Julie_Anne

These posts have all been really helpful and informative!!

My husband is turning 60, and to celebrate, we are bringing family with us… 8 of us will be in the 2 bdrm aqua suite on the Symphony.

Three others will be assigned to a grand suite. One is a non-drinker with a strict diet. The other two will be 28 months old and 19 months old at sailing.

I will ask for a cake for my husbands birthday. The one pictured was amazing!

I stayed there a few days pre-cruise in 2017 and will be doing so again next spring. It was really fun (fantastic sangrias, btw) and we didn’t see or experience anything unpleasant or unusual. Enjoy!

Welcome to the "Italy Ports" section of CC. :) How did you enjoy your tour with Walks of Italy?

We were in awe during the entire tour of Rome, thank you for asking! :) Our tour guide was so knowledgeable, we just tried to soak up as much as we could.

I have dreamed of seeing Rome for as long as I can remember and it was everything I imagined and more. :)

Wow, I have never been treated this way on Cruise Critic before.

In my own defense, I want to add a few things:

1) I had been researching the ports of call for nearly a year. I take full responsibility for failing to review the train schedules thoroughly before leaving home.

2) I thought we would have enough time to make the journey by train.

3) The concierge and several fellow cruisers currently on board shared information with us the night before our day in Rome. One used the words "the schedules don't stay the same, there can be some variance" another said "if there is an issue with a train, you are out of luck". Again, I was not trying to mislead anyone or make things up. I became very concerned that I had used poor judgement in deciding we would do it ourselves.

4) I was not trying to insult, belittle or put down the train system in Italy. I am from a very large city where we sometimes have mud fall on the heavily used train tracks - which can leave lots of commuters and others stuck on trains. I don't live in a third world country either.

5) I was very sincerely trying to save someone else from the panic I experienced. If they are looking at a current train schedule that gives them very limited time on one end or the other, there are other options that can be utilized on short notice.

6) Next time, if we have some extra time, we'll try the train.

We had a tour booked with Walks of Italy at 9:15am. The ship docked at 7am. The schedules did not allow sufficient time.

I got train schedules and some info from the ship concierge, so fortunately I didn't have to make anything up, lol.:)

Just as an FYI to newbies like us, the drive there took over an hour and the drive back was from 4:30pm to the ship at 6:10pm. All aboard was 6:30.

We're on the ship at dinner now, so I'm back to my vacation.

We had planned to take the walking and train option... Best laid plans!!! Ha!!!

We "did Rome" yesterday. It was FABULOUS...

The "getting to Rome from the cruise port" ended up being the only stress of the cruise so far (we are on day 5)... The train schedules vary and are apparently unreliable. And we don't speak or read Italian.

Running from point A to point B to make a scheduled train or tour sounded nightmarish...

I contacted Rome Limosine at about 9:15pm via text from our ship cabin the night before we were scheduled to arrive (at 7am the next morning) and they confirmed their availability. $145 each way for our party of 6. We are huge fans of them now. Fantastic service - clean, professional - they were exactly where and when they said they would be. All the stress was gone and our perfect vacation was right back on track.