Leave cruise in Livorno and reboard the next evening in Civitavecchia

[MNmariner]

We are taking our son's family on a cruise next summer and I would like to go from Livorno to Rome, spend the night in Rome and then reboard the ship the next night in Civitavecchia. Our grandchildren are ages 11, 9 and 7 and I think the extra time I'm Rome would be nice.

 

Our TA emailed NCL with our request and it was denied. Our TA suggested we ask again when we get on the ship. There are 7 of us traveling so I would need to get a hotel reservation for the night and I can probably find a hotel I can cancel 24 hrs in advance.

 

I'm just not sure if I want to go to all the trouble and then be denied when we get on the ship. It's been suggested we just "miss" the ship in Livorno but I don't want to do that.

 

Has anyone had any experience doing this?

 

Thanks

[buggins0402]

We are taking our son's family on a cruise next summer and I would like to go from Livorno to Rome' date=' spend the night in Rome and then reboard the ship the next night in Civitavecchia. Our grandchildren are ages 11, 9 and 7 and I think the extra time I'm Rome would be nice.

 

Our TA emailed NCL with our request and it was denied. Our TA suggested we ask again when we get on the ship. There are 7 of us traveling so I would need to get a hotel reservation for the night and I can probably find a hotel I can cancel 24 hrs in advance.

 

I'm just not sure if I want to go to all the trouble and then be denied when we get on the ship. It's been suggested we just "miss" the ship in Livorno but I don't want to do that.

 

Has anyone had any experience doing this?

 

Thanks[/quote']

 

We did this on Celebrity to stay the night in Florence. We had to get permission prior.

 

If you do this make sure you have a back up plan to get to the next port in case ship doesn't port in Civitavecchia. While extremely rare, it's been known to happen - ask Cruisemom. Weather (particularly late fall or winter) or a port strike are potential reasons a ship might not port. Know how to contact the port agent in case things happen. Just be willing to accept the risks (however minimal) if you do this. We had no problems and would probably do it again, given the right circumstances (lower risk ports where we wanted to spend more time at night and an easy non-fly back-up port for re-entry to ship).

 

Note: NCL had no problem with people leaving the ship for nights in Israel and Egypt on their Holylands cruise. In this case we did not get preapproval - but since so many cruisers were jumping ship for overnights (100's) they had a special desk set up in the lobby the night before porting in each country where we gave the ship 's representatives information about where we would be on the overnight excursions (with contact information).

 

If you go forward with the plan - I would check on the NCL board to see if someone has done it with the Italian ports - it's not the norm there.

Edited January 18, 2014 by buggins0402

[cruisemom42]

Did NCL give a reason for denying your request? If not, I'd get back with your TA and ask them to check again. Some lines have a certain procedure to go through (I remember on Princess they made you fax your request at a certain amount of time prior to sailing, etc.), but I am surprised that they would turn you down flat.

 

Buggins also has a good idea about posting this on the NCL board to see if anyone else has been allowed to do this in Italy. I certainly know it is possible (in Italy) on some other lines. Can't imagine why NCL would have a problem with it.

 

 

If you do this make sure you have a back up plan to get to the next port in case ship doesn't port in Civitavecchia. While extremely rare, it's been known to happen - ask Cruisemom. Weather (particularly late fall or winter) or a port strike are potential reasons a ship might not port.

 

 

LOL -- yes, you have a good memory. The port at Civitavecchia actually closed due to extreme wind and high seas on my October 2012 cruise on Swan Hellenic. It wasn't a big deal for me (I have opportunities often to visit Rome) but it must have been disappointing to many.

[MNmariner]

Thank you both for your good advice. We've done about 25 European cruises, most in the fall and the Mediterranean, and I sort of forgot about the weather factor. On one trip we missed two ports (both tender) and we docked in Genoa and Marseilles instead. When you missed Rome did they go to an alternate port?

 

I guess I need to think about this a bit more.

[buggins0402]

 

LOL -- yes, you have a good memory. The port at Civitavecchia actually closed due to extreme wind and high seas on my October 2012 cruise on Swan Hellenic. It wasn't a big deal for me (I have opportunities often to visit Rome) but it must have been disappointing to many.

 

Always follow the Europe cruise port boards and I remember thinking OMG plan B could happen in a low risk port!

 

I should mention to OP, in the case of the Holylands cruise on NCL, we knew we could not permission ahead of time. But, we also knew that NCL offered overnight tours in both countries. Also, on our rollcalls, there was a large number of cruisers planning independent overnights, so we knew there was absolutely no way they wouldn't allow overnights (without a mutiny)

 

There are special steps before you leave a ship - they have to collect your passport the night before to clear the port. In the morning, when we went to the main desk when we ported in Livorno to get our passports, we learned there were only 6 other cabins doing the same thing on the Celebrity cruise.

 

For OP, where do these two ports show up on your itinerary? What port is after?

 

And, are you willing to spend some additional dollars if things really go sideways? Think of worst case scenarios.

 

Actually we did have to resort to a Plan B for our stop in Israel. No issue - ship was supposed to move to another port overnight, but had to stay at same port that we disembarked, due to rockets flying into the second port - we had preplanned this might happen.

Edited January 18, 2014 by buggins0402

[MNmariner]

Our cruise starts in Barcelona and Livorno is the second port. After Rome we stop in Naples which would be an easy port to get to. The problem would come after that because the next stops are Mykonos and Istanbul.

 

If I decide to leave the ship I would have to keep track of the weather forecasts and any planned strikes.

 

You have given me some good things to think about. This is probably why NCL doesn't want anyone to leave the cruise and try to catch up later.

 

Thanks again.

[buggins0402]

You would be dealing with a similar situation that we had - Naples would be plan B. We had an easier plan C - Dubrovnik (ferries available from east coast of Italy). Plan D - Ship ported in Venice eventually and we would have had a cruise that turned into a land Italy trip.:)

 

If you think about it - theoretically, it's a similar risk some people take flying in the day of a cruise, with a second port that's easy to reach - say Key West (actually Key west would be harder to reach than Naples would from Rome and flights are more likely screw up than a ship not porting in Civitavecchia).

 

With 25 European cruises under your belt - you definitely have the skill set needed to do things on the fly if things don't go the way you thought. But, everyone's risk tolerance is different.

[MNmariner]

I liked your comparison to flying in on the day a cruise starts. My husband and I would look at missing the ship as an adventure but our DIL is very apprehensive about the entire trip. I'm hoping to make this trip as easy as possible. Traveling with the 3 children I know I need to plan things that will be fun and interesting for them.

 

You've given me some good things to think about. Thanks for all your help.