This was our second Celebrity cruise, with an excellent Princess cruise (Baltic - 10 night) sandwiched in between. Our first Celebrity cruise was Alaska, and was about 8 years ago. We enjoyed that experience and decided to give them another try. We decided to go directly to Civitavecchia and overnight there, hoping to mitigate jet lag a bit before getting on the ship. We visited Rome extensively on a prior trip to Italy.

We flew over on Delta Airlines with stops in Detroit and Amsterdam before reaching FCO airport. It was pouring rain when we arrived in Amsterdam. When we reached FCO, our soft-sided luggage was soaked and much of the contents got wet, apparently sitting on the tarmac. There was no customs inspection or even a passport check at FCO. We collected our wet luggage and exited directly into the terminal near the exits We had booked a transfer to our port hotel with Airport Shuttle (www.airportshuttle.it)for E90.00 for the two of us. Our driver arrived on time with a sign. We collected another couple of Equinox cruisers and were off in a comfy Mercedes van for the ride to the port city, which took a little less than an hour.

In Civitavecchia, we had made reservations at the Hotel Borgo Del Mare'. The Hotel was clean and the staff was friendly and helpful. The place was full of Equinox cruisers from all over the world. The rooms are a bit small, but the Hotel offers an excellent included breakfast with some hot selections, and free wifi service. The staff recommended an excellent and inexpensive nearby (easy walking distance) restaurant for dinner. It was not a tourist place. Rather, it was full of local folks and ordering dinner was an adventure, but the waiter was friendly and helpful as he could be. We were both very pleased with our selections. We got out of there for less than E25.00. Our hotel rate included a great transfer service to the port in the room price. Read more