We slept relatively well last night, and the alarm was set to go off at 7:00 AM for us to get up and get ready for our travel day to Civitavecchia.
We had done as much packing was we could last night, moving things from what we had out when we traveled by airplane to what we need to have to take on-board the cruise ship to be able to relax before our luggage arrives at our cabin. We were not sure it would be warm enough to sit out in the sun, but we packed bathing suits and flip flops into Stephanie’s backpack, replacing the noise cancelling headsets and other things we had carried onto the airplane for our flight. We were not sure how quickly our suitcases would arrive at the room.
We left the hotel about 9:15 AM to walk to the Termini Train Station. We had vaguely remembered how difficult the uphill walk was with our suitcases when we had stayed in this same area in 2008, but it seemed even worse than we remembered. Maybe we were younger then, or the bags were lighter then, but it was a struggle.
When we got to the station, our platform designation for our train had not yet been made, and the announcement board for the train schedules showed our train was delayed for about ten minutes. We just had to wait until the platform was posted before we knew where to go to board our train. As soon as the platform was designated, there was a mad rush to get through some security to get out onto the platforms, you had to show your ticket to be able to access the platforms, which we had not ever seen before. I guess this keeps anyone who is not traveling on a train from getting out to the trains, but they were not really checking that closely, any printed item that looked like a ticket receipt was being waved through. The mad rush ended up being all of the passengers going onto our train. We had to fight our way through the crowd to find our coach, number 4, and then wait in line to board. Everyone seemed to have large suitcases. This train was going pretty far north in Italy based on the announced stops, and had come from Sienna. We only had to go two stops to get to Civitavecchia from here. We found our seats, which were being occupied by two ladies, but they knew they were just there temporarily, and readily moved once we indicated that these were our seats. Luckily, we were near the middle of the coach, and there was a luggage rack right behind our seats, which made it nice and secure for storing our large bags. I was afraid the overhead bins would not be large enough for our bags, and they were really high, over 6 feet from the floor, so I did not want to even try to get our fifty pound bags up there.
The train left on time, or at least on time with the ten minute delay adjustment for the arrival, and was uneventful for the hour long ride to Civitavecchia. There were not many people getting off with us, so there was not a big rush to get to the doors. We got our suitcases down from the rack and headed to the exit and were there about a minute before the train stopped at the station. They do not stop for long, about 3-4 minutes,so you have to be at the door and ready to get off as quickly as possible, even while other passengers are trying to board.
Unfortunately, the train did not stop at the platform adjacent to the station, we were two over, so we had to carry the luggage down two flights of stairs, then cross over underneath the tracks to platform 1 and then carry the luggage back up two flights of stairs to the station. Carrying two fifty pound bags at the same time helps to balance the load, but it is still a lot of weight. None of the smaller stations have elevators or escalators, at least none that we saw.
Once outside the station, it was familiar surroundings since we have been here a couple of previous times, and had looked at the route to the port on Google Street View. It is basically about a half mile or so of a walk along the waterfront to the port.
When we arrived inside the port, it was really confusing to try and figure out where to go to get a shuttle out to the ships. The port is rather large, and there were five ships in port today. We saw shuttle buses, but none were stopping at the bus stop that we, and quite a few other passengers were waiting at. Some were on the Princess Cruise ship like us, but others were on Costa, Celebrity or Cunard. Stephanie went inside the building we were standing by, and she was told that we needed to go to the pick-up area past a small fort that was across the street. No one seemed to have any information on where to go, so we all headed over to this stop and waited. There was a gentleman that apparently worked at the port and he tried to help us by stopping several buses that were passing by. Some stopped but were not for Princess, and were not the free shuttle bus. Finally, one bus stopped and picked us all up to carry us out onto the pier where the ships were tied up.
We had probably wasted about 45 minutes trying to figure this all out. The consensus was that Princess should have had a representative out there to direct passengers to the ship. This was probably only an issue for passengers like us that arrived by train, not the ones using the Princess transfers from either Rome or somewhere here in town.
Once we got out to the ship, it was clear that the check-in was nearby, we saw several other passengers getting off of buses and handing over their luggage to the porters. From this point forward, boarding was really pleasant. After going through security to scan our carry on bags, and filling out the normal health forms, we were directed to the check in area. There were several check in attendants, and that process only took a few minutes and we had our boarding cards. There were quite a few irritated passengers, most likely having been through a similar issue getting out to the ship as we had gone through.
Once we had our boarding cards, we headed outside and were surprised how long of a walk we had to get to the gangways for the ship. There were quite a few older people who were really struggling to get there, and one couple, who looked like they had way too many bags to take care of, and they were struggling to get them up the ramp and into the ship. We were not sure if this was all of their bags, and were just traveling light, or just their carry on bags and had checked their main suitcases outside.
We were checked in through security on the ship and headed to our cabin. The weather was going to be too cool to sit out in the sun with the wind that was blowing, so we dropped off our backpacks, and headed to the Horizon Court Buffet for lunch. It was pleasant, there was almost no one there. It was about 12:15 PM, so maybe not many passengers had boarded yet. The ship had been in drydock for about a week prior to this cruise, so there were no passengers getting off of the ship here before we arrived, and all the cabins were already cleaned and ready.
We stopped off at the pursers desk to get our cruise cards hole punched for our lanyards, and then signed up for our beverage packages, which we had to purchase for this cruise. We saw some of the bartenders we had met on this ship before from Vines, the wine bar that was on the same deck as the pursers desk, and stopped by to say hello.
We finally made it to the buffet for lunch. After lunch, we headed to the Seaview Bar to say hello to the other bartenders we knew from before on the Royal Princess, and even one who had been on the Regal Princess for our last cruise, but was now here on the Royal.
Of course, we had to have a couple of adult beverages while we were there visiting. At 4:45 PM we had to go to the lifeboat drill, so we headed back to our cabin to get our life jackets before heading to the Casino, our designated muster station. On the way into the casino, we ran into another bar staff, Nemo from Serbia, that we had met on the Ruby Princess three years ago on our cruise from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale. He was now working at the Bellini Bar, another of our favorite wine bars, so we told him we would stop by and visit later. Of course, Nemo is a shortened version of his Serbian name
After the muster drill was over, we headed back to the Seaview Bar and met a couple from Amelia Island, FL. We talked with then for quite a while while enjoying our self designated drink of the day, Vodka with Cranberry, mostly discussing Hurricane Matthew, and then cruising in general, and specifically about getting cruise deals and our experiences with airfare through Princess.
We headed over to the Bellini Bar to talk with Nemo and have a couple of glasses of wine before we headed to Alfredo’s Pizzeria for dinner, which is right across from Bellini’s on Deck 6. We had a nice dinner there, antipasti and then pizza with some special toppings added to the normal menu items.
Afterwards, we went back to Bellini’s for a nightcap and talked with a gentleman who was on-board and was responsible for all of the port information videos. He had been doing this for about 30 years, and had traveled extensively. He was very interesting to talk with.
It was late and we were tired so we called it a night.