Earliest flight out of FCO after docking in Civitavecchia

Planning early for May 2013 using Delta points and need some help.

Arriving 5 am on RCL Navigator of the Seas in Civitavecchia. What would be the earliest flight out of FCO I could schedule? Which is a better option (price/schedule) for a solo passenger, RCL transport or private car?

Thanks for any info.

Have used Delta with FF points last fall for flight before and after cruise to Eastern Med.

I would find a flight from FCO that leaves around noon or later.

The airport is about 45 minutes to 1 hour from port depending on day and traffic.

We flew from FCO to JFK to MSP.

we booked the air right after the fligths were posted on Delta web site.We flew to Italy from MSP to ATL to FCO.

Go to your roll call for your ship. Find the roll call forum on first page of Cruise Critic. We found a total of six people who were taking the same departure flight so we hired a private transport and shared costs. It was very easy.

Remember that Civitavecchia is a large port and there will be lots of other ships also with cruise passengers also disembarking.

One more thing to consider. Flights from FCO to the USA operate from Terminal 5 at FCO. This is separate and apart from the regular terminal areas. You will go through a passport examination, check-in, security screening and outbound EU immigration within T5. Then, you will board a bus which will take you to your actual concourse location.

T5 was set up to provide for a higher level of security and other screening and processing. It handles all flights outbound to the USA, plus flights on El Al.

Add even more time into your considerations for the extra transit times and procedures.

I agree with the 12 noon or later info.

If you go over to the Italy board you will find all of this, including company recommendations, discussed in great depth.

I always recommend Noon or later.

Can you make it earlier? Possibly. And that is why I say noon because no one can guarantee if your ship will arrive late or if there are issues with clearance or even luggage and also what the check in at the airport will be and getting through passport control.

Keith

Of course, using miles you may not have the choice of all flights on Delta and partners leaving that day. If you're using miles, are there more restricitons on what other flights you could take should you miss your connection? If later flights aren't available for mileage use, would you have to pay a big same-day-purchase price? Mightn't you want to shoot for the next day? Looks like flights on Delta and code share partners mainly leave before noon.

Royal Caribbean has one of the best tools available to answer this question. To use it click here.

We were on Celebrity Equinox and was able to disembark at 6:30am, use a private transfer to travel 1 hr to FCO, and had the flight not been delayed, had plenty of time to make an 11:45am flight back to the US.

On Celebrity last year the cruise line recommended flights at 10:30am or later. While the airport is a bit of a drive, if you self-disembark you can be off the ship by 6:30 (if not earlier, assuming no significant delays in the ship arriving to port and clearing with local authorities) and beat traffic and make it by 7:30am to the airport. When I did this the airport did not start checking people in until 8:00am. Anytime a morning flight is selected some risk is incurred (as ships can roll into port late for a variety of reasons), but with such an early scheduled arrival time a late morning flight can be easily made the vast majority of the time.