ships tour to the vatican city

[newone1960]

We are on the Allure in September. Really want to see the Sistine chapel. Not sure if the ships tour or independent would be best. Cant decide between getting the ships shuttle and buying tickets for the museum on line or taking the ships tour. With the ship it say if the tour guide believes that the queue will be longer than 45 minutes then you will not be able to enter the chapel. Has anyone else been on a ships tour and did you get in OK. Anyone else done it independently. What did you think.

[maggieq]

Start a group tour on romeinlimo. They offer much more than a rccl tour

[Mauriesmileco]

I agree look up romeinlimo on trip advisor we are going to Rome/Pisa and Florence with them [emoji4]

[cnamenek]

Another vote for Romeinlimo. We used them and we had a private guide in the Vatican that we could skip lines.

Carmen

 

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[cj_one2000]

Rome In Limo past guest in Rome and they will make sure you get to each major site in time. You will save money by booking ahead; strongly recommended that you reserve a time slot way way way in advance. We saw a lot more in our small group of 17 people in a mini bus and we got curbside pickup/drop off every site we visited. Saved time and money with private tour versus what options the ship had for tours.

[Trekker954]

Before you book a tour, check to make sure you aren't stopping in Rome on a sunday. Sistine chapel and other sites are not available on a Sunday. Been there, done that. :(

 

But I highly recommend Rome In Limo also. Get on your roll call and set up your own tours.

Edited July 26, 2015 by Trekker954

[newone1960]

Just had a look a Rome in a limo but they are bit pricey for me. We are in Rome on a Thursday so should be open

[Ashland]

We also did RomeInLimo...but opted for a private tour just the two of us and driver. They (RIL) arranged for a private guide to meet us in front of the Vatican...amazing...no lines and easily saw everything..at the end our driver picked us up..doing it this way was the best for us and well worth the $$. Consider the private option you won't be sorry.

[AnDeNo.UK]

Just had a look a Rome in a limo but they are bit pricey for me. We are in Rome on a Thursday so should be open

 

I agree with all the posters here, Romeinlimo are a fantasic tour company.

As a previous poster said, try to set up a tour for 15/24 people on your roll call. You will get to see and do so much more than a ships tour, at a much lower cost. For us, it was worth every cent. :)

[Newtoncruise]

As you approach the vatican there are tour guides hustling for work. They offer a skip the line option.

 

We were very hesitant, particularly as they led us away to a nearby office to pay....

 

All was good and we had a local historian guide........fantastic...saw the cistine chapel too!.....we just took the train from civittivechia for €10 each return. The guide was €55 each including entrance fee.

 

Great adventure.......diy

[newone1960]

Had another look at Rome in a limo. It says for the tour I want €500. Is that per person or for the car. The car holds 4 people

[Mauriesmileco]

That's for the car if you book Rome and Pisa/Florence you get a €50 deduction each tour. Check out Romeinlimo tour sharing this way the more people are on the bus the less it costs

[Theredofshaw]

Even if your roll call people don't want to participate (ours was extremely small, most of the people on our cruiser were German, Norwegian, or Brazilian), check out Rome in limo's tour sharing page. I posted ours on the roll call and their sharing page and within hours of posting it we had our goal of max 8 people filled. after splitting the cost and paying for the separate vatican guide and tips for both, the cost for us came out to around $140 euros pp. the closest RCI tour that didn't even cover everything we did ran about $300 USD pp.

[granny3]

We were there in July, and did Rome with the private company-- Shore Excursion Group. The guide was excellent, she arranged our tickets for the coliseum and in the Vatican City to see St. Peter's Basilica. No wasted time, smaller group of 20+, learned and saw a lot. A little less $ than ship's for about same excursion.

[Theredofshaw]

Had another look at Rome in a limo. It says for the tour I want €500. Is that per person or for the car. The car holds 4 people

 

per car. you can set it up to however many you want to join. cost will go up a little as the car gets bigger but per person price remains smaller.

 

i posted the cruise compasses from our allure cruise in my signature if interested.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Theredofshaw

[chipmaster]

Just had a look a Rome in a limo but they are bit pricey for me. We are in Rome on a Thursday so should be open

 

As other's noted the price for a private tour is by the vehicle. If you factor in in that the cost is divided by 3-4 for a car and 6-7 for a van the price is far more reasonable than almost any of the ship tours.

 

You have the advantage of smaller private car where you dictate the stops, how long versus a big bus tour where you are dictated by the slowest of the 50 odd passengers who can't keep their own time.

 

Another advantage of RIL is that they literally drop you curbside at each attraction while the big bus tours have to hike into places like Trevi, etc.

 

The price including a private guide is very good value. If you are spending thousands on the cruise plus the airfare, budget for the ports. The best memories from the Med will be your time in port and stops at places like Rome!

 

Good luck with your budgeting and planning :D

[sgmn]

We did Allure in May. We purchased our tickets on line through the Vatican website and used RC transport to and from Rome. The guide on the bus was very informative and interesting and they dropped us as close as they could to Vatican city. Whatever you do make sure you get tickets for museums and chapel before you leave - the lines were really long to buy on the day.

Sue