Morning flight after cruise

[j in tx]

I was wondering if a 10:20 or 10:30 a.m. flight would be possible to catch if the boat is scheduled for port at 5a.m. Is this cutting things too close? It would be on Continental or Delta back to US from Barcelona. Thanks for any input.

[Trevoli]

I highly doubt it. Even though the ship docks early, they have to go through all kinds of immigration exercises, and if one crew member or passenger delays things, it can bring everything to a screeching halt.

 

Assuming the drive to the airport is 30 minutes and you're required to be there at 9:00am for a 10:30 flight, I just don't see how you could swing that, even if you took your own luggage off the ship. Even if everything went smoothly (and it rarely does), I don't think that's do-able.

 

When is the next departure? If you have some time to kill, maybe you could take one of the ship's tours of Barcelona before heading to the airport.

[j in tx]

There are no posted afternoon flights out that I can find. (on those airlines) Last year we stayed the extra day, but I wondered if maybe we didn't need to. Do travel agents have access to different flights? I just can't believe there aren't any afternoon flights back. Also, what would one passenger do to hold up everybody? Wouldn't they just detain that person? (Maybe I am very naiive, Ive only been on one cruise and things went smoothly!) Thanks again!

[JudeeJim]

I would continue checking on the afternoon departure from Barcelona. After our cruise we will stay in Barcelona for 6 days. We are flying out on a 1:00pm flight Monday Oct. 6.

[JudeeJim]

Ooops forgot to mention we are flying out on Delta.

[j in tx]

Delta appears to have dropped that flight for Jan. I knew that they had one, but it seems to have disappeared from their website, and I read on another board that they had changed someone's flight, and they had purposely booked that afternoon flight. (I would if I could!) Lucky you. You must have beat the change!

[Morgsmom]

we are flying Delta out of Rome back to the States in November, but the last flight back I could get was a 10:30 am on arrival day and didn't want to risk it... so we are staying an extra day. Truth be told, I'd rather leave on arrival day. Something about when it's done, it's done and I'm type A+(we are getting in 3 days early to adjust and enjoy Rome). Good luck, but I wouldn't/couldn't try to get on a 10:30 am flight. Too many things can happen.

[kitty9]

If your flight out of Barcelona is a flight back to the US or Canada, you're required to be at the airport at least 2 hours before departure and most times they say 3 hours before. There are so many things that can precipitate late disembarkation times. I would not chance an international flight that early.

[j in tx]

Thank y'all for the information. I guess it really only confirms what I thought, although I was hoping otherwise. And everyone seems to be in agreement, too!

[alcpa1]

Did you check out Delta's other partner airlines? If you are booking with points or wish to accumulate points then you should definitely look in a few other places. If your cruise is after the first of the year Continental will no longer be a code share partner.

The other option is to do some creative booking.

Delta may still add a later flight, even though they have just taken it away. Their schedules seem to be in constant flux.

[cruiserbryce]

wow 5am...havent seen many ships that get in that early...but even at that I think the times you are looking at are a little early...something around noon would likely be a bit better

[FUN33]

I was wondering if a 10:20 or 10:30 a.m. flight would be possible to catch if the boat is scheduled for port at 5a.m. Is this cutting things too close? It would be on Continental or Delta back to US from Barcelona. Thanks for any input.

If you were lucky enough to catch your flight, there is almost no way your luggage would make it. Remember you must have your luggage CHECKED 2 hours before an international fligh leaves or the airline has no obligation to deliver it to your home. You need to return to the airport to claim it.

 

Barcelona is notorious for overbooking trans atlantic flights. If you have cruiseline air, they usually will not even book you on a fligh that leaves before noon.

 

If you have a lot of luggage, the Barcelona cabs are REALLY small.

 

Barcelona airport is a zoo. Be prepared to spend a minimum of an hour (that is on a really fast day) just waiting in line to check in.

 

There is no way I would try to get a flight before 11 AM if debarking from a cruise ship in Barcelona.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Having flown out of Barcelona (not recently) I can tell you -- it was a zoo!! And that was before security checks.

 

Stay the extra day and enjoy!!

[j in tx]

I did not know that the code share arrangement would change after the year. Actually, I have Cont. miles, but I was looking at Delta because of the afternoon flight (that is nonexistant now). I had noticed their schedules constantly changing, too. Maybe it will be back. I went to a BCN website which shows an afternoon Continental flight which departs for Newark, but it doesn't show up when I try to schedule. Does anyone know anything about flights which don't pop up when you try to make a reservation?

[jcanino]

I highly doubt it. Even though the ship docks early, they have to go through all kinds of immigration exercises, and if one crew member or passenger delays things, it can bring everything to a screeching halt.

 

When doing a Med cruise, there is no immigrations or customs to clear as the ship would normally go to EU countries. This is like us traveling down the East coast from state to state. In essence, if a ship docks in Barcelona at 5:30, you are cleared to go ashore as soon as they tie up and get doors open and could be off the ship by 6:00.

[mandrews2u]

My husband and I have considered this cruise several times but always figured a one way flight back to the states wopuld cost more than a roundtrip does it? Just curiuos?

[j in tx]

I don't know about the one way ticket. Last year I did a RT from Houston that goes through Newark. I just wonder why there is an afternoon flight out that is not offered when I look up flight online. And yes, now I remember I cleared customs when we got back to the US, not in Barcelona. I know people were getting off really early! Thanks!

[wrp96]

What days are you looking at traveling? It's possible that the flight is not offered every day.

[EGG]

We just did this in May from Brilliance of the Seas. I posted fthe same question as you first on the RCL board and I got very positive feedback from people who had done this. So be advised this was on a RCL ship, but it alsot docked at 5 am. Other cruise lines may be different. If I remember correctly the Continental flight was 10:30 or 10:45. We had a wedding to go to so we could not stay the extra day. So it was either this flight or cancel the cruise.

 

You have to take self disembarkation. That means you need to have 1 bag and carryon each that you can handle yourself. There will be no one to help you. This was no problem for us. We never take more than 1 large bag and a carryon anyway. Halfway into the cruise there was a notice in the daily planner for people with early flights to let them know. We went to guest relations and they took down the information. We never heard from RCL again, but we did not get luggage tags. I never noticed the self debarkation opened to people who did not give them early flight information.

 

They told us self debarkation would be between 7:15 and 7:30. We were in the Windjammer having breakfast at 7:05 when they announced self-disembarkation. We finished breakfast and went back to our cabin for our bags. We disembarked near the front bank of elevators. We happened to have a forward cabin. By the time we left, we were walking off with the first group with luggage. Their luggage was coming down on carosels. The first 4 groups with tags were all people who had RCL transfers. There was no customs since we had gone through customs in Corsica when we reentered the EU from Morocco. We walked past the people gathering their luggage from the carosels and followed the signs to the taxi stand and got right into a taxi. (Oh, it was a Thursday morning). The driver did not speak English, but I said emphatically Continental airlines 2 times to make sure he knew that was where we wanted to go. It was about 20 minutes to the airport and again I said Continental a few times because I was hoping to get dropped off by the Continental counter. So we had to walk a short distance in the airport and we got there before the Continental counter opened. We found benches where we sat until they opened the Continental counter. It was our feeling that as long as we were on line at the counter, and this was the only Continental plane of the day, if there was a long line at the Continental counter they would not leave anyone. I don't remember anything unusual about security. There was a long walk through the airport where we settled in and waited.

 

We had non cruise line insurance. Some people say insurance won't cover you if your flight is too early, but I had checked with RCL and they said 10:30 was fine.

 

We had a cruise that ended in Barcelona in 2005. I remember getting into the cab before 8:00 and getting to the hotel before people were waking up and thinking what were we going to do so early in the morning. That is another reason why I felt comfortable.

 

As it turned out, it was a pleasure not having to sit all day in the airport.

The airport was not a zoo. Maybe it is worse if you are taking one of the European airlines later in the day.

[UKfanfromVA]

Glad to hear that under normal circumstances we can make the 10:50 am Continental flight to Newark from Barcelona. We will be disembarking from the Jade on 2/6/09 and booked this flight not wanting to wait all day for an evening flight. From previous experience on NCL they will let us walk off with our luggage as soon as the ship is cleared for disembarkation. We have considered doing the NCL transfer at $25/person but am now thinking that it will be faster to grab a taxi rather than wait for a bus to load and then unload everyone at the airport. Nice to know that the Continental counter at the airport is not crowded with lots of other flights.

[EGG]

I plan obsessively and I like to take out all the unknowns. I just would not like to have to count on a whole bus of people getting off the ship promptly and each and every one of them finding their luggage in the terminal. Just one piece of misplaced luggage can hold your transfer bus up. And then you have to wait on the other end for them to unload all the luggage. They may make you wait for all the luggage to be unloaded before you can take yours so that they can collect their tips. I've never taken a transfer but I've taken enough excursions to know that there is inevitabley one person who holds the entire bus up for at least a half hour. You can even have someone who changes their mind and decides to take a taxi and doesn't tell anyone.

 

Just look at our story, we were having breakfast when they called our group to disembark. Someone else with a late flight, may take their time to finish.

 

There were plenty of taxi's (and there was another ship in port). It was obvious the taxi driver was anxious to transfer us as quickly as possible and go back to another fare. He wasted no time getting us into and out of the cab. He could do that also because the 20 minutes each way would put him back in port for the first group of independents getting off the ship. The cost was 30 euros (although the meter said 26). We decided not to argue, gave him the 30 + the euro coin we had and off we went. With the exchange this is about the same price as the transfer.

[UKfanfromVA]

Thanks Egg for the advice - we'll plan on getting our own taxi to the airport. There is only one other ship disembarking that morning so hopefully taxis will be plentiful.