July 2024 on the Scarlet Lady Embarkation process in Barcelona

[Red in Arizona]

I sailed with Virgin Voyages out of Barcelona in July 2024 on the Scarlet Lady. This post shares my experience with the embarkation process. I hope it's helpful for future sailors!

 

The ship was docked at the World Trade Centre, Terminal South. Each cruise ship terminal at the WTC is separate from other ships, so the only people at Terminal South were the passengers loading onto the Virgin Voyages ship.

 

We stayed at a nearby hotel on Saturday evening - the Renaissance Barcelona Fira Hotel, which is in a business district, so there really isn't much in the area, but it's on a train line that is direct from the airport and a short taxi ride from the cruise ship port. On a side note, this hotel was beautiful and seriously had the best and strongest water pressure that I've ever had at a hotel! 

 

On Sunday, we took a taxi to the cruise ship terminal, so I can't comment about using public transport or the cruise shuttle bus. But our taxi ride was 5 minutes (our driver was amazing and took us down the back roads and there was no traffic!) and the cost was 16 Euros. We were dropped off like 10 steps from the VV terminal - it couldn't have been closer. It was so convenient and I definitely recommend the taxi option, especially if you are comparing the cost against the metro train ticket. I don't recall the exact price of the metro ticket, but it's about $9-10 for a one-way ticket. I was kinda surprised that the metro prices were so much, I figured they would be cheaper, but apparently that's just wishful thinking! So for us, the taxi was probably less expensive than the metro and much more convenient!

 

Embarkation process:
Step 1: Luggage drop off - this large area was outdoors but fully shaded and the process was very quick. You don't need to pre-print any special VV cruise tags for your bags - they simply write your room number on the tag and attach it to your luggage. Simple and easy. Your bags are delivered to the hallway just outside your room in about 45 minutes. You don't HAVE to give them your luggage, you are welcome to take it with you through the check-in process. But it's super convenient and I was glad to hand over my large suitcase. Have your passport handy at this stop, they ask for it just simply to make sure you have it before going any further through the process. 

 

Step 2: Queue based on your Boarding Time - this is also in the same outdoor, fully shaded area. The staff asks for your boarding time and either puts you in the queue if you arrive early, or allows you to proceed if it's your boarding time. I will say that this was an on-your-honor thing. No one asked to see our app to prove our boarding time.

 

Step 3: Security check - you now enter inside the building and the first stop is the security check. Just like the airports, your bags will go through the scanner and you'll walk through the metal detector. I took in one bottle of wine and one bottle of water with no issues or questions. 

 

Step 4: Check-in - this part is also inside and fully air conditioned. The line might be long but it moves along very steadily, as there are at least 10 check-in stations. This is where you show your passport and receive your VV wristband which is your room key and wallet.

 

Step 5: Board the ship! The best part is that there are no photographers stopping you to take a photo that you have to pay for later. You simply board the ship and go along your merry way! It's so easy and stress free! Additionally, all the rooms are ready so we dropped off our stuff in the room and immediately went for some food on Deck 15, The Galley, which has so. much. food... so. many. options. This is the place to go before your evening dinner reservations. 

 

I'll add a couple of additional notes about the room here too:
L-Shape bed configuration - this was a Mom and Daughter cruise for me, and we wanted our bed split into the L-shape configuration. Once you are on the ship, you can do this by making a request either on the app, using the tablet in the room, or stopping by Sailor Services to ask them to make the request on your behalf. It took about 30 min for housekeeping to arrive, and you'll need to leave the room for 5 minutes while they make the swap (simply because there just isn't enough space in the room for you to stick around!) Once the L-shape was made, it stayed that way for the entire week without it reverting back each day. 

 

Toiletries - this is what was provided: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, bar soap, kleenex, hair dryer. The bar soap was a white oatmeal (very nice). I read some other reviews about VV providing black soap, maybe that was a thing in the past but that's not what we had.

 

Closet - of course, it's not very large, but it's designed well. They provide 9-10 hangers, but even after using all of them there was still enough room for me to hang another 10 items, if you want to bring some extra hangers of your own. There are shelves, drawers, and a safe in the closet as well.

 

Outlets - our room had USB ports and both US and European outlets.

 

Mini-fridge - in our Sea View room the mini-fridge was empty which gave us plenty of room to put our own items in it, like bottled water

 

Water - each room is equipped with two carafes of water for you to fill your own water bottle or just use the small glasses provided in the room.

 

We booked the Sea View room (window only, no balcony) and we loved it! There is a cute window seat in front of the porthole window which was perfect for sitting at to read a book or look out the window. I'm sure the balcony rooms are better with the hammock, but we didn't want to splurge on that and were quite satisfied with our Sea View room. 

[Red in Arizona]

I sailed with Virgin Voyages out of Barcelona in July 2024 on the Scarlet Lady. This post shares my experience with the disembarkation process. I hope it's helpful for future sailors!

 

The first thing to know is that you can't schedule your disembark time in advance. You can do it on the app about 48 hours before you return to Barcelona. Even though you schedule a time on the app, they don't check it or hold you to that time - so if you need to leave a little earlier or later, it's fine. They are simply trying to space out people leaving so there isn't a mad rush all at the same time. For our cruise, I believe the ship was ready for disembarkation at 7am, or maybe 7:15am. I disembarked at 7:30am after having breakfast at Razzle Dazzle.

 

The cruise lines always tell you to be careful about how early you book a flight on disembarkation day. My flight was at 10:50am. I disembarked at 7:30am and got to the airport with no delays in traffic - I had almost two hours to spare after arriving at the airport, checking in our luggage, and getting through Security.

 

I few EasyJet out of Barcelona, going to London.  EasyJet has it's own terminal, 2C.  There is no need to buy a Fast Lane pass through Security if you are flying EasyJet, because the Fast Lane passes are only good in Terminal 2B, for all the other airlines. EasyJet does offer the option to buy an express pass through security, but we certainly didn't need it - there was no one in the Security line when we got there!

 

Taxi service - there are plenty of taxis waiting for sailors to disembark. From my experience, or at least for the Virgin Voyage that I was on in July 2024, each terminal at the World Trade Centre services only one cruise ship, meaning that you are not competing with passengers from other cruise ships to get a taxi. Also, since Virgin Voyages offers a late check out time, there's not a whole lot of people getting off the ship at 7:30am and there were plenty of taxis just waiting! 

 

VV also provided an opportunity to book an "excursion" for airport transfer, but it only takes you to one terminal at the airport, and it wasn't the Easy Jet terminal. So for us, taxi was the best option. Traffic going to the airport at 7:30am on a Sunday was light, there were no delays, and we got to the airport super fast.

[cantgetin]

We have gone out of BCN on VV twice....different terminals each time.  Glad to hear they are back at WTC.  The only difference from the above reports is that we found 2 luggage drop off areas.  One was operated by terminal porters, the other by people in VV shirts.  Same process either way,  

The process is the same as at Miami, the order is different.  Works well either way.  The nice thing about WTC is that if you arrive early, there is a little plaza with some seating and a coffee shop on the other side of the plaza.

[the_fh_mets]

10 hours ago, Red in Arizona said:

They provide 9-10 hangers, but even after using all of them there was still enough room for me to hang another 10 items, if you want to bring some extra hangers of your own.

No need to pack your own. Just ask your room attendant and they'll quickly get you more. 

[Tyler414]

Had a similar embarkation process in Barcelona in June 2023.

This year however it seems the Port is changing between WTC and terminal A up the port a bit, we sail in August this year on Scarlet and no one can seem to figure out what port we will be using. 

[cantgetin]

October 2022--departed from WTC.  October 2023, departed from Terminal B (I think....one of the terminals in the bigger area).  May 2024 arrived at WTC.  May 2023, I'm not even sure which one we arrived at....I think the bigger one, but won't swear to it.  I was really surprised that they were using WTC again in 2024 as we'd been told it was permanently off limits to cruise ships.

Advantage WTC--closer to town, doesn't have surcharge for taxis, etc.