Early Bag Check-in

Kevyjoe

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 24, 2023
We are cruising out of Civitavecchia, Italy. The checkout time of our apartment in Rome is 10AM, but our port arrival time isn't until 1:00-1:15. There will be about 1 hr 45min between when we arrive and our check-in time. The check-in info said to not arrive early. Will DCL hold our luggage or check just the luggage in early, so we won't need to lug it around while trying not to loiter around the port?
 
You can always leave your luggage at the hotel with the front desk or luggage services, tour for a bit, go back and get your things and head to the port so you arrive in time for your embarkation time.
 
You can always leave your luggage at the hotel with the front desk or luggage services, tour for a bit, go back and get your things and head to the port so you arrive in time for your embarkation time.
Except the OP has an apartment in Rome booked, so less likely to have those hotel-like services available. It also leaves them in Rome with the risk of a delay in getting to Civitavecchia. That makes the logistics more complicated. It sounds like they want to leave Rome and head to the port at the time they vacate the apartment.
 
So sorry ... I missed seeing the word apartment.
Except the OP has an apartment in Rome booked, so less likely to have those hotel-like services available. It also leaves them in Rome with the risk of a delay in getting to Civitavecchia. That makes the logistics more complicated. It sounds like they want to leave Rome and head to the port at the time they vacate the apart
 


You should be able to drop off your luggage early. We've not sailing out of Civi (only debarked there) but every other port we've sailed out of had a separate luggage drop and they didn't care what time you dropped your luggage off. You shouldn't have any issues to drop and go do some other stuff.

Another option would be to book a tour + transit in the morning. We did this in Barcelona. They picked us up at our hotel in the morning, put our luggage in the van which always had the driver in it and took us to several sites around town before dropping us off at the port midday.
 
I like @anricat ’s idea of tour and transit.

Otherwise, how are you getting to the port? Any chance of lingering in Rome before heading to the port? Is your transport taking you all the way to the ship/ check-in area?

Do you recall when PATs begin? Lots of reports from other ports that by the later PATs, there is very little time waiting in line and your Boarding Group may be ready to be / already called - so just General Boarding.

In the US ports, they are not “turning away” early arrivals, but you are going to stand (usually outside) until your designated time. Those with earlier PATs will be allowed to enter before you.

If the ship wasn’t so far (like a mike or more) from the town of Civitavecchia, I’d say take the luggage to the port, drop it off and go into town to explore. I would rather walk around town than stand in a line for a long time.

(We did a port stop here, not a boarding. They used a shuttle to get us out of the industrial port. The return shuttle wasn’t running - after union hours. Then we took the train to/from Rome. So no idea where cruise terminal is. We actually just walked up to the ship. I don’t remember even going through any ID check from the Italians. This may have been DCL’s first visit here).
 


You should be able to drop off your luggage early. We've not sailing out of Civi (only debarked there) but every other port we've sailed out of had a separate luggage drop and they didn't care what time you dropped your luggage off. You shouldn't have any issues to drop and go do some other stuff.

Another option would be to book a tour + transit in the morning. We did this in Barcelona. They picked us up at our hotel in the morning, put our luggage in the van which always had the driver in it and took us to several sites around town before dropping us off at the port midday.
Thank you. "You should be able to drop off your luggage early. We've not sailing out of Civi (only debarked there) but every other port we've sailed out of had a separate luggage drop and they didn't care what time you dropped your luggage off. You shouldn't have any issues to drop and go do some other stuff."
This is exactly what I was looking for.
 
I like @anricat ’s idea of tour and transit.

Otherwise, how are you getting to the port? Any chance of lingering in Rome before heading to the port? Is your transport taking you all the way to the ship/ check-in area?

Do you recall when PATs begin? Lots of reports from other ports that by the later PATs, there is very little time waiting in line and your Boarding Group may be ready to be / already called - so just General Boarding.

In the US ports, they are not “turning away” early arrivals, but you are going to stand (usually outside) until your designated time. Those with earlier PATs will be allowed to enter before you.

If the ship wasn’t so far (like a mike or more) from the town of Civitavecchia, I’d say take the luggage to the port, drop it off and go into town to explore. I would rather walk around town than stand in a line for a long time.

(We did a port stop here, not a boarding. They used a shuttle to get us out of the industrial port. The return shuttle wasn’t running - after union hours. Then we took the train to/from Rome. So no idea where cruise terminal is. We actually just walked up to the ship. I don’t remember even going through any ID check from the Italians. This may have been DCL’s first visit here).
I didn't think of using the transfer as a tour, and it is already booked. I booked a transfer service operated through the port, so they are bringing us right "under the ship". If we can get on the ship early, we will absolutely do that. If we can drop off our luggage and visit Civitavecchia, that is also a great plan. I just don't want to wander the town with several pieces of luggage.
 
I don’t want to wander around with luggage, either.

Sounds like a real-time assessment is in order.

I imagine you will get to the port as arranged and find the excitement, the actual arrival time and the estimated wait to be conducive to just staying at port (and a decent boarding process, as a lot of people will arrive early and have boarded. Not everyone follows instructions - and Covid protocols are reduced or dropped).

I would have an idea of how to get to town and back in case it appears to be a long wait.

Your transport might be willing to drop you in/near town after luggage drop-off if you go that option. They should be passenger free, as the previous cruisers should be long gone.

A back-up plan and an idea of the general area / transportation options can come in handy when cruising.

Ciao!
 
visit Civitavecchia
There's really not much there, honestly. Are the plans set in stone in terms of the transfers? Because there are some cool things between Rome and the port. We had booked a transfer for a tour of Ostia on the way to the port for the cruise we had scheduled (that we obviously didn't take) in June 2020. There are some other things between Rome and Civi that you could take a look at. So if your transfer is refundable, maybe see if that's an option because really, there's not much in the port area you're going to be able to do after you drop your luggage.
 

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