1st time cruisers - help with flight times.

[Morrisn1]

Hi everybody,

We are first time cruisers and have booked NCL Epic from Barcelona on 27th August 17. (2 adults & 2children). We decided to book our own flights and will be flying out on 25th to spend a few nights in Barcelona before embarking on our cruise. We will need to book flights home on Sunday 3rd September.

I am unsure of the disembarking process and how long it will take and need a bit of advice about reasonable flight times home.

I understand that BCN airport is only about half hour away from the port but I am unsure how early I could book a flight home?

Would 11:30am be too much of a struggle time wise?

If we had very late flights would we be hanging around all day dragging our bags around Barcelona?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks

[EnthDegree]

As you say the airport is less than half an hour from the cruise terminal. Most ships are tied up before eight so you should be safe enough with a mid morning flight.

Enjoy your cruise.

 

 

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[Kamloops50]

Flight times might work out better if you stay one night after the cruise.

[Viv0828]

I don't know where you are located but Barcelona is 8 hours ahead of the west coat USA and 5 hours ahead of the east coast. Keep that in mind when booking flights as the time difference will eat into your sightseeing time.

 

 

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[navybankerteacher]

Recommended check in at Barcelona is three hours before flight time. You would mos probably make it, but for a westbound TA I would prefer a flight earlier than 11:30 - and if there were one, it would be worth staying the night in Barcelona rather than stress to make the 11:30 - which would get me home pretty late.

[GottaKnowWhen]

Hi everybody,

We are first time cruisers and have booked NCL Epic from Barcelona on 27th August 17. (2 adults & 2children). We decided to book our own flights and will be flying out on 25th to spend a few nights in Barcelona before embarking on our cruise. ...

 

I know your question was primarily about disembarking, but first, lets talk about your flight to Barcelona. If you are flying from North America (hint, you can get better answers here if you don't leave us guessing about details like that), from North America I think most if not all flights are going to get you to Barcelona in the morning, possibly after a connection in Heathrow or Amsterdam. So if you fly out on the 25th, you won't arrive until the 26th and you will be jet lagged and sleep deprived. You will have one night (not "a few nights") before you embark on the 27th. I totally support and endorse your plan - we will be cruising out of Barcelona in 2018 and absolutely will fly over early enough to get in at least one day recovery, and then two days sightseeing, maybe three, and then the day of embarkation. But you need to calibrate your plan to the realities of international flight.

 

As to going home after the cruise, I totally agree with those who have suggested waiting until the day after debarkation for your flight home. Not only will that relieve any stress during the cruise thinking about the possibility of missing a tight connection, but it also gives you an extra day in Barcelona to go back to that special place you found pre-cruise and really loved, and/or to visit that other place that you didn't quite have time for pre-cruise.

 

At just about that same time in 2017 we will fly on Thursday 24th (departing home for the local airport about 7:30a.m.) to arrive on the 25th in Venice at about 9:30a.m. We'll have Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights in Venice, embarkation for us on Monday 28th. I strongly recommend that sort of more leisurely schedule if you can afford the time and financial resources.

 

If for whatever reason you need to schedule things more tightly, then I suggest you think through your backup plan for what you do in case of bad weather, mechanical delays on flights, transportation worker strikes, etc. If "stuff" does happen, you'll have a plan ready, and that should relieve some of the stress along the way. And try to enjoy the entire adventure from the time you leave home to the time you return!

 

Stan

[GUT2407]

Hi everybody,

We are first time cruisers and have booked NCL Epic from Barcelona on 27th August 17. (2 adults & 2children). We decided to book our own flights and will be flying out on 25th to spend a few nights in Barcelona before embarking on our cruise. We will need to book flights home on Sunday 3rd September.

I am unsure of the disembarking process and how long it will take and need a bit of advice about reasonable flight times home.

I understand that BCN airport is only about half hour away from the port but I am unsure how early I could book a flight home?

Would 11:30am be too much of a struggle time wise?

If we had very late flights would we be hanging around all day dragging our bags around Barcelona?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks

 

Welcome to CC, I'd never book a morning flight.

 

You will probably be fine, but the last thing I want to do on my last day is stress about missing my flight.

[MicCanberra]

Hi everybody,

We are first time cruisers and have booked NCL Epic from Barcelona on 27th August 17. (2 adults & 2children). We decided to book our own flights and will be flying out on 25th to spend a few nights in Barcelona before embarking on our cruise. We will need to book flights home on Sunday 3rd September.

I am unsure of the disembarking process and how long it will take and need a bit of advice about reasonable flight times home.

I understand that BCN airport is only about half hour away from the port but I am unsure how early I could book a flight home?

Would 11:30am be too much of a struggle time wise?

If we had very late flights would we be hanging around all day dragging our bags around Barcelona?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks

 

Welcome to Cruise critic. Make sure you book for Spiegel tent show when on board.

For your flight, I would add some padding and make it a 1pm flight or later, just in case it takes a bit longer to get to the airport.:D

[Morrisn1]

Thanks all for your replies.

I am based in the U.K. So will probably be flying into one of the London airports or Birmingham. There are some later flights in the day so this will probably be the best option (was trying to be a cheap skate!) fast learning Cruise holidays don't come cheap! :eek:

I will have lots of cruise questions once I finally book the flights :D

Thanks again.

[sanger727]

There are some good values in cruise holidays. If your vacation style is to plan activities during the day, a big breakfast and sit down multi course meal every night plus shows; I can't plan a land vacations doing that for what a cruise costs. It def limits you on flight times, but for me it's well worth it. But I do take my time picking a cruise to get a good price.

 

 

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[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

I see that you are from the UK.

You are wise flying in a couple of days early -- gives you a chance to see Barcelona.

Also a good idea to book a flight after 1 PM for returning home.

Have a great cruise.

[SquishTheWhale]

You'll be fine with an 11.30am flight- you can walk off the Epic from around 7.30am so bags of time to make it to the airport and check in.

We had a later flight around 5pm and took a half day tour of Barcelona to fill in the time, but as you'll already have spent a couple of days in the city that wouldn't really be needed! Even so we were at the airport for 1pm and had to wait for ages for our flight. Barcelona airport doesn't have a lot landside, nowhere good to eat. Loads of nice shops and restaurants airside, so you don't want to be waiting for hours before you can check in.

 

I'd stick to the 11.30am flight, honestley you'll be fine. It's a very easy 20 minute journey to the airport. Consider pre booking transfers to avoid any taxi queues- we used Sun Transfers and they were great. Choose to do 'easy walk off' with your baggage- this just means you wheel it off the ship yourself when you want to leave, as long as you can cope with the volume of baggage you have. No waiting for a specific time slot and no baggage reclaim to deal with. We walked off at 7.30am and it took all of 5 minutes to get off the ship!

[Morrisn1]

Thanks all for your replies. I eventually booked a flight back to U.K at 1:45pm so will hopefully have plenty of time.:)

[trish1c]

Glad you booked the later flight.

 

I say it all the time on here. Don't look at what time your flight takes off. Look at what time you have to be at the AP to make that flight. Then judge if you think you'd make it. For an 11:30 international flight, you need to be there by 9:30. Sounds way too risky to me.

 

Then there are all of the unknowns. Just look at what happened in FLL yesterday. I can only imagine how that is impacting thousands of cruisers. With snow on the eastern Seaboard. . . on my.