We are flying in 36 hours before departure.

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Will you stay in Rome or Civitavechhia itself (recommend Rome, Civ is quite small really). If so then as Bulbous bow says the Leonardo Da Vinci train direct from the airport roughly each 30 mins and for around 5euros is good.

There are a lot of trains from Roma Termini to Civitavechhia, some faster than others. http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/ give you the time and prices.

I've also used one of the transfer companies I found via the cruise boards, comfortable car 1 way is about 120Euros from Rome to the port.

Trains in Italy are cheap and First class is about 25% supplement.

I stayed in the 4 star Hotel San Giorgio, which was very nice, although in my view you should deduct 1 star from Italian hotels compared to many other countries. There are a couple of decent hotels on the main seafront street.

I wouldn't advice walking to the ship. Rome is one of those ports where there is a very long walk to the ship for many berths. However just at the seafront port entrance is a courtesy bus stop. This bus runs to all cruise ships regularly, and circles the other passenger terminals and ferry berths when there are no cruises in.

btw check out the ferries at Terminal Autostrada Del Mar - they are rather impressively big beasts!

[ 04-01-2008: Message edited by: Matts ]

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Originally posted by Trish:
Very timely topic. My daughter is also flying in 2 days before her honeymoon cruise on the Navigator. Thanks for the info.

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I assume you are sailing Oceania again Desirod? If going to the Med why not sail some of the older vessels with not long to go for a change.

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Originally posted by PamM:

I assume you are sailing Oceania again Desirod? If going to the Med why not sail some of the older vessels with not long to go for a change.

Pam

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Hi Pam;

I would have LOVED to sail Oceania again and will, however the time constraints nixed it. We tried to book the Louis Cristal however they never got back to us in a timely manner. Louis does a TERRIBLE marketing job in the USA. There are no published prices and the travel agents have to wait for a reply from Cyprus.

MSC did not have all of the ports we wanted.

The Blue Monarch from Monarch International, the alternate choice which is the old World Reniassance was priced too high due to the weak dollar. Had this been year 2004 it would have been the choice. The Galaxy was exactly 1/2 the price and that is what we chose.

IMO Celebrity is the best value of price/amenites/service for the American Cruiser.

This is the second cruise I have booked where the destination is important. If we are flying to the other side of the world, we want to see the important sites. The only real way to see Alaska or the Greek Isles is via ship.

At the turn of the Millenium/Century [no pun intended] I was grabbing the classics while I had the chance and did not care where they went.

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Originally posted by Matts:
btw check out the ferries at Terminal Autostrada Del Mar - they are rather impressively big beasts!

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The Galaxy was exactly 1/2 the price and that is what we chose.

IMO Celebrity is the best value of price/amenites/service for the American Cruiser.

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I've been on Galaxy for last two summers and have had two very enjoyable cruises. I blogged from the last one here:-
http://tomtotley.wordpress.com/category/galaxy-2007/

For the first cruise we made our own flight and onward transfer arrangements. We flew in on the day of the cruise, to Fiumicino and from there we took the Leonardo Express to Roma Termini station. This cost about €10 each, and the journey was about 35 minutes, perhaps a little bit more.

From Rome to Civitavecchia we travelled by coach. Someone in our 'Cruise Critic' group organised this - she contacted a coach company, told us all the price, and lots of people rushed forward! Most of those on the coach were american passengers who had been spending a few days in Rome before the cruise. The result was that we filled a 53-seat coach, and we paid about €10 each. The journey lasted about an hour or perhaps a bit more, and the coach took us right up to the embarkation area in front of Galaxy.

Coming back we did the whole journey ourselves. (There was a contact-group coach to the airport but it was very early in the morning, and our flight wasn't until 4pm or thereabouts.) Our plan was to go by train from Cvitavecchia to Roma Termini, change there and use the Leonardo Express again to Fiumicino. First we had to get to Civitavecchia station, which meant that first of all we had to get out of the port. It's not possible to walk out of the port, it's a controlled area. The port authority run free shuttle buses to and from the port gates, but in the event we hopped onto a Celebrity-charter bus which was doing the same thing. One thing to be aware of: the free port authority buses only stop at actual stops, and these are hard to spot: I think I found one that was just a notice-plate on a wall.

Once we got to the dock gate we had to walk to the station. This was about 10 minutes walk, along a level road, and was easy to find. There was a certain amount of milling around at the station, but we bought our ticket from a machine which even told us which train we were buying it for. (Tickets for TrenItalia vary in price by the standard of the train.) We were on a local train which had terminated at Civitavecchia in a bay platform which was handy for the station entrance. If you get a main-line train then you will use one of the through platforms. You will also pay a bit more - I think the local train was about €5, and a main-line ticket would have been about €8.50, I think. The journey to Termini took about 90 minutes - quite slow and lots of stops - but we had all day so we weren't bothered. The main-line trains do the journey more quickly.

At Termini station we had something to eat then got tickets for and embarked on the Leonardo Express. We were at Fiumicino by about 1 o'clock or so, which was about 4 and a half hours after our disembarkation time from Galaxy. Of that it was an hour+ going through the disembarkation hassle itself and getting to the station; then 90 minutes on the first train; a bit more than an hour at Termini station having some lunch, getting tickets and waiting for the Leonardo Express to depart; and the travel on the Express, getting off it, round to Departures, etc, etc.

All in all not terribly difficult, and certainly cheap, but there was a certain amount of hassle. So for the cruise the following year we booked air flights + transfers through Celebrity which cost more but was very easy. Again, though, we were flying in & out on the cruise dates.

For taxis and limousines do a Google search (taxi limousine Fiumicino Civitavecchia) at Google.com and Google.it

As for accommodation try Venere.Com. There are only a limited amount of hotels in Civitavecchia that have online booking. Your travel agent may have more. Of course you can try other accommodation search engines.

Good luck.

******

Cheers

P.S. There are a couple of other threads you might be interested in:

Fiumicino Airport to Civitiavecchia

Civitavecchia - Port Shuttle

Transfers - Rome Fiumicino.........

[ 04-07-2008: Message edited by: bulbousbow ]

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Originally posted by desirod7:
We have bit the bullet and taking a Med cruise out of Rome. What is the best way to get from Rome to Civitaveccia?

We are flying in 36 hours before departure.

Are there any hotels in Civitaceccia?

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How far from Civitavecchia station to the ship?

You made a good choice, lots of VERY interesting things to see, and Galaxy will be quite comfortable, I guess.

Bon voyage !!

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How far from Civitavecchia station to the ship?

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I would have said less than 1.5 km; no more than about 10 minutes walk, with luggage. It's all on the level as well. At the dock gat you've got to get a Port Authority shuttle bus to the right berth, and that's quite a distance, but you aren't allowed to walk anyway.