time to board?

how many hours before sail time do i need to be on a med. cruise in barcelona? what time to go to port for a 5pm sailing?is 1pm good?

1:00 - 2:00 should be about right. Check your cruise documents when you get them - they should give you some guidelines.

When we departed Barcelona last October on Wind Star, the cruise documents indicated that if you weren't using Windstar-supplied transfers, plan to arrive no earlier than 2:00 PM -- this was for a 5:00 PM departure. We got there around 3:45. The only thing that we lost by not being there earlier was the ability to book any spa services for the day at sea -- they were already booked solid for that one day.

One more reason why I don't think I'll ever be on another large ship - that was the smoothest, quickest, friendliest embarkation I've ever done.