Departing for foreign cruises

[faiday]

On our first cruise, we stayed only one night in Barcelona in advance of the cruise, booked through DCL at their hotel selection (Le Meridien on Las Ramblas). We just walked around that first day up and down Las Ramblas and down to the port (not the cruise port - just a little farther along) where they had shops and restaurants. Spent some time drinking sangria and relaxing there and walked back. DCL transfers the next morning. That trip we flew Toronto-Barcelona and after the cruise Barcelona-Munich to visit family and then Munich-Toronto. Toronto-Barcelona and Munich-Toronto were booked on one ticket as a multi-city flight. We tried buying a one-way ticket for Barcelona-Munich but the price was insane (more than double a round trip ticket which makes no sense but that's what they do) so we purchased a roundtrip ticket Barcelona-Munich and only used the first leg.

Second Med cruise, we flew Toronto-Munich to visit family and then Munich to Barcelona and stayed one night in Barcelona in advance of the cruise, booked through DCL at their hotel selection (Diagonal del Mar). We didn't go out - there wasn't much in that area but the pool was on the roof along with a bar so we spent some time up there. Great views but we were too tired to go anywhere. Fantastic dinner at the hotel restaurant (best ribeye steak I've ever had). After the cruise, we stayed 3 nights at DCL's hotel selection (Renaissance International that time) and booked two tours through Viator but the arrival day we just walked around (we were close enough to walk back to Le Meridien where we'd stayed the first time to go to their restaurant Cent-Onze which we loved). One tour was a small group food and wine tour in areas around but outside Barcelona and one was a day-long tour through Barcelona. We went back to Cent-Onze for lunch (we had 2 hours on our own) on that latter tour. We then flew Barcelona-Toronto. We booked Toronto-Munich and Barcelona-Toronto as a multi-city flight and booked Munich-Barcelona as a separate flight. That latter flight was a roundtrip flight but we only used one leg because we were using points and it wouldn't let us book one-way. As with the previous time, we tried buying a one-way ticket but it was more than double the price of a roundtrip so we just booked the roundtrip with points and only flew the first leg.

This is very helpful. Thank you. I agree, the one way ticket prices are crazy.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We book everything on our own. I tend to always fly United and usually book my own flights online. For hotels I usually book through Booking.com looking at reviews on trip advisor or ask our travel agent for recommendations. We always go in at least two days ahead of a cruise. I will not cone in same day. It’s just way to stressful. We also do a little research ahead of time and make plans accordingly.

We always look for the hop on hop off bus In Any big city. Cheap and easy and gets you around to all the top spots.

A couple years ago before the transatlantic Cruise we went in a week ahead of time. Saw the downton abbey castle which I booked online and then drove thru Scotland looking at outlander sites. Again using a map I found online. And a day in Dover to visit the castle. It was a wonderful trip.

It’s amazing whAt you can find online these days.