Barcelona vs Rome Departure price difference

[Shynook11]

I have the Epic booked for 2019 out of Barcelona and am wondering why it is at least 100 pp less expensive than leaving from Rome? What is the reason for the pricing difference? Same ship, same ports, but in reverse. New to Europe cruising....any ideas or pros/cons to leaving from one port over the other? Our big expense is air....we will be coming from Florida.

[Sauer-kraut]

Some people will be getting off, as you get on and others are already half way through their cruise. Perhaps the one port isn't as popular to embark from so its cheaper??

[kochleffel]

On that route, more passengers embark from Barcelona than from Rome. Those of who embarked at Rome, in the middle of the first sailing of this year from Barcelona, felt rather like step-children -- for example, the Freestyle Daily was keyed to the Barcelona itinerary. The cruise days were numbered based on the Barcelona departure, and on the day that the first wave of Barcelona passengers disembarked, there was no information in the Daily about breakfast hours.

 

 

 

I wonder if the price difference represents the smaller allocation of staterooms to Rome than to Barcelona, so that there would typically be fewer open to book from Rome, even if the number allocated was in proportion to the demand. FWIW, I chose the Rome departure partly because of my work schedule but mostly because, from where I live, it's easier to fly to Rome than to Barcelona.

[Shynook11]

So is my understanding that when we leave Barcelona....and get to Rome, some people will be embarking and disembarking at that port? Like a continuous on and off of passengers at the two ports? Maybe I should research the Rome cruise and Rome airfare to see if it works better for our budget. More cruise cost, significant air difference pricing.

I'd rather not feel like stepchildren....so is Barcelona better for this?

[Budget Queen]

It is a LOT simpler to board in Bacelona. I take an Airport bus, walk to my lodging, then walk to the Port bus to the ship. Total about 10 euros.

 

Rome has cheap airport suttles as well. I walk to my lodging. Cruise day, I spend about an hour on the train, usually the track, requires me to bring my bag up/down a flight of stairs. A cab to the port. Around 20 euros, and if you don't want to go this "cheap" way (most do not) you can quadruple+++ the cost.

 

Have you already factored all this in?

[sverigecruiser]

I have the Epic booked for 2019 out of Barcelona and am wondering why it is at least 100 pp less expensive than leaving from Rome? What is the reason for the pricing difference? Same ship, same ports, but in reverse. New to Europe cruising....any ideas or pros/cons to leaving from one port over the other? Our big expense is air....we will be coming from Florida.

 

I should defenitely embark in Barcelona. I like Barcelona better than Rome but the main reason is that embarkation in Barcelona is much easier.

 

If you plan to stay a few days in Rome or Barcelona before and/or after the cruise I guess that it's more important which city you are most interested in.

[dexddd]

Over the years NCL has had those routes with up to 3 embarkation ports with the addition of Malta. They stopped briefly around 2009/20010 and then resumed the mulit-port embarkation a few years later and have had the past many years.

 

I don't see Malta as an option for next year. The other thing is they didn't have the option for booking suites on the "off" embarkation spots but I do see them for this year and next. Not sure when they changed that.

[pe4all]

When we took this cruise last August, we decided to embark in Barcelona as it was our first time in Europe, and it seemed like much more of a hassle to get to the port in Italy. Barcelona was a cheaper flight for us, and getting to the port was a breeze. 3/4 of the people got on in Barcelona, while only 1/4 got on in Rome.

[dexddd]

Couple other things - Barcelona airport is about 20ish minutes from the port so pretty close. It has been a few years since we were there but the other thing that was a bit difficult was to find rooms for 4 in Barcelona but maybe that has changed.

[wizdiz]

I took this cruise last year and I boarded in Rome. It was quite a long transfer from the airport to the port. Definitely, many more people got on at Barcelona. I do know when I disembarked the ship it was very easy and the airports were empty. I heard from friends I made that disembarked in Barcelona that the airports and immigration were very crowded. As a solo traveler, I did wish I got on in Barcelona because it seemed all the solo travelers had all gotten to know each other for a few days and then some new people added.

[20YearsBetweenCruises]

I always seem to be in the minority when I post my opinion. I’m glad we did the Rome embarkation. While it is true that everything is geared toward Barcelona, there are some perks:

 

- This is a very port intensive cruise with only 1 sea day. With Rome, you get it in the middle when you need a break. With Barcelona, you get it your first day of sailing, which means 6 straight port days in a row.

- There is so much to see in Rome and its hard to get there. So visiting it as a port will only give you very limited time. Therefore I am glad we had pre and post cruise days to tour Rome. Since in Barcelona you can just walk off and go, it’s much easier port visit.

- Embarkation, muster drill, disembarkation is all faster because there is less people doing the Rome-to-Rome.

- When you get on, everything on ship is booked up until Sunday. Then it is wide open. So, can take time to book what you want for the reminder of the week (vs. normal cruise where first day everyone is booking everything for the week.)

 

 

 

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[sverigecruiser]

 

- This is a very port intensive cruise with only 1 sea day. With Rome, you get it in the middle when you need a break. With Barcelona, you get it your first day of sailing, which means 6 straight port days in a row.

 

 

I agree that it can be bad to have the only sea day in the beginning or at the end.

 

We cruised on MSC Meraviglia last summer. (Barcelona-Marseille-Genoa-Napoli-Messina-Valletta-Sea day-Barcelona) We think that one sea day is too little so we decided to stay on the ship in Marseille and Napoli.

[TSUmom]

When we sailed in 2015 we chose Rome. We wanted to spend more time there than Barcelona so for us that was the deciding factor.

[kochleffel]

I agree that

 

 

• it is easier to board in Barcelona than from Rome, where the port is an hour away
  
• it is preferable to have the one sea day sometime in the middle of the cruise rather than on the first day out, and
  
• if you want to see much in Rome it is better to have some time in Rome before or after the cruise since the travel time from the port cuts into the day.
  

There is also a partial sea day when you arrive at Palma, because docking time is around noon. If you embarked from Barcelona, this is the day before you disembark.

[kochleffel]

So is my understanding that when we leave Barcelona....and get to Rome, some people will be embarking and disembarking at that port? Like a continuous on and off of passengers at the two ports?

 

That's correct.

[esmurzinski]

I took this cruise back in 2013 and we chose to embark in Rome. When choosing, like others said, you should take into consideration where you want to spend more time. The transfer from the cruise terminal to the city in Rome takes at least an hour each way , so you automatically lose 2 hours for just transit. This sometimes forces you to book an excursion through NCL to guarantee you make it back to the ship on time. We noticed that there were several people who struggled to get back to the ship on time, and we ended up leaving some people behind. In Barcelona, on the other hand, you are able to walk off the ship and you’re already a short walk from some main attractions, so you don’t lose any time to transit.

One thing I really liked with getting on in Rome (and this may have been purely luck) was that the first few days, there seemed to be very few children, so the deck was a lot calmer and I essentially had the water slides to myself and got to know a lot of the staff well during that time. Then, when we got to Barcelona, an entire wave of children got on which made the sea day a little hectic.

Overall, based on my experience, I think you need to think about how much time you want to spend in Rome and then make your decision from there.

 

 

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[Shynook11]

That one sea day is my other concern....I am toying with switching the cruise to the Star out of Venice to Greece...seems even though same 1 sea day...more relaxing ports. Less go, go go. Thoughts? We will be traveling with 15 and 12 year old at time of sailing. They all wanted the Barcelona one...but I worry it's going to be really tiring and more of a trip than a vacation.

[dexddd]

That one sea day is my other concern....I am toying with switching the cruise to the Star out of Venice to Greece...seems even though same 1 sea day...more relaxing ports. Less go, go go. Thoughts? We will be traveling with 15 and 12 year old at time of sailing. They all wanted the Barcelona one...but I worry it's going to be really tiring and more of a trip than a vacation.

 

We've been on Star twice and Dawn once and for kids that age the Epic, even with the ports, would be more to their liking than the Star. The Epic does have the funky rooms though.

 

We've also done that route and yes, there are lots of ports but not as busy as doing the Baltics IMO and we weren't really wiped out on the trip.

[chloemonkey]

We chose Barcelona as our embarkation point - but DID have the luxury of a B2B and had intentions of doing alternate days of shore excursions so as not to tire ourselves out too much. Of course those plans went out the window! As when you are in these amazingly interesting and historic cities, who can resist? But it DID allow us to do more leisurely excursions the second week...

 

And although it may be true that there are 2/3 more people boarding and disembarking in Barcelona, we found it easy and not crowded at all when we left the ship at around 8:00 am....only because we had an 11:00 flight and my DH is very OCD about airports and time frames! There are NO customs or immigration for USA passengers....so you only need hail a porter, claim your luggage and get into a taxi. We were at the airport by 8:45,,,,,,and had to sit in the lounge for a couple of hours before boarding.

 

We met some lovely people that boarded in Rome and they DID have the luxury of the one sea day before disembarkation. But we love Barcelona and prefer spending a couple of days there before our cruise and so chose Barcelona as our departure port. And as we have now seen Rome three times? I think that we will not feel the need to spend more than a day there in the future. But for those that are visiting for their first time? It IS important to look into the sites at both Barcelona and Rome to see what suits your fancy.

[Shynook11]

We've been on Star twice and Dawn once and for kids that age the Epic, even with the ports, would be more to their liking than the Star. The Epic does have the funky rooms though.

 

We've also done that route and yes, there are lots of ports but not as busy as doing the Baltics IMO and we weren't really wiped out on the trip.

 

Is the Star similar to the Pearl? We took them on a Panama Canal cruise for 11 days on the Pearl last year and they had no problem with the ship not having huge bells and whistles.

[dexddd]

Is the Star similar to the Pearl? We took them on a Panama Canal cruise for 11 days on the Pearl last year and they had no problem with the ship not having huge bells and whistles.

 

Yes, same overall design with some differences. Dawn Class and Jewel Class all from Meyer Werft.

 

Jewel Class they improved many things like action stations in buffet, a Great Outdoors but no aft kids pool area like Star/Dawn. Star/Dawn had front observation lounge removed and rooms added.

 

I don't recall if Pearl has rock climbing wall but Star doesn't. Star just went through drydock and there are several threads asking about what all changed but little has been posted. Some reports of kids pool being replaced with adult only area but it only has been a couple weeks.

 

Don't you need to be packing?

[dexddd]

BTW - have you looked at the SJ or SG suites on Star as those can usually be gotten for a decent price.

[Sunkissed Mommy]

For us it came down to which city we wanted to spend more time in pre-cruise. With Italian heritage, Rome was a no brainer for me. I am okay with being out of sync with other travelers as this is such a port intensive cruise we dont really plan to make too many friends during the trip unless it just happens. We may end up sleeping a lot because we are going to pack our days full! ;p;p;p;p