Virgin Warns of Barcelona Cruise Delays Under New EU Border Checks
Virgin said Barcelona’s port had eight scanning machines for the Entry/Exit System and that authorities had so far declined its offer to pay for more kiosks.
Virgin Voyages has warned guests on Valiant Lady that disembarkation in Barcelona may take substantially longer after Spain began using the EU Entry/Exit System, a biometric border-control process that went live April 10, 2026. The line told passengers that early cruise calls were seeing waits of two to three hours at peak periods, with the port operating on an allocation of eight new scanning machines.
Barcelona is serving as the base for the 2,770-passenger Valiant Lady, where the new controls directly affect turnaround-day passenger flows for Western Mediterranean sailings.
Virgin told guests that “things are not working smoothly for cruise lines’ entry into Spain” under EES. The line said the process replaces passport stamping for non-European travelers with facial and fingerprint checks at border control.
“We’ve asked the local authorities for more kiosks,” Virgin told guests, adding that it had offered to pay for the infrastructure. The company said the answer had been no so far, but it was continuing to press for more scanning capacity.
Eight machines at a high-volume port
The eight-machine allocation is being introduced at a port that handled 2.8 million cruise passengers in 2024, or about 3.7 million cruise passenger movements under the sector’s common measure. By October 2025, Barcelona had reported more than 3.56 million cruise passengers for the year, a 10% year-over-year increase; total passenger traffic including ferries reached 5.2 million.
Virgin said it had been in contact with other cruise operators as the first ships encountered the new process in late April.
How EES changes border processing
EES applies to most non-EU nationals crossing the Schengen Area’s external borders for short stays, including visa-exempt travelers and holders of short-stay visas. The system creates a digital record of entries and exits and collects facial images and fingerprints to verify identity, identify document misuse or identity fraud and record lawful stay duration.
First-time registration is expected to take longer. Checks then become faster on later crossings, once a biometric record exists. For cruise guests, that means the initial encounter with the system can add time at the terminal before onward travel from the port.
Valiant Lady’s Barcelona season continues
Virgin is operating the ship from Barcelona this summer on Western Mediterranean cruises that include destinations in France, Italy and Spain.
The line told guests it had revised disembarkation procedures “to make it as painless as possible.” Valiant Lady’s Barcelona-based program is scheduled to continue through late July.
