Working on a cruise

It's been on our wish list since we began our digital nomad lifestyle - working on a cruise ship.  

Until recently, the internet on cruise ships was so painfully slow that it was impossible for us to even consider.  Last year, Royal Caribbean came out with a new ship boasting internet speeds fast enough to stream Netflix.  With a little help and convincing from Jen's mom, we decided to book our tickets and put the new ship to the test.

Here is the Quantum of the Seas, the most technologically advanced boat on the seas today:

Robot bartenders:

80 inch virtual balconies:


We flew to Newark, NJ and spent the next 11 nights floating toward Barcelona, Spain.

..but hey, wait.. weren't you already just in Spain?  

Right.. yes we sure were, but since Jen’s parents and their friends were taking the cruise and celebrating their 65th birthdays, we decided to join in on the fun :)

Dom had done 1 cruise in the past and found it fairly... boring.  Taking a cruise while working at the same time was quite a bit more hectic with trying to juggle everything in around work hours...

Activities: Bumper cars, ping pong, napkin folding class, iFly, FlowRider, volleyball, the shows (Mamma Mia, the Beatlemaniacs, Star Water, Sonic Odyssey, and Claire Vinkesteijn).


Plus 3 ports: Ponta Delgada, Portugal

Cartagena, Spain

Mallorca, Spain


And lastly all of the food, drinks, and socializing


It made for quite the busy trip, but overall we really enjoyed ourselves.

So, did the internet speeds stand up to the challenge?  Sadly, no... it seems the technology is still new and they've still got a LOT of bugs to work out of their system.  The internet wasn't anywhere close to what they claim - we think they must have tested Netflix when there was only 1 person on the ship!.  If you just need to surf the internet and you have patience, it is much better in comparison to other cruise ships out there.  However don't expect to be able to do any kind of streaming or have decent Skype calls.. we got lucky once or twice and managed to connect our calls, but often times we could barely even sign in.


Pintxos in San Sebastian

After our week with Jessica, we continued our trip down the Basque coast and ended up in San Sebastian, Spain.  San Sebastian, also known as Donostia, is a really cute coastal town which also happens to be one of the top culinary places in the world.  They are known for their Pintxos - small snacks, similar to tapas, that are traditional in Northern Spain. 


We stayed in the old part of San Sebastian where there are no cars and multiple Pintxos bars on every block.  We quickly learned that the thing to do around here is "pinxtos-bar hopping".  That is, you peek into the bar to see if anything catches the eye, grab an item or two (~2 euro per item) plus a glass of wine (1 euro), and enjoy... once you're done, hop off to the next pintxos-bar that catches your eye and keep repeating until you are so full that you need someone to roll you home.


And that pretty much summarizes how we spent all 5 of our days here - working by day and pintxos-bar hopping by night :)

Occasionally, we ate so much that we had to walk it off, so we checked out the rest of the city and surrounding beach areas :)

2 days in Barcelona

What do you do when you have 2 days in Barcelona..?  Most would probably visit the famous buildings, churches, and other tourist sites.  For us, after being abroad for a year, we decided to do a bit of shopping!! 

We did most of our shopping in one store: Desingual.  A store that we first discovered in Cartagena, Columbia, where Dom fell in love with a pair of really cool shorts.. but didn't want to pay the outrageous $300USD price tag!  Since Desingual is actually from Barcelona, the prices are still sorta high but significantly more reasonable.. and there's a store every 2 blocks.... crazy... but we like their stuff.  Unfortunately for us, we're still travelling light, so we limited ourselves to window shopping plus a couple of items.

After our short stint of retail therapy, we also checked out some of the beautiful architecture that Barcelona has to offer.


We also happened to be in Barcelona during Saint Jordi's Day (Catalonia's version of Valentines day).  The story is that Saint Jordi slew a dragon to save a princess, and then plucked a red rose for the princess from a rose bush that sprouted on the exact spot where the dragon's red blood had spilled.  Now the tradition is that the boy gives his sweetheart a red rose, and in return, the girl gives her sweetheart... a book.