Barcelona, Spain Hotels...Any Suggestions?

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Okay I will check out tripadvisor.
I wasn't aware (since I don't know diddly about Barcelona LOL) that there were so many hotels or that they were all close to the port. I was thinking have my TA just book us a room with AC Diplomatic since it's the cheapest one thru DCL and then I'd be able to use DCL transfers (which would be included if we stayed with their air- from hotel to port but not from airport to hotel that's not booked with them, since it's one of their hotels. If I'm undertanding my TA correctly).
But if it's really easy to get around- that's not a consideration I guess.
(however it was mentioned taxis for 4 and luggage. We're a family of 5 and I'm not sure I want to be seperated from DH while in Barcelona, or any foreign place for that matter. KWIM? So that is something we have to consider... what kind of transportation could we possibly get on our own, not thru DCL, that would keep us all together? It sounds impossible really. So it's likely we'd go with DCL transportation regardless of whether it's included (in air/hotel pkg) or if we have to pay for it seperately.
I mean what other options would there be for a family of 5 to travel airport to hotel, hotel to port, while staying together and not taking seperate taxis?

Don't worry about the hotel! If you want to book everything thru DCL, I am sure that a hotel will open up for you. A lot of the people who are booking hotels on their own booked a hotel with Disney when they first opened the reservations.

I knew nothing of Europe or Barcelona. The whole idea was overwhelming so I just booked everything with Disney. I knew we had trouble with very expensive one way airfare for the Panama Canal trip and I didn't want to mess with that either.

Disney Cruise Line was my safety net school! I needed to have something I could depend on. Now I am working on my "reach" schools. It might not work out, but I can try. I am feeling a little more confident, but I am still looking at DCL hotels as they will have cruise desks.

If you want to keep the DCL air, you might want to check with DCL or your travel agent. I believe that they told me when I booked the TA that if you wanted to come in a day before the cruise they would charge a $75 air deviation fee. They would waive the fee if you booked a hotel thru DCL. It has been a long time tho' so don't trust my memory!

Good luck. There is a certain peace in not having to worry about arrangements and leaving the planning to DCL.

I'm understanding how you feel and honestly it's kinda how I feel too- to a point.
For now the problem is that we CAN'T get a room thru DCL- we're waitlisted for that. And a room might not become available- or might become available only in the more expensive hotels which we can't afford (since we have to get atleast 2 rooms. I think. They originally had us booked for 2 rooms before the baltic cruise, which we cancelled. But we're a family of 5 and people are commenting that it's only 2 per room? So I'm a bit confused on that. Our youngest will be 10 on this cruise..)

to a point (depending on $$) i'd pay a bit more for the peace of mind to let DCL handle it all- but at this point I don't have that choice since I can't get the room thru DCL and may never be able to.

ahhhhhh i'm stressed. I'm gonna check out tripadvisor and see if I can start looking at airfare on my own too. I wasn't ready to to this just yet. LOL

 

[kcashner]

OK, I've never been to Barcelona, so everything I know (or think I know) is from a guidebook or a friend who lived there. There are LOTS of hotels. Disney has chosen some of the more expensive ones. What wasn't there before the olympics was built to handle that tourist influx. Public transportation (bus and taxi) is available and reasonably priced. The port area was re-done before the olympics. It is a long but "do-able" walk from LaRamblas....translation, with luggage, etc. you'll take a cab. There is public transportation on a regular schedule from the port area to the airport and from town to the airport.

The city is fairly compact and easy to get around in.


I'm open to ALL suggestions, but this looks very do-able. I booked Disney air as my safety net. When I reach the 330 day mark, I'll try to book on my own. From the prices I can see now for "dummy" dates, I should be able to do it for about 2/3 of the DCL air charges...if prices for our dates stay the same.

 

[Mineu]

I spent the weekend researching-here is what I found: A lot of the Barcelona hotels will only allow two people per room-some have family rooms that sleep 4-it is hard to find accomodations for 5 or more. The hotel Grand Marina is the closest to the port. Duquessa de Cardona is also close to the port -has a family room and breakfast. Le Meridien (Starwood) and Renaissance Airport (Marriott) will allow you to sleep more than 2 per room and you can call the 1800# here to book these rooms-it's easier to make special requests... In the end, I booked the Atenea Mar for $120 per room on priceline. It may not be in the center of the city-but I doubt if we will do much touring after a long flight-it is near the beach which sounds good to me!

If you are more than 4-you will need 2 taxis which is at least 30-40 euros plus luggae fees. We booked the Barcelona Shuttle sevice for $149 (pre-pay) euros-they will pick us up at the airport-bring us to the hotel and then pick us up at the port and bring us back to the hotel. They also offer a 4 hour tour of the city for an additional fee...

Try ITA for flights-you can get an idea for schedules and prices. Yapta will track price drops for you... Good luck!!

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

OK, I've never been to Barcelona, so everything I know (or think I know) is from a guidebook or a friend who lived there. There are LOTS of hotels. Disney has chosen some of the more expensive ones. What wasn't there before the olympics was built to handle that tourist influx. Public transportation (bus and taxi) is available and reasonably priced. The port area was re-done before the olympics. It is a long but "do-able" walk from LaRamblas....translation, with luggage, etc. you'll take a cab. There is public transportation on a regular schedule from the port area to the airport and from town to the airport.

The city is fairly compact and easy to get around in.


I'm open to ALL suggestions, but this looks very do-able. I booked Disney air as my safety net. When I reach the 330 day mark, I'll try to book on my own. From the prices I can see now for "dummy" dates, I should be able to do it for about 2/3 of the DCL air charges...if prices for our dates stay the same.

If we could take bus that'd be more "doable" for us rather than seperating and taking 2 taxis. I'm really not fond of that idea- at all.

I can't get tripadvisor to work- it won't even go to the dates before the WBTA so I'm not sure how others are using it? Just to check on hotels and then contacting the hotel directly or what? I can't get it to search hotels and check pricing though if it won't let me put in our dates... prices would be relative to the date of arrival/departure ofcourse.
And I guess we need to find which ones wll allow 3 in the room, and book 2 rooms. We can NOT book 3 rooms for our family of 5- what a waste that would be becasue obviously we're not going to have any of our kids in a room without an adult with them (and obviously we're only 2 adults which does not equal 3 rooms LOL)
ITA? yapta? I'm lost..... sorry.

 

[shushh]

If we could take bus that'd be more "doable" for us rather than seperating and taking 2 taxis. I'm really not fond of that idea- at all. (

Have you thought about private transfers? It may work out cheaper for you as a family of 5. We are going to drop DCL transfers as there are 7 of us. Lots of helpful links in the sticky under 2007 med and transatlantic thread

 

[Mineu]

Don't feel bad-I don't use the Trip Advisor search for hotels either-it has a lot of pop up windows which my computer doesn't like. I search on Expedia for hotels and then read the reviews on Trip Advisor. If you type in Barcelona on Trip Advisor you can click on hotels and you'll see a list of hotels listed from most popular on... You can also click on forums and ask a question or do a search to see if someone else already asked your question.

Type in ITA in your google box and then click on ITA software and then the first box that says search airfares. This site gives you a ton of choices-and it tells you if the connection is tight or if there is a long layover. Yapta.com is a website that lets you plug in dates and then it shows you various prices and will track the rise and fall of your dates and location for you-sending you an alert if your price drops. Try researching one thing at a time-it's less overwhelming.

 

[sandiedvc]

Here is the AC Barcelona hotel. http://www.ac-hotels.com/171-AC_BARCELONA.html

To check out the room types you have to go to reservations. When you put in the dates, it will give you the room types they have available for the date. When you click on each room type, it will give you a description of the rooms.

They do have rooms that sleep 3. They also have twin beds. Both those room types are currently 120 euros. There is a 7% VAT on the rooms. So they would be about $187 inc tax each.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Thanks Sandie- I will check it out!
I was trying to find on tripadvisor and the dates wouldn't work (and honestly the website is acting funky- like any and all graphics not showing. KWIM?) and so I tried on expedia- but can't do it for the date of WBTA just yet. However, if I play around with dates for slightly later (October) for this year the prices seem much lower than what DCL is charging us.

Also with playing around with dates- I found atleast one that is a 2rm apartment type place that would allow all 5 of us there. It's the Grandom Suites?
I can't tell what I'm supposed to be trying to find a hotel "near" though. What's the name of the port there so I can tell how far each hotel is from the port (as well as airport). The only review on that one is good- and also mentions using the metro transportation for everything... but I have no idea if it's far from the port. When I zoom out on the map for it- it SEEMS kinda close to the port. LOL

I'm assuming anyone who is booking hotels for the WBTA is doing so directly by phone? I don't know about calling Barcelona....... And how in the world is anyone booking flights already?? I can't get to those dates yet.

All I know is on my "fake dates" I used (October this year- which is about a month later than I'll be booking for next year) is that the flight is coming out almost $1000 cheaper (total for all 5 of us) and this Grandom Suites is $477 where we were being charged for AC Diplomatic (when we had it booked before the Baltic cruise, before the WBTA) $693. so at the moment- if those "fake dates" are any indication of what we might be able to book on our own- we'd be saving about $1220 and I think that's a fair enough amount to sufficiently cover any transportation we'd have to pay on our own not using DCL air/hotel. LOL (and then some, right?)

 

[Anal Annie]

One benefit of booking the hotel with Disney is if you are also using Disney air, they will waive the air deviation fee (which is per traveller) so you can request a flight that gets in earlier, with fewer changes, at a more reasonable time. But the price differences we're seeing between the disney hotels and booking them directly could be significant enough to offset the $300 deviation fee for a family of 4.



If you're using Disney air and want to arrive earlier or stay later, then you need to pay a $75 "deviation" fee per person. When you book air with Disney you are giving them the right to get you to the departure city in time for the cruise in the cheapest manner (to them) possible. That could mean one or more connections, a lengthy total travel time, and times that aren't convenient for a family. Paying the fee gives you the opportunity to dictate to Disney how and when you want to fly to/from the cruise. So if you're using Disney air and planning on arriving in barcelona 3 days before the cruise, you'd pay the fee and fill out a form requesting a flight that arrives 3 days early. (I'd also take advantage of the opportunity to request a specific flight on a specific carrier that works best in your schedule.)



Your memory is good! That's the same information we were told.

I priced the DCL "cruise air" before we booked our 2011 Med - DCL literally wanted $2,000 pp!! Then I went to kayak.com and set up a search (for next August just for a comparison) and the prices ranged from around $854 to $1,150. Granted for $854 there were long layovers etc. - but I figured for approx. $1,000 pp we could surely skip paying double that with DCL. I know there are benefits with buying the "cruise air" but is it worth $1,000 pp more?! At $2,000 pp that would literally put the price for the air at more than what we're paying for the cruise itself!!

 

[sandiedvc]

My guess is that most people on the WBTA are booking hotels online. The Spanish hotels seem to be available at least a year in advance, where hotels here are only available 11 months in advance.

I did check the Hilton Diagonal Mar online and they are not available to book yet as they seem to follow the USA model of 11 months out.

Hilton did have rooms for 3, but they are currently a lot more expensive than the AC Barcelona. I just put in dummy dates in 8/2010 to see rates and room types.

Where you look for hotels in Barcelona depends on what you want to experience there. Many want to stay in the middle of the action on or near the Ramblas.

We would prefer something a little quieter.

As far as I am concerned there is no right answer, only how your family prefers to travel!

For reference here is a map of Barcelona:
http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/maps/barcelona-map.html

They also have an interactive hotel map: http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/hotels/hotelmaps/barcelona-hotel-map.html

The Hilton and AC Barcelona are in the section called Pouble Nou east of the cruise terminal and nearer the beach than the other DCL hotels. The other hotels are in the center of town just north of the cruise terminal.

 

[Anal Annie]

Those are great sites - I'm gonna put them into my favorites for later!!

 

[kaseyC]

Thanks Sandie- I will check it out!
I was trying to find on tripadvisor and the dates wouldn't work (and honestly the website is acting funky- like any and all graphics not showing. KWIM?) and so I tried on expedia- but can't do it for the date of WBTA just yet. However, if I play around with dates for slightly later (October) for this year the prices seem much lower than what DCL is charging us.

Also with playing around with dates- I found atleast one that is a 2rm apartment type place that would allow all 5 of us there. It's the Grandom Suites?
I can't tell what I'm supposed to be trying to find a hotel "near" though. What's the name of the port there so I can tell how far each hotel is from the port (as well as airport). The only review on that one is good- and also mentions using the metro transportation for everything... but I have no idea if it's far from the port. When I zoom out on the map for it- it SEEMS kinda close to the port. LOL

I'm assuming anyone who is booking hotels for the WBTA is doing so directly by phone? I don't know about calling Barcelona....... And how in the world is anyone booking flights already?? I can't get to those dates yet.

All I know is on my "fake dates" I used (October this year- which is about a month later than I'll be booking for next year) is that the flight is coming out almost $1000 cheaper (total for all 5 of us) and this Grandom Suites is $477 where we were being charged for AC Diplomatic (when we had it booked before the Baltic cruise, before the WBTA) $693. so at the moment- if those "fake dates" are any indication of what we might be able to book on our own- we'd be saving about $1220 and I think that's a fair enough amount to sufficiently cover any transportation we'd have to pay on our own not using DCL air/hotel. LOL (and then some, right?)

Check out Venere.com. It's a European Hotel booking site. It gives you the option to see location of the hotels on a map. For Barcelona, especially for touring and port access you probably want to be in the Central area/ Gothic Quarter. I've included the link below .

http://www.venere.com/spain/barcelona/#o=default&r=0&m=0&f=C0001000000002c0&sb=1&ms=2&mz=557578

 

[tea for girls]

I also like www.venere.com, but I recently found www.hotels.com and find that it is a little easier to use when looking for a family type room or a room that can accomodate more than 2 people. You will have to wait a little longer on that site to look for Sept. 2010 as they are not booking that far in advance. But you could put in a dummy date for earlier in 2010 and see if one hotel in particular would meet your needs for Sept. and then contact that hotel directly via email. I prefer emailing foreign hotels as language barriers can be a problem via phone.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

IMHO the AC Barcelona hotel is to far out, its not centrally located, we could go for a walk from our hotel in the evening, walk to La Ramba, Hard Rock cafe, where the tourist buses (2) start and gaudi's buildings and shops.

 

[kaseyC]

I also like www.venere.com, but I recently found www.hotels.com and find that it is a little easier to use when looking for a family type room or a room that can accomodate more than 2 people. You will have to wait a little longer on that site to look for Sept. 2010 as they are not booking that far in advance. But you could put in a dummy date for earlier in 2010 and see if one hotel in particular would meet your needs for Sept. and then contact that hotel directly via email. I prefer emailing foreign hotels as language barriers can be a problem via phone.

Thanks for the hotels.com site. I've never used that one before. We are in the process of booking a number of rooms for my family of 5 and my sisters family of 4 in Barcelona for 3 nights before our Med cruise in June 2010. Right now we are booked at the Hotel 1898, DH and I absolutely loved it during our pre-cruise stay in 2006. My sister wants something less expensive. So the search continues.

 

[sandiedvc]

AC Barcelona is probably too far out from the city center to easily enjoy what is there.

We may still change when we figure out what times our flights will be. We cannot get to Barcelona non stop from our hometown. We are flying in the day before the cruise.

If we fly to somewhere in the US to board a non stop to BCN, we will arrive early in the morning on Friday. We would probably have time to wander a bit before jet lag hit us so a more central location would probably be better.

If we fly non stop from our hometown to a European destination and then get a flight from there to Barcelona, we will not get in until the afternoon at the earliest. I am afraid that we will only have enough energy to go to the mall across the street from the hotel and pick up a few things and then go to bed. In that case, I want the cheapest safe place to sleep.

 

[gismo1554]

Just wanted to say, we're only coming in the night before but are staying at the Renaissance at the Airport where we stayed last time. This is coming up at 125 Euros a night at the moment so reasonable price. Also has a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel and a free shuttle from the hotel to the centre of Barcelona. There is also a Port shuttle for 10 Euros per person as well which is a much better deal than a taxi. Might be good for those who don't mind having a base just outside the centre of Barcelona!

 

[eva]

After looking at Hotel 1898, I decided to book them for our stay prior. Now I have to decide which reservation to keep. I have one with Eurostar's Grand Marina Hotel Barcelona too. We are paying a bit more for Hotel 1898 because I am keen on a deluxe room with a terrace. We had a similar terrace at our hotel in Rome last year and really enjoyed sitting out there at night with a drink. We do have a junior suite with balcony booked at the Grand Marina Hotel. Oh, Decisions Decisions!

Well, at least I know we are staying at the Renaissance the night we get back. We will be flying out early the next day and the free shuttle to the airport will be great. I was able to reserve a concierge room at a fairly good rate.

 

[kakop]

We stayed at a wonderful B&B/apartment in Barcelona in 2007, called the Marina View BCN. We were a party of 12, and filled up all 5 rooms (very comfortably) for about 80-100 euros/night depending on the room. This included a very nice breakfast served by the owner who lived in the building on an upper floor.

The location was fantastic-near the harbor and right around the corner from Las Ramblas. I would highly recommend it. It also received great reviews on trip advisor.

 

[acourtwdw]

This may sound like a weird question but do the hotels Barcelona have en suite bathrooms? I really don't want to share the bathroom while on vacation. I assume the American hotels (Marriott, Holiday Inn, Westin etc) do but what about the European ones?