Eurostars Grand Marina is a 5-star hotel, set in Barcelona’s Port Vell, part of the Port of Barcelona where the cruise ships dock. The hotel is less than a 30-minute traffic taxi ride from Barcelona El Prat Airport (BCN) and about a 5-minute taxi ride to the cruise terminal used by Disney Cruise Line for Barcelona departures.
The hotel offers picturesque views of Barcelona and the harbor from the top floor observation deck.
If you wake up early enough on embarkation day, you can watch the cruise ships dock.
Hello Disney Magic!
Check-in time is at 3 PM, but they will allow you to pre-check in and leave your luggage. This was a welcome option since we arrived early and wanted to spend the day exploring the city. In fact, La Rambla, Barcelona’s famous street, is just a short walk from the hotel. Simply walk towards the Christopher Columbus statue and you will find yourself at beginning of the tree line street filled with shops and cafes. You can read more about our brief walkabout in Barcelona in our Day 0 Trip Report from our 7-night Mediterranean Cruise.
You receive a glass of cava to welcome you upon check in
We booked our Mediterranean cruise about 3-months before the sail date after DCL released a deal that was too good to pass up. This left us with a short window to plan for excursions, book flights, and find a hotel in Barcelona. Emily is a pro at finding great deals on flights and hotels. By the time we got around to looking for a hotel, it was just under a month before our trip. Hotels in Barcelona were filling up and Emily just decided to book at the Eurostars Grand Marina. At the time, I had no idea where we were staying. She was keeping it a secret and I promised not to look. As we got closer to leaving, they filled me in on the hotel. It turns out the hotel offers a variety of room types from a superior room to a presidential suite. When Emily was reserving the room online, all the available room types were the same price. So naturally, she opted for the best room available which was the Junior Suite!
The Eurostars Grand Marina Junior Suite is described as a quiet suite measuring between 600 and 700 square feet. The junior suites have a king-sized bed, a pull-out couch, a full bathroom, a courtesy bathroom for guests, a separate dressing room, and a spacious living room.
The suite’s full bathroom features dual sinks, a shower, bathtub and private restroom with a bidet.
The rooms have sliding doors to create separate the sleeping area from anyone wishing to watch TV.
The couch pulls out to a bed which Isabelle slept on as it was more comfortable than the two chaise loungers in the TV room.
Free WiFi is available for guests, a password is provided upon check-in. It was nice that the WiFi worked all around the hotel, not just in the room.
The rooms at the Eurostars Grand Mariana include a complementary smartphone to use during your stay. The handy smartphone is yours to use during the stay and it includes unlimited local and internal calls and cellular internet access. We did not use the smartphone during our stay other than to play around with it in the room, but I found this to be an amazing amenity. If we were staying in Barcelona for a longer period of time, I could have used this instead of my global hotspot while walking around, plus it gives you a local phone number if you needed to make any arrangements with local businesses.
But wait, there’s more!!! The on the desk we found a massage menu and…
a pillow menu with selections named after Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, James Dean, and Mickey Mouse!
If that was not enough, our suite had a balcony overlooking the central courtyard.
The top of the hotel is where you will find the spa, gym, the pool and panoramic views of Barcelona.
Not going to lie, the biggest selling point of the Eurostars Grand Marina was included a continental breakfast which puts each and every American hotel continental to breakfast to shame. The variety of food rivaled Cabanas’ buffet and the quality was amazing.
This little Popcake machine made mini pancakes on demand. The breakfast offerings included a selection of gluten free breads.The breakfast area included self serve mimosas/sparkling wine, red, and white wines as well as an espresso machine. I’m not kidding, the wine was included and it was self-serve.
Overall, we found the service was excellent, the only issue we encountered was the pool was cold. You would think based on my glowing overview of the hotel that our stay was comp’d, I have the receipt to prove it was not. For those wondering, it was around $400 EUR (~$465 USD). Emily booked directly via the Eurostars Grand Marina’s website and I would not hesitate to return for a future pre- or post-cruise stay in Barcelona. The location was great, it was ideal for walking around Barcelona while leaving us with a very short taxi ride to the cruise terminal. Sure, it is possible to walk from the hotel to the terminal (approximately 2 miles), but the cab ride was only $11 EUR.
We want to hear from you if you’ve stayed at the Eurostars Grand Marina before or after a cruise. What did you think? Did I miss anything, or do you have any specific questions about the hotel? Let me know what you are thinking in the comments below.
Great hotel review. We stayed at this hotel prior to our 2007 DCL cruise in the Mediterranean (inaugural year). It was very nice then, and appears to have only gotten nicer. At that time, DCL was offering this hotel as a pre-cruise hotel. I believe the name as changed since then. We are booked with DCL in the Mediterranean next summer and it was not offered.
I generally like the location, it is convenient, as you noted, to La Rambla, as well as Portside restaurants, a marina, and a superb aquarium, all within walking distance. The only thing that I did not like, was the hotel is pushed back towards the end of a pier, kind of by itself, unless that have further developed that pier.
Great post! Wow that breakfast. I can’t get over it. Did you try that pancake maker? That is really cool. You mentioned that you got a deal on the cruise. How did you find it? Was it one of there Special Offers? I always look at the FL ones but never really the other ones, maybe I should start. Was your room a guarantee? I see guaranteed a lot when I’m looking at the FL deals and I’m not really interested in getting a room with a connecting door. Thanks again Scott!
The sailing came up with a really good IGT rate. We did not get assigned a room with a connecting door.
IGT, you had an inside room? I part of a bunch of forums and many of the new people ask “what category room should I get” and the typical answer is “only get a veranda”. Now I have sailed an inside room and I don’t have a problem with it. You are a blogger and do a ton of DCL cruises and you too went for the inside room. I hope that the majority of the peanut gallery is able to see that your room doesn’t have to be veranda or die.
Thanks for your insight and such a beautiful review of this hotel. I think if I’m going to go to Barcelona I’ll stay there.
Jennifer, I am on record that I do not care what kind of room I have as long as I’m on the ship. Sure, verandah’s are nice, but I am rarely in my stateroom. If I want to enjoy ocean views I can be found relaxing in a nice padded lounge chair on deck 4.
You need to stay there again so we can see a video of the pancake machine making pancakes, please.
I looked again, no luck. I did add a link to a video from the manufacturer of the machine.
You don’t have to go to Spain to see the pancake maker! There’s one here at the Holiday Inn Express in Holland, MI! 🙂