" Stay Awhile" onboard for a late flight from Rome

[Blossom3]

After our B2B on Constellation in Oct/Nov, we have an 8pm flight home, considering booking the "stay awhile" option to stay onboard until 90 mins before next sailing, anyone done this?

[MaggieAtSea]

Hello:

We did this when we arrived in Venice.  We were not pressed for time, as we were staying for a couple of nights before flying back to the US.  The "Stay Awhile" option was just starting and there was some snafus in terms of paying for drinks onboard... we had been told we would need to start paying for things (in other words, not with our seapass) starting at 10am, but none of the bars that were open (by the pool, by the Oceanview Cafe), were set up to do any other type of transaction, so they wound up just giving us our drinks for free.  I'm sure they have since sorted that out.

We could elect to stay for 2 or 4 hours.  We did the 4 hours.  We enjoyed the pool, we took another shower in the spa area, had some lunch, enjoyed drinks... it was great.  The best part - we absolutely missed the madness that was disembarkation in a crowded European city.  We left the ship calmly, picked up our luggage very easily, and met our driver to the boat that ultimately took us to the hotel.  It was a wonderfully sane way to end the cruise and we would not hesitate to do it again.

The down part: you are on board while excited new passengers arrive ready to start their sailing.  There was something a bit tough to know that part of our vacation was done while theirs was just starting... but going to a fantastic hotel in Venice made it much easier!  Lol!

[grandgeezer]

I'm sure you know that the ship does not dock in Rome, it docks in Civitavecchia, which is about 50 miles away. We did this once and it took about 1 1/2 hours, ship to airport. This was in the morning and traffic wasn't too bad. I would guess that the traffic would be much worse latter in the afternoon.The airport is huge and busy.

Keep this in mind when allowing time to safely make your flight.

[Orator]

Might also consider a tour with airport drop off. I've done this when I had time and non refundable OBC to spend. For me the best tour was in Buenos Aires with Lunch at a ranch.

[Blossom3]

16 hours ago, MaggieAtSea said:

Hello:

We did this when we arrived in Venice.  We were not pressed for time, as we were staying for a couple of nights before flying back to the US.  The "Stay Awhile" option was just starting and there was some snafus in terms of paying for drinks onboard... we had been told we would need to start paying for things (in other words, not with our seapass) starting at 10am, but none of the bars that were open (by the pool, by the Oceanview Cafe), were set up to do any other type of transaction, so they wound up just giving us our drinks for free.  I'm sure they have since sorted that out.

We could elect to stay for 2 or 4 hours.  We did the 4 hours.  We enjoyed the pool, we took another shower in the spa area, had some lunch, enjoyed drinks... it was great.  The best part - we absolutely missed the madness that was disembarkation in a crowded European city.  We left the ship calmly, picked up our luggage very easily, and met our driver to the boat that ultimately took us to the hotel.  It was a wonderfully sane way to end the cruise and we would not hesitate to do it again.

The down part: you are on board while excited new passengers arrive ready to start their sailing.  There was something a bit tough to know that part of our vacation was done while theirs was just starting... but going to a fantastic hotel in Venice made it much easier!  Lol!

The free drinks were a bonus, but as you say, probably sorted out by now. Nice to relax in comfort and enjoy one last lunch onboard rather than being crowded out at the airport.

[Blossom3]

15 hours ago, grandgeezer said:

I'm sure you know that the ship does not dock in Rome, it docks in Civitavecchia, which is about 50 miles away. We did this once and it took about 1 1/2 hours, ship to airport. This was in the morning and traffic wasn't too bad. I would guess that the traffic would be much worse latter in the afternoon.The airport is huge and busy.

Keep this in mind when allowing time to safely make your flight.

Yes that's a good point, been there a few times now. We have arranged for our taxi to pick us up at 3.30 and our flight is at 8pm so should be ok

[Blossom3]

15 hours ago, Orator said:

Might also consider a tour with airport drop off. I've done this when I had time and non refundable OBC to spend. For me the best tour was in Buenos Aires with Lunch at a ranch.

We did consider this but nothing quite fit the timings, also we have a free private taxi to the airport so didnt want to pay for an excursion.

[azalice]

How do you arrange the extra time onboard the final morning? We have a 5 o’clock flight and could easily add a few hours onboard. Also, do you keep your luggage with you?

[Alakegirl]

Remember this is only offered in .europe, not in US

[azalice]

We will be at Civitavecchia port. But do we call Celebrity in advance to arrange it, or does our TA do it? And how much did it cost? We have a shared shuttle arranged for 9:30 am but can cancel it and make new arrangements.

[bremenkat]

We did this when we finished our cruise in Rome. We were allowed to stay on board until about 3pm.

I booked it through Celebrity in advance (even though our cruise was booked through a TA). We could put our luggage out later in the evening - I think it was 11pm though our steward was getting concerned that they didn’t have our luggage and they asked for it several times. I had to show him the letter in the end saying luggage was to go out later. You just keep hand luggage with you. 

I think there was about 30 of us that stayed late at the end of our cruise. We had to all report in that morning and we had a brief period where we couldn’t get drinks, use the pool etc. Non alcoholic drinks were included in the price we paid but we had to pay for any alcohol we wanted. 

We booked a transfer to the airport for 3.30pm though in fact we were picked up about 15 mins before that. It took about 1hour 10 mins to get to the airport so had plenty of time before our flight.

i am not sure what they charge now, I think it was about £ 30 when we did it a couple of years ago but we thought it was worth it. Especially as we had done several days in Rome before the cruise so didn’t want to go back in again.

It was lovely having an empty ship for a few hours and found it amusing to hear some boarding passengers comment on how some people were lying out in the sun already and they were surprised we weren’t exploring the ship!

[azalice]

Thank you, Bremenkat. Very helpful information.

 

Alice

[little britain]

11 hours ago, azalice said:

How do you arrange the extra time onboard the final morning? We have a 5 o’clock flight and could easily add a few hours onboard. Also, do you keep your luggage with you?

It’s part of the shore excursions. No the luggage goes out the night before as usual. It is held separately for you to collect in the terminal.

 

It is a hours drive to FCO and the new T3 is very impressive with a great range of top end designers shopping 🛍 

[G.M.T.]

Price is US $44 per person (22 per screaming brat).

[momjkm]

I did this last Saturday in Venice. 

Was $99 in computer- which we paid but in the shore excursion pamphlet it was advertised as $49.  The people at the deak said it was a typo? but I did get a credit. 

ACTUAL DAY OF:

The written directions had pieces of conflicting info. 

It said we could stay on til 2 but written elsewhere, said had to depart at 1 or 3. 

The day of had to meet at 815. We sat for 45 minutes til escorted to security for visitor badges. Very disorganized. 

Pool deck open but pools/hot tubs closed. No bars or places to get a drink- self service areas closed also. 

Finally, we were told to meet at shore excursion desk at 1245 to be escorted off at 1. We went there at 1215 to ask to leave  eArly. 

They let us. 

We found out luggage inside the port hall area with the luggage of others in a corner. NO ONE was around. I collected my bags and walked out. I could have easily taken anyone's stuff. No staff or security at all. 

 

[the_dylaness]

On 7/21/2019 at 5:37 AM, G.M.T. said:

Price is US $44 per person (22 per screaming brat).

 

Remember, we were all screaming brats once.

[G.M.T.]

6 hours ago, the_dylaness said:

 

Remember, we were all screaming brats once.

Not every kid swallowed a megaphone.

[Fogfog]

Can someone explain how this works with immigration, customs and zero-ing out the ship?

Wondering how doing a B2B if late/hangers on will impact he zero-ing out and transit pass process

This would be in the US/so US customs/immigration

TYIA

 

[Texed]

On 7/20/2019 at 5:07 PM, Alakegirl said:

Remember this is only offered in .europe, not in US

 

44 minutes ago, Fogfog said:

Can someone explain how this works with immigration, customs and zero-ing out the ship?

This would be in the US/so US customs/immigration

TYIA