Jewel July 2 Barcelona - Post Cruise Visit to Barcelona

This is an exceptionally long review. To make it easier to digest, I have broken it up into 4 pieces that are included in the appropriate Message Boards:

Jewel July 2 Barcelona – Getting there. On the “Cruise Airfare” forum.

Jewel July 2 Barcelona – What a Great Time. On the “Norwegian Cruise Line” forum.

Jewel July 2 Barcelona – Ports of Call. On the “Ports of Call: Europe” forum.

Jewel July 2 Barcelona - Post Cruise Visit to Barcelona. On the “Ports of Call: Europe” forum.

Finally, I have placed this review, in its entirety, under “Member Reviews.”

DEBARKATION

They leave luggage tags in the atrium and tell you to pick up what you want. Some are four people with tours or post-cruise hotel packages. We wanted to leave the ship as late as possible since we had to drag our luggage around Barcelona until our hotel room was ready. Luckily, we were able to get luggage tags for the latest “general debarkation” offered, the 9AM group.

We tagged our luggage and put it out in the hallway the night before and it was picked up promptly.

The next morning, we slept late, had a calm breakfast and around 8:45 went to our room. When they called our group, we walked off the ship along with a very small, orderly well organized line.

Our luggage appeared on the carousel quickly, a porter helped us with our bags and we went to the taxi stand where we had a forty five minute wait for a cab. It wasn’t very well organized. There was a line of cabs wanting to pick up fares, and a line of passengers wanting to rent cabs, but the actual pick-up section was only about thirty feet wide, wide enough for five cabs to pickup at a time. But I guess that’s a Port issue, not an NCL issue.

I gave the cab driver my index card with the name and address of our hotel and away we went.

POST CRUISE

We decided to stay a few days in Barcelona. Based on research, I choose the “Hotel Continental Palacete”. It’s a few blocks north of “Las Ramblas” which means it’s quieter in the evenings, yet still in walking distance to the tourist areas. The hotel has a 24-hour buffet that includes wine, beer, espresso and a serving table about twenty feet long. For breakfast, they had several choices of omelets, salmon, plus all kinds of salads. My favorite was the chocolate covered walnuts. The beer, as I found out later, was way too warm for me. The red wine was a zinfandel, but I wandered around and found a Botega where I purchased a bottle of dry red wine for the room.

For 210 Euros for a triple it was a steal, compared to what they were getting for other hotels in the area. The rooms were clean and modern, and about the same square footage as our AF cabin on the Jewel.

The staff ALL spoke English and were very helpful with directions, maps, etc.

We arrived at the hotel around 11:15 AM. Check in time was 3PM. They had a locked luggage storage room where we put our bags, we grabbed a quick snack from the buffet and walked down through las Ramblas to the Picasso museum.

Back to the hotel, my only complaint was the air conditioning. From the reviews on Trip Adviser, I think Continental Palacete has better A/C than most other las Ramblas hotels, but our room never got below 75 degrees. When the maids service the room, they turn the AC off, so you come home in the afternoon to a very warm surprise.

It got very hot in the afternoons in Barcelona. Maybe it hit me worse because us NJ/NY folks are used to moving fast. Now I know why people take siestas.

But this is Spain, not the US. We didn’t find strong air conditioning anywhere, either in Spain or Italy. Even the museums, where you’d expect strong A/C to protect the artwork from deterioration, were warm (by my standards – you may feel completely different.)

In Barcelona, we used the metro to get around and found it easy to navigate. (The train cars were air conditioned very well.)

We visited the Picasso museum, the Sagrada Familia, the Dali museum, and we spent several hours walking up and down las Ramblas. What a carnival that place is.

One sorry note to our trip was a couple from Illinois we ran into in the hotel. They had walked from the hotel to the Sagrada Familia, in the afternoon, and as they’re walking along, she got splashed on the back of her clothes. A man came running up and said that he saw some kinds spill water down on her from a window, and he helped her to the side of the building where he grabbed some paper towels and started patting the water off her back.

He quickly left and she suddenly realized her pocketbook, which had been in FRONT of her the entire time, was open. Her wallet was missing. She told us it happened so fast she didn’t realize what had happened. Once again, she had her credit card numbers written down and called as soon as she got back to the hotel, but by that point there had already been a $2000 purchase on her credit card at a jewelry store. She’s only responsible for $50, but -- Ouch! One of her words to me was “I’ve lived in Chicago almost my whole life – I thought I was a savvy city person but it happened so fast.”

I had done some research on this before I went and what happened to that lady is done alot in Barcelona. Lots of scams, pickpockets and gypsies who will steal you blind, given the chance. If you put into a search engine, words like scams, pickpockets and Barcelona, you will find lots of these stories and websites with these stories and warnings.

I was prepared and wore pants with zippered pockets, under the clothes money belt and if I carried a purse it was not holding valuables, only tissue, water, etc. The purse had a chain strap, so it could not be cut off.

Sorry to hear about the lady. I wish she would have done her homework on this subject.

Anyhow, so far your review sounds like you had a good time. Good choice in hotel too.

Thank you for your review on hotel. I too was warned last time of the pick pockets in Barcelona.

Do you have the contact information to the hotel you are referring to please? Or the web site?

Thank you

Great review. I still have not read everything but you seem to be right on track. We stayed at Hotel Continental Palacete in May of 2004. My wife had what looked like pigeon poop dropped on her in the Las Rablas area. Within seconds a man appeared saying "You need water" right away my wife realized something wasn't right. We left this guy ammediately and made our way back to the hotel. This year we stayed next too the Diagonal Mall shopping center which was very close to Dela Mar beach. No problem with pick pockets in this area but your guard should be up at all times. Tim and Cathy

You can find them by going to tripadvisor.com and entering the name of the hotel and Barcelona into the search engine. It will also give you reviews from others who have stayed there. It will also have many other hotels. It's a great website.

Thank you for your review on hotel. I too was warned last time of the pick pockets in Barcelona.

 

Do you have the contact information to the hotel you are referring to please? Or the web site?

 

Thank you

http://www.hotelcontinental.com/

They have two properties, the Hotel Continental and the Hotel Continental Palacete. From tripadviser.com, my general impression that the Palacete property was newer and had a better buffet, as well as being cheaper.

The Hotel Continental is on Las Ramblas, about 3 or 4 blocks south of the Playa Catalyuna.

Dave

http://www.hotelcontinental.com/

 

They have two properties, the Hotel Continental and the Hotel Continental Palacete. From tripadviser.com, my general impression that the Palacete property was newer and had a better buffet, as well as being cheaper.

 

The Hotel Continental is on Las Ramblas, about 3 or 4 blocks south of the Playa Catalyuna.

 

Dave

Thank you sp much!!!

I just checked and the one on Las Ramblas (but where I wonder) is actually cheaper, does anyone really know if besides the buffet not being as big if there are any major differences?

Also last time I eat at "cats" does anyone know if these hotels are close to this restaurant?

Thank you,

I think the Continental Palacete is a bit nicer and it is definitely in a quieter area of the Ramblas. The Ramlas is fun but I wouln't want to staying right on it. We stayed at the Continental Palacete for 3 nights pre-cruise and found the location great, the buffet very handy and the AC was freezing (we loved that!). The other may be closer to 4 Gats but the Palacete is exactly 2 blocks north of the Placa Catalunya so is very well located.

KathiB

The Continental Palacete is more expensive than the Hotel Continental and has no balconies over looking the Ramblas.

The Continental Palacete is more expensive than the Hotel Continental and has no balconies over looking the Ramblas.

We were in room 122 - a "Versailles" room, and we had a balcony. The hotel entrance sits on the corner of Ramblas de Catalunya and Via Diputacion. If you look directly at the front door, our room was the first balcony on the right, which is on Via Diputacion.

The main "lobby" of the hotel has three balconies overlooking Ramblas de Catalunya. You can still "people watch" but you're not going to see the human statues or the Michael Jackson impersenator. You'll also miss the guy balancing the ten speed bicycle on his chin. For that, go south on las Ramlbas to the end.

Ramblas de Catalunya is the extension of Las Ramblas north of Playa Catalunya.

The center median of Ramblas de Catalunya is all sidewalk and the restaurants set up tables and provide service there. One block south of the hotel, the restaurant (sorry, can't recall the name of it) had a musician that was playing music. The food was Italian and we wanted Spanish so we didn't eat there.