Earliest flight time from Rome airport

[garmax]

We are on the Celebrity Equinox cruise on October 20 to 31. We are scheduled to return to Citavechia at 4:30 a.m. on the 31st. What would be the earliest time we should consider booking our return flight from the Rome airport to North America? Any recommendations/experience/thoughts are appreciated.

[Trainer]

Last year my flight home from Rome was moved from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. by Alitalia. I chose to use the Celebrity transfer to the airport. We left pretty early but the transfers were extremely well organized and we got to the airport in plenty of time. On the bus the staff person knew what check-in station to go to and had luggage carts reserved for us to use. It was an excellent experience and well worth the cost.

I am going again through Rome in June and will use the transfers again.

[Talisker92]

One caution in the Rome airport- It is a very long walk from check in to the escalator that takes you to the tram station. The tram takes you out to the international gates. There is a sign that says 11 minutes, but that was how long it took us in one of the electric carts!

[Morgsmom]

I would also caution about security at FCO; it took us almost 1 hour to check in and then another hour in security. I was a WRECK and we deliberately booked for the day AFTER we returned because we docked closer to "normal" time and didn't get into Rome Termini (we took the train back, easy peasy) until 10:30am.

[GRAMMYTAN]

On Carnival (Dream 2009 and Freedom 2007) we were off the ship meeting our driver by 8:00 am. I understand that the ship was doing final call to have everyone off by 9:00 am. Very efficient debarkation. However, we stayed in Rome (Airport Hilton) one night after our first cruise to enjoy one last day in Rome. We checked in at the hotel, dropped off the bags and used their shuttle back into Rome for the day. We stayed 4 nights in Rome after our 2009 cruise. We were so glad we planned the extra days to just enjoy Rome on our own time before flying home. We did have to leave Rome around 7:00 am though, to make the airport on time for a 10:30 flight, even using a private driver service.

[Hlitner]

As a general rule of thumb flights out of FCO should not be scheduled earlier than 11 am. It is often possible to make much earlier flights, but 11 will usually give you enough margin of error. Keep in mind that it can take approximately 1 hour to get from ship to FCO and if you are using a US airline the check-in process can take a bit longer since you have to get a shuttle over to Terminal 5 for the check-in process. Once checked-in at Terminal 5, and sitting around that ugly facility, you will eventually get transferred back to the main terminals.

 

Hank