Sea cruises to Italy — page 20

We recommend flying in the day before the cruise begins.

• Arrive at the port 2–3 hours before departure.
• When booking an airport–port transfer, allow at least 5 hours between landing and the scheduled sailing.

It depends on how you travel. Flying, the simplest options are Civitavecchia through Fiumicino airport or Naples, as both are well connected from Polish airports. Driving from southern Poland, Genoa is one of the nearest. Decide how you are getting there first and pick the itinerary second — the other way round usually ends in an expensive ticket or a night transfer.

We advise flying in a day early and staying overnight in the port city. Boarding closes two to three hours before departure and the ship will not wait for a delayed flight. For Civitavecchia, add the journey from Rome, because the port sits outside the city — and there the five-hour figure is about standing on the quay. At the other ports the same figure covers a transfer booked through the line.

Yes, and for anyone in southern Poland it is a sensible option — in our offer it is usually Genoa, then Savona. Our clients do exactly that, particularly families and groups who would rather not fight airline baggage limits. Parking at the terminal is paid and booked separately; we will point you to somewhere to leave the car for a week.

In the first few days. From Genoa the route usually heads west, towards Provence and the Balearics; from Civitavecchia more often south and east, towards Sicily, Malta or Greece. The ship and the fare can be identical, so compare itineraries rather than operator names.

The fare covers your cabin, meals in the main restaurant and the buffet, onboard entertainment and the passage between ports. Gratuities, which on most ships are added to the onboard account automatically, drinks beyond the basics, speciality restaurants, shore excursions, the spa and laundry are charged separately. For every sailing we set out what the particular fare includes.

No. On a ship, all inclusive means a drinks package you have bought, not everything without exception. Meals in the main restaurant come with every fare, package or not. Before you pay the supplement, work out what you actually drink — sometimes the package does not pay for itself.

The currency of the contract is either the euro or the US dollar, and the booking itself decides which. Payment goes by transfer, in euros or in zloty, to the details we set out in the document. With a payment link the settlement runs in zloty only. Prices on the site are shown in zloty at the day’s rate.

Your contract is with us, so a complaint comes to us rather than to an operator abroad. We hold an insurance guarantee against the organiser becoming insolvent. In practice most matters — a cabin change, a question about paperwork, a problem during the sailing — are settled by telephone in Polish during office hours.