Good afternoon. I’m getting a late start heading to the port today. Since the baggage handlers at the Barcelona Airport stole most of my first day from me, I had to spend more time today in Barcelona. I don’t get to Barcelona everyday and I’m going to be on the ship for 15 days so being the first to board was not a priority for me.

You can order both Ubers and taxis from the Uber app here. In this case the taxi was $18 and the Uber was $27 so I went with the taxi.

 

 

I think this is the first time I’ve been in port with a Viking ship.

One of the Costa excel class ships is here. That’s the same ship class as Carnival’s Mardi Gras, Celebration, and Jubilee.

I’ve never been in port with a Costa ship either.

This is my home for the next 15 days. 

Porters are right here to grab your bags. I’m going to carry on since my suitcase was broken at the airport.

Helix is the newest cruise terminal in Barcelona and it shows. It’s a very nice terminal. Maybe the nicest one I’ve been in.

I’m carrying on but if you want to check the bag yourself it’s really easy to do just to the right of the entrance doors.

Security is first when you enter the building.

Security took three minutes from walking in the front door to being out of security. It probably helps that everyone else is already on the ship.

After security you have to go upstairs. They have steps, escalators, or elevators.

Just upstairs we have a great view of Costa Smeralda. 

Next up are the check-in counters. 

 This is the waiting area that I imagine was full this morning.

They have gift shops in the waiting area.  

They have a bar in the waiting area. We need this at all ports.

 

This ship was built at the same time as Carnival Panorama so it has the controversial smart elevators. Some people hate them. I love them. 

The smart elevator assigned me elevator U.

Elevator U is going direct to deck 6. This is what I love about smart elevators. In a standard elevator we would likely all pile into one elevator and instead of going direct to 6, I would be stopping at 4 and 5. And the person going to 10 would stop at 4, 5, 6, and maybe other floors along the way.

I have reached my home for the next two weeks.

 

   

   

Next time we will cover what’s left of day one on Carnival Venezia.