We travelled as a family of 6, my parents, my husband and I and our 2 children aged 8 & 3.

We arrived into Barcelona airport on an early flight, and took a pre-booked transfer to the port with resorthoppa. Well worth the money as it was only 53€, where as two cabs would have set us back near on 70€. Arrived at the port (terminal D) around 10:30, where our luggage was taken from us by Costa crew and we were able to check-in at the desk straight away. This meant that we could go off for the day and then come straight back to the boat and board later that afternoon, fantastic! We hopped on the local authority provided shuttle bus (just to the right of the terminal), 3€pp round trip, which drops you at the foot of the Ramblas, perfect. It runs every 20mins or so and is much cheaper than the Costa shuttle bus at 9.75€ per person. When we returned at 4pm we got straight onto the ship, our pictures were taken for our Costa Cards and we were told where to find our cabin and instructed to take part in the emergency drill at 5pm (they will come and find you if you miss it!).

Our cabin, a Balcony, was great. Clean, comfy big bed, sofa bed for the little one and a wall bunk bed for the eldest, she was more than happy. There was also enough room in the wardrobe (there are 3) to store the pram. Only down fall was that it was above the Starlight Theatre, which could be very noisy from 5pm when they started to practice that evenings shows. I would imagine that it would also be noisy at night during the show, but we were always watching it, so never bothered us! Shows end by 10:15/30. Read more