Well it looks like Miami over here. It is weekend of course and thus there are cruise ships coming in for change over day. But I was not expecting soo many. The whole place is chock-a-block with ships. Yesterday we had the Explorer of the Seas, the Costa Fascinosa, the Costa Fantastica, the Mein Schiff 2, the Aida Aura, the Thomson Dream (our old Westerdam) and the Ocean Dream (ex Tropicale). The last one is a bit of strange duck among the chickens as she is supposed to be a ship on a mission. It sails in charter for a Japanese company called Peace Boat. They had already several ships in charter in the past (always old ones) and now they have the ex Tropicale which was built in 1983/84. If I understand it all correctly, the idea of taking a cruise on this ship is to further peace, brotherhood and understanding between the various nations. As the ship is full with Japanese I assume it is between them and the countries they are visiting. They do tend to stay longer in each port than other cruise ships and they also run more unusual shore excursions. In how far this contributes to World peace and understanding I do not know but the concept seems to work for the Japanese market.

 

Green blocks are the cruise ships, blue cargo ships and ferries. The WTC is all the way to the right.

Green blocks are the cruise ships, blue cargo ships and ferries. The WTC is all the way to the right. Courtesy drawing: Cruise ship “forecast ” page of Barcelona Ports.

Barcelona Port has two areas where cruise ships dock. Around the World Trade Centre which is in the inner port and which can take 3 cruise ships as long as they are not too big and the rest at the Moll Adossat which is the inner side of the breakwater of the outer port. We were at 1D for the overnight and thus we could see the other cruise ships coming and going.  Most of the names of yesterday had left but were replaced by other and today we had in port, Mein Schiff 2 (also doing an overnight) Costa Fascinosa (until noon) and her place was taken by the Costa Fortuna, Then there was the Star Flyer , the Sea Dream II, the Sovereign and the ms MSC Divina. I will spare you the total number of guests being part of the change overs on all these ships but it was interesting to see that we had a complete traffic jam of black and yellow cabs leaving for the airport. One can only wonder about the mayhem at the airport with all these cabs discharging at the same time.

We also had change over; 1100 guests going off and 1100 coming on and then a few hundred being in transit as they are stringing one or more of these segmented cruises together. Barcelona is getting very popular as a cruise destination and is for Costa one of the major change over ports in their network. So much that Carnival Corp. has built a special terminal for the Costa Ships, (which of course can also be used for non Costa ships if they are not there). Demand is such that now a 2nd terminal has been approved and should be there by next year.  Room is there sufficiently at the Breakwater side as the Moll Adossat was extended a few years ago and not all the space has been filled up yet with new docks.

I personally prefer to dock at the World Trade center (WTD), where today the Star Flyer and the Sea Dream II were docked but as these ships already show, the berths are shorter. The Rotterdam fits in there but it makes it quite tight to swing around in the inner basin for leaving again. For a change over it is also better to be at the larger terminals.  More room for luggage, taxi’s and coaches. At the WTC you do not need a port shuttle to get into town you can just cross the street. But the shuttle only costs 5 euro’s so it is not too shocking to go to town from the larger terminals.

We sailed just before 17.30 after making sure we had everybody on board and now we are on the way to Palma de Mallorca which is only 110 miles away including curving around the Southside of the island to get to the port. We are supposed to be at the pilot station at 0700. Hrs. and start docking about 5 minutes later as the berth is right behind the breakwater.

Again the weather is holding; a bit more wind during the night than before but the predictions are that the port will be in the lee of these winds and we are looking forward to a sunny and nearly wind still day.  A good thing as I am supposed to go down in the water with the trainee’s to look at the finer points of how to maneuver a lifeboat.