Q. Flight Numbers and Times?
A. You can download the Air Schedule - HERE.
** Please Note: Flight numbers and times subject to change without prior notice. It is best to check flights with the airline after booking to keep up to date on changes!
Q. Can I fly First Class?
A. Yes! Please alert Consolidated Tours if you wish to fly first class from JFK, DFW, or IAH. You can write this on the bottom of your application page before you fax/mail it in. You can also call CTO directly at (404) 767-2727. Consolidated Tours will provide you with pricing information for First Class flight upgrades!
Q. How long are these flights?
A. Dallas to Houston: about 1 hour
Houston to Paris (CDG): about 9.5 hours
Paris (CDG) to Rome (FCO): about 2 hours
JFK to Zurich (ZRH): 8.5 hours
Zurich (ZRH) to Rome (FCO): about 1.5 hours
Q. If I am traveling alone, do I have to pay for a single room?
A. No, you do not have to pay for a single room if you are traveling alone unless you want to! We often have several pilgrims traveling alone tour company will work with you to match up potential roommates, keeping in mind gender and age!
Q. How much money should I travel with?
A. This depends on what you plan to purchase while on pilgrimage! Keep in mind that you will be switching hotels several times, you may not want to carry large/many purchases with you. Lunch will cost under $10 per day and is the only meal not provided in the price of your tour!
Q. “I heard that people can get undergraduate or graduate credit for coming on this special pilgrimage. Can you tell me more?”
A. Ave Maria University is offering 3 undergraduate credits for this tour since with Dr. D’Ambrosio serving as the professor. The additional reading and writing requirements are outlined on the syllabus that can be obtained from Ave Maria University or downloaded from this website. Registering with the tour company to come on the trip, however, does not automatically sign you up for the course for credit. You must contact the registrar, Alex Frain with the university at alex.frain@avemaria.edu to obtain credit. Those wishing to receive 2 graduate credits for the course should contact the Institute for Pastoral Theology (IPT) at Ave Maria University.
You can download the Syllabus and Bibliography here.
Q: Can someone come on this trip who is not Catholic?
A: On most of our Rome and Holy Land pilgrimages we have several non-Catholic pilgrims usually having a Protestant background. It has always been a blessing for all and not in any way awkward. It is a pilgrimage – we’ll be doing praise & worship sort of music and praying together daily in a variety of ways. Some will be distinctively Catholic such as daily Mass together in a special spot (like near the tomb of St. Paul, St. Francis, etc) and some prayers with a Marian element such as the rosary. Most times Protestant brethren have really enjoyed participating in everything and felt at home, but there is no requirement to attend all or any of the masses. While we can’t invite Protestant Christians to take sacramental communion at daily masses, we encourage all who can’t make sacramental communion to enter into spiritual communion during the Eucharist – this is what Catholics do when attending an Eastern Orthodox liturgy. This is a good reminder for all of us to pray for full, visible communion of all Christians as part of our pilgrimage.
Q: How many will be coming on this trip?
A: We have space for 90 pilgrims total. We will fill two buses. In our extensive pilgrimage experience, this is the perfect size group – there is a wide variety of people so that people of all ages and backgrounds will be able to make friends with people of similar age and background. At the same time, the size is small enough so that everyone gets to know each other and the tour leaders. We finish the trip really feeling like one big family and relationships are typically made that last a lifetime.
Q: What is the age range of the participants?
A: We will have a full ranges of ages participating. Some retired people, some undergraduate college students and everything in between. Some families will be coming with school-age children.
Q: When is the deadline for signing up?
A: People can apply to be accepted as passengers on the pilgrimage by sending in the application (page 2 of the tour brochure) with a $300 deposit per passenger. Once we’ve accepted 90 applicants, the trip will be closed and new applicants will be put on a waiting list in case of cancellations. We can’t be sure how soon the trip will fill up. So, if you are interested, we urge you to get your application and deposit in ASAP to assure you will have a place on the trip!
