Traveling From Portugal to Rome For a Mediterranean Cruise - Ryanair flight review

We were really happy to discover we could take a direct flight from Faro airport in Portugal right to FCO in Rome ahead of the Sun Princess Mediterranean Cruise.  

This trip would consist of many firsts:

1. First time flying out of Faro airport
2. First time flying with Ryan Air
3. First time in Italy
4. First time on a Mediterranean Cruise
5. First time sailing a ship's inaugural season
6. First time Uber-ing across Algarve to the airport at 3 in the morning
   
   

For sure there were more firsts, but I'll stop there to spare you. :) 

How to get to faro airport from Western algarve

While you can hire a transfer service, we initially planned to drive to the Faro airport and pay to park our car there. When I originally checked the prices it was going to be about 100 euros for the duration.

​Typically we would fly out of Lisbon which requires taking the bus 2.5 hours and staying in a hotel the night before or paying around 50 euros in tolls plus gas each way not to mention parking. 

So to be able to fly out of the airport less than an hour away and park our car there for around 100 bucks seemed great!  

Then the other shoe dropped. When I went to book the parking, the saver price was sold out and parking would now cost over 200 euros for the same time. UGH. :( 

We had to adapt. I was able to book an uber in advance for a 3am pickup. Yes, you heard right... 3 am pickup.  It was about 55 euros.  The ride back from the airport, this time via Bolt was 45 euros.

In the end we paid about the same to be driven to the airport as we would have paid for parking after driving ourselves if we had gotten the cheaper price. And since that price was no longer available, we basically saved 50% off the prevailing rate by taking uber/bolt. It worked well! 

Faro Airport Travel Tip: Book Airport Parking Early! Also consider if it makes more sense to use Uber/Bolt. ​

Check parking prices at Faro airport here.
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Flying Out of Faro Airport

Flying out of Faro airport was a delight. 10/10 recommend!
​We arrived at 4:05am for a 6:20am flight to Italy. The airport was already abuzz with activity. 

Faro Airport Portugal at 4am

It was just 4:08 when we entered the security line. As you can see the line was pretty wide open. :)  It literally took longer to snake through the empty line than to go through the security!

No Security Line in Faro at 4am

By 4:16am our bins were on the conveyor belt and at 4:21am we were already through security and double checking our gate location. So just 16 minutes after Uber drop off we were through security and on our way to our gate. Maybe there is something to those painfully early morning flights after all... 

Flight days are all about the "hurry up and wait" game, aren't they? So now that we had hurried to our gate, it was time to wait for an hour or so until boarding would begin. 

Waiting at the gate for our RyanAir flight to Rome

Boarding Ryan air at Faro Aiport in Portugal

At 5:45am we were already queued up outside to climb up to our RyanAir plane for our 6:20 flight.

Boarding RyanAir flight FR1726 to Rome from Faro

I really loved not having to cram into a shuttle bus to get to our plane. Every time we fly out of Lisbon we have to do that and it's never my favorite. 
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Ryan Air FLight Safety Card

The flight safety instruction card for the Boeing 737-8200 was right on the seat in front of you along with adverts which alternated every 2-3 rows. I actually thought that was pretty good planning as if your gaze drifted between the seats you would see different ads.  

The plane felt really fresh and new and I was pleased that the seat in front of me had plenty of room for my puffy samsonite bag that I always use as my "personal" item. Before we knew it, we were in the air with this view: 

Somewhere over Almancil Portugal from RyanAir plane window

Arriving in Italy

After nodding off a good bit, we were already descending into Fiumicino (FCO) airport in Rome. The pastural views were lovely and can you spot the tiny airplane shadow captured here?! ;)  

By 9am (okay 9am Lisbon time, 10 am Rome time) our RyanAir plane had landed in Rome (this photo is from the window of one RyanAir plane looking at another) and we were ready to experience train travel in Italy as we made our way to the cruise port at Civitavecchia. 

​Read: How to Get to Civitavecchia Cruise Port from Rome Fiumicino FCO Airport by Train

How much does it cost to fly from portugal to rome?

This RyanAir flight from Faro Airport, Portugal to Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy cost $163.74 for 2 people including 2 cabin bags. So each of us could bring our personal bag to store under the seat and a carry on sized luggage to store overhead. This flight was in the month of June. 
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First impressions of ryan air:

I was a bit apprehensive ahead of this flight as I had always heard not-so-great things about RyanAir. Happily, our experience was great! Everything went smoothly with our flight. It was timely, the aircraft was comfortable and had plenty of room for my bags. Of course we got to board early since we paid for an extra cabin bag which helped.

I would not hesitate to fly Ryan Air again based on this experience. Let's hope they are all as good!!

RyanAir Travel Tip: Buy a cabin bag to get priority boarding ;) 
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How early should you fly ahead of a cruise?

We arrived in Rome around 10am local time for a cruise leaving the same day, at 6pm.

We would have preferred to arrive a day before the cruise started as it's just best practice, but since flights are only available a few days per week out of FAO Faro Airport to FCO Rome Airport, we didn't have much choice other than to fly the day of the cruise and assume some risk.

We calculated the risk and if something happened and we were to miss embarkation we felt relatively secure since our flights had been booked with our Sapphire card which has built-in travel protection. And we figured worst case scenario we could take a train to Naples and hop on the next morning. Much less risky than if we had been traveling from the States.

If you are traveling to Europe from the US, for example, I would never risk arriving the same day as the cruise. It could be so much more stressful if anything went wrong and overall I recommend arriving a day or two early at least to combat jetlag ahead of your amazing Mediterranean cruise! ​

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