Honeymoon – Day 4 – Rome, Civitavecchia
Posted by: Darren in Greenbergs of Amesbury, HoneymoonDay 4 – Rome/Civitavecchia (2007.05.21)
Day 4 would have started the same as the others, with a breakfast buffet at the hotel, except we had to figure out a way to dry our clothes from the previous night’s laundry festivities (since hanging them out to dry didn’t work). I tried to speed up the drying process using the hair dryer, which turned out to be a not-so-good idea. In addition to melting the hair dryer, it stopped working for some time, which did not make Lindsay happy – she hates having wet hair. Thankfully it started to work again, so she was able to complete her morning ritual, but we were running late so she threw on her shirt from the previous day and I put on a semi-wet shirt (and packed the rest of the wet clothes in a plastic bag). Once we packed up we went to breakfast, where the selection was pretty much the same, although they did have some spicy salami that was delicious.
From breakfast, we went to go stand in line for entrance to the Vatican. Even though the official opening time was 9:30, and we got there around 8, there was still a fairly sizeable line, which only got larger as we waited. Once inside, we entered the Vatican Museum, which led us to St. Peter’s Basilica and finally to the Sistine Chapel (where photography is, unfortunately, prohibited). After that, we had an hour to eat while we waited for the bus to the port (Civitavecchia, about 75 minutes from Rome).
During this entire time, we were trying to get a straight answer from Constance on what to do about our luggage. Since she had told us that it had gotten to the Rome airport the previous night, we had to figure out how to get it from there to the port. The problem seemed to be that the airport wouldn’t release our luggage to anyone but us, and that would require us to take a cab to the airport, and then a cab to the port (total cost, about €250 – an expensive proposition, even when split between the two families). We asked about having it sent to the port, and then she said something about the airport having to hire an outside delivery service, which would then take up to 12 hours to deliver the luggage to the port. Unfortunately, the ship was set to leave port in 6 hours. I should also mention that Constance was really just acting as a go-between…she would call her “home office”, and then they would get in touch with the airport, with Alitalia, etc. (or at least that’s what we were told). Whenever we asked what Celebrity could do for us to help, she kept saying that she had nothing to do with Celebrity…which was kinda odd since from our point of view she was our only contact with Celebrity at this point. Since we needed our luggage, we were seriously considering taking the trip to the airport, but we didn’t have enough cash on hand, so we asked about a car service that would accept credit cards. She kept saying that she would only go through one service, and that they’d need cash, and that we had to go through her. Now, I realize how fishy this sounds, and believe me, it sounded that fishy when she said it, but we were desperate (once again, the language barrier was the real sticking point). I even asked Constance if we could use her mobile to call Celebrity’s local contact for day-of-departure issues, and she said that it was her personal phone, so no. After chastising her for that, she called her office back and had them call the local contact. During lunch the four of us (me, Lindsay, Abdul & Rozida) were discussing our options, since the bus was going to leave for the port and we either had to be on it or on our way to the airport on our own. The only problem was that if the luggage was already in transit to the port, we’d be going to the airport for no reason, and then we might be late for the boat. Once the bus showed up, we still weren’t sure what we were going to do, but she told us to get on the bus because the local contact said that they’d send the luggage over to the port and that it would meet us there in time for our departure. So, feeling relieved that we had gotten confirmation of where our luggage was going to be, we got on the bus for the ride over to the port.
When we got to the port, they had some refreshments waiting for us, and told us to sit down to wait until we could go through to the next room. After a few minutes of waiting, Rozida decided that she had had enough, and stormed through the doorway, waving us to come along with her. We actually waited until they waved us through, which was only a minute or two later. Once we got to the next room, we saw Rozida way ahead of us passing through a metal detector. In between her and us were people waiting in a few different lines, but she kept waving us on, and the employees around her were letting us through. After that we were in line to get on the boat. Once over the gangway, we were asked for our “card”, although we had no idea what they meant so we showed our passports. They were a little confused that we were showing them our passports, but they took our photos and then let us on. Right past the security checkpoint we were stop by a woman (Nancy) who we told our situation to, but at that point she was more concerned with how we had gotten onto the boat. Apparently, the lines that we skipped (while being pulled behind Rozida in her wake) were for registration and check-in. After listening to our pleas for help, Nancy called up her manager, Flavio. He listened to our story, took our information, and told us to contact Jeannine at the concierge desk (after getting off the boat and going through registration properly). Once at registration, they took our passports (so that’s why they were so confused that we still had ours!) and gave us each a Sea Pass, which was basically our ticket on and off the boat, and also the way to pay for anything on the boat since they use a cashless system. Once we went through the proper channels, we were able to get on the boat, and headed over to find Jeannine (even though I wanted to drop off our carry-ons at the room).
We found Jeannine at her desk, and explained our situation (for the third time, if anyone’s counting). She had the paperwork from Nancy and Flavio, and she assured us that she was already trying to figure out where our luggage was. She gave us some Celebrity t-shirts and a toiletries kit so that we could wash up a bit while she checked things out, and promised to call us once she found our bags. We went to our rooms, and about a half-hour later got a phone call from Jeannine. Apparently our luggage had just gotten to the Rome airport this evening around 5 (not at 8:40 last night, as Constance had told us), and would not make it to the ship in time. Since tomorrow is a sea day, this means we won’t get our luggage until the first port of call, which is Mykonos the day after tomorrow. Please note, that had we gone to the airport, we would have spent €250 for nothing. Anyway, Jeannine told us to stop by for a laundry voucher (yay, someone to wash our wet clothes!), and more t-shirts if we needed them. I guess I should mention that the largest t-shirt they had was an XL, which didn’t fit me at all…thankfully I found a 2XL in one of the shops, and it fit. After a shower and some freshening up, we both felt better, but we were still sans luggage…which was a bummer. We took a quick nap, which turned into a non-quick nap, making us miss dinner. Thankfully there are always places to eat on the ship, and we had some late-night pasta and pizza by the indoor pool. After our snack, we went back to sleep, knowing we had another day of no luggage (but trusting this time that we’d get it when they said we would).
Images from this day in Rome can be seen starting here
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