Civitavecchia shuttle bus

[Peregrina651]

1 minute ago, Lemondrops said:

Sadly, the one day we have in Rome will be a Sunday.  I was so hoping to see the Sistine Chapel but it will be closed.  Our trip is in the middle of July.  Will it be crazy to go to the Trevi Fountain?  Although all excursions are currently posted for my trip on MVJ, Rome remains empty.  I'm assuming we will get options for Rome once we arrive onboard.  Is this how it works?

 

If your day in Civitavecchia is a turn-around day (with guests departing and arriving) , then you will have to wait until you board to find out what tours will be available for continuing passengers.

 

Yes, imho, it will be crazy to go to Trevi Fountain. Summer time is no time to visit Rome. Have a relaxing day instead; choose a tour that stays local or book an independent tour to take you to see Etruscan Necropolis outside of Tarquinia and the Archeology Museum in Tarquinia OR to Ostia.

[Murt22]

Our 22 day cruise includes Sunday embarkation at Athens, Sunday visit to Venice and Rome. After we originally were going to do the pre-tour in Athens and realized that it really only included a hotel(and transport). We decided to cancel our Viking Air and pre-tour and book our own pre-tour. We are flying to Rome a week before the cruise and will do all the sites then fly to Athens and do the sites, then embark on the cruise. We are planning on doing Ostia in Rome if available. We are also planning on staying overnight in Florence so we can do as much as possible. Venice is another issue - but still working on that. I haven't been any of these places before and have no idea if I will ever get there again.

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, Murt22 said:

We decided to cancel our Viking Air and pre-tour and book our own pre-tour.

 

I just want to point out to readers that it is possible to use Viking Air AND do a pre or post stay on your own. Viking calls it a "deviation"; there is a fee involved and you do lose transfers for any deviated arrival or departure (i.e. if you arrive early but go from ship to airport on departure day, no transfer on arrival but yes transfer on departure).

 

Why am I point this out? Because sometimes the VikingAir fare (if it allows deviations) is a significant savings over what you would pay on your own even with the deviation fee and paid transfers. You just need to do the math before you decide how you want to handle it because each case is different.

 

Also note that arranging your own extension can usually get your more nights for the same cost as a Viking extension.

[Murt22]

I like control of my air flights, so choose to book exactly what we want, cabin class, seats, routes, connections, etc. I'm sure it costs more, but with the too close connection times, multiple stops, terrible times, etc. it is worth it to us, especially if we are planning activities the first day. 

[OneSixtyToOne]

7 hours ago, Murt22 said:

Our 22 day cruise includes Sunday embarkation at Athens, Sunday visit to Venice and Rome. After we originally were going to do the pre-tour in Athens and realized that it really only included a hotel(and transport). We decided to cancel our Viking Air and pre-tour and book our own pre-tour. We are flying to Rome a week before the cruise and will do all the sites then fly to Athens and do the sites, then embark on the cruise. We are planning on doing Ostia in Rome if available. We are also planning on staying overnight in Florence so we can do as much as possible. Venice is another issue - but still working on that. I haven't been any of these places before and have no idea if I will ever get there again.

 

You might want to consider Rome / Florence / Venice by train as part of your land excursion. We did a 10 day trip a few years ago and it was fantastic. 2 days in Venice is more than enough. Spend as much time in Florence as possible.

Edited March 14 by OneSixtyToOne

[aungrl]

17 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

 

You might want to consider Rome / Florence / Venice by train as part of your land excursion. We did a 10 day trip a few years ago and it was fantastic. 2 days in Venice is more than enough. Spend as much time in Florence as possible.

We did exactly this a few years ago, and I completely concur!  We split 14 days across Rome/Florence/Venice, and traveled by train in between.  If we had it to do over, we would shorten Venice and lengthen Florence.  (Spent 7 days in Rome, 4 in Florence, and 3 in Venice on that trip, and would try to take one day from each of Rome and Venice and add them to Florence.)  

[bookbabe]

Currently on Iconic Med Treasures, which pre-cruise in MVJ had Rome plus the middle Athens day empty of shore excursions.

 

We got these flyers in our cabin the second day.  Sorry I didn’t take a pic of the whole Athens flyer, but it all seemed to be excursions from the other two days there.  FWIW, read the descriptions of the Rome excursions carefully, we almost got caught in that even the guided optional Colosseum excursion only “views the facade” and doesn’t seem to go inside at all.  We ended up booking a private tour that will hopefully give us a better Colosseum experience, and we are just doing the included as a shuttle to get us there.

 

 

 

 

[Peregrina651]

IMHO, I think this Explore More is great approach to doing Rome on your own. It doesn't limit you to just one area of Rome. It doesn't waste your time when what you really want to see is on the farside of Rome. 

 

My one question is whether this is available on other than turnaround days -- because we are doing Malta/Morocco/Med which calls in Rome mid-cruise and this would be a great option for us.