Can't find many ships excursions to Florence. Help please!

[welshfamily]

I am struggling to find details on Celebrity excursions to Florence. There only seems to be 2 when I put our cruise dates in.

One includes a 90 minute stop at a leather factory and with time spent traveling only gives 3hours in Florence out of a total of 9 hours. The other is a walking tour and I am concerned about the pace as one of my party has some breathing difficulties.

There are only 10 listed altogether and 2 of these are thousands of pounds for a private tour. We have been on a med cruise before and the Florence excursions came in a double sized brochure ( the same size as Celebrity Today).

I have tried ringing shore excursions and I will swear the young lady knew less than I did. She just kept asking me for the reference number of the excursion I wished to book.

I know private tours are the way to go but have been quoted € 550 and this does not include a guide. This is a bit expensive.

Thoughts please.

[threeputt101]

Try Romeinlimo.com, we used them several times in Italy. All their tours were extremely well done.

[emcee207]

Try Romeinlimo.com, we used them several times in Italy. All their tours were extremely well done.

 

Very good reference; we've used them also. go to the "Ports of Call" section of this board for good private tour references.

[kevinyork]

Try Romeinlimo.com, we used them several times in Italy. All their tours were extremely well done.

 

 

But the OP has already said those sorts of prices are high.

 

Cruisingexcursions.com have lots of good value options and our trip with them was excellent.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[suec12]

There is a company, share a shore excursion in Italy, google it. They put people together for small group tours that will be more reasonable than the ship's. Also, have you posted on your roll call to see if anyone there is putting a group together?

[Musigurl]

I'm having the same dilemma. Florence/Livorno used to have a "Florence on your own" option, but it seems to have disappeared from the selections.

 

I'm hoping it reappears, as this is the one we'd like to book.

 

I just want transportation there & back -- no tours, leather factories, etc.

[welshfamily]

Musigurl,

Exactly.

We will not spend £65 a person to be forced to visit a leather factory. The tour is for over 9 hours. Travel seems to be 90 mins each way. The details state there will be approx 3 hours in Florence. That adds up to 6 hours. Therefore you have to ask how long is the stop at the leather factory.

Rome in limos want € 550 for a car for 4 and 3 adults would have to sit in the back.

We haven't got a very active roll call.

[welshfamily]

Musigurl,

I don't think I can ask when you are traveling as the moderators will move the post.

[Turtles06]

I am struggling to find details on Celebrity excursions to Florence. There only seems to be 2 when I put our cruise dates in.

 

Are you merely putting in the dates of the cruise, or are you actually logged on to your reservation on Celebrity's web site and then looking at shore excursions from your reservation page? If only the former, I've found that you will not necessarily see everything available to you when booked.

 

Good luck!

[dodger1964]

Florence is one of our least favorite cities to visit WHEN CRUISING. It is just so far from the port that the time you get there is very limited. It would be different if the port was an overnight stop, but that is rare.

 

I think if you keep looking you should be able to find a private tour that is cheaper, BUT that would be a "mini van" type tour with 8 passengers. Those have been very good tours for us. It is usually pretty easy to organize those on the roll call.

 

Another option is to go to Cinque Terre. We went there on our last stop (but we stopped in La Spezia, not Livorno on that sailing).

[Twickenham]

I'm having the same dilemma. Florence/Livorno used to have a "Florence on your own" option, but it seems to have disappeared from the selections.

 

I'm hoping it reappears, as this is the one we'd like to book.

 

I just want transportation there & back -- no tours, leather factories, etc.

 

Take the train - easy and efficient.

[Lsimon]

I'm having the same dilemma. Florence/Livorno used to have a "Florence on your own" option, but it seems to have disappeared from the selections.

 

I'm hoping it reappears, as this is the one we'd like to book.

 

I just want transportation there & back -- no tours, leather factories, etc.

 

The Florence on your own option is what we've done in the past. I'm surprised it isn't being offered. How far off is your cruise? If it is not in the next few months then it could be your excursion list isn't complete yet. You might try calling Celebrity and asking for the Shore Excursions desk and ask them if it is offered.

 

We considered taking the train last trip there but after researching it we felt we'd have more free time in Florence with the Florence on your own transportation. But if that isn't being offered then the train might be a good option. I think on our last trip (over a year ago) the ship even offered a shuttle service to the train station in Liverno and back on a certain time schedule. You could also call some of the transportation companies about just transportation costs and/or inquire on the Italy ports of call forum here on cruise critic for taxi costs or other transportation options.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Lsimon

[doodlefan]

You can get a group together on your roll call and use someone like Tuscany by Taxi. I've used them twice and both times it was just for transportation.

 

We were picked up right at the ship, we wanted a quick stop at Pisa on the way and then dropped in Central Florence for the day and then picked back up in the same place at the end of the day. It maximized our time in Florence and since we got 8 or 10 people total by extending the offer to our roll call, I think it only ended up around 80 Euro per couple for the day.

 

We did the same thing with the same company out of Livorno to go to Cinque Terre for the day. I would use them again. Keep in mind they are not tour guides, merely drivers. But we have no complaints.

 

Getting a group to join in from the roll call is how we've done many many tours to keep costs down but quality of the tour high. Good luck

Edited February 25, 2014 by doodlefan

[welshfamily]

Thank you all.

I am logged into My Celebrity. We travel in August. Florence on your own was the tour I was looking for. I have already rung Shore Excursions as I have stated, and the young lady couldn't help...she knew next to nothing.

Florence is a city we have not been to, we have done Pisa, Lucca and the surrounding countryside on our last 3 stops. The 1st we actually stayed on the ship due to the distance involved.

We seemed destined to miss out Florence unless we splash.

As I have already stated our roll call is very quite.

[Lovemychoos]

We go on Eclipse on 10th May sailing, and no Florence on Your Own this trip :(

 

I even phoned Celebrity to ask if we wanted to go on one of the other trips, and just use it as 'transport' there and back, and meet up at the end of the day, and the guy I spoke to thought it was an expensive way to do it, and advised me to check public transport :eek:

 

Don't know what we'll do, but the company Kevin recommended seem good and very reasonable.

 

Lou

[d4m]

You can get a group together on your roll call and use someone like Tuscany by Taxi. I've used them twice and both times it was just for transportation.

 

We were picked up right at the ship, we wanted a quick stop at Pisa on the way and then dropped in Central Florence for the day and then picked back up in the same place at the end of the day. It maximized our time in Florence and since we got 8 or 10 people total by extending the offer to our roll call, I think it only ended up around 80 Euro per couple for the day.

 

We did the same thing with the same company out of Livorno to go to Cinque Terre for the day. I would use them again. Keep in mind they are not tour guides, merely drivers. But we have no complaints.

 

Getting a group to join in from the roll call is how we've done many many tours to keep costs down but quality of the tour high. Good luck

 

To me, this sounds like a great deal. We took the ship's "Florence on your Own" last time around. I would only go to Florence again if I could go with some kind of private company, regardless of whether we had to have a van load of people or not.

 

The time we went on the "On your Own" tour, the bus left late as there were several people they waited for or had to assist. Then, on the way, they stopped at some obscure store so people could buy coffee and snacks. Then they had to park blocks away but passengers were not able to go to center Florence alone; we had to walk as a group. Once the group got to the square where we would meet at the end, we were all corraled into a store, with our guide stating it was the only place we could use the restrooms (and therefore they had some kind of sales pitch & once we figured that out we got the heck out of there) - I complained to Celebrity about their practice, as every thing they did cut into valuable time in Florence.

 

Others on our roll call took small vans, got to stop above Florence for pictures, weren't subjected to the sales pitch or herding into the square and had a terrific time and saw far more than we were able to see. Will never go to Florence again via that ship excursion route.

 

Try and find the tour suggested in the post above, contact them, find out prices, and if a van load is cheaper please consider booking and opening itup on your roll call. Although it might appear there aren't many active on the roll call, once excursions are posted, often people jump on joining. If reasonable, that is surely what I would do. If nobody joins, you can always cancel.

 

Florence is one of my favorite cities, regardless of the distance to the port. Would never take the On Your Own excursion again, nor would I ever go the route of the whole leather factory. Shameful.

 

Frankly I don't know what the deal is lately with Celebrity not offering quality (or any) excursions. On our upcoming TA, we waited for an On Your Own to London. Never showed up. Called, not having one this time. Meanwhile, same time for Princess, they have THREE excursions to London listed. Don't know what gives, as everyone doesn't want to go to Dover or Canterbury..............

Edited February 25, 2014 by d4m

[gek]

So long as they are not on strike the Italian trains are usually fast and efficient and very easy to use. About 90 minutes from Livorno to Florence by fast train then use the tourist HoHo bus to get around. Give yourself a generous 90 minutes at either end of the day for travelling between the ship and Livorno station and you still should be able to get at least 3 hours in Florence. Note that the shuttle buses from the ship drop you off a long way from the train station so a taxi would be preferable.

 

I know some people who have done both Florence and Pisa in one day using the train so you should have plenty of time.

 

Be warned that Florence is not the most vehicle-friendly city so whichever way you go be prepared for at least some walking. The HoHo bus is good but it won't take you past the main sights in the centre of town. However a decent itinerary could be worked out using the HoHo with only minimal walking.

[gold1953]

Check the Rome in Limo website to see if other cruisers on your ship have a tour booked. You can add your name to open groups . They are a very reliable company. We used them and would again.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Florence is a very compact city, so you can easily do it on your own. Rick Steves has all the information you need. We used the ship's "on your own" tour and were glad to be in their care on the way back so we could sleep -- but the train would be a good option. For detailed info about how to do this, check out eportreviews.

[Lsimon]

Thank you all.

I am logged into My Celebrity. We travel in August. Florence on your own was the tour I was looking for. I have already rung Shore Excursions as I have stated, and the young lady couldn't help...she knew next to nothing.

Florence is a city we have not been to, we have done Pisa, Lucca and the surrounding countryside on our last 3 stops. The 1st we actually stayed on the ship due to the distance involved.

We seemed destined to miss out Florence unless we splash.

As I have already stated our roll call is very quite.

 

I'm kind of amazed this excursion isn't offered. Just doesn't make sense since it is so simple for the cruise lines and excursion operator.

 

If you got no help from Shore Excursions then I'd suggest two things: First, call back tomorrow. Maybe you'll get someone more helpful. I've found them extremely helpful both on the phone ((800) 722-5941) and via email - although email sometimes takes a couple weeks for a response. That brings me to the second suggestion - email them at shorex@celebrity.com or shorex@rccl.com (I think these go to the same department - I usually send to both in the "to" line of the email.

 

Normally I'd say it was pretty evident they were not offering this excursion any longer, but the fact is that transportation to Florence is such a basic and obvious excursion for this port. Also, from recent posts over the past year the Celebrity system and web site have been plagued with numerous problems so I wouldn't be surprised if this is omitted only by system error.

 

That reminded me of one other thing to check: Did you download the excursion pamphlet for your cruise? If not there is a link to do so on the excursions page although the link isn't always located in an obvious place and sometimes it takes a while for the download to complete so you might think it isn't working.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Lsimon

[Pstcrik]

Thank you all.

I am logged into My Celebrity. We travel in August. Florence on your own was the tour I was looking for. I have already rung Shore Excursions as I have stated, and the young lady couldn't help...she knew next to nothing.

Florence is a city we have not been to, we have done Pisa, Lucca and the surrounding countryside on our last 3 stops. The 1st we actually stayed on the ship due to the distance involved.

We seemed destined to miss out Florence unless we splash.

As I have already stated our roll call is very quite.

 

Welshfamily send me mail to pstcrik at gmail dot com for excellent service to Florence.

[sharton]

I am struggling to find details on Celebrity excursions to Florence. There only seems to be 2 when I put our cruise dates in.

One includes a 90 minute stop at a leather factory and with time spent traveling only gives 3hours in Florence out of a total of 9 hours. The other is a walking tour and I am concerned about the pace as one of my party has some breathing difficulties.

There are only 10 listed altogether and 2 of these are thousands of pounds for a private tour. We have been on a med cruise before and the Florence excursions came in a double sized brochure ( the same size as Celebrity Today).

I have tried ringing shore excursions and I will swear the young lady knew less than I did. She just kept asking me for the reference number of the excursion I wished to book.

I know private tours are the way to go but have been quoted € 550 and this does not include a guide. This is a bit expensive.

Thoughts please.

 

I did Florence on my own! Took the ship's shuttle to the town and got the us to the station. Bought a return train ticket and then took the HoHo bus but didn't get off until it returned to the station. I then walked around Florence, map in hand and had a wonderful day. I made sure to get back to the station a good 20 minutes before the train left for Livorno to ensure I got a seat as the train gets busy. I had to do it on my own as my DH had a trapped nerve and couldn't walk. I felt very safe and it is a beautiful place.

[Lsimon]

I hate to say it but the Explore Florence tour with the stop at the leather factory looks like it is the Florence on your own trip. The only problem is that they've added back the stop at the leather factory they eliminated a few years ago because of complaints and shortened the whole excursion a couple hours.

 

We've taken the Florence on your own tour three times and the description perfectly describes our tour except for the leather factory part. All of our excursion have been 9 1/2 hours while yours is two hours shorter. I would specifically ask the excursion department about the length of this tour and make sure the shorter time is correct. I know our past cruises were in port at Liverno for 12 hours which made the 9.5 hour excursion possible without a tight time frame. Is your cruise stop shorter?

 

The first time we took this in 2007 we had the stop at the leather factory for about 45 minutes or more. The stop was not disclosed in the tour description at the time. The factory had very high quality goods at what I would consider extremely expensive pricing. The prices were so high we didn't even attempt to bargain even through we had in mind buying my DW a leather jacket in Florence. While it was nice to have a "rest stop" before arriving at Florence we were pretty livid about the time spent at the factory and complained about it.

 

The next two times we took the tour (2010 and 2012) there was no factory stop. One time they had a rest stop at a service station and one time they did not. They did push an expensive leather store during the ride, which was also the meeting place for the return trip, but that didn't use up any of our precious time in Florence.

 

If I were you I'd check out private transportation rates, including taxi rates. If you can find others on the cruise to form a group of 4 or more you might get the price down to something close to the excursion price. Of course this presumes that the info you have is correct and the excursion is in fact 2 hours shorter than in the past.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Lsimon

[Host Jazzbeau]

I hate to say it but the Explore Florence tour with the stop at the leather factory looks like it is the Florence on your own trip. The only problem is that they've added back the stop at the leather factory they eliminated a few years ago because of complaints and shortened the whole excursion a couple hours.

 

...

 

The next two times we took the tour (2010 and 2012) there was no factory stop. One time they had a rest stop at a service station and one time they did not. They did push an expensive leather store during the ride, which was also the meeting place for the return trip, but that didn't use up any of our precious time in Florence.

 

That leather store at the meeting place is actually a nice benefit. The rest rooms are large and clean -- and FREE [that's rare in Europe]. And the store did not have any presentation when we were there; in fact we were left alone to browse and would have needed to get a salesperson's attention if we had wanted to buy anything. It was a great convenience [pun] at both the beginning and end of our walking tour of Florence.

 

I wouldn't waste time on the HOHO bus. Plan your own walking tour from the Accademia to the Duomo to the Uffizi to Ponte Vecchio and you will be back near the meeting point. [if taking the train, the Accademia is near the train station, and you can walk back from Ponte Vecchio easily.]

 

Buy timed tickets online to the Accademia and the Uffizi before you leave home. There's plenty of time in one day to do all the above, although you may not get inside the Duomo if the lines are long.

[Musigurl]

We're traveling in July.

 

Found a much better option: http://www.shareashoreexcursioninitaly.com/

 

I've used them before for other parts of Italy.

 

The price for transportation to & from Florence is:

 

1 pax 300 €

2 pax 150 €

3 pax 116 €

4 pax 88 €

5 pax 80 €

6 pax 67 €

7 pax 64 €

8 pax 56 €

 

You can set a minimum and maximum.

 

I booked this with a minimum of 4, max 8.

 

You give a credit card to guarantee, but they don't charge it (unless you don't show up) -- you pay in cash.