Rare llarsen Posted January 5, 2013 #1 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Hello, This is our first time cruising to the Med next October. We will be doing our air deviation next week, and unfamiliar with this process. Our cruise starts in Barcelona (booked hotel for 2 days prior) and ends in Rome. We will not be staying in Rome, but wish to continue home asap from the ship. One of us is flying back to California LAX and the other to Philly. What is the earliest you can self disembark? We will be hiring a driver to take us from ship to airport. Our friends want a flight from Rome to Philly that is 11:45am Is this enough time to get to airport? Also, how do we arrange this air deviation? Does Oceania have better European flights than you can book on your own? We found this to be true on our flight to Tahiti from LAX. Oceania had us on a 1:00pm flight, but booking on our own we only had a choice of 4:00pm. Thank you for any suggestions or information you can give! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted January 5, 2013 #2 Share Posted January 5, 2013 They use regualar sked airlines so check out the flights you want this is a good site I use http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ Submit the flights you want to Oceania via your TA if you use one Then see if they can do it without an upcharge You can check the air credit they will deduct for the cruise fare & see which option works best for you What time does you ship dock? I think you may need to be at the airport 3 hrs prior to the flight & depending on how you are getting to Rome from the port it can add another 1-2 hrs The ship will need to be cleared by immigration before anyone gets off If you used a TA then discuss all possibilities with them Each person is different Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare llarsen Posted January 5, 2013 Author #3 Share Posted January 5, 2013 THANK YOU LHT28! Nice site and I just found a flight that works perfectly connecting with our friends in PHL so we arrive in Barcelona the same time, and depart Rome into PHL together too! Thanks sooooo much! Does anyone know how early we can get off the ship carrying our bags off? The flight we want out of Rome leaves at 11:50am Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted January 6, 2013 #4 Share Posted January 6, 2013 THANK YOU LHT28! Nice site and I just found a flight that works perfectly connecting with our friends in PHL so we arrive in Barcelona the same time, and depart Rome into PHL together too! Thanks sooooo much! Does anyone know how early we can get off the ship carrying our bags off? The flight we want out of Rome leaves at 11:50am What time does your ship dock? I somehow think you might not make that flight The port is 1-2 hrs away depending on traffic or how you plan to get to FCO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted January 6, 2013 #5 Share Posted January 6, 2013 I think Lyn is right although I'm no expert where FCO is concerned. We have arrived there, but not left from there. I know that the port is a good distance from Rome, but think it may be closer to the airport. But even so ... it really depends on when the ship docks and clears customs. If the ship is due in at say, 7 or 8 am (and you have to allow for delays where clearance is concerned) I doubt you could get to the airport and go through security in the time you have allotted. OTOH, often the ship gets in earlier and people have been known to leave the ship at extremely early hours ... but it's pretty difficult to know in advanced if that might be the case on your cruise! Personally, I wouldn't try for such an early flight. Which is not to say that it couldn't be possible. That's one reason for staying over a day ... And I understand that you don't want to! We usually stay over in a port at least a day, usually more, but on the rare occasion when we have flown home upon departure from the ship we have planned on early afternoon flights, just to be safe. Here is where a good TA can be helpful! I guess the first thing is to check your itinerary and see when the projected arrival time in port is ... and start from there. Mura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CintiPam Posted January 6, 2013 #6 Share Posted January 6, 2013 We used a 1:30 PM flight to JFK after our October cruise, and it worked out great with us departing the ship at 8:45 AM with about a 50-minute drive to the airport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted January 6, 2013 #7 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Right! Dinner interfered but afterwards Rick Steves told me that driving time by cab/limo from the port to the airport is 45-60 minutes. He says the train, it's like 2-1/2 hours. So unless you are over-nighting in Rome (!) it wouldn't seem likely you could make that flight. A 1-1:30pm flight would be a different story. Mura Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare llarsen Posted January 6, 2013 Author #8 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Hi, Our ship arrives in port at 6am. The 11:30 flight is just perfect for both of us. We plan to self disembark (carry our bags off the ship) as early as we can and have a car waiting for us. I'm posting here on the Oceania board hoping to get more responses from past Oceania cruisers and their experience getting off the ship in Rome. Thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nana541 Posted January 6, 2013 #9 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Remember you need to be at the airport 3 hrs in advance of flight...and depending on the day of the week you will be completely at the mercy of traffic! If everything goes like clockwork and ship actually arrives by 6am and port authorities and immigration clears the ship promptly... IMHO this is a lot of "ifs" to make an 11:30 flight! I know you will enjoy your cruise and hope the trip home goes as you would like! To bad you are planning to miss out on the glories of Rome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare llarsen Posted January 6, 2013 Author #10 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Well I trust your opinions and it sounds like we are taking our chances with an 11:50 flight. We are going into Barcelona early, and husband is transferring to another location for work...so Rome will have to wait til next trip :-( Thanks all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boerneDQ Posted January 7, 2013 #11 Share Posted January 7, 2013 My sister and I were on an O cruise in June that ended in Rome. We docked at 6 am (like yours), BUT the port authorities in Rome would not clear the ship or let anyone off until after 9 am. This was the Reunion cruise and we had the O President on board. He went down to negotiate with them as there were a lot of passengers that were going to miss flights. But the authorities still did not budge much. Moral of the story is, plan for worst case and be pleasantly surprised when the best case happens. This is the only time we have had such a delay, but it makes me more cautious going forward. Charlotte Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.