Recent (April-May 2014) Civitavecchia Experience?

A business owner who would presumably benefit from this change has posted on Trip Advisor that as of mid-April 2014 the Civitavecchia port shuttle bus drop off point has changed.

They claim that the new drop off location is at the north entrance/exit of the port, not the southern one near Forte Michelangelo. If this is true, it will be a one mile walk to the train station, not the less than a half mile that it has been.

Can anyone with recent experience (within the last couple of weeks) confirm or deny this story? I've looked on line for any press releases or announcements about this change but have not found anything.

Yes, they have moved :(

It is about twice the hike to the train station:eek:

There is a city bus running about every 20 mins we walked it

It was good way to to lose weight from a 15 night TA on the Silhouette that docked May 5

Thanks for the update. One small mention I found on an Italian web site indicated that this is temporary while they finish the work around the forte (something about flower beds and a moat?).

We'll have to keep track as the summer progresses and see if the bus stop moves back south or stays where it is right now.

It was a big shock to use when they change the drop off location , hoping this is only temp thing

Oh that's annoying :( Thanks for the heads up though. Will be in Civitavecchia in 6 days time and need to catch a train from Rome at 10.00 to travel on to Salerno, leaving the ship overnight and joining in Salerno the next day. That probably means we won't make the first train we'd hoped for out of Civitavecchia. I suppose that depending where the ship docks it may be as quick just to walk from the ship to the station if there is no port bus waiting.

Forwarned is forearmed :)

We are renting a car from Hertz in Civitavecchia (beginning of June). We were hoping to walk there with our luggage. I assume we will have the same problem with the distance from the new drop off location - ??

Eurocruiser, thanks for being on top of this and airbalancer, thanks for giving us the update.

We are overnighting pre-cruise at Hotel Miramare. Do you think it would be difficult to get a cab to the shuttle area?

Eurocruiser, thanks for being on top of this and airbalancer, thanks for giving us the update.

 

We are overnighting pre-cruise at Hotel Miramare. Do you think it would be difficult to get a cab to the shuttle area?

We stayed at the Miramare in October and took a cab with another couple that the hotel arranged and i believe it was 5 Euros per person right to the cruise terminal.

We thought this was a great change!! There was a bus right at the drop off point that takes you to the train station. I thought people would be happy!

We were renting a car at Europcar and the drop off was right across the street!! It was perfect. For anyone renting through hertz, try getting a quote from Kemwel or autoeurope, it was much less expensive and they used europcar anyway. Some friends of ours also rented that way, we both got one way rentals for one week for $210 (Dollars) with insurance included.

We thought this was a great change!! There was a bus right at the drop off point that takes you to the train station. I thought people would be happy!

 

Do you mean a bus provided by the port? Or a local bus which just happened to be there or which you had to wait for? We're on a tight schedule so don't want to wait a long time if we can walk to the station in 20 mins or so.

Thank you CathyCruises!!

I was looking at AutoEurope months ago... we need a midsize wagon as there are 4 adults and the prices were upwards of 900.00 Cdn for 10 days... I now see it's approx. 600.00 Cdn!!

Hertz was approx. 750.00 when I made the reservation last January... I thought I was getting a deal! I am also glad to hear that the Europcar is across the street from the drop off point... Bonus!!

Thanks again!

We stayed at the Miramare in October and took a cab with another couple that the hotel arranged and i believe it was 5 Euros per person right to the cruise terminal.

Thanks so much for this info. Clearly this is the way to go!

Hope you found the Miramare to your liking. I am also going to try to find the laundromat nearby while I am there.

Those of you with an upcoming port stop in Rome, please come back and report on your experiences.

• If you can, describe precisely where the shuttle buses drop you off.
  
• Tell us if there are buses to the train station and, if there are, are these regular public buses or port buses.
  
• Is there a fee to ride them? Are they waiting when you get off the port shuttle or do you need to wait for them? If so, how long?
  
• Is there a bus provided to return to the port from the train station?
  
• Any other specifics you can think of that will help others plan for their port visit.
  

Thanks in advance.

I suspect that there won't be transportation provided to help you get to and from the train station, as this is a somewhat hot local political issue. Local politicians do not want to be seen as helping tourists clog up the local trains. Tourist money may help the local economy somewhat (it's doubtful how much Civitavecchia benefits), but tourists don't vote and getting/keeping votes is going to be their primary concern.

I'll be there 6 days from today and will be sure to report back on how to get to the station - unfortunately can't report on getting back as we'll be heading off to Salerno and rejoining the ship the next day.

I highly doubt there will be a free bus, Royal Caribbean definitely won't provide one. I suspect there won't be a bus provided by the port or the town either and that the bus referred to above is just a local bus which happened to be passing by. Perhaps Cathy Cruises will come back to confirm.

If the port bus does drop you off right by Europcar I know where that is as it's just around the corner from the Hotel Traghetto where we stayed pre-cruise last year. It takes about 20 minutes to walk from the station from there at a fairly brisk pace.

We thought this was a great change!! There was a bus right at the drop off point that takes you to the train station. I thought people would be happy!

 

We were renting a car at Europcar and the drop off was right across the street!! It was perfect. For anyone renting through hertz, try getting a quote from Kemwel or autoeurope, it was much less expensive and they used europcar anyway. Some friends of ours also rented that way, we both got one way rentals for one week for $210 (Dollars) with insurance included.

The city bus was packed when we got there and decided to walk

Harald started to wait for the next bus , and was told it runs every 20 mins and walk to the station also

Harald also said in retrospect he wished he had waited the 20 minutes! It APPEARED to be a special bus just to the train station which runs every twenty minutes. But since the port shuttles were dropping off so many people, there was a definite line.

This was on a cruise ending in Rome so lots of luggage was involved. May be a lot quicker when there's no luggage to load. I know we expected the walk to europcar to be just under 1 kilometer from the main entrance, so it would seem that the walk to the station would be that kilometer plus the regular distance from the fort.

Thanks for the update. One small mention I found on an Italian web site indicated that this is temporary while they finish the work around the forte (something about flower beds and a moat?).

 

We'll have to keep track as the summer progresses and see if the bus stop moves back south or stays where it is right now.

Thanks for the information, I'll be there the end of August and hope it has moved back by then.:cool:

We were there just over a week ago and got a shock when the shuttle didnt stop at the port entrance. It turns left away from the station and heads to a tarmac area off Via Turco (if you look on google maps you can see a wasteland area).

If you are heading to the station the walk is around three times the distance that the walk from the port entrance is. We took the public bus to the station at 1€ each.

Weve done the shuttle to the port entrance and walked to the station twice before and this time it was a pain. It probably added around 25 minutes to the journey from ship to the station and that was only because there was a public bus waiting to take us as we got off the shuttle.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We thought this was a great change!! There was a bus right at the drop off point that takes you to the train station. I thought people would be happy!

 

Its a benefit if people prefer a bus rather than a short walk but for us it was an extra link in the journey from ship to Rome that we could have done without and added 20 mins to the transfer. Weve been quite happy walking the few minutes from the shuttle drop off by the port to the station previously.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

As noted you get dropped off very far away from the train station. Expect 20-30 minutes of walking to find the train station from the place the port bus leaves you. And make a note of precisely where they leave you so you can find your way back. (My wife has great ideas that I don't hear.)

Next we bought the pass for 14 Euros (is that right?) for return to/from Civi/Rome plus you get to use it on all the Metros in Rome for that price. Compared to the 5 Euros price for each leg of the train alone this is a good value because you will want to take the subway.

After you buy the ticket don’t forget to stamp it in the machine with no instructions! Just watch other people. The bathroom in the train station has no toilet seat and my wife says it was gross.

The train ride to Rome takes 45-60 minutes depending on where you get off. We planned to get off at the end of the line, Temini station, despite the fact it shares the same name as that place on the Walking Dead. The logic in Termini was that it also sits on the Termini subway station so from there we could take a quick two stop ride to the Coliseum and save walking time.

This plan makes sense in theory however the walk from the train track (#25 indicates very far away) to the actual subway station took almost 20 minutes of walking. It was clearly marked only very, very far apart. I wonder if it would have been faster to walk to the Coliseum from the train station. Really.

At this point I figured we had walked about 45-60 minutes to get to the Civi station and then to the Termini subway before seeing anything in Rome.

Rome was ridiculously crowded with lots of tour groups all over. We walked from Coliseum to Spanish Steps and aborted when we saw that there was a Metro station there and elected to ride back to Termini then because it would take another 2 hours. Lots of travelling time with little time to see the neat stuff.

Finally, there is a pay toilet between the two Termini stations. Yes, it seems silly to pay 1 Euro for something like this but it was very clean which is expected when people pay to pee and someone is cleaning the place regularly. BTW, there is no toilet seat. What gives Italy?

Oh that's annoying :( Thanks for the heads up though. Will be in Civitavecchia in 6 days time and need to catch a train from Rome at 10.00 to travel on to Salerno, leaving the ship overnight and joining in Salerno the next day. That probably means we won't make the first train we'd hoped for out of Civitavecchia. I suppose that depending where the ship docks it may be as quick just to walk from the ship to the station if there is no port bus waiting.

 

Forwarned is forearmed :)

The quay is very long and it can take 20-30 mins walk from the ship to the port entrance plus the walk to the station.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Back from our cruise and we did indeed stop at the new drop-off point which is over half the distance from the old point. There's a lot of building work going on around the fort (the old drop-off point) and knowing how quickly they work, I wouldn't expect it to be finished anytime soon.

If you want to see where the new drop-off point is just google Hotel Traghetto and it's about 50 yds from there - having stayed at the Traghetto last year, it would have been ideal for us. :rolleyes:

This time we were on a tight schedule as we left the ship overnight and had a train already booked from Termini. We walked to the station - quickly - in no more than 25 mins. Previously, walking at the fast rate we used would have taken less than 10 minutes. There was no bus to the station at the drop-off point when we got there (at around 7.20am) and we weren't prepared to wait for one.

The walk really isn't onerous, even with cases, for anyone who is reasonably fit and at a steady pace would only take 30-35 mins. We did it last year with cases when we stayed at the Traghetto and we're no spring chickens. Even if we hadn't been on a tight schedule (and wary of when the local bus would turn up) I would happily walk it again rather than hang around for a bus and risk the ensuing scramble if a big line has built up.

[quote name=Bobal;42888698

The walk really isn't onerous' date=' even with cases, for anyone who is reasonably fit and at a steady pace would only take 30-35 mins. [/quote]

Thats a pretty terrible experience for anyone embarking or disembarking with luggge, I cannot imaging that being tolerated at say Miami or Fort Lauderdale. Has Italy become a third world country?

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thats a pretty terrible experience for anyone embarking or disembarking with luggge, I cannot imaging that being tolerated at say Miami or Fort Lauderdale. Has Italy become a third world country?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Actually, having just talked to my husband he's reminded me that it didn't take that long - more like 25 mins at a steady pace with luggage. If that's what you call a terrible experience you must lead a pretty untroubled life ;)

We obviously have a different approach to getting to places - I'm more than happy to walk, particularly in a nice little town like Civitavecchia - hardly third world. In fact I just googlemapped it and it's 1.4km. Thankfully some of us are more tolerant of the places we visit and don't expect everything to be like Miami or FLL

Actually, having just talked to my husband he's reminded me that it didn't take that long - more like 25 mins at a steady pace with luggage. If that's what you call a terrible experience you must lead a pretty untroubled life ;)

 

We obviously have a different approach to getting to places - I'm more than happy to walk, particularly in a nice little town like Civitavecchia - hardly third world. In fact I just googlemapped it and it's 1.4km. Thankfully some of us are more tolerant of the places we visit and don't expect everything to be like Miami or FLL

I agree. Less convenient, certainly. Annoying due to the extra time involved, sure. But terrible? Perhaps if you are not very mobile or fit or are traveling with someone who isn't.

Europe as a whole is a place where folks simply expect to do a lot more walking (and to take public transportation) than in the US. You frequently see ladies and gentlemen of advanced age -- much more spry than I am at age 50 -- walking many blocks with groceries or other goods and/or carrying them up long flights of stairs. You also don't see as many overweight people. This is true not just in Italy but in lots of other countries.

It's good to make folks aware of the temporary change at Civitavecchia, but for the most part I'd think anyone who was in good enough shape to handle their luggage previously (walking to/from port, managing stairs at the station, getting on/off the train) would IN GENERAL be able to handle the additional walk.