Civitavecchia to FCO

Wife and I have a flight out at 11:20 AM on the morning (a Thursday) we get off Harmony of the Seas in Civitavecchia. I have been told it takes about an hour to get to the airport. I posed the same question in an email to Romecabs and they stated a pickup at 8AM would get me to the airport with no problems and save for the flight. Can anyone tell me if this is sufficient time? I feel like we will be OK but don't know much about the travel overseas.

Thanks

If you look on the Italy board, here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=595

You will see this discussed almost daily. You would see that 11am is about the earliest flight that is safe, as it is about an hour port to airport, and that processing through FCO, particularly for a direct flight to the US, can take time.

The biggest issue I would have is the seemingly common practice of scheduling flights for 11-1130ish, only to reschedule to 1030. I would catch the flight the next day, after a full day tour of Rome, ending at the FCO Hilton.

I would self-disembark, get right into my pre-arranged transportation and head out and you should have no trouble making it to the airport.

Depending on the time of day which affects the traffic, you can expect a drive time of 46 minutes to 2 hours and 7 minutes. It is hard to predict how traffic will be because the Pope has made 2016 a Holy Year, which means there are going to be a lot more tourists in the vicinity of Rome than normal this year - in fact nearly 150% more. All of these people will be trying to get into and out of Rome and many will be using the airport. So traffic may be much worse than normal - if you are aware of how it was in Atlanta for the Olympics you have a pretty good idea of what the situation may be. Certainly, your driver will do his best to avoid congested roads on the way to the airport and the airport is located outside of Rome, but there still may be a considerable amount of extra traffic for the Holy Year.

You need to be at the airport at least 2 hours before your flight (if it is an international flight.) Some things you can do to speed your way through the lines include:

Disembark as early as possible - if you are in a suite, you can often be among the first 20 or so off the ship. You may be able to get off as early as 7:30am.

Fly first class or business class - so you will have a much shorter check-in line.

Bring a small luggage scale and check the weight of your luggage after you pack on the ship to make sure it is right. Also, you are much more limited on hand luggage on an international flight, so be certain that your carry ons are the right size and don't contain liquids.

Dress to go through airport security as quick as possible - slip on shoes, no belt or change in your pocket or metal jewelry.

The alternative is to spend the night at a hotel near the airport and fly out the next day. A big advantage of this, particularly if that day is a Monday is that there will be far fewer cruisers trying to fly out at the same time as you.

Have done this many times... we use Romecabs as well. They are excellent and dependable.

Even given that I usually don't book a flight before 11:30 am. We are not light packers, so we can't walk off with all our luggage.

You definitely need 2 hours to get thru security at FCO, there are 3 screenings for USA and flights to Israel, takes time.

The best source of info on how early you can book a flight is the cruise line, they know what day you are arriving and what their experience has been in the port.

When we have stayed over a night we stayed at the Hilton @ FCO. The hotel has a free shuttle into Rome which is handy for sightseeing.

FCO can be a mad house. You have a good chance of making an 11:20 flight if all goes smoothly for you but it is not risk free.

I agree with the suggestion to stay over one night or sit it out at the airport for a later flight.