How soon can we disembark from Spirit in Civitavecchia

We dock in Civi at 6 a.m. and we were looking forward to a nice, relaxing journey to the airport for our flight at 5.05 pm. Now it seems that it will be a mad dash, as our airline have brought the departure forward to 12.45!

I think that now we need to catch a train at 8.01 from Civi and wonder what disembarkation is like at Civi. We had a nightmare time in San Juan last year when it took four hours to get off the ship and queue in a blisteringly hot hangar-like building to pass a checkpoint manned by only two staff for a ship of over 2,000 pax. Please tell me that it will be quicker this year.

We dock in Civi at 6 a.m. and we were looking forward to a nice, relaxing journey to the airport for our flight at 5.05 pm. Now it seems that it will be a mad dash, as our airline have brought the departure forward to 12.45!

 

I think that now we need to catch a train at 8.01 from Civi and wonder what disembarkation is like at Civi. We had a nightmare time in San Juan last year when it took four hours to get off the ship and queue in a blisteringly hot hangar-like building to pass a checkpoint manned by only two staff for a ship of over 2,000 pax. Please tell me that it will be quicker this year.

Disembarkation in Europe is usually pretty painless, as you shouldn't need to go through any customs (I assume you are on a round trip, or will have travelled from Barcelona or Venice).

I haven't disembarked there before, but if you are due to arrive at 6am then disembarkation should start reasonably soon afterwards. Worst case, you should be able to leave by about 7am, but probably before then. I think you will be OK, but there is obviously the travel time to the station. I assume you will be booking a taxi, rather than relying on the shuttle buses etc.

Unless you are in a suite or high latitudes level then you will need to carry your luggage off to save time.

That's fantastic thanks Keith. Yes we are round trip and both EU citizens, so any formalities should be pretty painless I would hope. Now I just need to change our train and bus bookings from Civi to CIA. Thankfully both will be without charge to amend.

Thanks again for your invaluable help.

Disembarkation in Europe is usually pretty painless, as you shouldn't need to go through any customs (I assume you are on a round trip, or will have travelled from Barcelona or Venice).

 

I haven't disembarked there before, but if you are due to arrive at 6am then disembarkation should start reasonably soon afterwards. Worst case, you should be able to leave by about 7am, but probably before then. I think you will be OK, but there is obviously the travel time to the station. I assume you will be booking a taxi, rather than relying on the shuttle buses etc.

 

Unless you are in a suite or high latitudes level then you will need to carry your luggage off to save time.

Keith - Just an overnight thought. Please forgive what may be a daft question but I only have last year's experience to go by. On that occasion we had to give prior notice of the time we wished to disembark and were then directed to lounges, bars and restaurants according to departure time, Do NCL operate a similar disembarkation policy or will we be free to leave whenever we decide?

Keith - Just an overnight thought. Please forgive what may be a daft question but I only have last year's experience to go by. On that occasion we had to give prior notice of the time we wished to disembark and were then directed to lounges, bars and restaurants according to departure time, Do NCL operate a similar disembarkation policy or will we be free to leave whenever we decide?

Yes, it will be a similar procedure.

To give you an example, this is based on disembarkation from the Epic in Barcelona last year:

The ship was due to dock at 5am (I don't know when it did actually arrive because we were still asleep). A couple of days beforehand they give you a leaflet with the disembarkation procedures. If you are in a suite or have the latitudes level to qualify then you can pretty well ignore that, but I'm assuming that doesn't apply to you.

You will have two options. The best one for you, as long as you are happy carrying your bags would be to do walk off disembarkation. That was due to start at 5.30am for us, so I assume you would be able to leave at around 6.30 if you dock at 6. As the Spirit is relatively small that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

If you don't want to carry your bags off then you need to get some luggage tags. Each colour relates to a disembarkation time, and I believe that the early ones can go quite quickly (I've never used them myself). If you want to use them then I would keep a look out for them becoming available and grab some as quickly as possible. On our cruise, the first ones were times for 6.15, so you wouldn't want to me much later than that if everything is an hour later than we were.

At least you will see these timings a few days before arrival in Rome, so you will be able to decide how to do it.

I've never been to San Juan, so can't talk for your experience last time, but it sounds to be like the problem was a hold up in customs. I've disembarked in European ports lots of times and there has never been any need to show any documents or anything like that. You just walk off the ship, get your b required and walk out of the building.

If I were you I would plan on carrying off your bags and you should have plenty of time, as long as your transport from the dock to the station works out fine.

Thanks very much Keith. That sounds perfect and I'm sure now that we will be fine.

Re San Juan. Yes, it was definitely a problem with Customs, or whoever was checking us as we left, and no fault at all of Celebrity.

Despite all the warning signs of 'NO PHOTOGRAPHY', some stupid idiot thought that it could not possibly apply to him and proceeded to video the interior of the Customs Shed. Consequently, it went into lock down and nothing moved for a couple of hours while they dealt with him. Once they reopened, we were allowed to disembark only to join a very lengthy queue in the shed that moved very slowly indeed. Why on earth there were only two personnel on duty (+1 for VIPs) for over 2000 guests is beyond me. Clearly, those two were not chosen for their sense of humour or customer handling skills, as after that we all felt we were being treated as criminals.

I guess that can happen anywhere so we'll have to keep everything crossed that it runs more smoothly this year.

Thanks again.

We dock in Civi at 6 a.m. and we were looking forward to a nice, relaxing journey to the airport for our flight at 5.05 pm. Now it seems that it will be a mad dash, as our airline have brought the departure forward to 12.45!

 

I think that now we need to catch a train at 8.01 from Civi and wonder what disembarkation is like at Civi. We had a nightmare time in San Juan last year when it took four hours to get off the ship and queue in a blisteringly hot hangar-like building to pass a checkpoint manned by only two staff for a ship of over 2,000 pax. Please tell me that it will be quicker this year.

Jetlagged: we are traveling on NCL out of Civi in September 2018. I have similar concerns on disembarkation when the ship returns and docks at 6 am. We are U.S. citizens and not sure how much time to allow for disembarkation. How was your experience! I wanted to book an 11:00 train to Florence. Thank you in advance for sharing.

I can tell you about disembarking from the Epic earlier this month at Civitavecchia.

If you can self-disembark, including carrying or rolling your own luggage off the ship, you may do so as early as any disembarkation is allowed, possibly at 6:30 and almost certainly before 7:00. Unless you are among the very first off the ship, however, you may have to wait to board a port shuttle, because long lines form. The port charters extra buses for disembarkation, but it takes people with luggage a certain amount of time to load it and board a bus no matter how many buses there are. I was disembarking during what was probably the peak time--no wait to leave the ship but about 20 minutes to board the port shuttle bus.

I had planned to self-disembark anyway, but I was offered no choice of times if I wanted my luggage to be shifted for me. Tags were delivered to my cabin the day before, with the printed instructions.

The shuttle bus takes you to the gate of the port where you can get a local bus to the train station (2 euros).

Are you planning to take the train to Roma Termini, change to another train for the short trip to Ciampino station, and then take a local bus to the airport?

Jetlagged: we are traveling on NCL out of Civi in September 2018. I have similar concerns on disembarkation when the ship returns and docks at 6 am. We are U.S. citizens and not sure how much time to allow for disembarkation. How was your experience! I wanted to book an 11:00 train to Florence. Thank you in advance for sharing.

Where is your 11am train leaving from?

If it is Civi then your problem will be what to do with those couple of hours that you have to kill whilst waiting for it.

If it is Termini then it may be slightly harder. You will easily be off the ship by 8am, even if you don’t rush, and then have about three hours to make your way to the station and travel for just over an hour to Rome. The biggest challenge is getting to the station with luggage, as you are relying on shuttles/taxis. Still plenty of time though. Just make sure you know the train times in advance.

Honestly, the time you need to allow for disembarkation is basically how long it takes you to get your card scanned (maybe queueing for a minute or two) and physically walk off. Being US citizens is irrelevant.

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Jetlagged: we are traveling on NCL out of Civi in September 2018. I have similar concerns on disembarkation when the ship returns and docks at 6 am. We are U.S. citizens and not sure how much time to allow for disembarkation. How was your experience! I wanted to book an 11:00 train to Florence. Thank you in advance for sharing.

As others have already said, opt for self-disembarkation and make your way to the station by bus or taxi depending on the time available. From the Trenitalia timetable, I cannot find a train at exactly 11.00 to Florence so maybe you mean 11.15 from Civi. You will have more than enough time for that.

Thanks for asking about our experience. As our airline had moved the flight more than four hours, they gave us the option to rebook for another flight/day. We elected to stay another night so checked into a hotel close to the airport and spent the extra day in the wonderful city of Rome.

Enjoy your cruise and whatever you have planned for your post cruise in Italy.

Just a thought but have you considered a private transfer? Cost looks to be around 120 euros for two people, suitcases and bags to either airport direct from the cruise terminal. That is in a private car. You can probably get a minibus if you can find others who are in the same position

Although the cost may be more the advantages are that you don't have to lug your suitcases on and off various shuttle buses trains etc. and you may not have to be in such a rush to disembark.

I just typed in "shuttle from Civitavecchia to" into Google and it brought up the two airports and quite a few companies serving the cruise ships.

Hope this helps

Just a thought but have you considered a private transfer? Cost looks to be around 120 euros for two people, suitcases and bags to either airport direct from the cruise terminal. That is in a private car. You can probably get a minibus if you can find others who are in the same position

 

Although the cost may be more the advantages are that you don't have to lug your suitcases on and off various shuttle buses trains etc. and you may not have to be in such a rush to disembark.

 

I just typed in "shuttle from Civitavecchia to" into Google and it brought up the two airports and quite a few companies serving the cruise ships.

 

Hope this helps

That's very useful, but LifeTimeTraveller is catching a train to Florence not a flight. We just don't know at this stage if the train is from Civi or Rome.

Thank you, Kochleffel and KeithJenner.

We plan to self disembark. Our next destination is Florence and we planned to take the train from Civitavecchia to Roma Termini to Firenze Santa Maria Novella train station. I was considering the 11:15am train out of Civitavecchia.

I am surprised that disembarkation is a non event. I was concerned with long lines through customs and then lines for the bus to the port gate.

You mentioned taking the bus at the Civitavecchia port gate for €2 each to Civitavecchia train Station. I assume you can pay in cash euros when boarding. The larger cities prefer you buy bus tickets at tobacco stores. We were considering walking to the train station as it less than a mile if we are rested.

Thank you for the quick responses. This is our first cruise leaving from an international port.

Thank you, Kochleffel and KeithJenner.

 

We plan to self disembark. Our next destination is Florence and we planned to take the train from Civitavecchia to Roma Termini to Firenze Santa Maria Novella train station. I was considering the 11:15am train out of Civitavecchia.

 

 

I am surprised that disembarkation is a non event. I was concerned with long lines through customs and then lines for the bus to the port gate.

 

 

You mentioned taking the bus at the Civitavecchia port gate for €2 each to Civitavecchia train Station. I assume you can pay in cash euros when boarding. The larger cities prefer you buy bus tickets at tobacco stores. We were considering walking to the train station as it less than a mile if we are rested.

 

 

Thank you for the quick responses. This is our first cruise leaving from an international port.

We took a slow walk to the train station, It is on level ground and easy to do.

The 11.15 from Civi actually goes via Pisa. It is the 11.16 to go via Roma so be careful which you board!

Thank you Jetlagged and BaWBarmy:

Yes, it is the 11:15am train. We do plan to self disembark. My original plan was to walk to the train station since it was only a mile. We are arriving a day early before the cruise via the train and this will give us time to check the distance to the port. I just don’t want to be rushed whether I walk or talk the bus to Civi’s train station.

Initially, we did look into transfers and for the distance the prices are very responsible. As we planned our itinerary, we added Florence and Milan visits before returning to the U.S.

Jetlagged, I see you live in Portugal. Next year, we plan to travel through Spain and Portugal.

BaWBarmy, London is a favorite place to visit. We were there last June with 2 of our grandchildren. For this cruise, we are meeting up with a couple who live in the U.K. We met them on a trip to Australia.

Jetlagged, thank you. I will look closely at those times and destination. I didn’t notice the Pisa destination. Worst case we would just get on the next regional to Firenze out of Pisa.

I am surprised that disembarkation is a non event. I was concerned with long lines through customs and then lines for the bus to the port gate.

This is a very common misconception from people who have previously only cruised from US ports.

In Europe, customs and immigration are often not an issue because you don't leave the EU. Even when you do, any immigration issues are usually dealt with onboard (on a number of cruises we have had countries immigration staff board at a previous stop and do checks whilst we sail).

It isn't just that customs/immigration isn't an issue, it doesn't even exist at the port (except in exceptional circumstances which I am yet to encounter). You basically walk off the ship, pick up your luggage if appropriate and then go.

Jetlagged, thank you. I will look closely at those times and destination. I didn’t notice the Pisa destination. Worst case we would just get on the next regional to Firenze out of Pisa.

The routing via Pisa is a longer journey on the regional; 4h17 over 2h35, but with more countryside to see at a slower pace and 5 euro cheaper. You will also find the change at Pisa less hectic than in Termini.

I live in Portugal now but came from BaWBarmy's home county of Lincolnshire. Feel free to drop me an email if I can help with Spain & Portugal, or Civi.

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I live in Portugal now but came from BaWBarmy's home county of Lincolnshire. Feel free to drop me an email if I can help with Spain & Portugal, or Civi.

 

Nice to see a fellow Yellowbelly on CC

This is a very common misconception from people who have previously only cruised from US ports.

 

In Europe, customs and immigration are often not an issue because you don't leave the EU. Even when you do, any immigration issues are usually dealt with onboard (on a number of cruises we have had countries immigration staff board at a previous stop and do checks whilst we sail).

 

It isn't just that customs/immigration isn't an issue, it doesn't even exist at the port (except in exceptional circumstances which I am yet to encounter). You basically walk off the ship, pick up your luggage if appropriate and then go.

Of course!!! I hadn’t thought of it being EU. An important detail I totally missed. That settles my concerns! Thank you!

I was concerned with long lines through customs and then lines for the bus to the port gate.

There will be no immigration or customs if your ship is arriving from a port that is also within the Schengen Area.

You mentioned taking the bus at the Civitavecchia port gate for €2 each to Civitavecchia train Station. I assume you can pay in cash euros when boarding. The larger cities prefer you buy bus tickets at tobacco stores. We were considering walking to the train station as it less than a mile if we are rested.

Of course!!! I hadn’t thought of it being EU. An important detail I totally missed. That settles my concerns! Thank you!

[pedant]

Just to be clear, although it doesn't matter in this instance, it's not the EU. It's the Schengen Area. There are EU countries (Ireland, and for now the U.K.) that don't participate in the Schengen Agreement, and non-EU countries (Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Iceland) that do. Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, plus Greenland and the Faroe Islands* are de facto participants because of having open borders with countries that are in the Schengen Area.

*Greenland and the Faroes only partly. Anyone who needed a visa to enter the Schengen Area would need a separate visa, issued by Denmark and specifically endorsed for Greenland or the Faroe Islands.

[/pedant]

Nice to see a fellow Yellowbelly on CC

:D(y)

Lincoln calling!

I’ll be arriving in Civitavecchia on a transatlantic out of Miami, so customs is a very real concern for me.

My luggage will be picked up there by Luggage Forward so that I don’t have to traipse cruise-wear all over Italy. :)

Any insight into how that process will work would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I had a 10:15 am flight out of Leonardo. We were off the ship and on our way via the shuttle to the airport by 7 AM.

One thing that I was very surprised to learn is that Civi is generally not the more popular Embark port, so there are far less people getting off unlike Barcelona. There was no customs and the longest part was waiting for them to bring the luggage to us. At least when I sailed in May, everyone who disembarked in Civi received the same exact tags in regards to disembark time. It's also important to note that they only made one call and one call only for disembark, unlike Barcelona that they made numerous announcements.

I walked to the port from the train station and it was very easy to navigate so you should have no problems there.