Sticker shock...

[sweetpea222]

Great idea getting them involved. Right now their main contributions to our excursions during the trip are the Harry Potter studio tour in London and Disney Paris. :rolleyes: But we're also excited to do both of those, so we're ok with it. :D

 

The Cinque Terre is somewhere I would love to see, but it seems very hard to DIY and the cost of the ship excursions is ridiculous. *sigh* I think it might have to go on the bucket list of places we have to go back to but for a land visit so we have more time.

[Hlitner]

Great idea getting them involved. Right now their main contributions to our excursions during the trip are the Harry Potter studio tour in London and Disney Paris. :rolleyes: But we're also excited to do both of those, so we're ok with it. :D

 

The Cinque Terre is somewhere I would love to see, but it seems very hard to DIY and the cost of the ship excursions is ridiculous. *sigh* I think it might have to go on the bucket list of places we have to go back to but for a land visit so we have more time.

 

Well, with a group of 4 or 5 the cheapest way would be to simply rent a car at the port and drive to Riomaggiore where there is free parking along the road or paid parking in a parking lot/garage. The cost of a car for the day (delivered to the port) might be about 150 Euros (including gas). Unfortunately, if you do not want to drive you are going to pay a lot more unless you can join with others and get a decent deal on a private excursion. We continue to be critical of the train option for Cinque Terre since the schedules plus the 50 Euro round trip (the cost of taxis to and from the Livorno train station) do not make this a great option (at least in our mind).

 

Hank

[elaine5]

if you are in London on a monday night, there is also a HP walking tour. I think via Londonwalks.com or something like that. Also, DLP tickets are on sale for 20% off thru 3/28. Good for 6 months.

Back to Livorno---given your cruise and land trip afterwards, I really recommend just taking the train to Pisa in the mid-AM and climbing the tower with a timed ticket, then maybe looking in the church--nice artwork/design on the columns inside, I seem to recall, and then calling it a day. DH and I just discussed this, as we then have 5 days in France, then 2 days in London and we want to "pace" ourselves. We decided train at our leisure and tower climb vs. going to CT or doing Lucca as well--we have been to all. happy travels. Elaine

[sweetpea222]

Thanks. We had also heard others say they are suspect of the DIY option to CT with the train. Just too far, too many variables that could go wrong, and then you miss your ship. That would be a nightmare!

 

I agree, Elaine. Have a nice breakfast on the ship, head to Pisa mid-morning. Buy tickets beforehand to climb the tower, browse around, take photos, maybe do a little strolling and shopping, and then head back. You're so right about pacing ourselves. We will be away from home for 35 days all together. Pushing too hard could ruin the whole trip.

 

Thanks for the DLP tip!! I will buy tickets tomorrow. Sadly, we leave London for Venice on the Monday afternoon. We are in London from Friday noon to Monday noon, so we'll miss the HP walking tour. We are very excited about the studio tour though. I bought tickets for our 2nd full day there, as we don't want to risk being jet-lagged and not thoroughly enjoying it. My daughters are saving up their $$ and are thrilled to be able to buy some small souvenir there. I am warning them to keep it light and small, as we are travelling via Easy Jet and are going strictly carry on size. Yikes. :D

 

This has been such an illuminating discussion. I've gotten some valuable tips from you, and I'm feeling much better about having to possibly leave some things out of our itinerary to make the trip as a whole more enjoyable.

[elaine5]

I crammed so much into our prior trip--and EVERY day was great, but we went from Zurich to Lucerne to Wegen (Alps) then back to Z via Berne, then onto Florence, day tour of hills towns/winery/pisa, train to Rome--HO-HO bus, Colo, Trevi, Spanish Steps, flight to Copenhagen, touring castle, Tivoli Gardens, then 7 day Baltic cruise--inclduing 10 hr tour in St. Petersburg, flight to London, arriving 4pm, red bus around London, stop at Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, 9:30pm Ceremony of the Keys Tour at Tower of London, then AM flight to NYC, overnight, trip to AG doll and Apple store, then flight home!!! So, you now understand my viewpoint for our trip this summer--LOL! Have fun! Elaine

[sweetpea222]

Whew. Just reading that tired me out!

[sandij]

Florence is the ultimate old Italy city, don't miss it if at all possible. There are plenty of statues to see without going into a museum and paying a fee. Now I will warn you that a lot of these statues are of naked men,, so judge what you want the girls to see.

[vapersecutor]

You may be overloaded with opinions at this point but here's one more :). My daughter celebrated her 9th birthday on her first European cruise. She is now 13 and we are going on another in April. Here's a combination of my comments and hers:

 

Piraeus (Athens)- it was Nov so the weather was pleasant. She remembers the restauranteur hugging me and posing for a picture. Not sure she remembers anything from the monuments.

 

Naples- we were supposed to go there but had to cancel that port due to flooding. I have heard for 4 years that she wants to go to Pompeii so we are going this time.

 

Izmir- She loved Ephesus. I was surprised that you could touch or sit on the monuments. That wouldn't be allowed in the US.

 

Rome- we did a ship's tour as trains were on strike. She remembers the Trevi fountain and surprisingly quite a bit about St. Peter's. That was her first huge cathedral. Talks about the colosseum too.

 

Livorno- arranged for a private driver. Is still telling me the Leaning Tower is a waste of time. We did not climb it so I don't know if that would have made it better or not. Still talks about riding bikes on the walls at Lucca and eating gelato.

 

Barcelona- wants to go back to the Sagrada Familia and see how much work they've done on it. Talks about how many lingerie stores there were and how many people smoke. Loved the chocolate milk and pastry shops.

 

She stayed on the ship in at least one port. Gelato will get you over a lot of humps.

[sweetpea222]

Thanks for both of your perspectives! Funny, the things kids remember. I've heard now that Pisa may or may not be worth it for our main visit at that point. I'm still waffling a bit on what to do there. All of the other ports, I have a good idea of how to manage our day, but that one still has me stumped. I just wish they could move Florence a little closer to the coast, please! :D

 

Gelato will get you over a lot of humps.

 

Isn't this the truth. :rolleyes:

[RoadTripFanatic]

When we went on our Med cruise our DD was 10. If your girl's haven't read Percy Jackson and the lightening thief have them read it. Since you are visiting Athens it gives them a fun way to learn about the Greek gods. DD was reading the books on our trip. It made it much more enjoyable for her to tell us about the Greek gods while visiting Athens and Olympia.

[sweetpea222]

We did read that, a few years ago. I actually work in an elementary school library, so I'm usually able to find good books for them to read. Might be worth it to get the movie again good!

[deedeetoo]

We did a similar cruise last July with our kids that were 14 and 11 at the time. I had the same fears about Livorno as you do. We decided to do the ship transfers that first stopped at Pisa and then stopped at Florence. This was not a tour - just transportation. We went to Pisa because the kids wanted to see the leaning tower. Well, it was boring. Other than the requisite posing for pictures where it looks like you are trying to hold it up we could have skipped it. Then we went to Florence. I had purchased tickets for the Academia ahead of time. We spent more time there than I thought we would. The kids actually liked it. In addition to David, there was a section on early musical instruments. Both kids play instruments so that was quite interesting to them. Other than that, we just wondered around, looked at expensive leather goods, ate gelato, etc. It was a pretty low key day.

[Deebs2]

We are doing a 7 nights on the Liberty in July, but on top of that, we are spending 5 nights in Barcelona, 7 nights in Mallorca and 4 nights in London. Two years ago we went to Rome, Venice, Cinque Terre, Portofino, Santa Margherita and Pisa. ( kids will be 9 and 11).

Originally, I thought we would stay on the ship in Rome, but the kids want to go back and eat at a restaurant they liked, throw coins in Trevi fountain again, and a few more things. My husband and I have both been to Florence before, so we are thinking of skipping Florence also. A day with pools and the Florider is looking like a nice break for us. I know the kids will make it back there one day