Flight Departure times from Barcelona

RCCL's site indicates that 10 AM is the earliest recommended departure time from Barcelona. There are 10 AM and 10:45 AM options that work for our trip but I am wondering if those times are too early for an international flight back to the US or do most people usually make it onto these flights. Also would this be a circumstance where it would be advantageous to choose Choice Air rather than arranging our own flights.

You could make the 10 am flight, assuming there are no long lines at the security/passport check(s). We had a United 10:45am direct to Newark and made it with no problem whatsoever.

We also had the 10:45 United flight. Just to be on the safe side, we did self debarkation. We took a taxi to the airport. We were at the check in desk before they opened for the flight at 8:45.

To avoid stress I would:

-Do self debarkation. You decide when you want to get off. You do not have to wait/look for luggage. You are the first through customs.

-Take a taxi and not take a cruise transfer to the pier. The taxi will drop you off directly at your airline and you will not have to wait for others at the pier or stop at any other airline first and wait for them to unload luggage.

People may tell you the airport is a zoo. I found that all the U.S. airlines were together in one area and that while there was a long walk through the terminal, all the signs in this terminal were in English in addition to Spanish.

I successfully took the 10:45a.m. flight from Barcelona to Philadelphia last summer (Liberty of the Seas), and am already booked to take it again next summer (Serenade of the Seas)!

We self-disembarked after breakfast and grabbed a cab to the airport. We had a brief wait at the check-in counter, but only due to a computer snafu that had everything shut down. We passed through security and were at the gate in no time. Then we had time to spare as we waited to board the plane.

No worries at all!

We also took the 10:45am flight to Newark. No problems whatsoever. Although we booked the flight ourselves, I checked that it was the same flight offered by ChoiceAir.

We did actually take transfers. We were off the ship by 7:10am, found our luggage easily, went through customs, and on the bus by 7:25. There was some delay to fill up the bus, but we were still at the airport by 8:30. Checked in and through security well before 9.

No need to do self-debarkation and mess around with your luggage, as RCL will assign a time based on your flight. Also, if you are D & above, you can get off at any time. We also had transfers to the airport. The only down side was that they did not know where the United check in was. There was a funny event with security at the United check-in and boarding of the plane--the same female security agent asked the same identical questions and all we could do was laugh.

RCCL's site indicates that 10 AM is the earliest recommended departure time from Barcelona. There are 10 AM and 10:45 AM options that work for our trip but I am wondering if those times are too early for an international flight back to the US or do most people usually make it onto these flights. Also would this be a circumstance where it would be advantageous to choose Choice Air rather than arranging our own flights.

We just went through this in Barcelona last week and we were in the first group off the ship. This was after the self carry offs and we went off at 7:30. We breezed through and were off in about 20 minutes. We grabbed a cab and we were at the airport at about 8:20. We were on American to Miami at 11:20 but there was a 10:00 AM to JFK that we could have been on if we wanted to risk it. We needed to do the VAT refund and that would have been very difficult and retain any measure of sanity. The VAT thing took half an hour because of the line to get the receipts stamped. There was a family on the NY flight that had $300 worth of refund receipts and no time to go through the customs line and fill things out.

Thanks to all who answered. I am feeling more confident and will likely do the 10:45 flight to Philly.

Glad to hear this should be doable even without self disembarking as with our group I really wouldn't care to be handling all of our luggage.

Thanks to all who answered. I am feeling more confident and will likely do the 10:45 flight to Philly.

 

Glad to hear this should be doable even without self disembarking as with our group I really wouldn't care to be handling all of our luggage.

You'll be fine with or without self-disembarking! And I agree that if you have a lot of people and a lot of luggage, you don't want to self-disembark! I usually only have one small "wheelie" suitcase with me, so self-disembarking is easy and I HATE parting with my suitcase the night before, so I always self-disembark, even when I am not in a time crunch, just so I can keep my stuff with me! ;)