Stargazerceramics

4 hours ago, Crusin-Suzan said:

Going on this second 150th voyage in April!  I have a couple of questions!  What were the celebration in NYC?   Day or evening?   Same question when you were in Rotterdam?   Thanks!    Any other info appreciated 

It's a great cruise.  Coming out of Rotterdam, they had a large contengent of antique ships with steam engines, and some even played caloipies!  The crowds lined up for miles to wave us off.   NYC had a fabulous speaker for days before we entered the port.  Festivities were held the first night in port, but just a show about the history of HAL is all I can remember. The send off was special because the captain spun the boat twice in front of the statue of Liberty.  Enjoy your journey!

Stargazerceramics, when you took this tour did they pickup/dropff at the port entrance or the ship? Thank you so much for the detailed description of the tour.

Hi Sherribug,

Our memory is unclear on whether they picked us up right outside the ship or at the port gate. Sometimes HAL does not allow the private tour operators to get close to the ship and they either hike in with a sign, or you have to look for them outside a gate. You should clarify that with the tour operator if possible. In any event, we never had a problem finding the tour.

I always communicated with Oscar at Top Tours, and never had any dealings with Nick. I would not discount the company based on one person. We took tours with them in several countries and never had a problem.

Has anyone used Top Tours in Italy for tour in Rome? They were rec. by our TA but I haven't seen anything else about them. There are 8 of us planning on a 3 day tour after cruise. Thanks for any help...

We have just returned from a TA cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Venice over a 28 day period. When faced with the daunting task of figuring out what to see in each country, we looked at the excursions offered by the cruise line. On first glance, they looked expensive, but we weren't sure. Why they allow a comment section to rate their excursions, I will never understand. It really made me start to look elsewhere. Thankfully I found this site and started getting the names of private tour operators. We couldn't have been happier with the outcomes.

In brief, the private tour companies offered tours at about half the price as the cruise lines. They always were easy to find once disembarked, and did wait if you got stuck behind the 100+ people line for the cruise excursion, although there are methods for avoiding that. We were loaded into modern, upscale passenger vans and were able to tour in small groups of 8-15. When our group was 20, two vans and two guides were provided. Best of all, we never were asked to do a "shopping" stop, as was always the case with the cruise excursions. (apparently there are kickbacks to the cruise ship for these) Because of the small size of the group and the vans vs big buses, we were able to see much more in the time allowed. We were always delivered back to the cruise ship with plenty of time to spare. I would recommend taking a private tour over trying to do it on your own, especially if you have never been to that city before.

ROME

We took the "Best of Rome" tour with Top Day Tours. Here is their link. http://www.italytours.eu/

Oscar organized the tour for 20 participants on a very busy week in Rome just before two popes were canonized. The price of the tour included skip the line tickets to St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican. We toured with two guides and had headsets so there was no problem with hearing them. Upon leaving the ship in Civitavecchia, we traveled about an hour into the city of Rome. We headed straight to the Vatican and were processed thru to the entrance to the Sistine Chapel's outer rooms. We stopped for about 10 minutes for our guide to show us a book with all of the major paintings and art work inside. I was in a hurry to get started until I realized later that once inside the Chapel, there was to be silence, and without this preparation, I would have little idea of what I was seeing. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Plus, we had walked right by the 2 hour line to get into the inside, and realized that the cruise ship passengers were in that line! After seeing the Sistine Chapel, we went into St. Peters Basilica, and saw Michelangelo's La Pieta. Amazing. The Basilica is huge, so we spent the best part of an hour there. We were never rushed.

Once leaving the Vatican, we rejoined with the other tour group and headed into ancient Rome. We were driven by the Forum and stopped by the Trevi Fountain, were we had a break for lunch on our own. Reunited, we walked thru squares and fountains until we reached the Pantheon, where we stopped for about 30 minutes. On our way out of town, we passed by the Colosseum, which was magnificent, but our time and out feet did not allow us to stop. My husband and I felt that this was the best tour of the entire cruise.