Just off med cruise Barcelona. Any questions?

[disneyholic family]

Thanks
One year planning and it was a whirlwind but so fun. I was fortunate to have remote work days on both travel days to Europe and back as long as I had full access to email. So I only had to take five days off.

since it costs so much for us to fly to the US, to make it worthwhile to spend all that flight money we visit WDW for at least 2 weeks, usually 3 (last august was 24 days at WDW plus a 3 night DCL cruise)...
back before smartphones, we had to spend every afternoon in the hotel while DH worked on his laptop- and he was typically up most of the night working as well...

now with smartphones, he can be available wherever he's at, which admittedly often annoys the kids, since he tends to be talking, texting and emailing on that phone non-stop throughout the day and night...(but at least he doesn't have to go back to the hotel just to check his email)..

and it does allow him to be with us on our very long visits to the mouse...

this summer wasn't in the cards for a big family trip (i'm in treatment for cancer), but next summer we have a kind of short vacation booked for the whole family.....
DS doesn't want to fly all the way to the US with his 3 young kids (last summer with 2 was hard enough)...
but we wanted to do something in celebration of my being finished (hopefully), and we want to see the mouse, so i booked us on the 7 night barcelona to dover on the magic, then we'll take the eurostar to DLP for 4 nights, then home....so that's probably our shortest mouse trip ever...
11 nights...really short....really really short....but it will be the first time the grandkids will be on a ship so that should be fun...
correction...it's not 11 nights...just 11 nights with the mouse...i forgot we have to get into barcelona early....i have us booked for 3 nights in advance of the cruise...

oh...and the reason the kids can take such long vacations? they're all teachers, so they have off in the summer....
the most crowded and expensive time of the year to travel, but it's a tradeoff...at least they can take long vacations...(and not have to constantly be on their smartphone like DH)....
probably why they picked education as a career
.

 

[jujubiee4]

Currently flying back to the states so will log a quick note and more later.
We took the July 17 5 day cruise.
Flew in 7/14 and stayed in a VBRO apt in the gothic quarter. Fantastic!!!
Relied on taxis. They literally are everywhere and super easy.
Barcelona port is easy and smooth to board.
Cannes: did a catamaran cruise. Least favorite thing we did. Not the same as snorkeling in the Caribbean at all.
Pisa: booked just bus on our own to Pisa. Hot hot walk to the tower for an afternoon.
Rome we hired a private driver and that is the way to do it. Literally picked up at shop. Dropped off to a private guide at the Vatican for a two hour tour. Then an amazing home made lunch!
Then back with our driver who drove us right up to the most sites and back to the air conditioned van. Then back to port by 5.
Sea day was pretty rocky.
Getting off the ship was a snap. There is no customs. U walk off get your luggage and go.
10 minutes top so don’t rush.
Got to the airport fast and waited almost three hours for our flight. Simple customs in the airport and use sky priority if u have it for their fast lane.
We flew to Paris for a day and stayed at Hilton at CDG. Saw the Eiffel Tower and Norte Dame. Are a great dinner and macaroons. Used Uber there and back to hotel.
Then through CDG and back to the US.
I’ll add some more thoughts later.

Thank you for posting this! I had no idea 5 day was even available. I thought minimum was 7. We couldn't go to Europe without
trying Disney Paris and eiffel tower. Adding 2-3 days in Paris plus 2 days travel time with cruise added up . Too much work off so we never considered it. Now from your report this is an option for 2019.

*what did you think of Paris? Which would you add more days to? France or Spain? 10 days max total would be for the trip but im hoping
to do it in 9.**

 

[disneyholic family]

Thank you for posting this! I had no idea 5 day was even available. I thought minimum was 7. We couldn't go to Europe without
trying Disney Paris and eiffel tower. Adding 2-3 days in Paris plus 2 days travel time with cruise added up . Too much work off so we never considered it. Now from your report this is an option for 2019.

*what did you think of Paris? Which would you add more days to? France or Spain? 10 days max total would be for the trip but im hoping
to do it in 9.**

everyone has their own take on places, but i would choose france over spain.....
however, you do have to arrive early for the cruise, especially if you're flying from far away, so that means spending at least a day or two in barcelona before the cruise...

 

[Joel0917]

Thank you for posting this! I had no idea 5 day was even available. I thought minimum was 7. We couldn't go to Europe without
trying Disney Paris and eiffel tower. Adding 2-3 days in Paris plus 2 days travel time with cruise added up . Too much work off so we never considered it. Now from your report this is an option for 2019.

*what did you think of Paris? Which would you add more days to? France or Spain? 10 days max total would be for the trip but im hoping
to do it in 9.**

we chose spain on the front end so we could easily get acclimated to the 6 hour time change and be there on time with no worries the morning of the cruise. The paris day after was default, we were flying from barcelona back to detroit and most flights from BCN connected through CDG or AMsterdam back to Detroit. it was actually $2100 cheaper for the 4 of us to fly BCN to CDG and then fly CDG the next day to Detroit. it was counted as one continuous flight even thought 2nd flight was 20 hours later. so we had the one bonus day in France. Was not the original plan. Paris is great and for sure a place to spend 2-3 days. however i felt more "welcomed" as a tourist in Barcelona. There is so much history and things to see there. i actually would go back to Barcelona before Paris. I would do Disneyland paris though the next time through!

 

[Joel0917]

everyone has their own take on places, but i would choose france over spain.....
however, you do have to arrive early for the cruise, especially if you're flying from far away, so that means spending at least a day or two in barcelona before the cruise...

exactly! i fly to port canaveral and ALWAYS fly a day in early and when possible we spend a day at WDW after the cruise, just at a resort to just chill in the WDW bubble! Before flying back the next day.

 

[Joel0917]

since it costs so much for us to fly to the US, to make it worthwhile to spend all that flight money we visit WDW for at least 2 weeks, usually 3 (last august was 24 days at WDW plus a 3 night DCL cruise)...
back before smartphones, we had to spend every afternoon in the hotel while DH worked on his laptop- and he was typically up most of the night working as well...

now with smartphones, he can be available wherever he's at, which admittedly often annoys the kids, since he tends to be talking, texting and emailing on that phone non-stop throughout the day and night...(but at least he doesn't have to go back to the hotel just to check his email)..

and it does allow him to be with us on our very long visits to the mouse...

this summer wasn't in the cards for a big family trip (i'm in treatment for cancer), but next summer we have a kind of short vacation booked for the whole family.....
DS doesn't want to fly all the way to the US with his 3 young kids (last summer with 2 was hard enough)...
but we wanted to do something in celebration of my being finished (hopefully), and we want to see the mouse, so i booked us on the 7 night barcelona to dover on the magic, then we'll take the eurostar to DLP for 4 nights, then home....so that's probably our shortest mouse trip ever...
11 nights...really short....really really short....but it will be the first time the grandkids will be on a ship so that should be fun...
correction...it's not 11 nights...just 11 nights with the mouse...i forgot we have to get into barcelona early....i have us booked for 3 nights in advance of the cruise...

oh...and the reason the kids can take such long vacations? they're all teachers, so they have off in the summer....
the most crowded and expensive time of the year to travel, but it's a tradeoff...at least they can take long vacations...(and not have to constantly be on their smartphone like DH)....
probably why they picked education as a career
.

Ditto on that. My wife is a teacher. so our vacations are always Easter and summer. So should could take any time off in summer to travel. my work is a little flexible for days more than 5 as long as i'm accessible and get work done. And as long as i have wifi, i'm good!

 

[jujubiee4]

everyone has their own take on places, but i would choose france over spain.....
however, you do have to arrive early for the cruise, especially if you're flying from far away, so that means spending at least a day or two in barcelona before the cruise...

Looking at the logistics Im thinking of flying to Paris first. The flights to Barcelona look short and cheap. I would be a nervous
wreck if the flight from the states was delayed but if we are going to sightsee France first we just miss some of that time.

 

[jujubiee4]

we chose spain on the front end so we could easily get acclimated to the 6 hour time change and be there on time with no worries the morning of the cruise. The paris day after was default, we were flying from barcelona back to detroit and most flights from BCN connected through CDG or AMsterdam back to Detroit. it was actually $2100 cheaper for the 4 of us to fly BCN to CDG and then fly CDG the next day to Detroit. it was counted as one continuous flight even thought 2nd flight was 20 hours later. so we had the one bonus day in France. Was not the original plan. Paris is great and for sure a place to spend 2-3 days. however i felt more "welcomed" as a tourist in Barcelona. There is so much history and things to see there. i actually would go back to Barcelona before Paris. I would do Disneyland paris though the next time through!

This is interesting as im looking for "open jaw" or multicity flights. I couldn't find a flight with a layover in Paris for any length
of time. What airline did you use?

 

[disneyholic family]

i don't know what airline he used, but delta sometimes works well with open jaw and multicity...and sometimes you get screwball things where adding an extra city makes it cheaper..

it happened to us when we flew to anchorage...

originally i priced a flight from where i live (israel) to detroit (to visit family).
and then i decided to add on alaska and return to detroit before going back home.

Well by adding on anchorage, the price actually went down. so flying really really really far, made the price cheaper. go figure.

 

[disneyholic family]

we chose spain on the front end so we could easily get acclimated to the 6 hour time change and be there on time with no worries the morning of the cruise. The paris day after was default, we were flying from barcelona back to detroit and most flights from BCN connected through CDG or AMsterdam back to Detroit. it was actually $2100 cheaper for the 4 of us to fly BCN to CDG and then fly CDG the next day to Detroit. it was counted as one continuous flight even thought 2nd flight was 20 hours later. so we had the one bonus day in France. Was not the original plan. Paris is great and for sure a place to spend 2-3 days. however i felt more "welcomed" as a tourist in Barcelona. There is so much history and things to see there. i actually would go back to Barcelona before Paris. I would do Disneyland paris though the next time through!

do you live in metro detroit? that's where i'm originally from and my family still lives (mom, sister)...
i fly delta a lot because of that so i'm familiar with some interesting things that can come up with delta pricing..
though i don't know if you were referring to delta..

.

 

[Joel0917]

This is interesting as im looking for "open jaw" or multicity flights. I couldn't find a flight with a layover in Paris for any length
of time. What airline did you use?

I dd use delta. We flew southwest to Atlanta first on a Thursday night. Then Friday took a 545 direct to Barcelona and arrived 830am.
Way back originally we were doing delta back to Detroit on 1220 to CDG from BCN and the it was a later afternoon to Detroit. But doing CDG to bcn and then doing the 10am the next day was cheaper. We had to set it up as a multi city tour it was not given on the website as a choice.