I wanted to share my experience so that it can help other people flying in other countries, especially when going on a cruise. We took a 10 day cruise with Celebrity Cruise Lines (The "Reflection) out of Rome, with stops in Messina, Malta, Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Athens, and Naples, then back to Rome.
I had my Mavic Pro in the DJI soft bag and at every port, you go through port security outside the ship, then ship security inside the ship. I kept the MP in the soft bag inside my back pack whenever going on shore, and never once did they make me take out the MP bag. It always went through some type of metal or xray machine and never once did they open my backpack or notice anything.
For your information, Celebrity Cruise Line's official policy towards drones is that if they discover you bring a drone on board, they will confiscate it and hold it for you, and give it to you when you exit the ship for shore excursions on every stop. Of course I did not want to deal with this every morning (not sure how long the wait would be, while they get it from storage), so I kept in hidden in my backpack.
For obvious reasons, I do not recommend flying the drone on the ship itself or on or near the port. This is a sure fire way of having it confiscated for the duration of the cruise or by local authorities.
I highly recommend renting a private car and driver (if finances permit) instead of going on an official shore excursion sold from the ship. In Messina for example, we paid 300 euros total for a family of 7 for an all day tour of Taormina, an ancient Roman city, in a nice air conditioned Mercedes van, and the driver even took me to special drone spots where you have a good elevation, spectacular views, and not many people around.
In Greece, I had to be more careful as the laws are just ridiculous (you are supposed to file a flight plan with local police one week in advance), but you will be fine if you just find spots to take off and land from, that are not near a bunch of people. I found that in most places, churches were a good spot, as they are often elevated and usually nobody is around (unless its Sunday).
In Athens I did not fly, but at the Acropolis an Asian guy broke out his Mavic Pro in the middle of the crowd of thousands and had it about 30 feet in the air, when he was mobbed by 3 tour guides and told to bring it down immediately. Not sure if he was playing dumb or just dumb. He was lucky not to have it confiscated as one of the tour guide showed us his finger that had been cut by a drone propeller a few months before. In very broken English he asked if he had to delete the photos and he was told no. They gave him his MP back.
The Island of Capri (near Naples Italy) was awesome to fly in, due to the spectacular views, unfortunately, by the time I found the right spot I only had 30 minutes to fly, as we had to get back to catch the ferry to Naples in order to catch the ship leaving port.
In Mykonos I amost lost my drone in front of (Lindsey) Lohan's Beach House, a new beach club/bar. I was flying over water and got a disconnect from drone when my screen went purple and black. At the time I was alone and did not have LOS, about 500m away from an elevated position, I could not see the drone against the backdrop of water and boats. I checked if the remote was still hooked up and apparently it was, I flew up until I saw the drone's silhouette against the blue sky and brought it home via eyesight. Scared the heck out of me.
I made a video of the trip, its mostly drone footage mixed with some photos and GoPro footage (the title photo is not mine). Please excuse my poor editing, its my first edited project:
I had my Mavic Pro in the DJI soft bag and at every port, you go through port security outside the ship, then ship security inside the ship. I kept the MP in the soft bag inside my back pack whenever going on shore, and never once did they make me take out the MP bag. It always went through some type of metal or xray machine and never once did they open my backpack or notice anything.
For your information, Celebrity Cruise Line's official policy towards drones is that if they discover you bring a drone on board, they will confiscate it and hold it for you, and give it to you when you exit the ship for shore excursions on every stop. Of course I did not want to deal with this every morning (not sure how long the wait would be, while they get it from storage), so I kept in hidden in my backpack.
For obvious reasons, I do not recommend flying the drone on the ship itself or on or near the port. This is a sure fire way of having it confiscated for the duration of the cruise or by local authorities.
I highly recommend renting a private car and driver (if finances permit) instead of going on an official shore excursion sold from the ship. In Messina for example, we paid 300 euros total for a family of 7 for an all day tour of Taormina, an ancient Roman city, in a nice air conditioned Mercedes van, and the driver even took me to special drone spots where you have a good elevation, spectacular views, and not many people around.
In Greece, I had to be more careful as the laws are just ridiculous (you are supposed to file a flight plan with local police one week in advance), but you will be fine if you just find spots to take off and land from, that are not near a bunch of people. I found that in most places, churches were a good spot, as they are often elevated and usually nobody is around (unless its Sunday).
In Athens I did not fly, but at the Acropolis an Asian guy broke out his Mavic Pro in the middle of the crowd of thousands and had it about 30 feet in the air, when he was mobbed by 3 tour guides and told to bring it down immediately. Not sure if he was playing dumb or just dumb. He was lucky not to have it confiscated as one of the tour guide showed us his finger that had been cut by a drone propeller a few months before. In very broken English he asked if he had to delete the photos and he was told no. They gave him his MP back.
The Island of Capri (near Naples Italy) was awesome to fly in, due to the spectacular views, unfortunately, by the time I found the right spot I only had 30 minutes to fly, as we had to get back to catch the ferry to Naples in order to catch the ship leaving port.
In Mykonos I amost lost my drone in front of (Lindsey) Lohan's Beach House, a new beach club/bar. I was flying over water and got a disconnect from drone when my screen went purple and black. At the time I was alone and did not have LOS, about 500m away from an elevated position, I could not see the drone against the backdrop of water and boats. I checked if the remote was still hooked up and apparently it was, I flew up until I saw the drone's silhouette against the blue sky and brought it home via eyesight. Scared the heck out of me.
I made a video of the trip, its mostly drone footage mixed with some photos and GoPro footage (the title photo is not mine). Please excuse my poor editing, its my first edited project:
