jbh555

This is our first cruise (Windstar). We arrive in Barcelona at 7:00 am and I wonder how much time is reasonable to allow to get to the airport to catch a flight home to the States. Are the arrival times of the ships reliable, or should we allow for possible delays. Any help or suggestions?? thanks!

abram

Definitely allow for possible delays--because if you don't, they're sure to happen.

It took us less than 30 minutes to travel between the airport and the port.

jacketwatch

What day of the week is it? If its a WE the traffic should be less. What time is the flight also? For us going from the airport to the ship took around 30 min. or less as I recall and this was on a Sunday afternon.

BlueSea

abram & jacketwatch: I think jbh is asking about the reverse - getting to the airport from the ship which docks at 7a.m.

jbh, although ships dock early in the morning, there are lengthy disembarkation processes to be dealt with, so I would advise you not to book any flights home until the afternoon. Or go to a Barcelona hotel for the night and fly back to the states the next day.

I do not know how big your ship is but the bigger the ship is the lengthier the disembarkation. However, the pricier your cabin is, the sooner you disembark.

Check with your cruise line to see if they will allow you priority disembarkation to go to the airport for early flight.

jbh555

thanks for your information, and sorry I was not clear that we are arriving by ship and leaving by air!! I didn't know if ships are late as often as planes are...there are 300 passengers on board, so I will check with the crusie line regarding priority disembarkation!

jacketwatch

I realized that but the distance is still the same. As for disembarkation check with the purser. We recently had an 0830 flight to catch and our ship got into port at 0530. We were waiting with our luggage which we took care of personally at 0525 to disembark and were off the ship by 0535. Hopefully it should not take you long at all.

ParrotMom

The Barcelona airport is humungus...we will have a taxi/guide waitng for us...hadn't realized that this is the biggest cruise port in Europe. Depending on wht time your flight is..you might want to hire a guide to show you around Barcelona

Luisah

We did this a few days ago (Friday) from the Millenium (2,000 passengers). We opted for the ship's transfer to the airport. Our flight was scheduled for 1:05 pm and we met in one of the lounges at 7:30 and were off the ship by 8:00. Then we had to find our luggage and get a porter to move it to the truck that was delivering it to the airport.

The drive to the airport was short, about 25-30 minutes, but the line to check in was very, very long (one of the longest I've ever seen) and took quite a while -- I think about an hour, so allow time for that. Once checked in the security line wasn't too long. Our flight was delayed an hour so we had a few hours to roam the airport. There are several shops, some pretty nice. I had a good cup of coffee and a sandwich at one of the cafes and didn't mind the wait.

You will probably arrive in port close to the scheduled time and it shouldn't take too long for 300 passengers to disembark, and if it's just two of you, make arrangements for a taxi. I would allow a few hours just in case.

Definitely get to the airport at least two and half hours before your flight. I'm guessing that you would be off the ship between 7:30 and 8:00.

What time is your flight? I think it might be a bit risky to book a flight earlier than 11:00.

I hope this helps some.