Arrival in Barcelona
My wife and I arrived at Barcelona airport about 8am the morning of the cruise. I was surprisingly impressed with Barcelona airport, noting how new, large and upscale it seemed. Clearing customs took about 15 min, not too bad, but they definitely could have had more people working there to handle the masses, as each new plane arrived. We then claimed all of our luggage (thankfully) and proceeded to look for transportation to the port.
There were Royal Caribbean personnel in the airport offering transports to the ship for ~30 euro pp. He was honest and told us that we could take a cab to the port for about 40 euro total. Feeling a bit adventurous, and looking to save a few bucks, we opted for the cab. So we walked outside, stood in the taxi line, and said in broken Spanish 'Puerto', and 'Royal Caribbean', and the driver knew what we wanted. As we neared the port, traffic really started to back up, so we were stuck for about 10 min. (I was half tempted to get out and walk the remaining distance, but we stuck it out.) All in all, it was about a 25-30 min. ride, and thanks to the traffic, it cost us 45 euro including tip.