BOS Aug 18...Barcelona port questions...

[stressball]

I am sailing on BOS Aug 18 and just had a couple of questions

1. Does anyone know embarkation time? I was told 1pm by RCI, but I have some doubts about the knowledge of their customer service reps.

2. Is the boat easy to find? When we take the cab from the airport can I just have them drop us off at the end of Las Ramblas? Or does it dock somewhere else?

3. Upon returning to Barcelona, we will need a place to store our luggage for the day until our evening flight. Does anyone know the closest place to the port?

Thanks for your help!!:)

[Makita]

Hello,
we disembarked (boo hoo) July 1, 2004. I believe the official embarkation time is noon, they do not open the staterooms until 1pm, they even have the hallway doors closed off, which I'd never seen before.

However, we got to the pier about 11:15 am and were on board by 11:30, and this was regular embarkation, not a special rccl frequent cruiser service). So, we just napped by the pool. The windjammer cafe opened at noon.

When you get your documents, it will have the name of the pier, it was something that started with an M, I'm sorry, I do not have the documents anymore. We just showed the taxi driver the name of the pier and he took us there. (We do not speak spanish or their native language - Catalunya), except Please and thank you. The boat is easy to find, there will likely be several cruise ships lined up. It would be a fairly long walk to walk with luggage from the base of Las Ramblas to the ship because you go on a large road over the harbor and around to the right to the pier.

I don't know the answer to your last question, we stayed in Barcelona for 3 nites afterward.
Enjoy your trip!
Beth

[amandaray80]

[quote name='stressball']I am sailing on BOS Aug 18 and just had a couple of questions

1. Does anyone know embarkation time? I was told 1pm by RCI, but I have some doubts about the knowledge of their customer service reps.

2. Is the boat easy to find? When we take the cab from the airport can I just have them drop us off at the end of Las Ramblas? Or does it dock somewhere else?

3. Upon returning to Barcelona, we will need a place to store our luggage for the day until our evening flight. Does anyone know the closest place to the port?

Thanks for your help!!:)[/QUOTE]
When you get back from you cruise-I would love to hear details about what you used and how much $ to get around. We are staying in a hotel before and after, but I'm trying to figure out the whole luggage thing (before sailing: should you bring everything/check in, then go back to town and adventure around, AND post-cruise: will the hotel hold our luggage before check in time, or is there somewhere at the port to hold luggage)? So many questions!!! We're just trying to save time/$$$!
Have a great trip! (We're going the last week of Oct on RCCL).

[dperales]

We just returned August 5. The port is easy to find. Our taxi driver knew exactly where to go. No, you can't just have them drop you at the end of Las Ramblas. It is way too far to walk! There were several cruise ships docked and Brilliance was at Terminal A. Our documents said boarding at 2 p.m. We left hotel at 11 and were at the terminal at 11:30. They processed us quickly and we boarded. The hall way doors were closed until 1 p.m. The Windjammer was open when we boarded. We changed into our swim suits and went to the pool. Meet and Mingle was supposed to be at 4:45 according to the website. However, there was a card in the stateroom that stated it was 4:15. Some people did not get a corrected card in their rooms so I would check in Hollywood Odyssey on 13th deck at 4:15 as this happened on another earlier cruise too.

[pjtiern]

Consider calling RCCL and using the ship's transfer. $20.00 per person and our embarkation July 1 went very smoothly. If you're early, wander around the ship until the rooms open. Enjoy!
Pat

[navel1ring]

amandaray80,

When you say last week of October, are you on the Oct. 23 cruise and are signed up for the meet & mingle? We are staying at the Hotel Continental getting in Oct. 21 & leaving Nov. 1.

Wendy & Tom

[Unionville]

$20 for port transfer on RCCL, now that's reasonable. Princess is $29 ea. or $58 total. Barcelona taxi quoted my $24E total = U.S.$39 total. Not much difference but it'll buy me a drink or two.

[suekay]

Check-in opened at 11am, and we were onboard by 11.50am
Hallway doors were closed til 1pm so nobody could go to cabins, but the Windjammer opened at midday
I think terminal A is called Moll d'Adossat, but the taxidriver knew where to take us. I would board early and eat, dump my bags at 1pm , then catch the port bus (1.5 euros pp) to the end of Las Ramblas. From there you can either stroll around Las Ramblas and the Gothic area, or pick up the "bus turistic" open top hop on/hop off bus.
I don't know of anywhere you can store bags post-cruise as we stayed at the Hotel Continental. We checked in at 9am, put our luggage in the store room and went off to Monserrat by train for the day. You might be better doing a post-cruise tour with RCI who will then take you to the airport

[stressball]

Since I started this thread, some things have changed. We leave in ONE week and I have some new info to share. We decided on the RCCL transfer from the airport to the cruise ship for $20 per person, mostly for the ease of it. The cruise terminal is as stated in previous posts, Moll D'Adossat terminal A for our cruise.

We are leaving on the evening that the cruise ship returns and will not have a hotel so we needed a place to store luggage. For anyone else that should need to do this, here is some information that I received directly from the editor of the Barcelona tourism website:

Luggage can be stored at the Estacio de Sants train stain. This is about a 10 euro (15 minute) taxi ride from the peir or you can use the Metro and get off at Sants Estacio (green line). From here you can later take the train to the airport for 2 euros per person. The train comes every 30 minutes and it takes 20 minutes from Sants Estacio to the airport.

This man, John, was very helpful and even went to the train station to ensure that the luggage storage area was adequate for our needs.

We did not want to do the RCCL cruise ship to airport transfer and tour as we have been to Barcelona before and know that there are a couple of things that we'd like to see that day.

I hope this can help some of you!

[Andrew9999]

So just to check my understanding. Assuming Brilliance 18 August has the same arrangements as that described above, even though the cruise documents state embarkation at 2pm, it's OK to get there earlier, say 12 noon? I realise we probably won't be able to get into our room, but we can get on board and use the restaurant and pool?

Can anyone please confirm?

Andrew.:)

[Amy G]

We sailed on the Millie a few weeks ago, but yes, we were able to check in at 11:30am and went straight to our room! I was surprised that our room was ready, but even if yours is not ready, you can go eat.

[suekay]

Andrew9999
Yes....you will be able to board well before 2pm and use all the facilities:D
We intend to take swimwear in our carry-on so we can go on deck until our cabin is ready at 1pm

[Andrew9999]

Thanks to your advice I'll be on board before 12 instead of 2pm. I estimate that this increases my cruise time by 0.7% !

Andrew.

PS Yes, I [b]am[/b] an Accountant!:D