Ground Control

We arrived in Barcelona on August 23rd at 9:45am. The Lufthansa flight — approximately 2 hours — was surprisingly brief relative to the ocean crossing Air Canada flight.

After a total of 18 hours of travelling, we finally made it to our destination. Well, almost. We still needed to get to our hotel.

I thought that we would have a lengthy time at the Barcelona airport. As we had already cleared customs in Frankfurt, we literally carried our bags off the airplane and went searching for our ground transportation.

Disney had told us that we would be greeted by someone with a Mickey Mouse hand. They did not tell us that the person would be waiting at the luggage carousel. Since we had no checked luggage, we did not go to the luggage carousel.

We followed the “Sortida” signs and exited the main terminal building. We did not see any Mickey Mouse hand. Nor did we have any communication devices handy to give Disney a call.

I did notice something off in the distance at a different exit gate. Could it be a Disney Cruise Lines sign?

Thankfully it was. The agent told us that someone was waiting for us at the luggage carousel. As we were not there, she used a radio to confirm that the Cleavers had in fact arrived in Barcelona.

With a warm Spanish welcome, we were transported to our hotel, the Renaissance Barcelona. We checked in at 11:00am. 19 hours of travelling. 23 hours without sleep.

Our goal was to stay awake for another 10 hours.