Barcelona disembark EPIC for 9 am flight

So I accidentally booked a 9:00 am flight out of BCN to Seville fly Veuling on July 1st. EPIC is in Port by 5:00 am.

If we do the easy walk off how early can I get off? There's only 3 of us and we are traveling light, but one person is a 3 year old.

Will I be okay with a TAXI, or should I arrange trabstransport?

Any tips would help. I would like to keep that flight since the next one isn't till late afternoon, and I still need to drive to Portugal that day. We are American's and EU citizens, if that makes a difference, slowing us down at the airport.

It is about a 16 mile drive and takes 20 to 35 minutes by Taxi. I think you are cutting it way too close if it is doable at all. I would investigate what plan B options are available to you if you don't make the 9:00 flight . Find out how much to to a fare change to the later flight or if you would have to buy all new tickets if you miss the flight. This is assuming that there are 3 seats available...most planes fly full now. Some people like to gamble, but I wouldn't do this at all. The ship may dock at 5:00 am, but there has to be customs clearance and they generally don't start disembarking much before 7:00 am. Just my 2 cents worth. This is a beautiful cruise and I wouldn't want to end it with a mad rush to the airport.

Last December we got off the Spirit as soon as we could after they docked. We had a 10:40 flight to Newark, and we took a taxi and we were at the airport before the ticket desk for United opened. I think you could do it, but it could cause you a lot of stress.

I am Platinum and had suite benefits, so I had help getting off the ship, too.

--Michael

I have disembarked Epic at Barcelona and opted for one of the taxis waiting first thing in the morning. I arrived at Terminal 1 before the American Airlines desk opened after 7 a.m.

Advise you to know which terminal for the drop since the taxi driver may not know.

I was going to share my experience, but that involve getting to BCN to catch an international flight to the US. You are going to Seville - sounds like more of a short hop, intranational flight so my experience probably doesn’t translate.

You should be fine.

I haven’t done this itinerary for a couple of years, when every time I have, disembarkation has been stated to start at about 5.30-6.00am. I couldn’t say exactly when it did start because I’ve always been fast asleep at that time.

As it is a Sunday, traffic at that time is absolutely no problem.

We have only ever had trouble getting a taxi once, which was when there were 5 ships in port, three of which were big ships. We also didn’t disembark until fairly late, by which time the queues had built up. At 6am they should be fine, but I would check how many ships are in port, just in case.

You should be off the ship between 6 and 6.30am and at the airport before 7am. Plenty of time for a short flight.

Of course, it is quite stressful. I would avoid your timings for that reason, rather than any real risk of missing the flight.

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Wow! And I'm stressed about my 10:30am flight out of Barcelona to Copenhagen. All kidding aside, I hope we both make it.

Wow! And I'm stressed about my 10:30am flight out of Barcelona to Copenhagen. All kidding aside, I hope we both make it.

10.30 from Barcelona (especially if on the Sunday) is a breeze. I’d have no worries about that.

If you are on another ship and arrive during the week(plus maybe arrive later) then the traffic can be a complication, but you should still make that fairly easily.

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So I accidentally booked a 9:00 am flight out of BCN to Seville fly Veuling on July 1st. EPIC is in Port by 5:00 am.

 

Change the flight now. We flew Veuling Rome to Paris last summer, and checking in was absurd, the line moved insanely slowly, and it was the most stressful thing ever.

 

If we do the easy walk off how early can I get off? There's only 3 of us and we are traveling light, but one person is a 3 year old.

 

I don't think they were letting people off the boat in Barcelona until after 7:30am.

 

Will I be okay with a TAXI, or should I arrange trabstransport?

 

I would arrange transport to be there at the earliest possible moment.

 

Any tips would help. I would like to keep that flight since the next one isn't till late afternoon, and I still need to drive to Portugal that day. We are American's and EU citizens, if that makes a difference, slowing us down at the airport.

I would take the last afternoon flight or pick a different airline. To miss the flight would end up costing a lot more buying a last minute ticket for the family. I don't think it really matters if you're EU or American citizens, in Rome the check in lines were the same for both. There are lots of other airlines too that you could consider.

We self-assisted before 7-Got to the airport before Delta counter opened up - We left the Epic early because of unrest in BCN at the time-There's too many things that could go wrong that you have no control over-

Too much could go wrong for my OCD!

Thanks for all the feedback. There are four ships in port but 2 are not there until later in the morning. We are going to keep to our schedule as plan. I'll grab some snacks the previous day and stash them in room for breakfast. We are are use to traveling in the wee hours of the morning anyway for most of our trips. I have the terminals down and since we are flying from one Spanish city to the another I'm less worried than if I was flying home.

I did come up with a backup plan for just in case something goes wrong.

I would definitely not recommend doing this! It’s about 30 minutes to the airport, and there can be long lines at the airport. Plus there can be delays arriving into port and disembarking. Is there any way you can change your flight to a later one?

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I would definitely not recommend doing this! It’s about 30 minutes to the airport, and there can be long lines at the airport. Plus there can be delays arriving into port and disembarking. Is there any way you can change your flight to a later one?

 

 

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In all the years that the Epic has been doing these Western Med round trips, I don’t recall ever hearing of any delays arriving in Barcelona or in disembarking.

It is probably the most straight forward disembarkation that NCL do.

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Just got off the Epic this morning in Barcelona. Today is Sunday. Of course each sailing is different, but...

We had a scheduled 05:00 arrival. We were in the port at 03:00 and docked alongside at 03:30. Walk-off disembarkation began at 5:45. Time to airport was at most, 20 minutes.

If all factors are the same (and there are no guarantees) you should be fine for a 09:00 flight. But don't even think about putting those bags out the night before. You MUST do express walk-off.

The cruise which ended today was coming from the US, so isn’t indicative of the usual Epic western Med sailings. From memory, there were some delays last year which got some people worried about other arrivals.

The Western Med round trip is very reliable. It doesn’t leave the EU and is a short overnight sail from the last port. Really the only risks are weather (which is rarely bad enough to affect sailings) or some other security issue.

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Yes, the ship came from the states but with the exception of Bermuda, all ports were EU.

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Thanks for that recent information. We are doing the express walkoff. Traveling with just carry on travel backpacks. Our three year old has been through airports 8 times in the last four months and she is becoming a pro at travel day. About half of those flights involved being at an airport around 5 am. It sounds like this is one of the easier ports to get in and out of.

Yes, the ship came from the states but with the exception of Bermuda, all ports were EU.

The difference is that, as you came from the States, customs and immigration are involved at some point. In the past this has caused delays in getting off the ship.

It sounds like yours was particularly painless, but what I am saying is that there is a significant difference between your itinerary and the one that the OP is doing, which means that your experience doesn’t really indicate what may happen on the round trips.

In addition, you were sailing from a different final port, so your arrival time doesn’t indicate anything about the arrival time on the Western Med loop.

All experiences are useful to report, but I’m just pointing out that yours is of less relevance to the OPs itinerary than the experiences over the past few years on the itinerary they are doing.

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