First timer embarkation questions

[glawless]

We will be cruising on the Epic out of Barcelona on July 21with a embarkation time of 6pm, and have never cruised before.  We are flying into Barcelona the day before and would like to spend as much of embarkation day exploring Barcelona as possible.  We have a specialty dining reservation for 7:30 on the first night.  Is there a better time to get to the ship to avoid long lines and chaos?  Are we setting ourselves up for stress if we don't arrive at the ship until 4?  How do the safety drills and embarkation party play into our schedule?

 

This is kind of a unique cruise from what I can tell in that you can embark from Barcelona on Sunday or from Rome on Wednesday.  Will this help decrease the check in lines?

 

Thank you all for your help ahead of time.  As  first time cruisers and our first time to Europe we are feeling a bit anxious, but very excited.

 

[Peachypooh]

10 minutes ago, glawless said:

We will be cruising on the Epic out of Barcelona on July 21with a embarkation time of 6pm, and have never cruised before.  We are flying into Barcelona the day before and would like to spend as much of embarkation day exploring Barcelona as possible.  We have a specialty dining reservation for 7:30 on the first night.  Is there a better time to get to the ship to avoid long lines and chaos?  Are we setting ourselves up for stress if we don't arrive at the ship until 4?  How do the safety drills and embarkation party play into our schedule?

 

This is kind of a unique cruise from what I can tell in that you can embark from Barcelona on Sunday or from Rome on Wednesday.  Will this help decrease the check in lines?

 

Thank you all for your help ahead of time.  As  first time cruisers and our first time to Europe we are feeling a bit anxious, but very excited.

 

Are you saying that they leave port at 6 p.m.? 4 p.m. would be really cutting it close. Plus I thought someone said that they do the muster drill around that time.

[glawless]

Just now, Peachypooh said:

Are you saying that they leave port at 6 p.m.? 4 p.m. would be really cutting it close. Plus I thought someone said that they do the muster drill around that time.

yes they leave at 6, I have limited info from Norwegian but the paperwork I have says get to the port at least 2 hours before the ship leaves

[quercus alba]

You should be ON BOARD 2 hours before they leave. I've heard of folks being turned away with less than that. 

We arrived at ~2 PM and had almost no line (8 years ago, TBH, so ymmv)-- so that at least gives you a nice long morning to hang out in the Gothic Quarter.

[jemz1949]

Done this same cruise twice before and will be doing it again the week prior to your cruise.  From the recent dailies that have been posted, appears that the mandatory muster is at 430p.  If you miss it, you will have to make it up.  I would not want to arrive at the pier any later than 3 or 330p at the latest.  Don't know where your hotel is in relationship to the pier and how you plan to handle your luggage.   You could leave it at the hotel...do your exploring...return to pick it up and taxi over to the pier.  Or go ahead drop off your luggage at the pier around 930a or 10a then venture back out for a few hours.  You could also go ahead and get checked in at the same time.  Both of these last two are going to eat up your limited time however.  In 2018, our hotel was just off Las Ramblas and not very far from the pier.  We left our hotel at 10a thinking that we'll be there easily by 1030a at the latest.  Wrong!  Everyone else that was sailing that day must have had the same idea.  Traffic was either at a  crawl or complete standstill most of the way.    If I were you, I'd consider a Hop On Hop Off bus tour as early Sunday morning as possible.  You'll find reviews of the two different companies that offer them on TripAdvisor.  It's relatively inexpensive.  Most of the buses depart from the Playa Catalunya area but you can also join from one of their many stops.  There are three different routes that you can take which will provide you the opportunity to see a considerable amount of the city in a short period of time.  You won't have time to get off an explore but you will see a lot.  Additionally, I'd focus to the two routes that have the most to offer.  

[KeithJenner]

If it was me, and I wanted to spend as much time in Barcelona as possible, I would get out as early as possible in the morning. Have a good idea what you will be doing and make reservations where available, as you can waste hours queueing in Barcelona, especially at the Gaudi places, if you haven't got your ticket in advance.

 

Leave your bags at the hotel and, assuming your hotel is somewhere around the city centre, get a taxi at 3pm at the latest. That will get you to the port in plenty of time to check in and board before 4pm.

 

That should be in time for Muster, but if not then you will be able to go to the make up one the next day.

 

Whilst the double embarkation ports is unusual, it is far from unique, and the Epic has been doing this ever Summer for many years now. Most people embark in Barcelona, so there are still more people embarking there than a lot of ships have to deal with when the entire ship is embarking.

[DakotaDisneyLover]

We just did this cruise out of Rome.  Our ship sailed the first day at 7:00 p.m.  We got to the ship at 4:15 p.m. and there was no waiting and no lines.  I think that with some boarding in Rome, and some boarding in Barcelona, it has cut the lines to board at the beginning of your cruise considerably.  Same with disembarking at the end of your cruise - no lines.  That said, I personally would recommend getting to the ship no less than 2.5 hours before disembarking.  Leave a little extra time for traffic, etc.  If you don't make the muster drill, there is a make up one the next day.  Enjoy - we had a fabulous time!

[KeithJenner]

1 hour ago, DakotaDisneyLover said:

We just did this cruise out of Rome.  Our ship sailed the first day at 7:00 p.m.  We got to the ship at 4:15 p.m. and there was no waiting and no lines.  I think that with some boarding in Rome, and some boarding in Barcelona, it has cut the lines to board at the beginning of your cruise considerably.  Same with disembarking at the end of your cruise - no lines.  That said, I personally would recommend getting to the ship no less than 2.5 hours before disembarking.  Leave a little extra time for traffic, etc.  If you don't make the muster drill, there is a make up one the next day.  Enjoy - we had a fabulous time!

The majority of people board in Barcelona, so as a result Rome embarkation and disembarkation is much quieter. I don’t know the exact split, but from

memory there are usually over 3,000 people embarking in Barcelona, more than many full ships. Rome has always been very quiet as there are a lot less people embarking there.

 

Disembarkation is rarely a problem on these cruises as there is no immigration etc to hold things up. The only thing that really slows things down is actually getting people down the gangway.

[kochleffel]

Do you want to explore Barcelona on your own or in a tour? Last year I took a tour with Spain Day Tours that included people who had embarked at Rome, were picked up from the ship and returning to the ship, others who embarked at Barcelona and would be dropped off at the airport or at any centrally located hotel, one couple picked up from their hotel to embark that afternoon, and me -- I was returning to the ship but wanted to be dropped off near the Gothic quarter for exploration on foot. (Van and coach tours don't include it, because the streets aren't passable for vehicles.) I returned to the ship later in the afternoon by taxi.

[BirdTravels]

9 hours ago, glawless said:

We will be cruising on the Epic out of Barcelona on July 21 with a embarkation time of 6pm, and have never cruised before.  We are flying into Barcelona the day before and would like to spend as much of embarkation day exploring Barcelona as possible.  We have a specialty dining reservation for 7:30 on the first night.  Is there a better time to get to the ship to avoid long lines and chaos?  Are we setting ourselves up for stress if we don't arrive at the ship until 4?  How do the safety drills and embarkation party play into our schedule?

 

This is kind of a unique cruise from what I can tell in that you can embark from Barcelona on Sunday or from Rome on Wednesday.  Will this help decrease the check in lines?

 

Thank you all for your help ahead of time.  As  first time cruisers and our first time to Europe we are feeling a bit anxious, but very excited.

NCL advises that check in closed 2 hours prior to departure (which is 4 pm). If you are delayed, you may be watching the Epic sail away without you. 

 

If you show up at 4 pm, get through security, get through check-in, you will be walking into the middle of muster. You and your bags will need to maneuver to your muster station (many show up for muster starting at 4:00 pm to get seats). And if your muster station were say, in the theater, you would be rolling your bags to your seats. 

 

Many people embarking in Barcelona will be showing up before noon to get on board (we show up at 10:15 and board before 11:30). Barcelona is the primary embarkation port and most people embark there. Rome is a small secondary port. Most of the people will be at muster when you arrive. And those continuing passenger who boarded in Rome will be flooding the gangways getting back on the ship before departure (they have a 5:30 all aboard time). 

[sanger727]

I agree with the other posters that you don’t want to tempt fate by arriving at 4 for check in when that is the last possible arrival time. However, on my last cruise we had an overnight the first night so we got to the port early (think maybe 10 is the earliest that would work); dropped our luggage, checked in. Then, headed back out. That way you only HAVE to be back by all aboard which will probably be at 5:30. You should be back by 4:30 for the muster but if you don’t make it, they will have a make up.

[glawless]

thank you all for your replies.  very helpful insight and info from all

[rmurray847]

On 5/31/2019 at 10:51 AM, jemz1949 said:

I would not want to arrive at the pier any later than 3 or 330p at the latest.  Don't know where your hotel is in relationship to the pier and how you plan to handle your luggage.   

I agree.  Too much room for error cutting it much closer.  

 

Barcelona is amazing, and I agree that you will want to see as much as you can.  If you get in the day before, perhaps plan to stay up late.  Barcelona is a late to bed, late to rise city.  On our visit there a few years ago, we couldn't even find a place open for breakfast before 9:30 am.  So make your arrival day a crazy one!

 

Other hints:  you can get tickets in advance for Sagrada Familia, online.  (If memory serves, it actually ends up being a Ticketmaster site!).  Do it!  The lines there are unreal...but if you have a reservation, there is virtually no wait.  And Casa Battlo, one of Gaudi's great masterpieces, also took reservations in advance and they are open quite late.  I seem to recall our entry time as being about 8:30 pm.

[Nola26]

We are in a similar situation, thanks for asking and responding to this question. My plan was to be onboard by 3pm  but I may try sooner so a MDR lunch is an option. Our group is mostly seniors and I don't want to rush or stress them, especially on Day 1.

 

While I have a list of things we'd like to see in Barcelona I likely I'll narrow it down to 3-4 musts and let the rest fall where they may. I don't have our NCL flight itinerary yet, so I really don't know how much touring time we'll get on Day 1. Although we may land at 9am and be at our hotel before noon, I may need to allow time for showers and naps before heading out, safety first. Departing 2 days ahead would have been easier for a chance to tour Barcelona more thoroughly, but that didn't fit our plans.

[sheezsmith]

We are boarding in Rome, will we also be required to do the muster drill after passengers board in Barcelona?

[KeithJenner]

12 minutes ago, sheezsmith said:

We are boarding in Rome, will we also be required to do the muster drill after passengers board in Barcelona?

No, but be aware that the entire ship closes down for about an hour starting from 30 minutes before muster starts.

 

if you will be onboard then make sure that you get a drink before that, if you are likely to want one, and find somewhere away from the muster stations (basically not in the public areas on decks 5-7).

[glawless]

Just got back from the cruise.  Arrived at the dock at 2:30 and we walked right up to the counter.  No line at all.  Very few other people arriving while we were checking in.  The whole process including giving the porters our luggage took less than 10 minutes.  Thanks for the advice to all who took their time to help a first timer.