It is a huge ship - which has only been in service since July. Boarding with the car was a bit shambolic - only about 30 private cars but poor signing! We endured it with a young Aussie couple who had been touring for 9 weeks in a British registered VW. Superb vessel - but very short meal service slots - and in the morning (it's a 20 hour voyage) a bit boring! Up on the pool deck the Russians got out the music (Barry White, Volga boatmen and Eurovision song contest) and had a bit of a boogie! Well stabilised ship - but nausea was just held at bay!
5. Friday to Monday - Costa Brava!
Very interesting sailing into port of Barcelona around 3pm! Several cruise ships with waving passengers - good views of city features! A we drove down the ramp a thunderstorm started, an we had to traverse the city on the coastal autopista in heavy rain again (as in 05!). Nonetheless we made it to our chosen spot with ease. This was chosen more or less at random from the bottom of the Thomson bargains website. We figured that at 84 pounds sterling for three nights half-board for two it could be quite bad and still good value! In fact the Indalo Park in Santa Susana is pretty good but the weather wasn't! On the second day the Russians (!) checked out en masse at 7 am and the Dutch families checked in. There was some pressure on the buffet service - especially at breakfast (10 mins to get a cup of coffee) but the food was very good and on Sunday there was excellent live music by the pool. The town is quite small and ru
ns into larger Malgrat where we spent soem time. The sun came out for 
part of Sunday too!
6. Monday - To Girona and Madrid
There was no chance of flying direct from Girona to Fuerte this year as Ryanair have switched to UK routes (We heard today at a 5 Euro subsidy per head!) so we parked up near Girona airport as last year (though car wash place out of order - sorry Yvette!) and flew Ryanair to Madrid. This and the onward Tuesday flight came to 70 Euros total for two so the 75 Euros extra for excess baggage with Ryanair was tolerated! We took the free shuttle to the booked hotel arriving mid-afternoon. The Hotel Auditorium is the largest hotel in Europe. http://www.auditoriumhoteles.com/en/nuestros_hoteles/auditorium/auditorium.asp
Not surprisingly it is luxurious (with ADSL in each room!) but eating without choking on the prices was going to be a challenge. We followed instructions and took a very cheap and fficient public bus into the city. We had no tourist info - so just went to the underground bus station and followed our noses. We found an old-fashioned tapas bar - delightful - walked around a bit amongst traditional shops like this - bought a bottle of wine and took the bus back.