Rome post excursion

[kctwinmommy]

2 hours ago, CKspring said:

Slightly off-topic

 

We are booked for the February '25 Journey to Antiquities cruise. We are booking pre and post extensions through our TA.

 

Our TA is offering a Pompeii and Amalfi coast excursion that looks reasonable. Does anyone have experience with Viking excursions in Naples?

.

 

Yes, you can see our experience in my review, it's on this page, maybe on page 2. Oh, I also linked it in my signature. Excursions to both those sites are tricky, IMO, when doing it from a cruise ship.

[CKspring]

Has anyone taken the train to Rome? Our hotel is close to Rome Termini, but it looks like the port station is a 40-minute walk from the ship. Not doing that with luggage.

[Peregrina651]

24 minutes ago, CKspring said:

Has anyone taken the train to Rome? Our hotel is close to Rome Termini, but it looks like the port station is a 40-minute walk from the ship. Not doing that with luggage.

 

I'm currently researching same (but vice versa).

 

Take the 6€pp shuttle bus to the station or else a cab (for about the same cost). Big question is timing. Will there be a shuttle waiting as you disembark? Not clear on how it works ship to station.

See: https://civitavecchia.portmobility.it/en/shuttles

Haven't figured out if we need cash for the shuttle or can use credit card.

 

 

[OneSixtyToOne]

3 hours ago, CKspring said:

Slightly off-topic

 

We are booked for the February '25 Journey to Antiquities cruise. We are booking pre and post extensions through our TA.

 

Our TA is offering a Pompeii and Amalfi coast excursion that looks reasonable. Does anyone have experience with Viking excursions in Naples?

.

 

We took this cruise in the winter last year. There was a rare snowfall covering Mt. Vesuvius. Review of the Viking tours and pictures of Naples start at post 62

 

We also visited Naples on the Mediterranean Odyssey where we took the Viking tour of Herculaneum. 
Here is the review starting at post 46

 

Edited August 4 by OneSixtyToOne

[longterm]

On 7/22/2024 at 2:54 PM, Peregrina651 said:

When you look at any cruise extension (Viking or on your own), you have to consider that Day One will be spent getting to the hotel and checking in and Day Last will be spent getting to the airport or the ship. Usually, very little sightseeing gets done on those two days.

 

I respectfully disagree; we did a post-cruise extension in Athens, and arrived in port around 8am. By 8:30am, we were on a bus to Athens, and immediately went to the Acropolis, where we beat the crowds and saw the Parthenon and surrounding area. Then, our guide took us over to the fantastic Acropolis Museum. 

So, on our first day, we were able to see the greatest archaeological area in Greece; after we finished at the museum, we were guided to a bus and driven to the hotel, where our luggage awaited us and we checked into our hotel rooms.

I can't speak to a Rome post or pre-extension.

[Reaniel]

8 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

I'm currently researching same (but vice versa).

 

Take the 6€pp shuttle bus to the station or else a cab (for about the same cost). Big question is timing. Will there be a shuttle waiting as you disembark? Not clear on how it works ship to station.

See: https://civitavecchia.portmobility.it/en/shuttles

Haven't figured out if we need cash for the shuttle or can use credit card.

 

 

 

Or you can take the free shuttle that goes to the "gate" of the port and walk about 10 mins to the train station if you're cheap like us 😛

 

The paid shuttle (for us last year) took cash, no credit card.

 

The various shuttles will be there shortly after you disembark, and will keep coming back and forth.  The paid ones showed up about 10 mins after disembarkment.  The free one we took showed up about 25 mins.

 

There are trains to Rome every 30 mins to 1 hour.  You can just buy the ticket at the self-service booth.  No need to prebook.  The ticket is ~5 EUR, and you can get off at any Rome stations.  There's also an "express" train at the cost of 16 EUR with slightly fewer stations, and the travel time to Roma Termini goes down from 1hr 20min to 55min (lol)

 

 

[Peregrina651]

20 minutes ago, Reaniel said:

The paid shuttle (for us last year) took cash, no credit card.

 

 

Thank you!!  We can get rid of some euro coins.😉 

 

BTW, not "cheap" just "independent." 😁

 

 

 

[Reaniel]

27 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Thank you!!  We can get rid of some euro coins.😉 

 

BTW, not "cheap" just "independent." 😁

 

 

 

 

Thank you for providing us with a much-needed (and better-sounding) adjective for our behavior 😛

 

We were trying to see if it's possible to avoid taxis and paid private transports when we did our DIY extension last year at Rome (and then Venice).  We were literally the only ones taking the free Civ port shuttle.  The driver kept trying to convince us to get a cheap taxi from Civ to Rome, but we declined. In the end, we gave him 5 USD for trying to be helpful (and that was all the cash we had left on us at the time).

 

You can pretty much go anywhere with public transportation in Rome, and you don't really need to use Taxi cabs unless you're in a hurry.  Moovit works wonders there.  Just buy the ATAC 72 hr pass (or the 1 week pass if you're staying longer).

[whyme]

On 7/26/2024 at 8:13 PM, taiwan_girl said:

We were on a Viking cruise that ended in Rome this past January.  Spent an additional 4 days/3 nights on our own. Had a VRBO near St. Peters as our base, and either walked or did public transport to get around the city.  

 

As others have said, if you are comfortable setting up things on your own, you can save some money that way.  But,there are advantages to having everything planned out - nice to have someone else deal with the hassles of unexpected occurances.

 

If it is feasible, Our highlight was a guided full day (and it was a full day!!) walking tour of Rome.  Started at the Colosseum and ended up back at St. Peters, hitting a number of sites in between.

Have you ever used a private tour guide in Rome and if so who??? going to be there for 2 days

 

whyme71842@aol.com

[kctwinmommy]

@whyme We used LimousInRome for our day that we had there. They offer multiple tour options.

[taiwan_girl]

6 hours ago, whyme said:

Have you ever used a private tour guide in Rome and if so who??? going to be there for 2 days

 

whyme71842@aol.com

It was not a private guide, but a "group" tour.  I believe it was 16 people max.  There were less people the day we took the tour.  It worked well for us and we were happy with them.  Did all the major sites - starting at the Colosseum and worked its way across the city to end at Vatican City.

[Peregrina651]

2 minutes ago, taiwan_girl said:

It was not a private guide, but a "group" tour.  I believe it was 16 people max.  There were less people the day we took the tour.  It worked well for us and we were happy with them.  Did all the major sites - starting at the Colosseum and worked its way across the city to end at Vatican City.

 

What company did you use and would you use them again?

[taiwan_girl]

Just now, Peregrina651 said:

 

What company did you use and would you use them again?

I assume it is okay to mention them?  LOL

 

The company was  "Walks of Italy" and the tour was "Rome In A Day" @ USD$175/person.  It was an extended family of 8 which took the cruise, and 6 of us (two parents + 4 young adult kids) (excluding the 2 seniors) did the above tour. It is about 8 hours in length.

 

We all thought it was worth it.  The tour company repurchases all tickets to the attractions so there was little to no wait to get in to the various locations.  Guide was good.  Remote listening devices are provided (similar to what Viking uses).  With so much to see in Rome, this was a good use of our time.  It is a lot of walking however.  You get an ~ hour break for lunch (on your own) but other than that, you are on your feet for most of the day.  Just guessing, but it was probably 3-5 miles total.