Tour on Turnaround Day for B2B

Has anyone taken a private small group tour on turnaround day of a back-to-back. This is our first time attempting it in Barcelona and wondered if there were any issues with disembarking the ship while others are leaving for airports, etc. I am looking at a 5 hour tour of Montserrat as part of a group of 8 and thought it might be a nice way to spend the day. Am thinking of 8:30 - 1:30 time slot.

Can anyone share their experience?

Thank you.

My only knowledge is of Ft Lauderdale and many people do just that. But, I don't know about Barcelona. I would also post this on the Ports of Call Board under Europe. Have a great time!!

Might want to check scheduled events on the day you go to Monserrat...will you be able to hear the boy's choir? Will the you get to see the Black Madona? When we were there in the morning the choir was not performing and after a long wait in line , they closed the doors for services and we had a long bus ride to see Nothing....

We did a B2B on Infinity with Harwich, UK (TA and then British Isles cruise) as the turnaround day.

Celebrity provided us with our new key cards for the next cruise the night before we docked in Harwich. They even offered excursions on that day for B2B passengers. We took an excursion to Cambridge that was super.

We have been to Barcelona twice and loved the city. Also, we went to Montserrat on our own.

You can do it yourself, provided you go early, missing the crowds.

Here is a post that I copied from cc some time ago that helped us do Montserrat.

If you have a full day to do Montserrat I would propose the following schedule in order to always be one step ahead of the crowds:

Take the 7:36 train to Montserrat-Monistrol

Catch the 8:48 rack rail up to the monastery, arriving about 9:08

View the monastery, including Black Madonna (probably takes about 45 minutes to see all the monastery at a leisurely pace)

View the audiovisual presentation and displays (allow about 30 minutes)

Take the Sant Joan funicular up, see the nature center, and hike a bit if able to see the impressive views (head right out of the funicular for a good hike about 45 minutes round-trip) - this funicular is more popular so do it first before the lines get long

Take the Santa Cova funicular down, and walk the remaining Holy Grotto Path which is lined with beautiful artistic monuments - about 45 minutes round-trip from the base of the funicular and is fairly steep

Return to the monastery to hear the boys' choir

Lunch and perhaps sample the honeys and cheese for sale in the stands just past the cafeteria

Museum

Any additional hiking, if of interest - there are tons of trails and the tourist stand can provide maps of the trails

Return downward by cable car (or rack rail) and then train to Barcelona

When you return to Barcelona, nap a bit before dinner since you had an early morning!!

Tour buses started dropping people off around 10 which is when things started to get busy. By noon, the place was crazy! But almost everyone followed the order I presented above, so if you start earlier than everyone else then you will always be ahead of the crowds.

Total cost is about 42 euro, including everything, even your lunch and the extra charge for one-way rack rail/one-way cable car Of course, if you're not interested in seeing everything or if you don't have time for everything, you can skip parts and it might be cheaper.

You can book your Montserrat trip a number of different ways. To go one-way on the cable car, simply buy a separate one-way cable car ticket from the top - should be 5€. If you want to go up on the rail and down on the cable car, it may be cheaper to buy things a la carte; not sure since I didn't do the math

There are two combo tickets (prices as of April 2009):

"Trans Montserrat" (22,50€) which includes

2 Metro rides (can be used anytime, not necessarily in conjunction with your trip to Montserrat)

Round-trip ticket on the train from Pl. Espanya

Round-trip rack railway OR round-trip cable car

Sant Joan Funicular (unlimited rides, but one round-trip is probably plenty )

Santa Cova Funicular (unlimited rides)

Audiovisual entrance

"Tot Montserrat" 36,95€ which includes all of the above AND

Lunch at their cafeteria

Museum entry

Alternatively, you can buy everything a la carte. The monastery itself, all hiking trails, and the nature center are free.

Metro rides (to/from Pl. Espanya for example) are 1,35€ per trip

Train from Pl. Espanya to Montserrat to catch rack rail/cable car is 3,80€ one-way or 7,60€ round-trip

Rack railway is 5,05€ one-way or 8€ round-trip

Cable car is 5,40€ one-way or 8,40€ round-trip

Sant Joan Funicular is 4,35€ one-way or 6,90€ round-trip

Santa Cova Funicular is 1,75€ one-way or 2,80€ round-trip (if you plan on doing both funiculars and purchasing a la carte you can get round-trip on BOTH for a discounted price of 7,75€)

Audiovisual exhibit is 2€

Museum is 6,50€

Lunch obviously varies depending on what you get but is fairly reasonable

If you aren't interested in seeing everything, add up what you want to do and see if it's cheaper to buy a la carte or to buy the combo ticket even without using some portions of it.

Also, something I didn't think to try until AFTER I left Barcelona was to get to Montserrat from Plaza Espanya using the T-10 transportation ticket I had already purchased for the rest of our trip; it's valid on metro, RENFE cercania trains such as the train from the airport, and the FGC trains such as you take to Montserrat - 7,70€ for 10 rides and can be shared by multiple people! According to the Barcelona transport website it will work, but I have no personal experience to confirm. If you have a T-10 anyway (which it's a great value if you will be in Barcelona for a day or more and plan on using the metro anyway), try it at the Plaza Espanya train station. I am 99% positive it will allow you entry to the train, but make sure you're there early enough to buy alternative tickets just in case. If it works, once you arrive at the Montserrat-Monistrol or Montserrat-Aeri station, you can buy the combination ticket listed above WITHOUT the train portion. The cost is 14,90€ for the smaller combo ticket or 31€ for the larger ticket.

The train to/from Barcelona leaves only once per hour. The first train leaves Pl. Espanya (in direction: Manresa) at 7:36, and then every hour after that - always on the :36. If you take the rack rail up, get off at station Monistrol de Montserrat (arriving at 8:44) where you will catch the rack rail up to the monastery area. The rack rail leaves at 8:48am. You will see a little green train - that's where you are heading for the transfer If you want to take the cable car up, the first train from Barcelona you can take is the 8:36 train (getting you to the cable car about an hour later) - the cable car does not start running until 9:40am so if you want an early start, you HAVE to take the rack rail. The cable car leaves from a different train stop: Montserrat Aeri. Make sure you get off at the right stop!!

Coming back, the train departs the Monistrol de Montserrat station at the bottom of the mountain on the :44 past the hour. That means, if you are taking the rack rail down, you must take the rack rail that leaves the top of the mountain on the :15 past the hour. If you are taking the cable car down (just purchase a one-way ticket if you took the rack rail up), you need to catch the train to Barcelona from the Montserrat Aeri station, which leaves on the :48 past the hour. It is just a 5 minute ride down, so you could take the cable car down on the :30. However, since there is limited capacity on the cable car, if it looks like it's busy that day, I would aim for the :15 cable car just in case you have to wait for the next one. Is this clear as mud??

We have done a turnaround day in Barcelona. On that particular B2B set there were slightly over 300 B2B passengers. While Celebrity handled the procedure for passengers very smoothly the problem folks had exiting the ship was with Spanish customs officials. The lines to get through Spanish customs was horrendous. Barcelona was not our first EU port but our turnaround day was during a period of protests regarding fiscal austerity measures. For example we spent some time in Barcelona following the second cruise and saw street protests. While we were not sure we suspected we were subjected to a work slowdown by customs employees.

Just leave PLENTY of time to get back to ship!! Montserrat is a ways from town and traffic is Horrible!!!!

Have you checked to see if Celebrity is offering a tour there? We did a turnaround in Harwich and they offered a tour to Colchester. It wasn't listed on the shore excursions in advance of the cruises. We found out at the B to B information session on board.