YogiShe

We're on the Mediterranean Odyssey cruise this summer and will visit Rome (Civitavecchia) on a Sunday. Since it's our first time in Rome, we'd planned to book a private day-long tour to maximize time visiting the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, and St Peter's Basilica with skip-the-line tickets. However, several companies told us they don't book private tours on Sundays because the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel (located inside the Museums) are closed, except for the last Sunday of the month when they're open, which doesn't coincide with the dates of our trip. This means we would not be able to visit the Vatican Museums or Sistine Chapel on our port day in Rome. Viking is running a ship-based excursion, Roman Catacombs & Vatican City, that claims guests can visit the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museums in the 3-hour block of free time included in the tour. I don't understand how that's possible given it's a Sunday, unless Viking has special guest privileges to visit these sites. I just called Viking to ask if they have such privileges, and the representative didn't have additional details regarding this excursion. Has anyone taken the Roman Catacombs & Vatican City tour on a Sunday and what was your experience? As an alternative, we're looking to book one of these ship-based excursions and would appreciate feedback (good and bad) from anyone who's taken them: Highlights of Rome & the Colosseum Ancient Rome Thanks in advance for the information!

Very helpful @Eggtuary thanks for the information!

We'll be on the Mediterranean Odyssey cruise this summer (Venice > Barcelona), departing Jul 30. I've read several CC posts from the 2022 season that the cruise bubble was still in effect and passengers could only do ship-based excursions in Italy and not travel independently. Have these restrictions been lifted for 2023 cruises? How would I find out? We're arranging private tours for our port days in Naples and Rome. Obviously I don't want to finalize these arrangements if Viking restricts passengers to ship-based excursions.

@Eggtuary Do you recommend this excursion for Corfu? We'll be on the Mediterranean Odyssey this summer. Lackluster reviews of the walking tour in Corfu, so we're looking at excursions outside Old Town, TIA.