Flight time from Barcelona

[mousefan1972]

Today I booked a great VGT rate on the Dream for the July 5th sailing from Barcelona. We are platinum Castaway Club but have only sailed from Port Canaveral. And we’ve never been to Europe! The flight options weren’t great on debarkation day, so as of now I have a 11:10 AM departure from Barcelona with a one hour layover in Amsterdam before heading home to Boston. Is this cutting it too close, either with the departure time and/or the short connection? iIf the consensus is yes, then I will book an additional night in Barcelona and fly home the next day to play it safe. Thanks!

 

[o&smom]

Today I booked a great VGT rate on the Dream for the July 5th sailing from Barcelona. We are platinum Castaway Club but have only sailed from Port Canaveral. And we’ve never been to Europe! The flight options weren’t great on debarkation day, so as of now I have a 11:10 AM departure from Barcelona with a one hour layover in Amsterdam before heading home to Boston. Is this cutting it too close, either with the departure time and/or the short connection? iIf the consensus is yes, then I will book an additional night in Barcelona and fly home the next day to play it safe. Thanks!

Both are pretty tight. I think we had a flight leaving Barcelona around 11:30 on our first cruise, and it worked out okay. Would have liked a little more time. Amsterdam is crazy and huge. That would be my biggest worry. We had a three hour layover there once, and that felt tight because of the distance between the terminals. Congrats on the cruise.

 

[Mathmagicland]

Today I booked a great VGT rate on the Dream for the July 5th sailing from Barcelona. We are platinum Castaway Club but have only sailed from Port Canaveral. And we’ve never been to Europe! The flight options weren’t great on debarkation day, so as of now I have a 11:10 AM departure from Barcelona with a one hour layover in Amsterdam before heading home to Boston. Is this cutting it too close, either with the departure time and/or the short connection? iIf the consensus is yes, then I will book an additional night in Barcelona and fly home the next day to play it safe. Thanks!

Speaking to your AMS connection question, an hour will be cutting it very close, especially if your flight is delayed. I connected through AMS last summer; the lines are long but personnel were efficient and it took about an hour to get through the passport checks between flights. That doesn’t include the walking time from one gate to the next. If you stay with these flights, be sure to approach the folks monitoring the immigration connections lines. They were expediting those with less than a hour to the front of the line.

 

[Flossbolna]

My husband has managed one hour layovers in Amsterdam. He has flown through there multiple times and like the airport. Yes, it’s big, but he says it’s very efficient. Someone already mentioned how they speed up those with short connections.

I think the 11 am departure in Barcelona is easily doable. Just make sure to do express walk off and then get a taxi. I assume your cruise only stops in Italy, France and maybe Greece? These are all EU countries, so your cruise will not have customs or immigration to go through on debarkation. Getting off the ship should be very quick. Also, the flight to Amsterdam is considered a domestic flight, so no passport control there.

If your BCN-AMS flight is delayed due to any operational issues and you miss your connection, the airline is required to feed you and give you a hotel if the next flight isn’t until the next day. And they are required to give you 600€ if your new arrival time is more than 3 hours later than the original schedule. This applies to any flight departing the EU regardless of nationality of carrier. There are people who wouldn’t mind the gamble for getting a very nice flight discount.

Personally, I would stay the extra night. But everyone has a different tolerance for uncertainty.

 

[holula]

If your BCN-AMS flight is delayed due to any operational issues and you miss your connection, the airline is required to feed you and give you a hotel if the next flight isn’t until the next day. And they are required to give you 600€ if your new arrival time is more than 3 hours later than the original schedule. This applies to any flight departing the EU regardless of nationality of carrier. There are people who wouldn’t mind the gamble for getting a very nice flight discount.

This only applies if it’s something within the airlines control. If it’s weather/air traffic control strike/country wide system meltdown like the UK had last year, you don’t get the €600, but you can still claim other expenses. EasyJet paid for a very nice two night stay in Belfast for me last year due to the latter, but no €600 compensation.

I have been through AMS many times and have made 1 hour connections, but I normally transit from non Schengen to non Schengen which doesn’t need any passport control. You’ll have to go through passport control to exit the EU in Amsterdam and IMO that will be tight.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

My husband has done the one hour Amsterdam connection. Not fun. Too tight for me. Especially at the end of a cruise and a week enjoying.

 

[PsylockeSmythe]

We did the Med Cruise back in 2018 and I would say that while the 11:10 flight from Barcelona is doable, in my opinion it could be cutting it close. If I'm remembering everything correctly, once we got to the airport, we had to check in with the airline, once that was done, we had to go through security. We then stood in another line for VAT reimbursement and since ours was direct flight from Barcelona to the US, we had to go through customs. So, we ended up standing in 4 different lines before we got on the plane.

Our flight was at 2pm and we ended up taking Disney transportation from the port to the airport.

Psy

 

[braysmommy]

Have you looked at Level airline? They fly direct BCN-BOS and we have used them before and would book again with them.

 

[ddonner]

I would echo the very tight connection time. My sister lives in Barcelona, and we have visited multiple times. My flights from there were ALWAYS late, like 100% of the time.

 

[msmama]

Doesn't have anything to do with flight times, but if you're not doing Barcelona before your cruise, you should definitely do at least one night after.

I remember the taxi line outside the Barcelona terminal being VERY long (I was on Disney transport to a hotel so can't speak to how long it took to get through). If everything goes perfectly, I think you'd be fine, so you have to figure out how often things go absolutely perfectly for you (for me, I'd build in lots of extra time).

 

[anricat]

From DCL here is their official guideline for that sailing:

• Earliest departure time from Barcelona International Airport on debarkation day: 12:30 PM

From this page: https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/guest-services/ground-transportation/

I would go with DCLs recommendations, even if you think you can make it. Why? Because if, for some reason, you are delayed getting into port (rare, but it does happen) and you miss your flight because of it, if you booked within DCLs recommendation, they will help you out with rebooking flights. If you book that earlier flight and the ship is delayed and you miss your flight, you're on your own.

I'll also echo that spending a night in Barcelona is not the worst thing in the world, in fact, if you've never been there, I would recommend it!

 

[mousefan1972]

Thanks for the replies, all. This is very out of my wheelhouse, so I appreciate the feedback. I am pretty risk adverse, so I can imagine myself stressing the entire week about our flights home, which is not an enjoyable way to spend our first trip to Europe. LOL. I can switch to a 1:20 pm departure from BCN with a 1 hr, 25 minute layover in Amsterdam. It's quite a bit more money, but cheaper than adding another night in Barcelona (we do have one night pre-cruise). And the money will be worth not stressing about it all week. Thanks again for the help.

On an unrelated note, does anyone know why I can't book excursions for Palermo and Civitavecchia? They are grayed out. (I can book Florence and Livorno but not the other 2).

 

[Flossbolna]

This only applies if it’s something within the airlines control. If it’s weather/air traffic control strike/country wide system meltdown like the UK had last year, you don’t get the €600, but you can still claim other expenses. EasyJet paid for a very nice two night stay in Belfast for me last year due to the latter, but no €600 compensation.

I have been through AMS many times and have made 1 hour connections, but I normally transit from non Schengen to non Schengen which doesn’t need any passport control. You’ll have to go through passport control to exit the EU in Amsterdam and IMO that will be tight.

Yes. I meant to include that. But statistically most cases for delays are actually covered. System meltdowns are not so common luckily. And airline personnel strike would be covered, but not air traffic control strikes.

 

[Flossbolna]

Thanks for the replies, all. This is very out of my wheelhouse, so I appreciate the feedback. I am pretty risk adverse, so I can imagine myself stressing the entire week about our flights home, which is not an enjoyable way to spend our first trip to Europe. LOL. I can switch to a 1:20 pm departure from BCN with a 1 hr, 25 minute layover in Amsterdam. It's quite a bit more money, but cheaper than adding another night in Barcelona (we do have one night pre-cruise). And the money will be worth not stressing about it all week. Thanks again for the help.

On an unrelated note, does anyone know why I can't book excursions for Palermo and Civitavecchia? They are grayed out. (I can book Florence and Livorno but not the other 2).

Good choice on the flight. I think you will be much happier with that. Still, make sure to ask people at passport control in AMS to expedite you, it’s still a fairly tight connection time.

If the excursions are all greyed out it means that they are already all booked. I would recommend to keep looking, things will open up. But you can also look into doing non ship excursions. There are lots of options in the Med ports, often for much less than what Disney offers.

 

[holula]

Yes. I meant to include that. But statistically most cases for delays are actually covered. System meltdowns are not so common luckily. And airline personnel strike would be covered, but not air traffic control strikes.

Funnily enough out of my 4+ hour delays, I’ve had one weather delay (AMS), one air traffic control strike (Santorini) and one melt down (Belfast.) I’ve been compensated once on Wizzair for a mechanical issue. And that’s literally it out of all my delays.

 

[Flossbolna]

Funnily enough out of my 4+ hour delays, I’ve had one weather delay (AMS), one air traffic control strike (Santorini) and one melt down (Belfast.) I’ve been compensated once on Wizzair for a mechanical issue. And that’s literally it out of all my delays.

Wow!! You really aren’t lucky when it comes to delays! I actually never had a long delay that would trigger compensation.

 

[auntlynne]

Wow!! You really aren’t lucky when it comes to delays! I actually never had a long delay that would trigger compensation.

This is just me telling stories; skip if you don’t want to hear me prattle on…

How’s this for the opposite in delay stories - my JFK flight home connecting in ATL had a tight connection, but we were delayed leaving. And weren’t making up for it in the air.

The home leg is usually at the farthest gate in Terminal E, typically having landed at Terminal A.

As I walked up the jetway, I got notifications for food and lodging vouchers. Drats.

Looked at the flight info board - my plane was at the gate diagonally across from me. General Boarding. No need for vouchers. But thanks, Delta.

That is my best connection story.

…It beats sitting in Barcelona when the Iceland volcano brought 100,000 flights to a standstill (looked up that number to verify). We found a hotel and flew home the following day - and then had a 14-hour drive (not the original plan). But we got home! To a new puppy.

Fun memories.

>> Now, bringing it back to the OP, I think some cushion in the schedule helps. Rushing to catch a plane makes air travel a poor experience. As does sitting around an airport all day for a flight scheduled to leave many hours after disembarkation.

I am prone to follow DCL airport time recommendations.

 

[readytogotodisney]

Thanks for the replies, all. This is very out of my wheelhouse, so I appreciate the feedback. I am pretty risk adverse, so I can imagine myself stressing the entire week about our flights home, which is not an enjoyable way to spend our first trip to Europe. LOL. I can switch to a 1:20 pm departure from BCN with a 1 hr, 25 minute layover in Amsterdam. It's quite a bit more money, but cheaper than adding another night in Barcelona (we do have one night pre-cruise). And the money will be worth not stressing about it all week. Thanks again for the help.

On an unrelated note, does anyone know why I can't book excursions for Palermo and Civitavecchia? They are grayed out. (I can book Florence and Livorno but not the other 2).

In regards on Palermo... I'm on the Med cruise leaving Barcelona on May 25th and up until about 3-4 weeks ago we were to go to Villefranche, then DCL changed it to Palermo. We still have not been able to book any port excursions for Palermo and we depart in 44 days. Your cruise maybe in the same situation, so keep checking for them to open up for booking.

 

[DCLMP]

We had a 1030 flight. I believe we got to airport around 830. You don't have go through immigration. You can just walk off and grab a taxi for the 30 minute ride to airport. No help on AMS, but I know that airport was having a lot of issues a couple of years ago.

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

I'd love hotel recommendations in Barcelona pre-cruise for three adults for one night (considering two rooms so everyone can have their space (-- husband, wife + adult child) if anyone feels like sharing!