NCL Mediterranean cruise in May shore excursions

Going on the NCL gem in early May. Would like to join the shore
excursions Rome, Naples, Florence. Would love to go to the Vatican. Any
recommendations on the best method to go about? Any contact besides the
NCL cruise shore excursions would be most helpful. How much would be
termed reasonable/economical?

Thanks in advance


--
cruisebound
Message Origin: TRAVEL.com

On Mar 28, 4:09*pm, cruisebound cruisebound.3ps...@no-
mx.forums.travel.com wrote:
Going on the NCL gem in early May. Would like to join the shore
excursions Rome, Naples, Florence. Would love to go to the Vatican. Any
recommendations on the best method to go about? Any contact besides the
NCL cruise shore excursions would be most helpful. How much would be
termed reasonable/economical?

Thanks in advance

--
cruisebound
Message Origin: TRAVEL.com

Hi, cruisebound, how exciting you have Med cruise in the works! That
is a gorgeous and fascinating part of the world.

And you are a savvy traveler to be thinking of organized excursions
for those three ports. Those are the places where there is so much to
see, and the logistics are such that things can get hairy for a newbie
or casual visitor, I do think a tour is a good idea.

In addition to the tour excursions NCL offers, I agree with your
thought to consider independent touring options. They are often less
expensive and also can be more customized to your preferences.

A good place to learn about independent operators is on the Ports of
Call discussion forum at www.cruisecritic.com. You can also check out
the standing port guides on that site for basic, useful information.
And if you sign up for Cruise Critic (free), you can go to the Roll
Call board, find your specific voyage and read through a long string
of posts by other excited pax on your cruise--often, they will start
talking about excursions, and you can pick up invaluable info and
tips.

Wish I could help more with specifics. We had done those Italian
cities on our own several times before we hit them as cruise ports, so
I am not up on tours and costs. But you are smart to get a leg up on
things and budget now!

Best wishes,

Diana Ball
Austin, TX

D Ball wrote:

On Mar 28, 4:09*pm, cruisebound cruisebound.3ps...@no-
mx.forums.travel.com wrote:
Going on the NCL gem in early May. Would like to join the shore
excursions Rome, Naples, Florence. Would love to go to the Vatican. Any
recommendations on the best method to go about? Any contact besides the
NCL cruise shore excursions would be most helpful. How much would be
termed reasonable/economical?

Thanks in advance

We were on the NCL Jade in April 2008. I don't know about Florence,
but in Rome and Naples I hired a car and driver for the whole day
which cost about half of what the ship's car and driver would have
cost. But I didn't want to do a lot of walking and I DID want to see
as much as possible of Rome including the Sistine Chapel, and I wanted
to go to Pompeii in the morning and the ship's tour went in the
afternoon.

The service I used for both places was http://www.romalimo.com/ Toll
Free: 800.999.669 (Italy) The driver I had in Rome was Sandro
Pagnotta and I definitely recommend him. He is married to an American
girl and he has worked as a waiter in Miami Beach. His English is very
good and he had lots of interesting and out of the way places for us
to see in addition to the usual ones.

He picked us up at the ship at 8, and by 8:15 we were driving out of
the port gate. We got to the Vatican about 9:30 where he introduced
us to a Vatican guide (which we paid extra for). We also saw the
Coliseum and several other sites and were back at the ship by about 4
in plenty of time before it left.

The next day we were to meet our guide at 8, so we went to breakfast
at the buffet and walked off the ship about 7:45. The tour group
people were being loaded into buses, and we walked out into the
parking lot. A man asked if we were -- and said a name that I didn't
recognize, so I said no. It turned out that he was our guide (name of
Max) but they had written my name "Rosalican" and I didn't recognize
it in his accent.

We went first to Pompeii. The ships tours went to Pompeii last which
was one reason I didn't take them. Max told me to come out of the
site in 2 hours. He had advised us that we could get an audio tour,
and that the map of the site was free. So I rejected the services of
the official guides that were there and got an audio tour, which my
grandson quite correctly thought we could share if we turned it up.

It was still pretty early - we walked in before 9 am. The light was
lovely and it was cool. Almost no one was there yet. We went to the
forum and I took a bunch of pictures. I realized that we (or I) could
not even walk over the whole site, but I had been to Pompeii before
many years ago, so I picked two places to see - the house that has the
Cave Canem mosaic at the entrance, and the Baths. We did the Cave
Canem house OK and several others and some temples as well, but when
we walked all the way over to the Baths it was closed.

We were a couple of minutes late coming out of the site, and it was by
now filling up with people. My next request was the Amalfi Drive
which I wanted to see again, although I knew it wouldn't be terribly
interesting for my grandson. We drove all the way down to Amalfi and
back. We stopped a couple of places to take pictures, and then went
for lunch at a fancy place with a view. We got down to Amalfi about
2:30. We were back on the ship by 5 and the latest we could be on
it was 5:30. I wasn't has happy with Max as I was with Sandro.

--
cruisebound
Message Origin: TRAVEL.com

Hi, cruisebound, how exciting you have Med cruise in the works! That
is a gorgeous and fascinating part of the world.

And you are a savvy traveler to be thinking of organized excursions
for those three ports. Those are the places where there is so much to
see, and the logistics are such that things can get hairy for a newbie
or casual visitor, I do think a tour is a good idea.

In addition to the tour excursions NCL offers, I agree with your
thought to consider independent touring options. They are often less
expensive and also can be more customized to your preferences.

A good place to learn about independent operators is on the Ports of
Call discussion forum at www.cruisecritic.com. You can also check out
the standing port guides on that site for basic, useful information.
And if you sign up for Cruise Critic (free), you can go to the Roll
Call board, find your specific voyage and read through a long string
of posts by other excited pax on your cruise--often, they will start
talking about excursions, and you can pick up invaluable info and
tips.

Wish I could help more with specifics. We had done those Italian
cities on our own several times before we hit them as cruise ports, so
I am not up on tours and costs. But you are smart to get a leg up on
things and budget now!

Best wishes,

Diana Ball
Austin, TX

I concur with both D and Rosalie. Cruisecritic.com is a good place to find
people for private excursions. We were on the Regatta two years ago and had
hooked up with two couples through CruiseCritics for tours in Rome and
Pompeii. I have pasted my comments from a previous NG post of the
experience below. Enjoy Rome and Naples (i.e. Pompeii, Amalfi, etc) - they
are assume!

My 2/28 post to rec.travelcruises follows ....

Rome is a metropolis and many of the famous sites are buried in the middle
of the congestion. Our tour van (11 seats, for the 6 of us plus driver) was
small enough to park near the various sites. Many of the sites (Trevii
Fountain, Spanish Steps, and Pantheon among many others.) can be experienced
fully during a "10 minute" stop. We parked, walked a block, saw the site,
regrouped and were able to move on in 20 minutes. Also, our driver knew the
city and where to park - a bathroom or gelato break were easy to accommodate
at many of our stops. In contrast, the ship's excursions used big (50
passenger?) tour buses. The buses were simply too big to get close to many
sites and the logistics of marshalling 50 people through these sites in a
timely fashion would be impossible. We found out later, some of the people
on the ship's excursions were upset because their tour simply drove by or
completely bypassed many of the significant, but smaller, Roman sites.


The day in Naples was much the same. Our first stop was Pompeii and we
arrived before the heat and crowds that would follow later that day. Amalfi
is a winding road with spectacular views and the potential for incredible
traffic. Our driver was able to time the transit to miss (most of) the
traffic. The big tour buses were not so lucky (because their size caused
many of the backups). That day the six of us had lunch at a small, outdoor
café on a cliff overlooking the Bay of Naples with Mt Vesuvius in the
distance - priceless!



I don't recall the vendor used for these excursions but suggest you peruse
CruiseCritic.com and TripAdvisor.com. People post their experiences and
these are a good place to connect with fellow travelers.



"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
D Ball wrote:

On Mar 28, 4:09 pm, cruisebound cruisebound.3ps...@no-
mx.forums.travel.com wrote:
Going on the NCL gem in early May. Would like to join the shore
excursions Rome, Naples, Florence. Would love to go to the Vatican. Any
recommendations on the best method to go about? Any contact besides the
NCL cruise shore excursions would be most helpful. How much would be
termed reasonable/economical?

Thanks in advance

We were on the NCL Jade in April 2008. I don't know about Florence,
but in Rome and Naples I hired a car and driver for the whole day
which cost about half of what the ship's car and driver would have
cost. But I didn't want to do a lot of walking and I DID want to see
as much as possible of Rome including the Sistine Chapel, and I wanted
to go to Pompeii in the morning and the ship's tour went in the
afternoon.

The service I used for both places was http://www.romalimo.com/ Toll
Free: 800.999.669 (Italy) The driver I had in Rome was Sandro
Pagnotta and I definitely recommend him. He is married to an American
girl and he has worked as a waiter in Miami Beach. His English is very
good and he had lots of interesting and out of the way places for us
to see in addition to the usual ones.

He picked us up at the ship at 8, and by 8:15 we were driving out of
the port gate. We got to the Vatican about 9:30 where he introduced
us to a Vatican guide (which we paid extra for). We also saw the
Coliseum and several other sites and were back at the ship by about 4
in plenty of time before it left.

The next day we were to meet our guide at 8, so we went to breakfast
at the buffet and walked off the ship about 7:45. The tour group
people were being loaded into buses, and we walked out into the
parking lot. A man asked if we were -- and said a name that I didn't
recognize, so I said no. It turned out that he was our guide (name of
Max) but they had written my name "Rosalican" and I didn't recognize
it in his accent.

We went first to Pompeii. The ships tours went to Pompeii last which
was one reason I didn't take them. Max told me to come out of the
site in 2 hours. He had advised us that we could get an audio tour,
and that the map of the site was free. So I rejected the services of
the official guides that were there and got an audio tour, which my
grandson quite correctly thought we could share if we turned it up.

It was still pretty early - we walked in before 9 am. The light was
lovely and it was cool. Almost no one was there yet. We went to the
forum and I took a bunch of pictures. I realized that we (or I) could
not even walk over the whole site, but I had been to Pompeii before
many years ago, so I picked two places to see - the house that has the
Cave Canem mosaic at the entrance, and the Baths. We did the Cave
Canem house OK and several others and some temples as well, but when
we walked all the way over to the Baths it was closed.

We were a couple of minutes late coming out of the site, and it was by
now filling up with people. My next request was the Amalfi Drive
which I wanted to see again, although I knew it wouldn't be terribly
interesting for my grandson. We drove all the way down to Amalfi and
back. We stopped a couple of places to take pictures, and then went
for lunch at a fancy place with a view. We got down to Amalfi about
2:30. We were back on the ship by 5 and the latest we could be on
it was 5:30. I wasn't has happy with Max as I was with Sandro.

--
cruisebound
Message Origin: TRAVEL.com

Hi, cruisebound, how exciting you have Med cruise in the works! That
is a gorgeous and fascinating part of the world.

And you are a savvy traveler to be thinking of organized excursions
for those three ports. Those are the places where there is so much to
see, and the logistics are such that things can get hairy for a newbie
or casual visitor, I do think a tour is a good idea.

In addition to the tour excursions NCL offers, I agree with your
thought to consider independent touring options. They are often less
expensive and also can be more customized to your preferences.

A good place to learn about independent operators is on the Ports of
Call discussion forum at www.cruisecritic.com. You can also check out
the standing port guides on that site for basic, useful information.
And if you sign up for Cruise Critic (free), you can go to the Roll
Call board, find your specific voyage and read through a long string
of posts by other excited pax on your cruise--often, they will start
talking about excursions, and you can pick up invaluable info and
tips.

Wish I could help more with specifics. We had done those Italian
cities on our own several times before we hit them as cruise ports, so
I am not up on tours and costs. But you are smart to get a leg up on
things and budget now!

Best wishes,

Diana Ball
Austin, TX

"JimG" wrote in message
...
I concur with both D and Rosalie. Cruisecritic.com is a good place to find
people for private excursions. We were on the Regatta two years ago and
had hooked up with two couples through CruiseCritics for tours in Rome and
Pompeii. I have pasted my comments from a previous NG post of the
experience below. Enjoy Rome and Naples (i.e. Pompeii, Amalfi, etc) -
they are assume!

My 2/28 post to rec.travelcruises follows ....

Rome is a metropolis and many of the famous sites are buried in the middle
of the congestion. Our tour van (11 seats, for the 6 of us plus driver)
was
small enough to park near the various sites. Many of the sites (Trevii
Fountain, Spanish Steps, and Pantheon among many others.) can be
experienced
fully during a "10 minute" stop. We parked, walked a block, saw the site,
regrouped and were able to move on in 20 minutes.

Agree. Some places like the Trevi Fountain are a 5 minute stop, but there
are some other places like the Coliseum and Roman Forum (important since
that's where the concept of "law" first started) and St. Peters Basilica
(which has Michelangelo's Pieta) that need more time. I think my favorite
area is the Spanish Steps (Piazza de Spagne). I love to wander that area,
and all the fancy shops on Via Condetti. And it has the little shop with
the best Italian leather / cashmere lined hand made gloves. It's called
Sermonetta Gloves. I still have 2 pairs from like 10 years ago.

--Tom

Tom K wrote:
"JimG" wrote in message
...

I concur with both D and Rosalie. Cruisecritic.com is a good place to find
people for private excursions. We were on the Regatta two years ago and
had hooked up with two couples through CruiseCritics for tours in Rome and
Pompeii. I have pasted my comments from a previous NG post of the
experience below. Enjoy Rome and Naples (i.e. Pompeii, Amalfi, etc) -
they are assume!

My 2/28 post to rec.travelcruises follows ....

Rome is a metropolis and many of the famous sites are buried in the middle
of the congestion. Our tour van (11 seats, for the 6 of us plus driver)
was
small enough to park near the various sites. Many of the sites (Trevii
Fountain, Spanish Steps, and Pantheon among many others.) can be
experienced
fully during a "10 minute" stop. We parked, walked a block, saw the site,
regrouped and were able to move on in 20 minutes.


Agree. Some places like the Trevi Fountain are a 5 minute stop, but there
are some other places like the Coliseum and Roman Forum (important since
that's where the concept of "law" first started) and St. Peters Basilica
(which has Michelangelo's Pieta) that need more time. I think my favorite
area is the Spanish Steps (Piazza de Spagne). I love to wander that area,
and all the fancy shops on Via Condetti. And it has the little shop with
the best Italian leather / cashmere lined hand made gloves. It's called
Sermonetta Gloves. I still have 2 pairs from like 10 years ago.

--Tom


I was very impressed by our tour to the catacombs. Unbelievable!

Ermalee ---had to go there twice