanish after we booked. We 3 nights in Barcelona and two days in the Canary Islands, so I thought it would be a good idea. It was, but also learning some Catalan really helped!
Next up--the departure and flight to Barcelona!
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