Transfer from Bologna to Ravenna Cruise Port

[watcher_62]

I just got off the phone with Air2Sea, who advised that while I can be transferred FROM the ship to Bologna airport post cruise, I can't be transferred TO the ship from Bologna airport pre cruise.  Seems odd, and I am wondering if anyone has had this issue/has other options to suggest getting us to the ship. We are not booked through Air2Sea flying into Bologna as we are coming in early.  Thanks in advance for insights and suggestions! 

[Milhouse]

If you're up to it, one option is to DIY but with a couple of connections and a little bit of walking.  

 

Others can likely provide more detail around the specifics from Bologna airport (eg Marconi Express into town??).  

However, if you can make it to a train station/Bologna Centrale, the ride itself to Ravenna's train station is pretty straight forward on a frequent commuter train that's reasonably comfortable but makes short stops at small towns along the way.  Bologna Centrale station is somewhat large so you'll need to comfortable navigating to the right platform.  

 

At Ravenna train station, the cruise ships seem to have a (not well advertised) contractor hired to transport cruisers to the ship on a coach bus (and in the reverse for crew into town).  The contractor has a person loitering in front of the main entrance to the train station starting later in the morning and directs cruisers to the back exit of the station to walk a block to the parking lot where more staff and the coach bus is waiting.  IIRC, this transfer is about $10US pp and takes about 15mins excluding waiting for the bus to fill up a bit.

You can also take a taxi or public bus to the ship from Ravenna station with varying degrees of cost and convenience of course.  

 

We trained into Ravenna (from Rome) a day early to check out the town and its mosaics which we're happy we did.  And then did the coach transfer to the ship the next morning.  

In the reverse, we did the coach transfer from the ship to Ravenna's train station and then hopped on a train to Bologna to explore for the day which we were also happy that we visited.  

[RocCruisers]

We're doing a B2B with the middle and final stop in Ravenna. 

So is it possible to take the bus into town; visit the mosaics and then catch the bus back to the ship?  Do you know when the last bus is scheduled?

And on the last day, we are planning to take the shuttle bus to the Bologna train station so we can ride the fast train to Rome for a few days.  Is that a good plan?  

[Milhouse]

Here are some thoughts but please don't consider them definitive since my experiences are slightly different.  Hopefully others will chime in or you can find additional information such as some of the historical threads on this topic.  We also cruised on Celebrity but based on other threads, it seems other lines are somewhat similar.

 

We took Celebrity's last disembarkation coach bus transfer to Ravenna train station at 9:30am.  There were maybe five or so slots early than ours.  They also charged $15 per person.  IIRC, on a previous thread, someone mentioned Celebrity offered a free shuttle into town when Ravenna was a port of call versus point of embarkation/disembarkation.  Since you are doing a b2b, maybe you can try to source that?

Not sure when the last coach bus shuttle back to the ship is.  But I don't think it would be hard to grab a taxi as a backup option if you get stuck.

 

If you were referring to the public bus, the bus stop appeared to be about a simple 10min walk from the ship/terminal, across a parking lot.  I think you'd be looking at bus #90.  We superficially looked into taking the public bus to/from Ravenna and the port but decided it wasn't worth it for us, particularly with luggage so can't add more info.  Plus Italian transportation is notorious for not being on time. 

 

For diembarkation, Celebrity wanted $35 per person for a coach bus transfer to Bologna Centrale train station.  Comparatively, it's like $15 per person to Ravenna's train station and about 8E for a train ticket from Ravenna to Bologna which runs hourly.  It's a personal choice whether it's worth it to save $10-12 per person that would require another transfer and potential wait at Ravenna station.  

We high speed trained it from Bologna to Florence to visit for a day and then high speed trained it down to Rome before flying home.  The high speed trains are pretty convenient IMO.  Note that there are two high speed train operators:  TrenItalia and Italo.  We took both and found their experience pretty equivalent.  I wouldn't necessarily wait until the day of the buy the high speed train tickets as prices go up and train schedule selection becomes more limited.  

[megr1125]

On 11/10/2023 at 12:37 PM, watcher_62 said:

I just got off the phone with Air2Sea, who advised that while I can be transferred FROM the ship to Bologna airport post cruise, I can't be transferred TO the ship from Bologna airport pre cruise.  Seems odd, and I am wondering if anyone has had this issue/has other options to suggest getting us to the ship. We are not booked through Air2Sea flying into Bologna as we are coming in early.  Thanks in advance for insights and suggestions! 

That makes no sense BUT. It's a them issue.

 

Do NOT tell them you're coming in early.  Find a flight landing in the early AM at BLQ and tell them that's when you're arriving.  Might work.  I booked air2sea with them and couldn't do what I wanted to do since they knew when I was coming in so I had to come up with another plan.  

 

 

[watcher_62]

On 11/16/2023 at 3:41 PM, megr1125 said:

That makes no sense BUT. It's a them issue.

 

Do NOT tell them you're coming in early.  Find a flight landing in the early AM at BLQ and tell them that's when you're arriving.  Might work.  I booked air2sea with them and couldn't do what I wanted to do since they knew when I was coming in so I had to come up with another plan.  

 

 

Did exactly that, and SURPRISE! We are now booked on their transfer. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Seville2Cabo]

So you can book the shuttle thru air2sea if you do not book the flights thru them?  Is the shuttle only offered the day of the cruise?  We are thinking about coming into Ravenna a day early.  We are in Bologna 2 day prior.

[watcher_62]

3 hours ago, Seville2Cabo said:

So you can book the shuttle thru air2sea if you do not book the flights thru them?  Is the shuttle only offered the day of the cruise?  We are thinking about coming into Ravenna a day early.  We are in Bologna 2 day prior.

I believe the shuttle from the airport only runs on the day of the cruise