Questions on Amalfi Coast Tour with Motor Launch and Pompeii

[livetravelcruise07]

Has anyone done this tour in Naples, Italy? We just booked it and it sounds amazing!!! I'm hoping to hear your experiences with this excursion as well! 🙂

[Husky1987]

Have never done this tour from a cruise, but I can tell you that Pompeii was probably the highlight of our land trip in Italy in 2022.  It is an amazing place and I hope your tour gives you plenty of time to explore it.

[Ashland]

We did this/similar tour with RCI several years ago and it worked out great for us, who usually don't book cruiseline excursions. You'll be glad you booked this one.

[rockmom]

We did it summer before last and it was AMAZING!  It's a long, packed day, but worth it.  We booked through the ship because we knew it was a very, very long excursion with potential for delays since it went to several places--and quite a distance, not to mention a bus and the cruising the Amalfi part. We wanted to ensure we wouldn't be left behind. And our tour was the very, very last to get back on the ship and it was past 'all aboard' by about 20 minutes, so we made the right choice.  

[livetravelcruise07]

Thank you all so much for the replies! We are so excited!!! 

[George C]

Naples and Pompeii are two of my favorite places to visit , must have pizza in Naples we loved Brandi 

[emeraldcity]

I booked this one back in 2017 on the advice of a friend and he was spot on. He called it the best excursion he had ever taken on any cruise. Two years later, I recommended it to my daughter and she said it was fantastic as well. 

 

The funny thing was, all three of us had a slightly different experience. Mine was a follows: We travelled by bus from Naples to the Amalfi coast where we boarded a double decker excursion boat that took us along the incredibly picturesque coast of Amalfi. It was picture-postcard perfect. We docked in Amalfi and our tour guide gave us a brief walking tour, then cut us loose to explore on our own. We were to meet up back at the boat in an hour for the return by boat to where our bus had dropped us off. (More on that later*)

 

Once we were back on the bus, we went to Pompeii, where we were first given a wonderful sit-down dinner and then taken on a tour of Pompeii. The tour guide cut us loose unexpectedly deep in the ruins and we found ourselves a bit confused about how to get back to the front of the site. It all looks the same after a while. But we figured it out soon enough to reboard the bus for the return to Naples. It was a long day, intellectually stimulating and physically challenging in spots. Exhausting for sure, but absolutely worth it.

 

We were ready to see the ship and relax ... but no. It was not to be. The tour guide was determined we needed to stop at a factory that made cameos. He talked it up all day. I don't think an hour went by without him mentioning it, along with an insistence that we wait till we got to Pompeii to buy limoncello, because it was a superior product if purchased in the store at Pompeii. The reality is that the limoncello was in the same bottles there as it was at the shops in Amalfi. And the cameo factory was really just a store with incredibly pricey treasures that had absolutely no vehicles in the parking lot except our bus. I wonder what his cut was.

 

My daughter got the same experience but only a one-way boat ride. They bussed them all the way to Pompeii and then they did a boat ride back to where the bus picked them up. And my friend Dean did Pompeii first then a boat ride to Amalfi and a bus ride back.

 

*Not everyone has the courtesy to adhere to assigned schedules. And apparently an hour in Amalfi was insufficient. We returned to the boat with 15 minutes to spare and boarded with most of the passengers. The boat sailed on schedule and then the dock radioed them to return. Yep! There were the laggards who apparently didn't have a watch. So we were definitely behind schedule as we left the dock again and headed out ... only to be recalled back to Amalfi for another group of people for whom rules don't apply. The tour guide didn't shorten the tour in Pompeii fortunately. I was concerned about that. So I figured he would skip the cameo factory that he kept saying we'd do if we had time. Nope! He delivered us to the cameo factory and didn't cut that stop short either. Consequently, we were the last bus back to the ship. We got off the bus 10 minutes before the scheduled sailing time and still had to wind our way back through the shopping gauntlet in the port.

[livetravelcruise07]

11 hours ago, emeraldcity said:

I booked this one back in 2017 on the advice of a friend and he was spot on. He called it the best excursion he had ever taken on any cruise. Two years later, I recommended it to my daughter and she said it was fantastic as well. 

 

The funny thing was, all three of us had a slightly different experience. Mine was a follows: We travelled by bus from Naples to the Amalfi coast where we boarded a double decker excursion boat that took us along the incredibly picturesque coast of Amalfi. It was picture-postcard perfect. We docked in Amalfi and our tour guide gave us a brief walking tour, then cut us loose to explore on our own. We were to meet up back at the boat in an hour for the return by boat to where our bus had dropped us off. (More on that later*)

 

Once we were back on the bus, we went to Pompeii, where we were first given a wonderful sit-down dinner and then taken on a tour of Pompeii. The tour guide cut us loose unexpectedly deep in the ruins and we found ourselves a bit confused about how to get back to the front of the site. It all looks the same after a while. But we figured it out soon enough to reboard the bus for the return to Naples. It was a long day, intellectually stimulating and physically challenging in spots. Exhausting for sure, but absolutely worth it.

 

We were ready to see the ship and relax ... but no. It was not to be. The tour guide was determined we needed to stop at a factory that made cameos. He talked it up all day. I don't think an hour went by without him mentioning it, along with an insistence that we wait till we got to Pompeii to buy limoncello, because it was a superior product if purchased in the store at Pompeii. The reality is that the limoncello was in the same bottles there as it was at the shops in Amalfi. And the cameo factory was really just a store with incredibly pricey treasures that had absolutely no vehicles in the parking lot except our bus. I wonder what his cut was.

 

My daughter got the same experience but only a one-way boat ride. They bussed them all the way to Pompeii and then they did a boat ride back to where the bus picked them up. And my friend Dean did Pompeii first then a boat ride to Amalfi and a bus ride back.

 

*Not everyone has the courtesy to adhere to assigned schedules. And apparently an hour in Amalfi was insufficient. We returned to the boat with 15 minutes to spare and boarded with most of the passengers. The boat sailed on schedule and then the dock radioed them to return. Yep! There were the laggards who apparently didn't have a watch. So we were definitely behind schedule as we left the dock again and headed out ... only to be recalled back to Amalfi for another group of people for whom rules don't apply. The tour guide didn't shorten the tour in Pompeii fortunately. I was concerned about that. So I figured he would skip the cameo factory that he kept saying we'd do if we had time. Nope! He delivered us to the cameo factory and didn't cut that stop short either. Consequently, we were the last bus back to the ship. We got off the bus 10 minutes before the scheduled sailing time and still had to wind our way back through the shopping gauntlet in the port.

This is absolutely AMAZING!! Thank you so much for this! 

[FionaMG]

Right, well I guess I'm filing this information away for possible future use. It does sound really good. Well, apart from the cameo factory. 😂

[time4u2go]

17 hours ago, Husky1987 said:

Have never done this tour from a cruise, but I can tell you that Pompeii was probably the highlight of our land trip in Italy in 2022.  It is an amazing place and I hope your tour gives you plenty of time to explore it.

Agreed.  You could easily spend days in Pompeii.  It's fascinating.

[tauntoncheer]

We booked this tour for August. Please let us know how you make out!!

[lovesthebeach2]

Im not sure what your tour includes, but we did a full day tour back in 2016 that included  a high speed boat past the Amalfi coast, a visit to Capri and finally Pompeii. It was fabulous.  We had an excellent tour guide in Pompeii and we got to see everything.

 

We went there another time and got to see more.  Last year when we stopped in Naples port we did Herculaneum. Not as much to see, but from what we were told, there’s miles of ruins under the city and no way can they get to them.

[livetravelcruise07]

1 hour ago, tauntoncheer said:

We booked this tour for August. Please let us know how you make out!!

I will definitely let you know!!

[livetravelcruise07]

6 minutes ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

Im not sure what your tour includes, but we did a full day tour back in 2016 that included  a high speed boat past the Amalfi coast, a visit to Capri and finally Pompeii. It was fabulous.  We had an excellent tour guide in Pompeii and we got to see everything.

 

We went there another time and got to see more.  Last year when we stopped in Naples port we did Herculaneum. Not as much to see, but from what we were told, there’s miles of ruins under the city and no way can they get to them.

Sounds pretty close to what we are doing except for Capri. It's a boat ride over to amalfi, we are there for about an hour on our own and then a boat ride back to a bus. Then which the bus takes us to Pompeii! It's almost a 10 hour tour so we are looking forward to it!! 

[lovesthebeach2]

1 hour ago, livetravelcruise07 said:

Sounds pretty close to what we are doing except for Capri. It's a boat ride over to amalfi, we are there for about an hour on our own and then a boat ride back to a bus. Then which the bus takes us to Pompeii! It's almost a 10 hour tour so we are looking forward to it!! 

That’s about how long ours was….the second time we did that tour, which was a bit different, we got back to much later than we were scheduled to get back.
Luckily it was a Royal tour so the ship waited for us and left the port as soon as we all got back on the ship.😳

[rockmom]

6 hours ago, FionaMG said:

Right, well I guess I'm filing this information away for possible future use. It does sound really good. Well, apart from the cameo factory. 😂

you cannot escape the cameo factory.......We had that stop as the first one on our itinerary, and I'm thankful for that.  If it was at the very end, I'm pretty sure I would have been tired and cranky.  But it is cool to see how they make them.  

[CCW84]

On 4/2/2024 at 5:39 PM, rockmom said:

We did it summer before last and it was AMAZING!  It's a long, packed day, but worth it.  We booked through the ship because we knew it was a very, very long excursion with potential for delays since it went to several places--and quite a distance, not to mention a bus and the cruising the Amalfi part. We wanted to ensure we wouldn't be left behind. And our tour was the very, very last to get back on the ship and it was past 'all aboard' by about 20 minutes, so we made the right choice.  

Any kids on board? Is it manageable with them if we just pack properly. Hoping the downtime travelling two and for will be chill time for our kids. 

[rockmom]

9 hours ago, CCW84 said:

Any kids on board? Is it manageable with them if we just pack properly. Hoping the downtime travelling two and for will be chill time for our kids. 

No kids at all on this excursion when we went. To be honest, I think they'd be bored out of their minds. Tons of walking through ruins for Pompeii, with listening to a guide. Terrain there is like most places in the region, rough, uneven cobblestones. FYI, the people of Pompeii were a wild bunch, lol.  A lot of the 'street sign' markers are pointing to the next brothel and there are a lot of them. The thing that is pointing is a part of the male anatomy, if you get my drift. There's a stop in a cameo factory which seems to be mandatory for a lot of those longer tours.  Again, nothing for kids.  The bus ride out to where you catch the boat is quite long.  Then we had somewhat of a long wait to board the boat to Amalfi.  In Amalfi, nothing for kids either. It's built on a steep incline and we loved exploring the shops lined along the hilly streets.  

[rockmom]

9 hours ago, CCW84 said:

Any kids on board? Is it manageable with them if we just pack properly. Hoping the downtime travelling two and for will be chill time for our kids. 

If you were not asking about the actual excursion that my post was discussing, and just numbers of kids on the ship, then yes, there was a fair amount as it was summer break. We were on Odyssey that had things to do for kids in the Seaplex.  Odyssey does not have big water slides, but does have some small ones I think in the kiddie area of Spashaway Bay. 

[CCW84]

On 7/10/2024 at 10:54 AM, rockmom said:

If you were not asking about the actual excursion that my post was discussing, and just numbers of kids on the ship, then yes, there was a fair amount as it was summer break. We were on Odyssey that had things to do for kids in the Seaplex.  Odyssey does not have big water slides, but does have some small ones I think in the kiddie area of Spashaway Bay. 

Was asking about the excursion. Thank you for your input, very helpful. I find the RC excursion descriptions very vague. 

[Thisguylikestocruise]

I’m doing the “Best of Positano, Sorrento, Pompeii-small group” RC excursion in a couple months. There’s almost no reviews or information for it anywhere online, but it’s all places I want to see, so booked it during Black Friday sales. Hoping it’s decent. Did Capri on our honeymoon years ago and it was amazing. I think anywhere in the Naples-Amalfi area is well worth visiting. 

[rockmom]

20 hours ago, CCW84 said:

Was asking about the excursion. Thank you for your input, very helpful. I find the RC excursion descriptions very vague. 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/shore-excursions/nap/naples-italy/amalfi-coast-by-motor-launch-and-pompeii/npl5

 

It does a good job of describing it and notes that the bus ride can be an hour.  Lots of walking and it's flagged as a strenuous excursion, which it can be when it comes to navigating the ruins and the steep terrain.  The 'lunch' was pretty good, and the only real time you're able to eat.  It truly is a 9 1/2 hour excursion and ours took 10 hours and they held the ship since we were on an excursion booked through Royal. Oh, and bathrooms...not very often and not very good, lol.  

Edited July 14 by rockmom

[Thisguylikestocruise]

1 hour ago, rockmom said:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/shore-excursions/nap/naples-italy/amalfi-coast-by-motor-launch-and-pompeii/npl5

 

It does a good job of describing it and notes that the bus ride can be an hour.  Lots of walking and it's flagged as a strenuous excursion, which it can be when it comes to navigating the ruins and the steep terrain.  The 'lunch' was pretty good, and the only real time you're able to eat.  It truly is a 9 1/2 hour excursion and ours took 10 hours and they held the ship since we were on an excursion booked through Royal. Oh, and bathrooms...not very often and not very good, lol.  

Not looking forward to the bathroom situation. I’m assuming it’s every 2 hours minimum. Guess people will have to restrict fluid intake on these 10 hour excursions. 

Edited July 14 by Thisguylikestocruise

[nelblu]

Did it many years ago. The tour was about 11 hours and remember the scariness of traveling by bus via the road to Pompeii.  It was a very winding road and the driver was so adept at managing such a winding road.  in August and Pompeii was very hot.