Civitavecchia to FCO Airport - Earliest Flight?

[piratenurse09]

Hello!

 

My husband and I will be sailing on NCL Epic Oct 1-8th out of Rome. We are wanting to get our airfare booked and there is a nonstop flight back to the US that leaves FCO at 11:20a. It looks like the ship gets back into port at 6:00a. Is this doable if we schedule a private transfer or should we stick with flights after 12p? We are already staying in Rome pre-cruise, so we would love a non-stop flight back if it's possible.

 

Thanks for any help!

[Cretia]

General consensus on the Italy port forums is usually around 11:30. 11:00 am seems doable to the people who are familiar with the port as well

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1668403&highlight=earliest+flight+fco

[piratenurse09]

That's a helpful link. Is it possible to be off the ship by 7:00a with self disembark if we arrive at 6am?

[Cretia]

I've not yet done the route myself (we're sailing a month after you); I've just done the research on almost the exact same question (our flight was at 10:45 am).

 

I've been told, and other links in the same area point to a similar answer, that it is possible. Unfortunately a good amount depends on what happens on your cruise, the weather, etc, but I've heard that if nothing major goes wrong, 7am is realistic.

[grovesteve]

My wife and I will be leaving the Epic on july 23. We have the same problem. Our non stop to Chicago is at 11:15 am. The answers I received from everyone was don't try it you probably would not make it. We thus booked a flight at 1:30 to London to catch a flight to Chicago. If we get to FCO earlier then expected then I will ask to see if we can switch to the non stop flight. I am not much of a gambler when it comes to catching flights.

[piratenurse09]

My wife and I will be leaving the Epic on july 23. We have the same problem. Our non stop to Chicago is at 11:15 am. The answers I received from everyone was don't try it you probably would not make it. We thus booked a flight at 1:30 to London to catch a flight to Chicago. If we get to FCO earlier then expected then I will ask to see if we can switch to the non stop flight. I am not much of a gambler when it comes to catching flights.

 

I wonder if 11:55 would be safer? Seems that most of what I am reading recommends 6 hours and that would be 5 min shy of 6 hours.

[KirkNC]

The key will be when you can get off the ship. The airport is about one hour away so as long as your off by 8:00 you should be fine.

[JohnIreland]

We had an 11:05 am flight from CIA. The shared transfer dropped off passengers in FCO before getting to CIA and we were still 15 minutes too early for 9:05am check in.

[Cretia]

I wonder if 11:55 would be safer? Seems that most of what I am reading recommends 6 hours and that would be 5 min shy of 6 hours.

 

What drove the decision for me, and, reading into his response, Grovesteve is how comfortable we either were or weren't with the risk of something going wrong.

 

My husband is very, very, very risk-adverse to problems when traveling (and yet, bizarrely, insistent on direct flights) so we made the decision to fly out the following day, as the DC area only has one direct flight daily. I have friends ranging on the scale to okay with sudden changes to those I suspect travel by the seat of their pants on purpose for the thrill of it that would take the earlier direct flight in a heartbeat.

 

You'll just have to ask yourself where you are on that range.