A cruise passenger issued a call for help in a recent post on fodors.com. Their 5-night Costa cruise begins this Sunday, departing from and returning to Savona, Italy. Looks like an interesting itinerary, from the map on Costa's website. But 6 days before the cruise starts, they discovered a problem with their itinerary. Their return air flight departs Milan at 1:50 p.m., just a few hours after their cruise is scheduled to arrive back in Savona. Depending on traffic, the drive to the airport could be 2 1/2 - 3 hours ... and of course, you should arrive two hours early to check in and get through security.
They are exploring the idea of departing the cruise a day early in Marseilles and taking the train to Milan, but what a shame to miss out on a full day of a short cruise. I suggested they arrange for a private driver to meet them at the port ... and that they arrange for an early disembarkation. Other posters added that they should leave the ship at 8 a.m. to be on the safe side.
Four tips on how to avoid travel stress in the first place:
- Never arrive for your cruise the day of departure. Too much can go wrong with late or cancelled flights, and you might miss your cruise's departure. Always plan to arrive a day early.
- Pay attention to connection times. Only got 60 minutes to change planes in Paris? You're very likely to misconnect.
- Get someone else to look at your itinerary before you book it. This is one advantage of using a travel consultant. We are very conscious of these kinds of issues because we deal with them on a daily basis.
- Buy travel insurance. It's surprisingly affordable, will provide medical coverage when you're outside the country, and can protect you in the event of trip interruptions* and cancellations due to medical reasons.
* probably not if they miss their flight because they planned an impossible itinerary
travel consultant (search here on Google)
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