Disembarking Equinox - question for recent cruisers

[mygreyhound66]

Greetings, we are booked on the Oct 15th sailing, and according to the itinerary we arrive back into Civitavecchia at 430am. I know that we do not disembark at that time, but wanted to know from recent cruisers, what time did you actually get off? specifically I am looking at a train schedule to get to Florence and see that there is a 7:30ish and a 9ish train to Pisa, then connect for Florence.

 

Can you tell me the timing options given to you for self-disembarkation? many thanks....

[diprip]

You can get off at 6 all the way up to 10. We got off at 9:15 and caught the train to rome. You have to take a shuttle to get out of the port terminal (free 10 minute ride) then its a 10-15 minute walk to the train station. If there is only one train that comes by at the time to florence, I would try to get off the boat at least 1 hr before the train leave to give you enough time to get there.

[Member123]

I can't tell you from personal experience on the disembarkation time, but what I can tell you is the conversation that I had with a restaurant waiter on the day of our embarkation... same port. I was told that there were passengers leaving the ship at 5:00am and that there were several waiters who were extremely tired because they had extraordinarily early shifts to accommodate breakfast for these early, early disembarking passengers.

 

I think that due to the distance of this port from the airport, the ship is used to early disembarking passengers. Your idea of taking the train to Florence is such a great idea! If you're looking at the schedules from the Trenitalia site, be sure to look at the estimated time of travel. You may already know this, but there are several speeds of trains available on various routes; I'm not familiar with all the routes (obviously), but I found there to be quite a difference in the route between Rome and Venice. Basically, the time estimates are determined by the number of stops that the train will make. There are more express trains that will NOT stop at all of the terminals on the route so they arrive at their destination much faster. You might find that the earlier train is more of a commuter train and that you could arrive earlier by leaving later. Just something to pay attention to.

 

Hopefully, someone with actual disembarking experience can come along and answer your question more factually. What a wonderful trip! Love Florence. Be sure that you get advance tickets to the Uffizi, especially if there are any ships in the port that feeds Florence on the day that you want to visit the Gallery. Florence gets very, very busy.

[mygreyhound66]

Terrific - thanks, it is good to know that there is that window of 6am - 10am. I can plan for breakfast on the ship and still make the 9ish train....many thanks again!

[mygreyhound66]

I can't tell you from personal experience on the disembarkation time, but what I can tell you is the conversation that I had with a restaurant waiter on the day of our embarkation... same port. I was told that there were passengers leaving the ship at 5:00am and that there were several waiters who were extremely tired because they had extraordinarily early shifts to accommodate breakfast for these early, early disembarking passengers.

 

I think that due to the distance of this port from the airport, the ship is used to early disembarking passengers. Your idea of taking the train to Florence is such a great idea! If you're looking at the schedules from the Trenitalia site, be sure to look at the estimated time of travel. You may already know this, but there are several speeds of trains available on various routes; I'm not familiar with all the routes (obviously), but I found there to be quite a difference in the route between Rome and Venice. Basically, the time estimates are determined by the number of stops that the train will make. There are more express trains that will NOT stop at all of the terminals on the route so they arrive at their destination much faster. You might find that the earlier train is more of a commuter train and that you could arrive earlier by leaving later. Just something to pay attention to.

 

Hopefully, someone with actual disembarking experience can come along and answer your question more factually. What a wonderful trip! Love Florence. Be sure that you get advance tickets to the Uffizi, especially if there are any ships in the port that feeds Florence on the day that you want to visit the Gallery. Florence gets very, very busy.

 

Thanks so much for this information! I have been scouring the trenitalia site for information on trains, and it seems like Civitavecchia to Pisa Centrale, then change for Florence is the easiest (I say easiest because going to Rome Termini to make the train to Florence, is a very long walk through the station due to where the Civitavecchia trains stop). Apparently Pisa is an easier (shorter station walk) - unless anyone with first hand knowledge can advise me differently? since we are staying in Rome prior to the cruise and have never experienced Florence, I thought this was a great idea, and we are looking forward to it very much, the last trip started with Venice, clearly we just cannot see enough of Italy!

[diprip]

You would waste a lot of time going to Rome first then Florence. Pisa is in the same direction as Florence and the train ride between the two would be much shorter than that of Rome/Florence.

[Member123]

See, this is what I mean about really checking the schedule.. and don't be afraid of going to Roma Termini. If you decide to take the Pisa Centrale schedule, you will be on a regional train. The entire trip to get to Florence will take just minutes over 3 hours. If you took the Roma Termini schedule, then you would be on an express train between Rome and Florence and the entire trip would take minutes under 3 hours. So, in Italy, you can't assume that geography will make a difference in how long the trip actually takes in reference to time!

 

From a quick scan of the site, (be sure and hit the DETAILS link to get all the information on the route), your choices around 9:00am are:

 

Civitavecchia 8:54 departure for Pisa Centrale, arrival time 10:57 (duration 2hrs 3 min) on a FrecciaBianca train stopping at 4 train stations between Civitavecchia and Pisa Centrale. Changing trains to a Regionale, departing at 11:11 (so 14 minutes between trains) and arriving in Florence at 12:00 (noon).

 

Civitavecchia 9:54 departure for Roma Termini, arrival time 10:53 on a Regionale. Departure 11:15 (so 22 minutes between trains) on a FRECCIAROSSA between Rome and Florence, arriving in Florence at 12:46pm. So, you leave an hour later from Civitavecchia, but you arrive in Florence only 46 minutes later than the earlier train.

 

Because the route from Civitavecchia to Termini is offered more frequently, you actually have earlier choices... an 8:41 departure, getting you to Florence at 11:46.

 

Now, of course, I don't know your exact date, so I just used a date in the future. So don't go by my schedule! :eek: I'm just offering an example. There are, of course, other considerations, like cost. How leisurely do you want your morning to be versus how fast you want to get going on the next leg of your trip... etc.... For me, I love to have a leisurely breakfast, a last good bye to the crew and newly made friends, and a stressless movement to my next great adventure. But, that's me....

 

I have been in the Roma Termini station, and it was very easy. The only other consideration, of course, is your luggage as you will be handling it yourselves. There is no help provided to get your luggage INTO or OUT OF the train. Also, I decided (because of luggage) that we needed to travel in the First Class compartment. This was an absolutely worthless idea and offered us no better luggage storage than the main compartments within the train. So, IMO, you could definitely save money, travel in standard class, and be perfectly comfortable.

[Shooraq]

If you aren't taking all your luggage off by hand for express disembarkment, the earliest you you are able to leave the ship noramlly is 6:30am. This is what we did on the May 13 sailing.