We stayed at the
Renaissance Barcelona Fira Hotel before the trip which is just outside the downtown area. Very quiet and nice area to recover from a long flight. See my link about the the hotel. This hotel has a cruise package wich offers a great made to order breakfast and transfers to the port. We loved that place and would not hesitate to stay there again. The pic is from this hotel.
After the cruise we stayed at
Hotel Jazz. Right in the middle of the action near Las Ramblas. Loved this place as well.
We used Barcelona Day Tours for all our transfers. Highly recommended!!