14 June, Barcelona.

Today we docked at the Palocruceros terminal. This terminal is brand new and one of the four along the cruise ship dock at Barcelona. Apart from being brand new it is also owned by Carnival Corporation and was especially built for Costa who uses Barcelona as one of their change over ports. Thus from now on, we will dock at this terminal unless there are more corporation ships in port and one of them has turn over day. My favourite place for docking is at the World Trade centre, as it is located right on the edge of downtown, in the inner harbor. Those three docks are now most of the time used by smaller ships.

For this inner harbour they made a new port entrance and therefore you do not have to sail through the draw bridge anymore. Before this entrance was ready, every ship destined for the world Trade centre dock or going to dry dock had to go through this bridge. The bridge connects the artificial island behind the breakwater, where the passenger terminals are located, with the mainland. Clearance is about 140 feet and with ships with a width of 105 feet or more, that gave not much room to play with, especially on a windy day. Thus a new entrance was created and the bridge now seldom opens.

The terminal itself is very big and airy. When you walk in there it give you the feeling of a place with a pleasant temperature just by overall impression. Very handy for the summer time when it can be very warm here. Nice seating area’s, three shops and a little bar, plenty check in terminals, all meant to make embarkation a pleasant affair. Outside there is ample parking space for the buses. I thought that the whole place was designed very well. Embarkation is by means of a skywalk, as used at the airports.

Barcelona is busy with a big port extension program which includes extending the breakwater by nearly a mile. That means that the sailing in takes a bit longer but also that you can keep the speed up while sailing in. The pilot is most of the time quite happy to let the captain do the job, “captain you know your ship best, I will tell you when to stop when you are there” so it is a fun port to go to, if only for the fact that I can play with the ship to my hearts content.

We had over 700 guests on tour today, as Barcelona’s offers something for everybody, and for those who do not want to walk, the panoramic tour is of great interest as the town has so many interesting things to look at. Biggest draw is of course the church still being built. Designed by Gaudi and not supposed to be finished for the next 20 years. It is one of those things that you have to have seen, if only once in your lifetime.