August 13, 2011 Med - Mickey's Marauding Mates

[luke]

We're going to be looking for a Barcelona hotel for the day before and after too.
I'd go against the talk above and am not a fan of Las Ramblas, the Barri Gotic is a cool place to be tho

 

[MRAven]

We're going to be looking for a Barcelona hotel for the day before and after too.
I'd go against the talk above and am not a fan of Las Ramblas, the Barri Gotic is a cool place to be tho

Could you please share with us on your perception of The Ramblas, and yes The Gotic Barrio is very nice too. All coments before a final decision do help a lot.

 

[mkmommy]

The Novotel is on my "short list" for places to stay mainly bcuz of the price & the fact we can sleep 3 in 1 room AND it has the breakfast included. Glad to hear they would store our luggage if we checked in early. It LOOKS nice enough from the pics on their website. I just wish it was a little more centrally located...but I'm sure that's not really a biggie - the price is almost too good to pass up. Did you like it enough that you would you stay there again next year or will you search for something better for sightseeing? We need a place pre-cruise & a place after so I have been debating if we should experiment with 2 diff. places or use the same place for both. I have been considering the Marriott at the airport for the 1 night pre-cruise bcuz they also have a shuttle to the port which would be convenient. But I hear it's a pretty good schlep into the city if we wanted to go exploring. I will probably wait to see what TIME our flight actually arrives from Paris after we book our flights. If we don't get there until later in the day the idea of exploring that evening might be a mute point so we may as well be convenient to the airport so we can just plop. They appear to have a nice pool...after 3 full days on the go in Paris & at DLP we might be ready to just chill for the evening. If we arrive early in the day then I will want to stay more in the city. If we end up not getting to Barcelona in time to explore then I will want more time AFTER the cruise.... OH SO MANY DECISIONS to make and "only" 11 months to make them in!!

If I was going with kids again I would stay at the Novotel, the rooms are large, the sofa bed is comfortable, so great for kids and it is close to the metro about a 2 minute walk, and it felt very safe and quiet. There was a HOHO bus that stopped at the Mall across the street, so unless you want to be right in the middle of the tourist area I don't think the location of the Novotel is an issue.

 

[luke]

For me, the Ramblas is just too 'touristy' (I know, I know, we're tourists ) and far more expensive in things like bars and restaurants because of this. That's not to say it's not fun to stroll along watching the street performers and enjoying the atmosphere, but for the sake of a five or ten minute walk I'd rather stay off the Ramblas for the big savings you'll make for quality hotels

 

[Anal Annie]

I can't TELL YOU how excited I am to see chatter on this thread!!

Another hotel (with a small pool) that I have listed on our website is the EuroPark. It is currently ranked at #10 out of 560 Barcelona hotels on Trip Advisor... ALSO very reasonably priced and it appears that their "Euro" room will hold up to 3 persons (at least when I plug in 3 people and choose 1 room it LOOKS like it's an available option. I am emailing them to be sure.) Most of the reviews I have read on it are very positive (always a good thing) although nobody raves about the view like I have read about from the Novotel's roof!! I am not sure if it's in a much better location or not.

http://www.nnhotels.com/en/hoteleuropark/rooms-hotel-barcelona.php

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187497-d232781-Reviews-EuroPark_Hotel-Barcelona_Catalonia.html

 

[luke]

Quick scan of a map with my ok knowledge of Barcelona makes that hotel not a bad location. A bit inland from La Rambla but doesn't look a long walk to Plaça Catalunya where the Corte Ingles and Hard Rocl Cafe are.
Where abouts is the Novotel? A rooftop pool sounds interesting to me

 

[Anal Annie]

Quick scan of a map with my ok knowledge of Barcelona makes that hotel not a bad location. A bit inland from La Rambla but doesn't look a long walk to Plaça Catalunya where the Corte Ingles and Hard Rocl Cafe are.
Where abouts is the Novotel? A rooftop pool sounds interesting to me

luke - if you haven't done so yet check out the link in my siggie that goes to the website I started for our cruise... I started a hotel page that has direct links to both the EuroPark and the Novotel + a handful of others. I wanted to add more but then we never picked up any more peeps so I thought I was the only 1 using the site so I stopped working on it!! Both of these hotels have rooftop pools!!

 

[Anal Annie]

OK - I got a reply from the EuroPark (very promptly I might add):

Dear Mrs Lee Ann White,

We only have the triple rooms that do have 3 normal beds. But to sleep 4 you would need 2 separate rooms.

Yours sincerely,

Marc Ellerbrock
Front Desk Department
Hotel Europark

Aragó, 323-325. 08009 Barcelona
Tel: 0034 934 579 205 | Fax: 0034 934 589 961

heuropark@nnhotels.com | www.nnhotels.com

Under his signature were links to these other Barcelona properties - so I think they're all owned or run by the same parent hospitality group. I see a couple of ritzy ones like the Hotel 1898 so I think that is another good sign as that one is $$$$$ and rated quite well...

B-hotel
Hotel Soho Barcelona
Hotel Jazz
Hotel 1898
Hotel Granvia
Hotel BCN Universal
U232 Hotel
Hotel Paral·lel
Hotel Europark

 

[Anal Annie]

11 months from today!!!!!!!

Been visiting a little bit on my old cruise thread for 10-nighter we orig. had booked...they've been picking up a lot of new peeps who went this summer & rebooked for next year 'cuz they had SUCH a good time!! That's good to hear, right?! ANYWAY, they reminded me of another option that I haven't put on the website yet...an alternate idea to a hotel is short-term apartment rentals. There are several available that are just about as reasonably priced as hotels - a GREAT option for larger groups or families. The first link below is one they had & the 2nd link is one I'd gotten a long time ago from Andrew Derek UK (remember him?). Most of them require at least 3 nights minimum stay but if you're adding on time pre- or post- cruise they're a good thing to look into since it's hard to find hotels that sleep more than 2 or 3 per room!!

http://www.habitatapartments.com/en

http://www.enjoybcn.com/en/catalogo/listado_4.html

 

[luke]

Woo 11 months exactly!
Cool!!
Disney still not took my deposit yet, just put a hold on my card for the amount it is.
The cruise shows up in my Castaway Club page tho, which I checked for the first time yesterday, kind of exciting seeing it sat there in the 'my cruises' bit

 

[Anal Annie]

Well, I've been doing more research on hotels in Barcelona. Rather than narrowing down my list I have expanded it! I have been comparing some that were recommended in "Frommer's travel guide to Barcelona" to the reviews on Trip Advisor and Booking.com. My objective of course is to find a place that will offer at least a "triple" sort of room where we can all sleep in one room at a reasonable price. The apartment idea is intriguing but I think for us, we'd be just as well off in a hotel with an onsite restaurant and hopefully a pool available for DS to have some chill time in. The apartment idea is definitely worthwhile for larger families though. So in addition to the Novotel I now have about 3 more on my short list with pools and 1 without. I'm still not done (Trip Advisor covers 560 hotels in Barcelona) but I've decided I want to stay in at least the top 200!! We'll choose 1 for our night before the cruise and another for our nights after. If we ever pick up any more peeps I'll add them to the website for everyone to access directly.

Soooo, luke - who's sailing with you?! Is Luke your real name or just a name you made up for the DISboards? Are you sailing solo or bringing family? Just a spouse or SO? Kids? Friends? How old? Boys? Girls? What kind of stateroom did you book? What can I put on the website & on our first post about you?? I'm thinking it's down to just the 2 of us now as Kelly & Justine haven't been around AT ALL in quite awhile. I'm getting the nagging feeling that they've ditched us. I checked the Magic cruise links thread and noticed that the Aug. 6 cruise doesn't even HAVE a thread yet so I guess that one is even emptier than ours!! Gosh I have all of my fingers & toes crossed for more discounts down the line before our PIF date if nobody else books!!

 

[luke]

My knowledge of Barcelona hotels isn't great as I've not stayed in the city itself for a while.
I'm hoping to be doing another school trip there in May (I'm a Spanish teacher) so will be keeping a keener lookout than usual!

Yep, Luke is my real name (imaginative user name eh ), I'll be sailing with my wife Paula and we are in an inside 11c GTY cabin

 

[Kels Sem]

My goodness there has been alot of activity on this thread recently!. Sorry I haven't been on in a while, I tend to be on TheDibb more. It's kinda like a UK version of the DIS. It has a very small cruise section and so far it's only Justine and myself on 13th August cruise so we haven't picked up any more peeps on those boards either well apart from Luke of course> TheDibb seem to have quite a few peeps sailing on the 20th August cruise.

So far the only hotel I have really looked at is the Novotel as I know it sleeps 4 which is what I need. It seems to get good reviews and there were quite a few Dibbers on the Dover to Barcelona cruise in the summer who stayed there and they would all recommend it. Still I can't do anything until the flights are out.

I will endeavour to be on more often.

Welcome aboard Luke

Kelly

 

[luke]

Hey thanks

Yeah I mostly spend my DIS time on the uk part of the boards so sometimes forget to check here, I would imagine a Med cruise would appeal to UK Disney fans tho and a few in the uk section here are planning cruises too, just not on this one

Will start to look in earnest at hotels pretty soon I think, need to make a note of when easyjet release the flights for our dates (will book the outbound as soon as, then the return when that's released to get the best prices).

 

[Kels Sem]

I'm also waiting on the Easyjet flights.. Aer Lingus also fly from Belfast and their flights will be available in the next couple of weeks. Going on this year's flight details Easyjet had better flight times then Aer Lingus and they usually come out cheaper

 

[luke]

Yeah easyjet seem to have decent flight times.
One of my best friends is a pilot for them too, so hoping that may reap some price benefits

Going to start looking at the port excursions soon and see where we think it's best to do Disney organized ones or something of our en

 

[Kels Sem]

Luke, when you find out when Easyjet release their flights can you please let me know. I do check periodically but you might get some inside info from your friend of when they are expected to be released.

Will start looking at port excursions to soon but to be honest not sure if we'll do too many. We are travelling with our 2 kids who will be 6 & 4 and there is not a mission that I'm dragging them round Rome/ Naples/ Pompeii or Florence. Some may wonder why we are even cruising but I'm on board for the ship and not the ports and to get my Disney fix. We will look at Villefrance and La Spezia. My cousin lives in Palma so that's that day sorted

 

[luke]

I'm like you, there fkr the Disney fix as we can't justify the massive flight prices to go to Orlando next year!
As it's just the two of us tho I'm looking forward to Rome (only went once, for the day, to watch football so didn't see anything really!!) especially, and Palma as it's a place I'd probably never go to otherwise so I'll enjoy wandering about Mallorca and speaking some Spanish

Am going to the football with my friend tonight so will check up on flight release dates, where is it you'll be flying from? Belfast? He is based there every now and then so will probably have a good idea of flights from there as well as his home base (here in Liverpool)

 

[Kels Sem]

Yes, i'll be flying from Belfast.
I'm also looking forward to having the ship to ourselves while everyone else is in Rome!

 

[Anal Annie]

My knowledge of Barcelona hotels isn't great as I've not stayed in the city itself for a while.
I'm hoping to be doing another school trip there in May (I'm a Spanish teacher) so will be keeping a keener lookout than usual!

Yep, Luke is my real name (imaginative user name eh ), I'll be sailing with my wife Paula and we are in an inside 11c GTY cabin

OK Luke, I added you to the first post here on our thread (but not to the website yet). Is this your 1st DCL or have you cruised with them before??? How lucky you are to be able to plan another trip to Barcelona before we cruise! You will have the lay of the land down for us all before we go!!

So you teach Spanish 'eh? LOL...I don't know a WORD of it other than Hola & Gracias!! DS is taking Spanish in school - I guess the way they do it here is he is in middle school (8th grade) this year and last year he had the equivalent of the first semester of HS Spanish I and this year he is taking the equivalent of the 2nd semester of Spanish I. (They start them slow I guess.) So NEXT year when he starts HS he will take Spanish II all in 1 year. I told him he has to be our translator! You will have to quiz him to see if he caught on or not!!!!