Tours available on embarkation day in Barcelona??

[LakeErieLive]

Let's just say I book Princess Air and arrive on the same day as the ship embarks. Is there a way and time to book some kind of a tour that day instead of just going to the ship???

[Lsimon]

Let's just say I book Princess Air and arrive on the same day as the ship embarks. Is there a way and time to book some kind of a tour that day instead of just going to the ship???

 

If your flight gets in early I'd say you have three choices:

 

1) get to ship, check luggage and check in, then get off and take a taxi to the foot of Ramblas (you can take a bus but a taxi isn't expensive and will save a little time). Do a little self touring via foot around Ramblas and the Gothic Quarter, including the Old Cathedral, and if time allows have lunch at a tapas bar before heading back to the ship. You should be able to catch a cab at either end of the mile long Ramblas and at other points - they are pretty plentiful.

 

2) Do the same as as far as checking in, but find a taxi driver that speaks good English (a good number of them at the cruise pier will - but not all of them) and arrange a driving tour of some highlights. Be sure you have a fixed time (number of hours) for touring and know exactly when you want to be back by and communicate this with your driver. Depending on how long you have you can combine with #1 above.

 

 

3) Google Barcelona Tour Guides - and arrange a guide a tour to pick you up at the airport and carry you and your luggage until it is time to check into the ship. There will be some tour guides that do these embarkation day tours and transfers.

 

Just be sure you have a firm understanding of when you need to be at the pier to check in and/or board. I'd both call Princess on this and ask in the Princess forum.

 

Of course the best arrangement would be to fly in at least a day ahead of time - especially to a great city like Barcelona. But if that isn't possible do arrange flights that are direct from a USA airport so you'll arrive in Barcelona early in the day. If you have to connect at a European airport you'll likely arrive late enough that there won't be a lot of time. so if there are no direct flights from your airport try to connect through someplace like JFK or another east coast airport on a flight that is then direct. This might entail making a "custom air request" with Princess for a small fee.

[Kirkcollm]

Different cruiseline, but.....

 

Our flight got in at 7:55 am, and we had to be on the ship by 5 pm.

 

We booked a half day tour through viator to Monteserrat - Julia Tours - that began at 9:30 am. So we got off the airplane and took a cab to the touring company starting point.

 

They put our bags under the bus and we were on our way.

Unfortunately, they couldn't drop us off at the airport, so we returned back to the starting point of the tour and took a cab to the pier.

 

We were really happy to be able to see another part of Spain before getting on the ship.

 

Plus, we weren't waiting around to get on the ship at noon.

[CTCruisers]

We used Barcelona Day tours.

 

http://www.barcelonadaytours.com/

 

 

We arrived in Barcelona from Newark at 9:00 am. They had a driver pick us up at the airport and take us on a fabulous 4-hour tour of the city in a Mercedes sedan. We hit all of the major sites there before he took us to our hotel. I am sure you can have them take you to the ship. They also have mini-vans for groups up to 6 people.

 

We also used them as a transfer service at the end of our cruise. They had a car/driver waiting for us at the assigned time at the cruise terminal and we were at the airport in 20 minutes (Sunday morning, no traffic).

 

We highly recommend their tour.