cc_rider

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Two questions - Park Guell is the next stop on the HOHO route after La Sagrada. We have not bought tickets for that yet. I am assuming from this thread that we should make that purchase. Same day? Or day two of our stay? I am a bit confused as to what we should do here.:confused:

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The HOHO bus stop is at the bottom of a steep hill, several blocks from Parc Guell. Plan that last climb into the timing of your visit.

Parc Guell has a very good ticket tool on their website that shows if and how many tickets are available for the time slots. Mid-day fills quickly, but in May the early morning and late slots often had openings. Suggest you check their website a few time to get an idea of which time slots stay open and which fill up.

It seemed to me that planning a timed ticket to the SF or PG using the HOHO could be difficult. Have to allow extra time on busy days in case you have to wait through one or two or three buses to get on. Even in early May on a weekday, people were having to wait a bus or two at some stops. Could be easier if you went to the SF by Metro and started your HOHO from there.

Wow thanks

 

After much thought I'm thinking La Sagrada Familia and Las Rambas. We're in port from 8 to 4. I may save Park Guell for next time. :)

This cruise is very port intensive. Only one sea day.

Wise choice. Since PG doesn't have the same easy metro connection as SF and Las Ramblas, who'd be centering your trip around the Parc visit and would have to skimp on the others.

This plan will give you time to see more of Barcelona. After visiting the Sagrada, you could stroll up the P. de Gaudi to L'hospital St Crue St Pau. A beautiful ex-hospital campus and the largest Art Nouveau building complex in the world On your tight schedule, you can skip going in for the tour and just look at it from through the gates and the courtyard, maybe eat at the Cafe 1902 Modernista.

In May we stayed three nights at a hotel near Placa de Catalunya. Las Ramblas was interesting, but was probably our least favorite place in Barcelona. Too crowded, too touristy, too many people sticking their arm out for selfies. Worth a visit, but we preferred the quieter and more interesting streets of the Bario Gotic and El Raval. La Boqueria market is a must-see, and just behind it is the medieval complex of the Catalan National Library. The cathedral of Barcelona is another must-see, and the streets of the Bario are amazing. We did a circuit of the Roman wall. Just over a mile walk and took about two hours, including the cathedral visit and many of stops.

Make sure you include a visit the Placa de Catalunya. Have coffee at the Cortes Ingleis and enjoy the view. If you want more Gaudi, wander up Passeig de Gracia to Casa Batllo and/or Casa Mila. Lots of other interesting architecture on the way.

Barcelona was amazing. Have fun.

Sagrada Familia - Just get a ticket (in advance) with audio guide. Towers optional.

Barcelona Cathedral - Free at some times, modest fee at others. We regret missing the elevator to the roof, it was closed the day we were there.

While visiting the cathedral, wander the medieval streets of the Bario. If you know where to look, you can even see what is left of the Roman city.

Las Ramblas - We found it too crowded and too touristy. Worth a visit at least once, but we usually retreated to the back streets of the Bario or El Raval.

La Boqueria is a must visit. Behind it is the Catalan National Library which is a nice wander through.

Picasso Museum and stroll around El Born. Maybe a stop at Santa Caterina Market.

Magic Fountain for the evening light show, with a visit to Las Arenas.

Not expressly stated, but most probably. Shoulders, yes. Knees, maybe.

http://www.sagradafamilia.org/en/rules-and-regulations/

Do you need to have your knees and shoulders covered to go into La Sagrada Familia?

 

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Most if not all rental car companies are located at the airport

Enterprise, Hertz, Avis, Budget all have downtown locations (but nothing on the Locust Point side)

Some companies will deliver a rental car, but I don't' know if that is available in Baltimore.

Might be worth renting a car to stow the luggage in, especially if you can pick up near the ship and drop off at the airport. Certainly them most time efficient way of getting around.

Which HOHO bus did you use? Do you recommend it over the others?

Both systems cover mostly the same routes at about the same price. We picked the all privately owned Barcelona City Tours (the all red buses) over the city owned Turistic Bus (blue sided) because they were a little less crowded and had a slightly better route for what we wanted to see.

Not worried now that NCL has taken steps to prevent coke can and water bottle bombs :D

Seriously, after braving the drivers on Roman streets, I not worried about much anymore.

Given a choice, I'd do for a visit to the Sagrada Familia and try to fit in Parc Guell only if there was time.

We were in Marseilles in April and took the 60 up to N.D. de la Garde.

Suggest you pick up the bus near MuCEM/Fort St Jean instead of at the Vieux Port. By the time the bus gets to V.P. it is full. You won't get a seat and may even have to wait until the next bus.

Along with N.D. de la Garde, suggest a visit to Cathedral La Major as well.

In May we walked around the P. de Catatlunya and El Raval between La Boqueria and the University after midnight and it felt perfectly safe.

We stayed at the Hotel Lleo for three nights in May. Location was great and the room was comfortable. The street it is on is busy, but our 5th floor rear room was very quiet.

Only slightly annoying thing was that they had no ice bucket, and the cafe where you could get ice would only give me one cup at a time.

We did not get the breakfast buffet option, but it looked pretty good. Instead we went around the corner to the Restaurant Centric for a good light breakfast.

I've booked a room at the Hotel Ll'eo. It gets good reviews and it also can be cancelled without penalty. If anyone has seen anything about it or stayed there I'd welcome opinions.

Also you might want to consider using the "red" privately owned HOHO as opposed to the city owned "blue" bus...The red one does offer a sr. discount (if it applies to you) and it was much easier to HOHO...as we saw many waiting to catch the "blue" one that had empty seats as it is heavily advertised so many more tend to use it . ;)

From what we saw in May, I would agree.

The two hoho systems also follow slightly different routes. The private Barcelona Tour red buses stop at the Torre Agbar and L'hospital St Crue et St Pau while the city owned blue sided Turistic buses stop at Monestir de Pedralbes.

We picked the red buses because we found their routes and stops to be more convenient.

For speed, taxi is probably the best choice. I remember a line of them waiting at the NCL Epic.

If there is a cruise line shuttle, it will cost a bit and they'll wait until the bus is filled.

There is also a free shuttle provided by the port. Follow the green line on the paved walk to the white tent. It was leaving around every 30 minutes in April. I don't know if they add buses on busier port days. Actual trip takes 10 minutes since it uses the port’s internal roads instead of the highway. The in-town stop is at Les Terrases, couple blocks from Joliette subway station and 10 to 15 minutes walk from the Old Port.

Here’s a CC post that goes into detail. Skip to the end to get the latest info from last month.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showt...1861134&page=5

There is a bit of walking, but it is mostly within the terminal and the gangways that connect to the ship.

In April the taxi dropped us off at the curb in front of the terminal doors. Took the bags maybe 100 feet to where they tagged the checked bags for delivery to our room.

Yes, you can.

There are signs on the water dispensers in the Garden buffet that asks you not to refill water bottles, but many people did. I would grab a water glass, fill it, then pour it into the water bottle.

The water on the Epic tasted pretty good.

Great, good to know. We will probably just refill on ship then. Is refilling bottles allowed?

And if you have limited time, take a taxi. If you tell the driver "Parc Guell", they will take you to the monumental area entrance.

The upper park is free and open, but the "monumental area" where the most interesting things are requires tickets. They only allow a few hundred people to enter the park for each time slot, and most time slots fill up by the by day before. Unless you are going for the first couple of time slots in the day, you'll probably be out of luck. I saw them turning away walk-ups.

Go to the park website and buy on line. Quick and easy. It will show you if tickets are still available for the time slot you want, and how many are left.

It is possible to zip through the park in about an hour, but it's better to plan for more time so you can enjoy it.

I go the other way. I enjoy the planning almost as much as the trip. The planning lets me know about all of the alternatives and options. I even walk the possible routes on google street-view so when I get there I’m already somewhat familiar with the neighborhoods.

Even with all of the planning, we stay flexible. When we actually get to the place, we can pick which alternates we want to actually see and do. Or if a different opportunity appears we might go with that.

Last month, we had planned to use Girona as a base to visit Figueres from. But after seeing Girona we fell in love with the town and spent the two days there instead. Those were the best days of our entire vacation. Figueres will be a future trip, and we want to visit Girona again.

Very much agree that you shouldn't over extend yourself. Do only what you are able to only as long as you are enjoying it. When it turns into a "death march" it is time to stop.

Yes, it's a lot different from us, compared to those of you who don't have as much option for just relaxing.

 

I'd certainly recommend avoiding planning too much though. I've seen people who are basically walking round like zombies after the three Italian ports. Don't plan too much and ruin it for yourselves. You can't do everything.

When we were ready to go into Cannes, we used our cabin phone to reserve for the next available tender, then went straight down and got on. That was around 8:30 am.

Looked to me that the shopping area was still on the land side. After Delta check-in, you go right or left for security and passport control, or straight and down the escalator to get to the shops (no security). After we had gone through, DW said that she saw an electronic sign that said "shopping area before security". I'd seen it too, but didn't pay attention.

I asked a security employee about how to get to the shops. They said we would have to go to Arrivals and come back into the Schengen zone, as if we had just arrived, then leave it again through security and passport control. They said that passport control doesn't like people doing this and recommended against it. We opted to avoid the hassle.

The shops and services you were looking down at are not landside. They are are airside, but in the Schengen transit area of T1 (A, B, C gates). They call it the "Sky Centre". I think (not sure) it would have been possible for you to go through security into that area first and hang out there before making your way upstairs to the D/E gates. Or you could have gone through passport control again into the Sky Centre (assuming you have travel documents allowing you to re-enter the Schengen zone).

In late April, we used shareashore for Rome-on-your-own and Florence-on-your-own excursions. They did a very good job. Came to under 60 euros (with tip) a person for groups of 8. They have a good on-line setup and sign-up tool and we used the roll-call to coordinate. The Florence driver did a very good job as guide.

http://www.shareashoreexcursion.com/

Early last month we stayed at the Hotel Lleo on the Carrer de Pelai, one block from the Ramblas. We liked the hotel well enough, but didn't like the busy, touristy streets. Did not enjoy the crowds on the Ramblas and took every opportunity to slip into the side streets of the Bario or El Raval. Even a busy Tallers was much nicer than a half empty Ramblas.

In retrospect, I'd rather have had a hotel on one of those side streets. Next time we might look at the Hotel Reding or Hotel Ciutat Vella. Liked the look of both of those from the outside.

Sunday April 24 we boarded the Epic, headed for Naples. The sea was heavy, starting about an hour out of port, through the first night and lasting until midday Monday. Waves were more than 20 feet. Loose furniture got tossed about. Waves splashed our balcony on deck 11. The next day at the m&g veteran cruisers were saying that they had never had that rough a trip.

The last night was also rough, but not as bad as the first night.

Weather was not what we expected. The temperature on that cruise stayed in the 50's and 60's. We had one warm sunny afternoon, while we were in Cannes. Never got to try the water slides.