Hello, going on a NCL cruise August 26 to Italy. Flight home is on Sunday, Sept. 2nd at 12:15 in the afternoon to United States. The cruise docks at 5am...probably can't get off until 7 or 7:30am. We need to get right to the airport. Does anyone know if taxi's are plentiful and if there is usually a long line to wait for one? We were thinking of hiring private transfer on-line..of course the price is double but might be worth the piece of mind? Any thoughts?
Well, I think you are fretting for nothing. I assume you are getting off at Civitavecchia. Since its a Sunday, traffic around FCO and the A12 (the route from "Civ" to FCO) will be very light (no morning rush hour heading to Rome). The drive from the port to FCO will take about an hour so even if you left the port at 9 AM you would be fine. The reality is that you should be on your way by 8 at the latest which will get you to FCO more than 3 hours before your flight. As to taxis, there are usually enough at the port and they are very happy to take the airport run. But, if you are going to fret about taxis, and this might ruin a few nights sleep, by all means pre-book transfers on-line.
Thank you Hank, but I am not disembarking from Civ., but rather Barcelona, port Vel I think is the name...and then going to El Prat airport in Barcelona. Any info for there?
Perhaps my original posting was a bit misleading. We are leaving and returning to Barcelona. Our ports of call are all in Italy, but the start and finish of the cruise are in Port Vell in Barcelona. Our flight home is out of El Prat in Barcelona. I think I will take your advice and book a private transfer. We will be staying at Hotel 1898 for 4 days pre-cruise in Barcelona. Has anyone heard of it or know if it is worth the 225 euro per night? Thanks so much for your responses!
I would highly recommend arranging for transportation ahead of time, either using the cruiselines bus or a private van. We were on RCCI Brilliance of the Seas last May out of Barcelona. Another larger RCCI ship (I believe the Navigator) arrived back at Barcelona at the same time ours did and there were about 5000 passengers disembarking at the same time. The taxi line at the Barcelona was very, very long with at least 800-1000 people if not many more waiting in line for taxis for hours. And to make matters worse, altho they have 2 long lines for taxis, they only allow 2-4 taxis to pull up at the very end of the line to load people, so it ends up being a very long wait depending on how early (or late) you get into the line. Fortunately, after waiting in line 45 min or so, I left the line, walked down the street, and happened upon a driver with large van whose passengers had no-showed, so I was able to get my family of 5 to airport in time (barely) for our 1:15pm flight home. In retrospect, what slowed us up was 1)we didn't get off the ship until 9:30 or so 2) there were 2 large ships disembarking at the same time and 3) at the port they only allow 2-4 taxis to take on passengers at a time (very inefficient). I've seen other posts stating how easy Barcelona port is, but on our particular disembarkation day, it was very inefficient, very hot, and very slow. If I had it to do over again, I would definitely pre-arrange transportation.
Originally posted by Dave Beers: The OP is on the NCL Jewel cruise, which is round trip out of Barcelona. The reference to Italy is due to most of the ports of call being in Italy.
Thanks Dave His statement implied he was disembarking in Italy
quote:
Hello, going on a NCL cruise August 26 to Italy. Flight home is on Sunday, Sept. 2nd at 12:15 in the afternoon to United States.
