Abel Matutes
Operated by Balearia
Abel Matutes
Operated by Balearia
Operated by Balearia on the Barcelona Alcudia, Alcudia Ciutadella & Barcelona Ciutadella routes
Part of the innovative Balearia+ series, Abel Matutes is Balearia's largest ship. Onboard you'll find modern seats, baby changing area, bar-café, cabins, cots, highchairs, left luggage locker, disabled access, reclining seats, self service restaurant, solarium, Wi-Fi, audio visual entertainment, shop.
The Abel Matutes ferry has around 90 4 berth cabins, with air conditioning, wardrobes and fully fitted bathroom. All the cabins feature an anti-allergy cleaning system. Reserved seating comes in the form of extra comfortable leather recliners in the Neptune lounge while the lobby bar lounge consists of chairs and sofas in a communal area.
You'll find a bar/cafeteria and self-service restaurant located in the bow. There is also an outside bar.
The Abel Matutes features an onboard shop where you can buy a range of cosmetics, perfumes, sweets and gifts.
There is a solarium for you to relax in during the trip and if you want to surf while you sail then you can use the onboard Wi-Fi (for a small fee). For those travelling on foot there are luggage lockers which you can access throughout the crossing.
Baleària’s staff members, both on board and on land, are available to assist passengers with reduced mobility however it is advised to mention if assistance is required both when making the reservation and when checking in. Escalators and lifts link the car deck with the passenger area too.
Please Note: Whilst we have taken great care in making our Abel Matutes guide as accurate as possible, onboard facilities, services and entertainment may vary depending on the date and time of year that you travel, facilities mentioned may change without notification and ferry companies reserve the right to operate vessels other than those mentioned at time of booking without prior notification.
out of 5
47% of our customers recommended this ship
"Relaxing Ferry Ride"
Very easy to check in, straight on the boat and a lovely easy journey over, no stress like what I feel when flying.
"Ferry to palma "
Pleasant experience ,cabin outbound so got a few hours sleep ,didn't book one inbound sadly and wasn't prepared to pay 100 euros for about 6 hours
"A great deal."
Got a fantastic deal with direct ferries. I was half expecting to pay more when I arrived, as I saw on line some customers seemed to have issues, but it was the real deal. All went great. The boat itself was fine too, just a bit stinky outside from smokers, it seems to find its way to us, so we stayed inside, Inside was fine. Happily I marked the location when we disembarked in Palma, otherwise finding the Balearia port to leave is tricky as it is further down than the others & very poorly signposted. The link address was not the right port.
"Dissapointed "
I have to express my disbelief in recieving this survey from you.... I have been trying to contact you for 3 days now, to advise you that due to no fault of my own and due to the lock down situation here in Ibiza, i would not be able to travel as booked (and checked in !) for my travel to Barcelona due to the travel ban? Your phones are not being answered and i have not received any response from your customer service as per your web site! You have not updated me on the corona virus situation via a simple text message to my mobile, even though you ask for the number and so i have not travelled on the ferry as booked and to add insult to injury you ask me " how was my crossing" aaarrrggghhh 🤬😡😡 I am still waiting to hear if i will get a refund / credit for this unused booking? I have used your company on many previous occasions ( i still have a pending booking for a Dieppe- Newhaven crossing at the end of the month !!) But on this occasion your customer service has been sadly lacking.
"Excellent ship but poor harbour"
The ship's facilities, staff and punctuality were excellent. But, the facilties and staff at the Barcelona harbour were very poor. Finding toilets was very, very difficult.
"Not to bad"
Staff in Mallorca was excellent and helpful,done my check in in 2 minutes everyone spoke English so It was quite good. But staff in Ibiza was less helpful there was just one person in reception and she didn't speak English at all and ship was late for about one hour.
"Nice and relaxed"
Nice, relaxed and very luxury trip with very nice staff.
"Amazing "
Lovely
"a terrible experience with Balearia, Ibiza-Valencia"
One of the most frustrating days of travel of my life! On arrival at the port in Ibiza there was NO signage or information provided as to whether we were in the right place or the ship would be leaving on schedule. There were NO announcements informing us of the late departure of the ship - it wasn't until we started queuing to board ONE HOUR after the scheduled departure time of 14:30 that we were finally given some indication. I understand that the weather was bad, and that this caused the delay, and that Balearía can't do anything about this - BUT THE LEAST the company could have done was INFORM THE PASSENGERS. When we finally arrived in Valencia, and were allowed to depart the ship - at almost midnight, over FOUR HOURS later than scheduled - I had lost my booking for an onward car to Madrid. I had to stay in Valencia overnight at more personal expense. I also have to say that the organization was APPALLING. Boarding and disembarking the ship was stressful and tiring - I've never had to wait on my feet for such long periods. If this had been an airline, it would be completely UNACCEPTABLE that you did not offer complimentary food and water to your guests, that were waiting around for several hours extra because of the delay. I will not be recommending your services to anyone, nor will I travel with you again in the future.
"proce increased on booking"
price came up @ €143. paid £146 nothing to complain about but not right.
"Decent ride"
Decent ride... including the meal. No complaints.
"Wrong Port"
I looked up the ferry routes listed on the Balearia website to confirm which port this shit would drop me off at and still ended up at the wrong port. This is the second time i have looked up a route and been dropped off at the wrong port.
"Mallorca holiday "
Great way to visit Mallorca and a stress free ferry trip. Boarding in Palma was so easy and fast, the cabin seating is great but too hot with minimum air conditioning. We spent most of the time on the deck enjoying the sunshine. Getting the car off in Barcelona took a long time but was easy.
"Lovely mini-cruise"
We travelled early July, on 10am crissing from Palma-Ibiza It was great for us as we were not interested in eating, or watching films, we just wanted a sunny view of the land from the sea We sat on loungers, plenty of them, in sun ir shade, it was v calm The only downside are the smokers, many of them on the decks. We had a coffee(ok) and croissant(ok) but the upstairs terraza café didn't open till lunchtime. The boat goes onto Valençia so lunch is later. Staff were friendly, and in Ibiza port a regular person offered us a lift as you have to phone for a taxi which we didn't realise, he was v kind! We enjoyed the trip v much, booking on-line was easy, well recommended!! Nice way to see Balearics
"Awful Ship"
Incompetence at check in. Get sent to the 'new' docks over the bridge then back to the 'old' one. Then go in convoy behind a van back to where I started from at the 'new' dock. All this takes hours. No facilities for the wait - no toilets, no water, no food, no seats. After a long day on a motorbike not good. Bikes put in the open on the top deck and half-heartedly shackled. If the ship had rolled the bike would definitely have toppled. Brittany Ferries do the job properly, Balearic don't. Then on board finally. I was in the posh seats. Ho, ho. The Butaca Neptuno. Bright lights, only slightly reclined, fixed arm rests, lack of leg room and worst of all, an endless loop of a stupid pop song that played at high volume for (and I am not joking) hours. Rest impossible. Complained to steward who wasn't bothered at all. Asked if cabins were still available. Would pay anything to get out of there. Oh yes. Go to reception. Loads of lorry drivers ahead of me. No problem with that but an hour later when I got to the front (three people behind the desk, only one actually doing anything) he was amazed I'd even bothered to ask. No way, all gone. Busloads of teenage school kids racing round the place and shouting just added to the hassle. Eventually I found a disused passenger seating room, locked (apparently), in the dark. Went in, no-one there and it was quiet. Bits of air con hanging down from the ceiling. Managed a few hours sleep on the floor. Food on board was awful. Staff couldn't care less. Oh, and the temperature. Inside the boat it must have been 30 degrees and sweltering. The disembarkation took 1 ½ hours as bikes were pretty well last off (this never happens). And the car decks were absolutely full of poisonous fumes. The decks were dangerously slippery with water and oil - never good on a motorbike. Horrible, horrible. I will do anything to avoid going with Balearia again.
"Dire, Simply Dire "
What can I say good about this crossing? Possibly the only thing is the speed of the disembarkation. I'll start the negative stuff at home. The ticket was booked through direct ferries and wasn't cheap. I paid for a larger cabin with the expectation that it would be A) Outside B) Nice, I'll come to those once we've boarded the vessel. I received confirmation from Direct Ferries and shortly before the journey I had an email advising me that I could save time by checking in online. Balaeria on the other hand said no, I must go to the check in desk. "Which desk" I asked them (two are listed for Barcelona), "I don't know, I'm in Denia" was the unhelpful reply. Oh well, Google earth found me one place which happened to be the right one.......Google clearly knows more than Balearia staff. Let's move to the port now. I managed to find some parking (a huge underground car-park right by the check in desk) and I went in and checked in. The lady said, park at Teminal C after 7pm. OK, I turned up at terminal C at 7pm only to find it had been moved to Termianl B,not a major issue as they are close by. We then waited, and waited, and waited. Then at the last possible moment we were taken in convoy to a completely different dock about 2 miles away. It was farcical. Are you still with me on this horror story? Well, let's move onto the ship. We were parked up and made our way to the reception. Now, I use ferries quite a lot and I'm used to helpful staff in clean uniforms. Not here. Greeted by a guy who simply pointed to reception. You see, although you've already checked in you've not been allocated your room or it's key, unlike Stena or Brittany Ferries. So, another queue now at 23:00 this time for a rather unhelpful lady who clearly didn't want to be there and was making that fact rather obvious. The key was duly handed over and I made my way to the room, expecting something clean, tidy with a window. What I found was a dirty cabin, peeling paint on walls in corridors and an inside cabin which frankly, I was loathe to sleep in. Oh, and no air conditioning as it was broken on a warm night on the med, lovely! No bar, no food, nothing to eat or drink anywhere. Just a single bottle of water in a 4 berth cabin left on the side! I slept fitfully in my clothes on the top of the bed. At 5:45am someone walked up and down the corridor tapping on the doors giving us a rather rude awakening. Now, this part isn't the fault of the staff, but my wife left her Google Tablet either in the room or on a table while we were waiting to disembark. We didn't find out until later and contacted Balaeria straight away using their web contact form. I still have not heard a peep from them. Yet a member of staff will have found it in the room if it was there and almost certainly a member of staff will have found it on a table! Sorry for the long and often rambling review. But I want other travellers to be fully aware of what they're paying for if they use this crossing. Rich
"Shambolic organisation, ferry fine"
We travelled from Barcelona to Palma on the overnight ferry leaving at 11pm. The confirmation email for our booking said that there were maps on the Balearia website of the ports. I looked everywhere and could only find the details for what turned out to be the restricted dockside area. Not knowing that at the time, we drove to that address (thankfully very early) and were turned away by a quite bemused armed policeman. We then proceeded to drive back to Barcelona and had to follow signs for the docks until eventually we were lucky enough to spot a sign for the Balearia terminal. We parked and went in to ask where we were supposed to take the car, to be told to drive it to terminal S. This information does not appear to be anywhere on Balearia's website (I looked again at both the Spanish and English translations of the site thinking that perhaps something had been lost in the language barrier) which is very strange. We arrived as advised two hours before the departure time and then took part in a rather messy display of cars having to reverse into queues in a small space on the quay. I am only grateful we were not towing anything, unlike the several caravans and boats being taken on board. It was confusing that there appeared to be Balearia staff there with no identification or high-visibility jackets so we were unsure who was supposed to be organising things. We then waited until about 40 minutes before the departure time at which point we were guided into a single queue on the quay. Cars in front of us all had their hazard lights on which we assumed they had been advised to do by the staff but none mentioned this to us and we didn't understand why this would be necessary. We were near the back of this queue but it later transpired that we were following a Balearia van in convoy through the streets of Barcelona, with vehicles ignoring street signs and traffic lights in the desperation not to lose sight of the vehicles in front, leading to some interesting moments with other road-users. The last two cars in the convoy (us and the car in front) did eventually get left behind. By this time we realised that they were leading us back to exactly where we had been earlier in the day. Thankfully, another member of staff was waiting near that part of the actual dock and flagged down the next convoy leader for us to join them. We finally arrived at the boat and boarded without incident. The ferry itself was fine if a little tatty. We had a four-berth cabin which was comfortable and had everything you would expect (decent towels, bedding, soap etc). We slept well and woke up just before the staff began the very subtle process of banging on doors and shouting down the corridors to warn people we would be arriving soon. There was not a lot of direction as to when we should leave our cabin but we don't appear to have been told off for waiting until we were permitted to go back to our car so it seems to be fine. I don't think I have ever witnessed anything quite so shambolic as the organisation of this trip from start to finish. I can only hope this was a one-off but I somehow doubt that and I would be amazed if no one has ever come to grief following the convoy in this way.
"Fine, but could be better"
Finding the check in was very stressful, the port was chaotic with freight lorries queuing for various crossings and there were no sign posts to the Baleria check in, just too ind flags hidden well inside the terminal with a man not in any sort of uniform. The journey over was fine, coming back everything was okay, but I was disappointed the restaurant closed at 15.00 when the crossing arrived at 19.00 meaning my only option for food was an expensive sandwich rather than a hot meal.
"The comfy seats"
I travel with Balearia for the simple reason of using the special reclining seats that they have installed Why do I have to put up with hours of TV during the trip, the TV is too loud and for some reason the shouting that goes on with excessive violence during the programmes is totally unnecessary . If the management would take the time they would realise that most people in the area are trying to sleeep or rest. Turn it off.
"Terrible "
I work on ferries. I have worked on Brittany and DFDS ferries as a musician. I have never traveled on a ferry with such a lack of services as Balearia. 2 minutes after the ship departed (an hour late), there was an announcement saying the on board shop would be closing! For the full 8 hour journey there was nowhere at all open - not even to buy so much as a bottle of water. If you have no choice but to travel with this line - make sure you take plenty of food and drink with you. Also some cushions unless you can afford the €150 extra for a cabin with a bed! Terrible service. Surely they can afford to employ 1 extra member of staff to at least keep a bar or cafe open?
"Barcelona to Palma Ferry"
The sailing and ferry went very smoothly. I have done this crossing many times, my only issue with this crossing is in Barcelona. Every time I have checked the boarding procedure has changed. I once checked in over the bridge at the port side in a tent or at the offices near the roundabout. You never know where to go it's just take a chance and if your wrong you get sent to another office. This last time we checked in at the roundabout office and was told to follow a van with hazard lights flashing which took us to the ferry. Other than this it was great.
"Good but wit issues"
Finding place to wait or any directions around Barcelona port is just madness. Should do some signs showing the way to go. When we got on ferry was easy and nice trip.
"On Time"
We left on Time on the outward and return journey and arrived in both cases before the scheduled time. On the return journey despite a storm. Impressive
"Good service that could be improved."
The facilities aboard ship were adequate and it arrived on time. the cabins were fine with clean sheets and a decent shower. Rinsing in the sink after a shave was very difficult however, due to a shelf just above the sink that was difficult to miss with the back of the head. The worst part of travelling with Balearia was finding the parking area in Barcelona before departure. The map on the website was very poor and no proper directions were given. This resulted in driving around Barcelona for over an hour before finally finding the parking area. I did not come across any signs except for general signs for the docks. Thought should be given to people who do not have good Spanish, like myself. The only other problem that should be addressed is the food. Whilst the selection was good, on both crossings all of the food was luke warm or colder, it spoilt the meal.
"Balearic bliss"
Enjoyed the comfort and efficiency of this quality line once more. Enjoyed also the value for money, the fare for this 8 hour trip being cheaper than the 1.5 hour Calais-Dover which I took a couple of days later!
"Autumn crossing"
Clean cabins, awful food, unnecessary queue to get cabin allocation when could have been sorted out at Booking or check in
"good experience"
Easy to book, helpful staff and good value for money
"Recent trip"
As usual everything went according to plan. The special price was an added bonus. I hope to do the same trip in the coming year, hopefully at a similar good price Thank you Mike
"Food on board"
I have used this route for several years with both Balearic and transmedditereanea. For some reason they cannot get the catering right it is truly awful and invariably served by some of the most miserable people in Spain.
"Dog unfriendly "
I took my dog on the ferry but was disappoint there was not even water available near the kennels. Also you can only check on your dog at 2 set times.
"Disappointed "
Very friendly and helpful staff. Eat well before you go on the ferry as the food is poor. And the porta toilets in Barcelona ferry port are filthy. Surly it wouldn't take much to improve the facilties.
"I've seen cattle treated better!! "
we paid £350 for a car and three passengers one way from Palma to Barcelona. The facilities on the ferry were very poor. There were three toilets for 900 passengers. One of these was overflowing within 2 hours into the trip. Thank heavens this was a flat calm day if the crossing had been rough we would have been knee deep in S**t. The cafeteria was open for two hours then shut. The bar which served snacks ran out of food after 3 hours. Searing was poor. Quite honestly I don't think Balearia ferries have heard of the concept of customer satisfaction or care. On a 200m ferry with 11 decks, passengers are restricted to the the front 50 m on three decks. Unfortunately balearia is a quasi state run business, unionised and has a monopoly on the ferry service to and from the Balearics. If you still decide to travel - you have been warned!!!!
"Holiday trip "
The ferry is a great and relaxing way to get to Mallorca and very easy to use except finding the boarding gates. Clear signage is needed in Barcelona and Palma as we were lost at both ends and the Balearia website does not make it any easier. Only other point is the toilets, they are not cleaned on a regular basis.
"Unsatisfactory "
Sleeping seats were inceibly noisily, kitchen staff banged and yelled all night with little regard for passengers. Ship did not take off on time, passengers left outside with fumes, lights left on all night, making it impossible to sleep. There was the feeling that no care was taken or thought gone into how the ship catered for sleeping/resting passengers, for their comfort and for their peace. There was queuing, noise, light and disregard for comfort and well being.
"Excellent "