ncstrman

We are with you...on the walk thing...but are so used to helping cruisers who complain about walking from one end of the ship to the other...or using the stairs to go down one deck. So we always assume that many readers of CC do not want to walk more then a few yards/meters. Personally, we would be OK with the walk...although it might be a bit closer to walk to the Port shuttle bus stop (we have never tried to accurately compare the distances). . Another possibility is that as you are walking inside the port...to the pier...one of the port shuttle bus drivers takes pity (when he sees you dragging luggage) and makes an unscheduled stop. And then there is the really "bad day" scenario.....which is that its raining.

 

If you do see a taxi waiting at the station (maybe yes, maybe no) you might ask the driver how much. If you get an honest driver with a heart...it might only be about 10€....but we would not hold our breath.

 

Hank

Hi Hank!

Thanks again for the insight. We did arrive at 12:45 and of course the next Argo bus was 2:15. We, along with a lot of other cruisers, started walking. Pleasant enough walk, despite the heat. We had a suitcase and carry on each. At Fort Michelangelo most (all?) continued to walk towards Largo della Pace, we saw our ship and decided to walk to it instead, looked shorter! There is a guard house along the way, they just waved us through and as we were crossing the street to the sidewalk, a shuttle driver stopped and signalled us to hop on

We did wind up using them for our transfer from Civi to FCO. Absolutely no problems. We disembarked (got off the ship) around 8, took the shuttle to Largo della Pace and they were right there where all the taxi/transfer hawkers are, had a stand set up as CivitaTours. Walked across the street to the bus, put our luggage in and then walked to a cafe for an espresso. Bus left on time 9:30ish, got to FCO Terminal 3 within the hour.

We booked the transfer through Smartcruisetours which is a reseller, you can book direct with civitatours. Same price: 20EU PP. We did book ahead, not wanting to leave it to chance that they were overbooked, but it seems like they had plenty of "walk-on" sales as well. Lots of staff, easily visible. Coach was your typical excursion coach, air conditioned, comfortable.

We would use them again. What would we do differently? Stay on the ship another 45 min, even after going to a cafe we sat on the bus for 30 minutes.

Difference between using ship's airport transfer? You have to take the shuttle bus from the ship to Largo della Pace, while the ship's transfers were at the ship.

Hope this helps anyone thinking of using them...

We just got back from our European trip ( 3 weeks). We had (2) flights on Alittalia (Athens-Rome and Rome-Toulouse). Both flights - you would never knew it was in bankruptcy. The people at the check in counter and the flight attendants were super nice. They also provided snacks and drinks on the flights.

Agreed! We just flew AZ from Toronto to FCO, economy class. Smooth check in, friendly staff, relatively comfortable seats (Airbus 330 2-4-2 configuration). Meal was standard airline fare, served with a glass of wine. Each seat had a package on it with a blanket, headset and a pillow...the kind that wraps around your neck. Would not have guessed they were in bankrupcy if didn't know. Left on time, arrived early.

We are sailing next week on the Spirit so we know it will be hot....having said that, should we bring a light jacket/windbreaker for eveings on board while at sea? Thinking more about strolls on the decks...

Yes, pedestrians can enter at the old main entrance (there is a walkway). I do not recall any board or sign that indicated the ships and pier numbers. But the large cruise ships are generally in the same general area of the port and can usually be spotted at some distance. I suppose if one were directionally challenged they could simply ask the port security folks or another pedestrian. Nearly all the time, the cruise ships will be docked along the jetty (towards your left as you enter the port). The jetty is about 1 1/3 miles long and can handle up to 6 cruise ships. So while it might only take 10 min to walk to the nearest docking postion, the furthest berth is more then 1 more mile down the long pier. As you near the long cruise ship pier there is a security gate (always open) and a small building with a security guard. But there is a marked pedestrian walkway that goes right past this security point and nobody pays any attention to pedestrians. The bummer is that in the old days, one could simply walk in by the fort and catch an internal port bus to your pier. But now, the buses no longer stop at this area...so if you decide to walk to your ship and enter by this entrance you are committing yourself to walking all the way to your ship. If your vessel is docked at the furthest pier it can be quite a hike. But we love to walk and have never had a problem. That being said, we would not recommend most folks try walking if they are dragging luggage (we keep posting this caveat).

 

If there are more then 6 cruise ships in port, it is likely that 1 or more would be docked at one of the other berths in the port (usually used by ferries). Since we have always walked out of the port (before trying to walk back in) we have always known where our ship is docked. If you are walking to your ship for the first time (not likely since you would have to drag all your luggage) use your eyes to spot your ship...or ask for help.

 

I should add that this long pier area is often used by some crew for jogging :). Its flat, straight, and more then 1 mile long...which makes it ideal for runners.

 

Hank

P.S. We should mention that the walking situation is totally different at the Port of Livorno...where they completely discourage (or prohibit) walking through the Port. It irony is that at Livorno, I can drive my rental car right up to the gangplank.....but Civitavecchia does not allow rental cars inside the port.

Thanks Hank! I appreciate your insight, very helpful :)

Unfortunately our situation may involve dragging our luggage...I didn't research thoroughly before purchasing our train tickets, apparently the Argo bus does not run between 11:50-2:15 (at least from the port to the train station). I have not seen the schedule from the station to the port, but assume they likely don't run the other way as well.

We booked the Frecciabianca arriving at 12:44, so our options are limited to: 1-waiting until the Argo bus starts up again (90 min at the station? not likely). 2-taking a taxi to Largo di Pace for 20 eu, a possibility but considering we paid 20eu for the 2 of us for the train from Termini to Civi 1st class...

We are OK with walking, espacially since we will not be in a rush and can stop and smell the roses and take in the view of the seaside...and a drink :) Plus we will not be overly burdened. Entering at the old entrance, is half the distance to the new one, which we can apply to walking to the ship...if it is not docked too far away. Our ship, NCL Spirit, is supposed to be the only cruise ship in port that day. Hopefully it will be at one of the closer ones...

Agree. In fact, if you walk...you will go out the old main exit/entrance that is near the old Fortress...from which its about a 10 min stroll to the train station. But the distance from your pier to the port entrance can vary.....and at times exceed 1 mile. The Port actually has the walkways marked and provides some separation from the internal port traffic. While we WOULD NOT recommend folks walking..if they are dragging luggage,, it is an option for port days.

 

Hank

Can you also enter at the old main entrance (Fort Michelangelo)? Also, is there any way of knowing which berth/pier your ship will dock at? On our embarkation day we are the only cruise ship in port NCL Spirit.

Has anyone used smartcruisetours.com to get from the port to FCO? Their cost seems reasonable at 20 eu pp and leaves around 9:30. Our flight leaves at 3:00

Has anyone used them (recently)? I found a couple references about 6 years old. A close friend's sister-in-law recommended them for the Pompeii-Sorrento-Positano tour which we are considering late July. They have a 5 rating from ALL of over 1500 reviews, but very little on them here. Also, most reviews are on Rome excursions. Website is their name without the spaces followed by dotcom...

Thanks JimmyTheSaint & cruisemom42...exactly the info I was looking for!

How many can fit in a taxi? 4 adults? Are they AC'd?

Thanks!

Just make sure to give yourself at least 1 hour to get back to the ship after a tour in case there are mechanical issues, traffic, etc. The boat will wait for cruise sponsored excursions, but not private ones. That being said, I have only booked a couple excursions through NCL. I always book privately and even book in port where the prices are even cheaper. Sometimes it's also fun to rent a car and do it on your own for a fraction of what the companies charge.

Hi AKR2011! Regarding booking "in port", what do you mean? Do you contact the tour operator from the ship or walk off and choose one at the pier? We have done the latter a few times in the Caribbean with friends and have had nice tours customized to what we wanted to do. In Montego Bay the girls wanted to get their hair braided and the driver took us to some locals who did a great job for a fraction of the cost.

We are doing a Med cruise and were thinking of getting a private tour in Naples at the pier to do Pompeii & Amalfi coast.

Capris would be ok?

Tickitaly gets mixed reviews. I believe they add some sort of service charge at the end of the transaction.

 

Personally, I'd rather book directly with the official vendors, e.g., the Vatican website for the Vatican and coopculture for other Rome sites.

Agree! Even when you google a tour the resellers always pop up first and often look like they are the official ones. Another example is the Metro, almost all are resellers/tour operators. Atac is the transit operator.

As there are two separate main dining rooms on Spirit, would the menus be the same at each every night? Would anyone have copies or photos of menus from a recent cruise? Can't seem to find anything newer than 2015 for this ship. Also, any dailies would be interesting. Recent Med ones would be great to see.

Check http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2491535&highlight=spirit

There are essentially two aspects to the OPs question - technical and tariff.

 

Technical is relatively easy to answer. If you can see land from where you are, you are virtually guaranteed mobile phone coverage. On a Western European cruise circuit you will be fine in all ports and probably OK for all except the sea days when you will probably be out of sight and so out of coverage. On Eastern European cruises, you will almost always be in sight of land up and down the Adriatic and round the Greek Islands.

 

As for the tariff question, there are a number of options and charges that will depend on the operator you chose. These will almost certainly be different for phone data, wi-fi data, telephone calls and texts. Whichever you chose you will not only need to know the tariff you are on, but you will also need to be comfortable with the technical options on your phone.

 

The most "cost dangerous" option on the phone is the choice of phone data. Users have little control over when the phone data is being used if you enable it. Apps can decide to call "home" for updates and news services can wake up and consume your data in the background. Many tariff charges for phone data are horrendous and unless you have some protection on upper limits, the charges can climb very rapidly without you even knowing until the bill arrives. Best to disable phone data and phone roaming data options when you are abroad unless you are absolutely sure of your tariff charges. The other thing to be careful of is attaching images to texts - these can normally only be received via phone data and are often not contained within packages, so use something like Whatsapp for this when you are inside a free wi-fi or ship data package. In Europe texts are normally free to receive and only a nominal amount to send.

 

Many people get a Europe SIM card at their first port of call and those charges are often quite low. Be careful though and read the small print to see if the pre-paid charges are all that you can be held to. Sometimes you will be asked to give financial information in order to register the SIM and this can lead to ongoing charges if you go over the pre-paid limit. Be aware that you will have a different phone number when you have that SIM in the phone and it is quite likely that friends back home using that number will be charged for overseas mobile charges if they ring you! Also you can only use one of these SIMs if your phone is "unlocked".

 

The key to using your phone overseas is to only do it if you are either so rich it doesn't matter, or you fully understand both technical and tariff options of what you are using. You could, of course take a break from the thing and enjoy the break - that's free of both cost and worry.

 

Oh, I forgot to add - set the choice of network on your phone to manual so that you can be sure which local network you are connecting to.

Thanks Old Nutter...excellent info and just what I was looking for.

My plan in Canada allows me to use all my services abroad (in most countries) as if I was at home for $10/day to a max of $100/month. So for $100 I will be able to use it for all 14 days of our holiday. What it does NOT cover is at sea mobile, i.e. the ship's tower/service. That's why I was asking about in port reception (I don't need to be constantly connected, am trying to get away from that!) for the once-a-day responding to calls/emails. One of my concerns was getting connected accidentally to the ship's network while in port etc. Your last comment about switching to manual selection is spot on! Should have thought of that myself, thank you for that suggestion. :):):)

http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/visita-i-musei/tariffe-e-biglietti.html

Bought mine there yesterday, easy and no confusion of what you are getting. After payment they send a receipt & ticket...check your spam folder as that's where my tickets would up.

We prefer Deck 9. It's makes using the stairs a more viable option. Especially going to the waterfront. Simple.

 

 

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Good point! Thank you! Even if we were offered an upgrade, I'm not sure we would take it. Our cabin supposedly has the queen bed as opposed to the 2 pushed together.

There is no way of knowing. You could get lucky and get one higher in the category or they may do a push to upgrade those already booked leaving you with those in the lower categories.

That's what I was wondering...I have already booked a mid ship balcony. I'm happy with my cabin, but was wondering if they would offer to upgrade me and give mine to someone who paid less (BX) or would they give the more expensive one to to the BX?

We have a mid ship balcony booked on Deck 9. Currently the only available balcony cabins are the ones on deck 10 & 11 at a higher price as well as the family balconies. Also offered are the "Sail Away Balconies" at a much lower price.

Assuming someone books a sail away/guarantee, would they get one of the more expensive ones or would those be offered to the ones on deck 9 and the guaranteed ones get the ones vacated by the ones moving from deck 9 to 10-11?

Thanks for the replies :) My plan (Rogers in Canada) has what they call "Roam Like Home" which in Europe will be $10 per day to a max of $100 in one month, unlimited calls and texts to Canada and to numbers within the country where I am, 5GB data.

Calls will be the most important to stay in touch with the kids (and texting). Data, not so much so if its slow it will not be THAT important.

Good point by Garycarla...you would think that the ship would keep the tower on to benefit from phones locking onto their signal. Is turning off the ship's tower required? Or a courtesy to the passengers? Of course one can see which network you are connected to, but by turning it on/taking off airplane mode wouldn't all the waiting text come pouring in?

Looking for some insight into cell reception while in port...is it generally easy to pick up a signal while on the ship in port? (we have a balcony). On the NCL site it says that the CellAtSea service gets turned off " when a ship is entering port", is this the same as the "12 miles offshore" that I have read/mentioned in other discussions?

Thanks!

Like:D

How about if you speak broken Italian with a Roman accent :D

"Now that shareholders have voted to enter bankruptcy procedures, Bloomberg explains the next steps for the airline:

We booked a flight on AZ from YYZ to FCO on July 15, same deal as Wieslaw, paid & non refundable. I do have trip interruption etc as I used Visa, hopefully not will not get to that point. As Buchhalm stated AZ is not the greatest when it comes to strike action. FWIW, from what I've been reading, the Italian gov't has given AZ a 600 million euro loan which should keep it flying for 6 months or to the end of Oct.

Flying (I hope!) Alitalia in July. Last I heard is that they are in receivership looking for a buyer and have been given a 600 million loan that should last them through the "administration". So hopefully the 6 months takes it through to October.