Changing ships in Barcelona

[erros]

We will be changing ships in Barcelona from a TA on the Brilliance to the Ovation in May 2016. The brilliance docks at 7am and the Ovations starts boarding at 6:30pm. Royal has been no help as what we can do with our luggage, they even said to check with the port of Tampa, that is where we leave from. Has anyone ever had this problem before, what happened, what were you able to do with your luggage?

[MADflyer]

RCI is not being helpful at the home office as changing ships is not a usual function of a cruise company.

 

Getting assistance from the shipboard personnel once you are onboard Brilliance might be a much better proposition. They will have the capability of communicating with Ovation, at least.

 

Port movements at Barcelona on the 10th of May, 2016 actually show Ovation arriving, most likely to Terminal A, at 5 AM. Serenade should arrive at Terminal B at 6 AM.

 

As both ships are almost coming from the same place from the 8th of May, with Brilliance at Malaga and Ovation from Gibraltar, both ships will most likely arrive early to Barcelona.

 

I would just leave Brilliance as late as possible. I doubt the port will be able to transfer baggage port side for security reasons. You will most likely need to get a porter or if you use spinner bags and are able, just walk the length of Terminal A and drop you checked bags at any time after 08:30.

 

The port will not take your carry on bags. While I do not know, I would think that Ovation would start embarkation at around 10:30 even if they have the late departure time that night.

 

For security reasons the port of Barcelona has no luggage storage or lockers. There is a private company that takes bags and then delivers them to hotels and the airport, but I do not know if they will also bring bags back to the port.

Edited August 11, 2015 by MADflyer

[erros]

Thanks for the reply. I guess my main concern is that the Ovation doesn't start boarding until 6:30 pm.

[cymru cruiser]

Hi

We have the same next year as we will be getting off Harmony and getting on Epic. Granted we only have a few hours in between. We intend to try for the very last minute to get off Harmony and then walk across to Epic's terminal and then just sit it out until we can board as soon as possible.

I've researched Barcelona port and found that there is Wifi and a cafe (somewhere).

 

We did consider using the time to go and explore Barcelona and leave our bags.

In doing so we did find a company at the port who will keep your baggage but they charge 10 euro per bag. The alternative is to get a taxi to Placa de Catalunya in the centre of the city where there are storage lockers and then go back and collect them later. locker barcelona dot com.

Also google hasta vueloThere are also storage lockers at Sants train station. Google baggage storage in Barcelona and you will find options.

[Desert Cruizers]

I don't know when you will be able to drop off your luggage at Ovation but if you can do that as soon as possible then explore Barcelona, only hitch is if you have carry on. 2nd thought, take a day tour then get dropped back off for Ovation. Barcelona Day Tours comes to mind. http://www.barcelonadaytours.com/

Edited August 12, 2015 by Desert Cruizers

[Greatergroves]

Hi

We have the same next year as we will be getting off Harmony and getting on Epic. Granted we only have a few hours in between. We intend to try for the very last minute to get off Harmony and then walk across to Epic's terminal and then just sit it out until we can board as soon as possible.

I've researched Barcelona port and found that there is Wifi and a cafe (somewhere).

 

We did consider using the time to go and explore Barcelona and leave our bags.

In doing so we did find a company at the port who will keep your baggage but they charge 10 euro per bag. The alternative is to get a taxi to Placa de Catalunya in the centre of the city where there are storage lockers and then go back and collect them later. locker barcelona dot com.

Also google hasta vueloThere are also storage lockers at Sants train station. Google baggage storage in Barcelona and you will find options.

 

We did this last Summer. Got off Liberty and on to Epic. We left it to the last minute to get off Liberty which was around 9am. We sat in that terminal until they asked us to leave(!) at around 9:15. We slowly walked over to Epic and were able to give our cases to the porters immediately. Then security let us into the terminal, but were told to sit down and wait. We only waited about an hour before they checked us in, and they we had to wait for our number to be called to board. We had planned to go into the city but decided after a leisurely breakfast on Liberty that we didn't need the hassle. The staff at the Epic terminal were excellent and free drinks were available all that time. Very easy.

[MADflyer]

Thanks for the reply. I guess my main concern is that the Ovation doesn't start boarding until 6:30 pm.

 

Are they having some sort of event on the ship when it arrives in Barcelona or something?

 

It is very unusual for a ship to 'only' embark passengers at that late hour. It is rather obvious that hotels expect guests to check-out at noon or 1:00 PM.

 

None the less, the port of Barcelona is the agent taking your baggage at the terminal. They then transfer these bags to the ship at a later point when the ship is ready to take on baggage.

 

The baggage drop is just to the right of the actual terminal entrance at both Terminals A and B and even C.

 

As these are the same staff that will have worked disembarkation of the ship upon arrival, it would be very unusual for the cruise company to want to pay additional charges to do a late embarkation. They should be taking baggage from 08:30 as is the norm for the port.

[cymru cruiser]

We did this last Summer. Got off Liberty and on to Epic. We left it to the last minute to get off Liberty which was around 9am. We sat in that terminal until they asked us to leave(!) at around 9:15. We slowly walked over to Epic and were able to give our cases to the porters immediately. Then security let us into the terminal, but were told to sit down and wait. We only waited about an hour before they checked us in, and they we had to wait for our number to be called to board. We had planned to go into the city but decided after a leisurely breakfast on Liberty that we didn't need the hassle. The staff at the Epic terminal were excellent and free drinks were available all that time. Very easy.

 

Brilliant thank you.

[robtulipe]

Thanks for the reply. I guess my main concern is that the Ovation doesn't start boarding until 6:30 pm.

I find this very strange to have boarding start that late even if its departure is at midnight as it is scheduled to arrive at 5AM after a sea day from Gibraltar. It that what your cruise document/invoice shows? We've sailed many times late in the evening or even the next day and have had no problems boarding early as the ship was in port early in the morning.

When we changed ships for another subsequent cruise we stayed on the first ship as long as possible, thus disembarked around 9:15AM and by the time we walked to the next ship, which was at the next terminal, the luggage check in had started. We then just waited in that terminal until boarding started at around 11AM. It helped that we had priority boarding status for that next cruise.

Edited August 12, 2015 by robtulipe

[erros]

Thanks for all of the replies, I guess we will just have to wait until we are on board the Brilliance and see what the crew will do for us. I know of several other couples that are doing this.