sunlover

I posted this on the cruise board but as that forum gets very little action wanted to check with you guys.

Specifically I am taking a 7 day Med cruise our of Barcelona. We are flying to Spain 2 days early to see Barcelona before the cruise. HOWEVER coming back our ship ports in at 5 am on Sun Jul 10 and they guranteee of you do transfers thru the cruise line that they wil let you off the ship by 6 am. Need to fin out distance to Barcelona airport from ship and any info about how busy this airport is A.M. on a Sunday as I am now trying to book flights and figure out what flight time will work for me. We are using frequyent flyer mile son Delta so option are limtied. There is a 10 am flight non-stop back Barcelona to Atlanta that I would liek to make if possible. Only other option is 12:55 flight on Air france which goes Barcelona to Paris, Paris to Atlanta. Obviously the non-stop is MUCH better if you think we can make it.

All help appreciated!!! Also any other info welcome - we booked med cruise on whim two days ago Jul 3 - Jul 10 on Carnival Miracle port is Barcelona and it goes to Monaco, Livorno, Rome, Naples, and Sicily so excursion suggestion always welcome : )

Dukey1

There are several different "moles" used by cruise ships in Barcelona BUT all of them are basically in the city and the airport is south of the city.

Last time I was there I took a cab from city center out to the airport and the ride took about 20-30 minutes (there was very little traffic)

If you type BCN into the Goggle serach box you should get all sorts of information including distances from the city. Make sure you know which terminal your flight leaves from (the terminals are somewhat separated from one another.

There is also a rail connection from the city but that would end up taking you longer i suspect and yes, this IS one case in which I think taking a taxi is very MUCH worth the money.

mandmlv

We took a cab from the cruise ship area of the port at Barcelona to the airport last May. 20-30 minutes is about right. We did this on a Thursday morning sometime around 9 or 10 and there was little traffic. There should be less traffic on a Sunday morning.

It sounds like you are taking the cruise line's transfer service. If you end up doing it on your own, the cab line getting off the ship was very long but it moved fast -- our wait was 10-15 minutes from the time we picked up our bags. We travel with Holland America and it has always been very efficient to disembark.

In terms of how much time you will need once at airport, I can't speak to international flights. We flew to Rome for a few days before flying home from FCO. The cruise line may be able to tell you how much time they recommend but I can say that HAL always recommends far more time than we have actually needed. They have warned us that arrival times are always dependent on formalities with their checking in with port, etc. However, we have never been delayed in arrival on the final day of a cruise with HAL.

Re your ports of call, sounds like a great trip. We have been to the ports that you listed. We are not big fans of booking shore excursions through the cruise line since they seem expensive and those that we have been on have been of uneven quality. In Monaco, if you opt to look about on your own, the principality's bus service is easy to navigate and there is a bus stop just a short walk from where the cruise ship tender put in. If you are walkers, the square on which the Casino is located is a short walk from the harbor. We didn't go into the Casino but had a drink at one of the outdoor tables at the Cafe de Paris -- expensive but a great spot to watch comings and goings from casino, etc. We will be there again in May and plan on seeing the acquarium, which is also a short distance from the harbor. If you want to branch out, Nice is a short bus ride away and is worth visiting.

In Livorno, we took a city bus to the train station and then a short train ride to Pisa. It took us 10-15 minutes to walk up to see the leaning tower. We really enjoyed both seeing the tower and just looking around Pisa. Lots of people on our ship went to Florence but we didn't want to burn a lot of time getting back and forth. My husband has not been to Florence but I thought that he could see it on another trip when we have more time.

In Naples, we had read a lot about traffic and the risk of not getting back to the ship if you don't do an excursion with the cruise line. We hired a driver for the day who took us for a short stop at Pompeii and then a drive down the Almalfi coast. Expensive but it gave us great flexibility and it was a wonderful day. For what it's worth, I didn't see that Naples posed any particular problem for moving about on one's own so I wouldn't feel compelled to book a shore excursion there. I suppose, however, we could have just been lucky with respect to traffic. We had heard very mixed things about Naples but found it to be a lovely place.

In Rome, the cruise ship terminal is a good hour's drive from the city center. You might want to book a transfer with the cruise line and spend the day exploring on your own. You can take the train, book a driver, etc. Depending on how many are in your group, the cruise line's transfer may or may not be cost effective. What to see, of course, depends upon your interests but suffice it to say that you will have far more that you want to see than you can cover in a day.

Re Sicily, I don't know where your ship will stop. I can tell you that we have stopped at both Massina and Palermo. The shore excursion to Mt Etna was pretty lame but I liked wandering around both cities. This is a silly thing but in both places I bought canolis to take back to the ship and they were exceptional. If you are opera fans, you can tour the opera house in Palermo -- it is quite beautiful. You will recognize it if you have seen The Godfather Part III.

Hope this is of some help. Have a wonderful time.

sunlover

WOW Thanks for the great replies!!!! We are booke don the 10am flight back and based on what I read looks like we will make it. We are using cruise line transfers back to the aiprport even though it was more expensive than the cab because with Carnival all the people that book through them get off an hour earlier than everyone else and I do want to be safe on time.

Good tips on the ports. Monaco and Siciliy/messina seem to be the two ports we don't know what to do. As for Rome, we are doin ga shuttle via the cruise line for the trip in to the citya nd then doing it on our own. Naples we are are looking to book a driver much like you did and do Positano, Raveloo and Pompeii. For Livorna we aree using a company called Rome in a Limo (sharign with 2 other couples and we plan to bypass both Pisa nd Florence and instead do a trip thru Chianti wine countrry going to several vineyards in the area. I think this should be nice.

Anyone know of hotel recs in Barcelona near city center? We are flying in two days early to acclimate ourselves and see Barcelona.

mandmlv

Your plan sounds great.

Re Massina, you might want to head to Taormina. It is a short distance away and I was sorry to have skipped it when we stopped in Massina. Your cruise line will have a shore excursion there but you could hire a local taxi and have greater flexibility (and possibly spend less). It is more of a tourist destination than Massina but it looks quite nice. I wandered around Massina and enjoyed it but I must admit it was fairly short on charm.

I am not familiar with hotels in Barcelona but inquiries to the Spain section of the Europe forum generally yield very helpful responses. You might try posting an inquiry there.

Re: Positano, there are some lovely places for lunch there. Your driver should be able to make a good recommendation. We also enjoyed some lemon and sugar coated almonds that we picked up there.

xyz123

I have a cruise scheduled for Sunday 14 August...my current plan is to fly in from London on Saturday 13 August and stay by the airport; frankly I have no desire to see Barcelona. I did a tour of Spain about four or five years ago and it seemed to me that Barcelona was a den of thieves and bad things waiting to happen, sorry if that offends anybody.

Anyway, does anybody have an estimate of the cost of a taxi from the area of the airport (I would probably stay at an airport hotel)_ to the cruise terminal or might it just pay to do the transfer with the cruise line (in other words shuttle back to the airport on Sunday AM to catch the cruise line transfer). Any opinions will be welcome.

sunlover

xyz, regarding costs of cab it appears to be about $30 US +/- However, I am told there is an extra $3 fee for the tax it to enter the port area to do a drop off or pickup making it approx $32 for up to two people and there there is another extra person fee if you have more than 2 people sharing a cab . If your cruise is thru Carnival their transfers are $29 US/person door to door all-inclusive. As we only have 2 people, the cab would still be cheaper for us but we are doing hte transfer thru carnival just because they allow you off and on the ship an dhour earlier than everyone else if you use their transfers. We are worried about that extra hour coming back!

sunlover

Of course I meant $33 above $30 for taxi plus $3 for port fee does not equal $32 - just poor tyoping LOL!

imaginaweb

Exist lots of different companies which can take you to your destination place once you arrive to Barcelona airport or port, the one I have used in the past is www.taxibarcelonatransfer.com, very punctual and with a good knowledge of the language. I hope it helps