# Barcelona To Civitavecchia Ferry



## AndyCap (Jun 10, 2010)

Hi Folks,

The Memsahib and I are off tomorrow to collect our motorhome from the excellent Caravan Centre in Vila Sacra, near Figueres where it's been in storage for the past 5 months. We are taking the ferry from Barcelona to Civitavecchia on Saturday night at 22.15 and I wondered if anyone has experience of this route. I wondered if we could turn up at midday say and park up at the port somewhere allowing us to spend the afternoon in Barcelona? Be grateful for any hints or tips from someone who has gone this way before.
Many thanks,
Andy.


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## eddied (May 9, 2005)

Have done this route several times. The Grimaldi ferries are brilliant for the 18+ hr journey. Port/loading facilities at Barcelona are not. Would recommend you allow yourself at least 3/4 hours time to find the actual embarkation point and join the queue. Also recommend that you don't try and park up to leave the motorhome in the port area - full of no parking signs and polizia/guardia civil. You will find some motorhome parking further along the sea front from the port.

Take a look at www.lapaca.org to find them.

enjoy the trip and Italy.

saluti,
eddied


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## StanDup (Sep 12, 2008)

We took this ferry January 2011, arriving at Barcelona Port about 4 hours early and were shown where to park up to get the embarkation tickets. Accepting everything that Eddied has said, maybe we were lucky.

It was all fairly quiet, so we left the motorhome in a pre-loading area (near the Port Office) and had a walk up the Ramblas. This area was an area within the Port so no parking restrictions applied.

Then about 90 mins before sailing it was the usual scene, with everyman for himself to get in the queue.

It's a long crossing so we bottled .... the thought of sitting in reclining seats was too much...... so we upgraded to a room when on board. 

Barry


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## AndyCap (Jun 10, 2010)

Thanks Eddied & StanDup for your replies. 

We also arrived early, the charming sat nav lady brought us straight to the ferry office using the street address given on Grimaldi's website. As we were looking for somewhere to pull over we saw a truck & coach park about 100m further on on the right so pulled in there. It cost 2 euro/hour but we did get to park next to AC/DC tour rigs so worth it for that alone, well for me anyway.

I foolishly assumed we would just drive up to the departure point at boarding time and get our tickets there as with Brittany Ferries but considering Eddied's advice took a closer look at my booking (Direct Ferries) As StanDup say's we had to take our booking reference to the office to get our tickets. I took along our passports but no-one looked at them. We had already booked a cabin and the tickets also act as your room keycard.

No-one told us where to board (foolishly, I never asked) so we just followed the trucks when they left. This turned out to be quite fortuitous as when the loading guys discovered us among the trucks they chased us down to the head of the car queue. Result!

The ferry, Cruise Barcelona, was lovely. Spotlessly clean and very quiet for a holiday weekend. Seemed to be mostly truck drivers and a party of American kids. Our standard cabin was very comfy indeed although it was fitted with Italian sockets so the Memsahib was a bit miffed she couldn't use her hairdryer. My half dozen or so dried in no time so I wasn't bothered.

My only slight complaint was the standard of the food. We ate twice in the cafeteria and it wasn't great. If I went again I'd eat before boarding. There was a proper sit down restaurant but it was empty and rather cold looking so we didn't feel tempted. Perhaps if the ferry was busier the catering would be a bit better. Perhaps we're just spoiled by Brittany Ferries.

The ferry arrived a little late in Civitavecchia, around 8.30 but it was only an hour or so down to the excellent Camping Village Roma (thanks Eddied) where I'm typing this.

Hope this, and the posts from Eddied & StanDup are of use to other members as it was reading this sort of thing that inspired us to get out there and do it. 

Best regards,
Andy & Anne


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