Mediterranean Cruise questions

[wwinfl91]

My wife and I are going to be on the Golden Princess on July 16 Med cruise. It leaves from Barcelona and ends up in Venice. I have a couple of questions for anyone who has taken this cruise.

One is how early can one get on the ship in Barcelona on the first day of the cruise? I know on other cruises we have been able to board ships as early as 11 AM but have also had to wait until after 3 PM. Since we are flying in on a cruise arranged flight I would assume they would arrange things so that you could go from the airport to the ship rather seamlessly but as my wife reminded me, assumption is not as good as knowledge.

Second question as to do with the final stop in Venice. We get to Venice at 8 AM on a Sunday and then stay on the ship that night and the cruise officially ends the next day, Monday. How soon do you have to get off the ship and how good are the arrangements to get you from the ship to the airport? Is there anytime that day to do any sightseeing or is just go to the airport and fly home.

Any information from anyone who has done this cruise recently would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[KatyDee]

We just returned from the Med cruise on May 29th, going in the opposite direction as you are going. It was so wonderful! I can only answer that we had a very early flight, at 6:30 a.m. and we got their earliest shuttle. We had to wait for the bus to fill, missing the first one. We got there with little time to spare considering how long the lines at the airport took. We made it on the plane just fine.
If you have a later flight, it should be no problem. But, they advised the later folks they needed to vacate their rooms at 7:30 a.m. I don't know how you could do sightseeing under these circumstances.