MSC Magnifica Disembarkment and making early flight

[spence1936]

I booked a non refundable flight leaving Marco Polo Venice at 12:45pm.  I did not check the time the ship was arriving back in Venice, just assumed it would be like all the other cruises I had been on and would be typically 7-8 am.  But it does not arrive until 9:30am.  Has anyone had this tight timing and made their flight?  Again I have non refundable air and it is over a thousand dollars more to get a later flight at this point.

 

I plan on trying to ask MSC to let us disembark ASAP and trying to reserve a taxi to get us there as fast as we can.  Any advise or happy endings would be greatly appreciated.  This is our first cruise out of  Europe and at the moment is stressing me LOL.

[CruiseIreland]

We found that arrival in Venice can be delayed by fog. However, as your flights are non refundable, I would suggest booking a private taxi, explain to Guest Services  that you need to self disembark as soon as gangways are open and see if you can book express check in or priority security clearance in advance.  If the ship docks early or on time, you might make it. If you're in Yacht Club, they may be more helpful. Good luck, Ken. 

[perakcruiser]

16 hours ago, spence1936 said:

 

I plan on trying to ask MSC to let us disembark ASAP and trying to reserve a taxi to get us there as fast as we can. 

Don't talk, just do. And certainly you cannot use the lugguage service, you need to carry by yourself. We managed to be with the first 10 passengers when we needed.

 

12.45 should be not a big problem, as long as the ship docks at the right port in Venice. Which it not always does.

 

 

[spence1936]

Ken:

 

Thank you.  I have already booked a private taxi.  I am planning on talking to MSC, not Yacht club but have cruised with them a couple of times.  Good idea about express check in I will contact the airline to see if they offer it.  Keeping my fingers crossed that we make it.  Did you find the flow through the airport to be ok when you were there?  I am hoping since it is a smaller airport that it will be easier.  I am planning on also making sure I understand where everything is in the airport for our return flight.

[spence1936]

3 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

Don't talk, just do. And certainly you cannot use the lugguage service, you need to carry by yourself. We managed to be with the first 10 passengers when we needed.

 

12.45 should be not a big problem, as long as the ship docks at the right port in Venice. Which it not always does.

 

 

 

[spence1936]

Just now, spence1936 said:

 

Thank you.  I think you are correct, I will inquire but if I sense any hesitation I will just keep my luggage and try to walk off.  I called MSC to see if they offered that like other cruise lines and they told me no but I don't have a lot of confidence in the person who supplied the information to me.  When you say dock at the right port, they would still be in Venice just different doc right?  

[allmotormark]

Not sure your time of year for your cruise. But if it winter or fall could be issue with fog or even water as you can see the issues lately. 

 

All the recommendations are great here. Definitely need to self debark with luggage. I hope you make it and maybe the boat gets in early... but security can be long at Venice air port if the airport is busy and if you are flying direct I assume through to US or Canada you have to go through immigration after security. My experience says that you won’t make it but I guess you have to try. All the North American flights seem to leave at the same time so security and immigration is packed

Edited November 17, 2019 by allmotormark

[spence1936]

Our cruise is in 2 weeks.  We are going to US I do think I read we will have to go through immigration to fill out a declaration form.  We have a Sunday departure and I can't seem to find any info about the volume of traffic on Sundays just Saturdays.  The good thing is (I hope) is it looks like our ship may be the only one disembarking that day.  I have to admit I am stressing quite a bit.

 

[allmotormark]

I’m sort of worried for you considering the water issues going on in Venice right now.

 

i would take insurance to cover your flight. That would be the best case I think. To be honest everything would have to be perfect for you to make it.

Edited November 17, 2019 by allmotormark

[allmotormark]

Please come back and let us know how things go.

[Stadleter]

56 minutes ago, spence1936 said:

Our cruise is in 2 weeks.  We are going to US I do think I read we will have to go through immigration to fill out a declaration form.  We have a Sunday departure and I can't seem to find any info about the volume of traffic on Sundays just Saturdays.  The good thing is (I hope) is it looks like our ship may be the only one disembarking that day.  I have to admit I am stressing quite a bit.

 

Venice is flooded, and it could take weeks for the sea level to go down, and beacuse od this cruisers are going to port of Trieste, around 80 km from Venice. 

Unfortunatly in the 5-10 times i was in Italy i found the traffic to be very heavy on sundays especially between 09-00-13:00.  

Download the waze application and you can see the time needed from your destinstion to airport, depending on the time of the day. 

[CruiseIreland]

3 hours ago, spence1936 said:

Ken:

 

Thank you.  I have already booked a private taxi.  I am planning on talking to MSC, not Yacht club but have cruised with them a couple of times.  Good idea about express check in I will contact the airline to see if they offer it.  Keeping my fingers crossed that we make it.  Did you find the flow through the airport to be ok when you were there?  I am hoping since it is a smaller airport that it will be easier.  I am planning on also making sure I understand where everything is in the airport for our return flight.

Last time we were in Marco Polo, it was a zoo. Check out here or on TripAdvisor which check in desk your airline uses. At this time of year it should be less hectic.  It should take about 20 minutes to the airport but if you dock in Trieste, that's a different matter. Best of luck. Ken 

[perakcruiser]

17 hours ago, spence1936 said:

When you say dock at the right port, they would still be in Venice just different doc right?  

Yes, sometimes they dock at a industrial port. Then there will be tender boats to the cruise port. 

 

By the way I am quite sure many Northern Europeans have flights booked for this cruise with MSC. So there should be a MSC bus you can book on board for the lunchtime flights. Anyway you have your own transport already, but at least MSC will have big interest that this passengers will not miss their flights.

[allmotormark]

Get trip insurance and your covered

[DCGuy64]

Just for kicks you can check arrival times online for your same flight and see how it's been going lately, especially with the historic flooding in Venice. Others have recommended trip insurance but that almost always has to be purchased within a few days of booking your first travel arrangements. I also hope you are able to make it. In my experience, if you miss a flight, you can usually just take the next scheduled one a day later, just in case. Best of luck to you!

[spence1936]

All:

 

Thank you for all the advice and feedback.  I learned a lot yesterday.  Thought I would share this.

 

As far as insurance I could purchase it yesterday, but it would not cover a missed flight unless it was an accident on the way, health reason, natural disaster.  So if the ship is late, fog is not listed as a natural disaster, or moved to another port due to weather or other reasons not considered a natural disaster, they would not cover any part of the missed flight.  The only way the flight would be covered is if I allowed MSC to book our flights for us.   I spoke with MSC and you can not walk off with large luggage it is a regulation for them, they would/could not discuss why, there is no walk off program and if I attempted on my own their security would stop and hold us.  Early disembarkment could only occur for us after Yacht club members disembarked.  Again I inquired walking off anyway and they said as I scanned out security would intercede again.  They say it is all due to security and safety which I do understand.  Spoke with Aer Lingus about switching our flight, there was no additional flights out until the next weekend.  They could move our flight to Milan and we could fly out Monday for a $200 change fee per person and another $620 flight increase per person meaning an additional $820 per person on top of what we paid or $1640 for both of us not counting train to get there and hotel.  The woman I talked with was as helpful as she could be and suggested I try looking at one way options from Venice on the same day.  Talked with a travel agent hoping to avoid any unknowns for me if I did this since I missed the late port arrival and found travel agents can not book one way flights from Europe.  So to the internet I went, and was lucky enough to find one way flight from Venice on Monday for both of us for under $800.  I just have to fly back to another airport in our area.  Luckily I have family in the area that can help us with that.  

 

Overall no one I spoke with including the taxi people made me feel like we could make our flight.  So I jumped on the one way flight back to the states.   Huge learning with this about insurance and planning when it comes to cruises any where, although have cruised multiple times and have never had concerns like this but the flight timing was not that tight.  So we have another Europe cruise planned for next spring, luckily no air yet booked but, we will not be flying out the day of for sure.

 

Thank you all again. 

[Stadleter]

It's strange they did not allow you to self disembark, we asked last month for it together with 60-100 other passengers, they scaned our ID's on the way out and no problem occured. The ship docked at 08:00, we were in our car at 08:30.

[allmotormark]

I’m trying to remember if I could self debark in Venice I don’t think I ever did in Venice. I have sailed out of there a few times. 

 

I think it would be hard to argue the water level issue in Venice not being a natural disaster, they have declared an emergency. I’m shocked that insurance would not cover missed flight due to late arrival or unable to debark from original port. What else could go wrong? Seems odd. I probably would have done the same and book another flight

 

 

let is know how things go in Venice !!

Edited November 19, 2019 by allmotormark

[spence1936]

52 minutes ago, Stadleter said:

It's strange they did not allow you to self disembark, we asked last month for it together with 60-100 other passengers, they scaned our ID's on the way out and no problem occured. The ship docked at 08:00, we were in our car at 08:30.

Were you scheduled to arrive at the port at 9:30?

[DCGuy64]

I am glad the OP was able to find a suitable flight back. But I agree with @allmotormark that the historic flooding Venice is experiencing really SHOULD be considered a natural disaster. I'm following one other MSC thread involving Venice and it seems all cruises on being diverted to Trieste at this point.

[perakcruiser]

22 hours ago, allmotormark said:

I’m trying to remember if I could self debark in Venice I don’t think I ever did in Venice. I have sailed out of there a few times. 

We did one time in Venice, but that was when the ship docked at the industrial harbour and the passengers tendered back to Marittima port. We had booked a bus from there to Milan at 12 PM. We did not getting any notice in advance that we will not debark where we started the cruise. So maybe the port informed the captain also very late.

 

Anyway, in the morning without knowing where we are and how far away from Marittima, we left the ship immediately. So we easily catched the bus but waited two hours in the brutal heat of the unpleasent bus station. 

[allmotormark]

58 minutes ago, perakcruiser said:

We did one time in Venice, but that was when the ship docked at the industrial harbour and the passengers tendered back to Marittima port. We had booked a bus from there to Milan at 12 PM. We did not getting any notice in advance that we will not debark where we started the cruise. So maybe the port informed the captain also very late.

 

Anyway, in the morning without knowing where we are and how far away from Marittima, we left the ship immediately. So we easily catched the bus but waited two hours in the brutal heat of the unpleasent bus station. 

Holy crap that must hAve been a long bus ride!! Why not the train?

[perakcruiser]

2 hours ago, allmotormark said:

Holy crap that must hAve been a long bus ride!! Why not the train?

At this time there was a new bus company called Megabus in Italy. They started their business with tickets for 1 Euro. We used them quite often in 2015, even our student times were long gone.

 

In 2016 they (unsurprisingly) stopped operations, anyway our first child was born and now we are back in the train world. 

[allmotormark]

Lol ya for $1 that’s good,

 

how long was that trip 4-5 hours?

Edited November 20, 2019 by allmotormark

[Traveler-14344]

Our Eastern Mediterranean started and ended in Venice last month (October). Our ship was delayed docking because of fog. ETA was 9 AM, then adjusted to 10 AM, and finally docked at 3:45 PM!. We have booked our flight out of Marco Polo Airport (VCE) the following day so we weren't stressed-out missing our flight but we were disappointed on missing out our time exploring places in Venice we haven't been to.

 

Depending on your last port before Venice (end of cruise), you could have disembarked at that port and take a train to (Mestre) Venice then a bus to VCE. I think that would be a less expensive option vs the one you took. I've read somewhere here in CC where the passengers disembarked on the last day (in this case Dubrovnik, Croatia) having been told of possible delayed disembarkation in Venice which will make them miss their flight back to the U.S. 

 

I don't know how busy the traffic is from Venice to VCE. We stayed in a hotel in Mestre (north). Our shuttle took a freeway and we were at VCE in less than 15 minutes. Yes, VCE is crowded and most direct flights to North America are leaving between 11 AM - 2 PM. Check-in line-ups are long. They normally have a separate line-up for North American passengers at the immigration booth.

 

Enjoy your cruise.