Dropping Off Luggage Before Boarding Ship?

[darlu]

This forum has been so incredibly helpful in planning our first Azamara cruise (starting this Saturday out of Barcelona) - thanks.  We land in Barcelona at 7:45am and were going to drop off our luggage at the ship early in the morning - we assumed this would be fine.  Just spoke with Azamara to check this out and were told no - the luggage needs to stay with you until you board.  Can anyone share their past experiences as I still assume this will be ok even though I was just told it is not ok?  Thanks for your input.

[uktog]

That is absolutely not true. In Barcelona the porters take the luggage straight from the taxi to a separate area. They check the labels with you and that’s it. The only thing might be a slight delay if the baggage handlers are still doing disembark when you arrive. 

After you hand the cases over the only thing you’ve got to manage is carryons. 

There is no way they know where you go. The marshals might try and encourage you to enter the terminal to wait but you just tell them you’re going to get a coffee or whatever and off you go. The marshals are only trying to be helpful not insisting you go inside 

[ellbon]

I left luggage and checked in and went off for a drive in Athens and had late lunch.

[sunlover33]

We dropped our luggage off and went to our favourite tapas bar before joining the ship to sail away.