air fare?

[Mineu]

US Air has a round trip fare to Barcelona for under $900-for the May 10 day Med. cruise-most airlines are almost double this price-should I hop on this now or wait and see if prices get better??? Thanks!!

 

[Mineu]

Also, if we arrive a day early-how do we book transfers-from the airport to the hotel-to the port? Or are they just from the airport to the port? Thanks!

 

[sbell111]

US Air has a round trip fare to Barcelona for under $900-for the May 10 day Med. cruise-most airlines are almost double this price-should I hop on this now or wait and see if prices get better??? Thanks!!

Beats me. That's the big question that I have regarding our baltic cruise in June '10.

 

[kcashner]

From what I've been able to find, unless you book your air and hotel with DCL, the transfers are just from the airport to the port.

However, there are many hotels in the Ramblas area that are not far from the port--depending on who I believe, a 5-15 minute cab ride for about $20. No personal experience with this--I'm trying to put it all together for myself! One guy said the port was a 20 minute walk from his hotel in this area. There is one hotel in the Marina (port) area, but it's very expensive.

 

[Mineu]

I talked to an agent-but am still confused. I would rather fly in a day early-but to get their transfer from the airport to the hotel-I would have to book their hotel- they quoted the Hilton Diagonal Mar with hotel only for the 4 of us as $982-with additional $$ for the transfers!! So, it sounds like we can't use their transfers unless we arrive the day of the cruise or arrive early and use their hotel and flight-is this right? I think we may be better off using our Marriott points and taking a taxi!

 

[walloon]

I was wondering how all this would work as well. I think we are going to hold off and book flights after Christmas. We are on the May 26th. I can't believe hotel for one night was that expensive?!?

 

[bellelinus]

US Air has a round trip fare to Barcelona for under $900-for the May 10 day Med. cruise-most airlines are almost double this price-should I hop on this now or wait and see if prices get better??? Thanks!!

Airfares are really like the stock market - it's very tricky to figure out when to buy! I didn't notice where you are flying from, but $900 R/T with Barcelona is not a bad price at all; even with a fare sale you are unlikely to get lower than, say $700 R/T from a major hub like JFK. May is not summer high season, so there is at least the chance that there could be a nice sale at the beginning of 2010. You could track your flights for a while on a site like yapta to see how much they move around, or if you can afford the $900 and the flights are what you want, you could buy them and never look back to see if they ever went down. It's a question that really has no right or wrong answer.

Also, if we arrive a day early-how do we book transfers-from the airport to the hotel-to the port? Or are they just from the airport to the port? Thanks!

I'm not sure about the DCL transfers, but we were in Barcelona to sail on the Magic in 2007 and easily got a taxi from the airport to our hotel near Placa Catalunya at the top of Las Ramblas, and another one from the hotel to the port, another from the port to the airport, etc. We were a family of 4 with 4 checked suitcases and had no problems with the taxis.

 

[Mineu]

Thanks! The whole air fare thing is very confusing as the other carriers have prices from 1200 on up-so US Air looks really good at just under 900. US air has actually gone up since I started watching-so will it go up and the others come down? I would just go ahead and purchase them now-but I have to wait until the teachers give my kids permission to take their exams early... To add more confusion to the mix-we looked at RCCL since they leave after exams and their prices are better-but flying out on their dates is more $$ and of course, I really can't imagine sailing without Mickey!!

 

[Morgey24]

From what I've been able to find, unless you book your air and hotel with DCL, the transfers are just from the airport to the port.

However, there are many hotels in the Ramblas area that are not far from the port--depending on who I believe, a 5-15 minute cab ride for about $20. No personal experience with this--I'm trying to put it all together for myself! One guy said the port was a 20 minute walk from his hotel in this area. There is one hotel in the Marina (port) area, but it's very expensive.

The port of Barcelona is very LARGE, unlike Pt Canaveral, more like Lauderdale or Rome's Civitavecchia. When we were there in November we HAD to take a bus transfer just to get out of the port (were told that no foot traffic was allowed, but we did see some folks later in the day walking).

As far as hotels, Barcelona has tons and Las Ramblas is, indeed, right outside of the port. As with anything else, the closer you are to the center of the action, the more it is going to cost. I'd weigh when I was arriving and how much I might want to do/see before boarding to determine where I was going to stay. For example, if you were arriving late day AND wanted to be first in line to board, I'd look at an airport hotel. If I was getting in very early on an overnight flight and were more relaxed about boarding later the next day, I'd look for something nearer to Las Ramblas.

I'd try venere to look for hotel room. I just went on there and looked for a 4 star hotel for four persons for 1 night for May 25th and found the Hotel Apsis Porta Marina - Barcelona for 100 Euros ($130). It's near the Sagrada Familia which you can walk to from Las Ramblas (maybe 1/4 mile?). The other 4 star hotels listed were 130 - 180 Euros. No where near $900!!!

 

[Morgey24]

I talked to an agent-but am still confused. I would rather fly in a day early-but to get their transfer from the airport to the hotel-I would have to book their hotel- they quoted the Hilton Diagonal Mar with hotel only for the 4 of us as $982-with additional $$ for the transfers!! So, it sounds like we can't use their transfers unless we arrive the day of the cruise or arrive early and use their hotel and flight-is this right? I think we may be better off using our Marriott points and taking a taxi!

I just checked the Hilton website directly - a room for 4 is 215 Euros (on May 25th - you didn't indicate your sail date.) Certainly not the $982 they were quoting you!! I say book on your own & take a cab.