One of our TWS colleagues (who asks to remain anonymous) emails from aboard Holland America’s Eurodam, at sea between Lisbon, Portugal and Vigo, Spain:

“The cruise, which began late Thursday in Barcelona, has featured lively panels, fun cocktail parties, spirited dinner conversations, occasional runs of luck at the blackjack tables, and interesting touring around Spain, Gibraltar and Portugal. Kristol, Eastland, Ferguson, Terzian, Starr, Hayes, contributing editor P. J. O’Rourke, and Micheal Flaherty of Walden Media have all held forth on various panels, and have all been well received. But the buzz went to a new level today with the arrival aboard of the one and only Fred Barnes, who spoke to a rapt audience for almost an hour, and (helped a bit by Kristol) then took questions for another hour. It’s hitting on all cylinders now, and looks likely to go down in history as not just the biggest group of TWS cruisers ever (which it is), but the most satisfied.