Carnival precruise options in Rome

[whatawonderfulworld]

Hello everyone. We are seriously considering booking on the Freedom for October 2008, Grand Mediterranean. The intinerary is everything I've ever wanted in a Mediterranean cruise.

 

We would like to come into Rome a few days earlier to deal with jet lag and to tour the Eternal City. Do any of you know if Carnival offers any precruise options? If so, where on their website might I find these options (I scoured it today and couldn't find any mention of precruise packages).

 

Many thanks in advance for your response.

 

Ciao,

 

W A W W

[terri910]

Hello everyone. We are seriously considering booking on the Freedom for October 2008, Grand Mediterranean. The intinerary is everything I've ever wanted in a Mediterranean cruise.

 

We would like to come into Rome a few days earlier to deal with jet lag and to tour the Eternal City. Do any of you know if Carnival offers any precruise options? If so, where on their website might I find these options (I scoured it today and couldn't find any mention of precruise packages).

 

Many thanks in advance for your response.

 

Ciao,

 

W A W W

What sort of packages do you mean, waww?

 

My husband and I are sailing the Freedom in 6 weeks (Mediterranean and Greek Isles itinerary)....and although we have arranged our own pre- and post-cruise accommodations, etc., it seems to me that some of our fellow cruisers have booked their flights/hotels through Carnival.

 

I am fairly certain that you can probably book pre-cruise tours in Rome through Carnival, too....although most are discovering that it is cheaper to arrange that on their own, I think!

 

For more info, check out the Roll Call threads for the Carnival Freedom on this forum website....there are two groups that have returned from their Freedom cruises already, giving loads of great info!

[whatawonderfulworld]

What sort of packages do you mean, waww?

 

My husband and I are sailing the Freedom in 6 weeks (Mediterranean and Greek Isles itinerary)....and although we have arranged our own pre- and post-cruise accommodations, etc., it seems to me that some of our fellow cruisers have booked their flights/hotels through Carnival.

 

I am fairly certain that you can probably book pre-cruise tours in Rome through Carnival, too....although most are discovering that it is cheaper to arrange that on their own, I think!

 

For more info, check out the Roll Call threads for the Carnival Freedom on this forum website....there are two groups that have returned from their Freedom cruises already, giving loads of great info!

 

 

Thanks so much for your reply. I apologize for not being clearer in my request. I'm looking for a hotel type package, with some tours, and then transfer from the hotel to the ship.

 

I've never done this with another cruise line, but I did note that NCL (we're scheduled with them for this September) offers packages of this type.

 

Any guidance you can offer would be most appreciated. And I will most certainly check the roll calls for those who have returned from the inaugural cruises. Thanks again for responding.

 

Ciao,

 

W A W W

[terri910]

Thanks so much for your reply. I apologize for not being clearer in my request. I'm looking for a hotel type package, with some tours, and then transfer from the hotel to the ship.

 

I've never done this with another cruise line, but I did note that NCL (we're scheduled with them for this September) offers packages of this type.

 

Any guidance you can offer would be most appreciated. And I will most certainly check the roll calls for those who have returned from the inaugural cruises. Thanks again for responding.

 

Ciao,

 

W A W W

 

I am almost positive that Carnival will be able to provide you with all of that....I don't really see them turning away an excellent opportunity for revenue!

 

Call your Carnival Personal Vacation Planner! (I sound like an ad, don't I? *L*) Anyway, that's where I would probably start to get info as to what Carnival offers....

 

Good luck!!! I hope you are able to arrange the cruise of your dreams!

[Jlrymedic]

If Carnival doesn't offer tours, there are a ton of private companies in Italy that will help you out!

 

If I could make the decision for you whether to take the cruise or not, I would say take it! I was on the nine day inagural cruise, and while we didn't go to as many ports as the 12 day (obviously), it was a blast. The only thing better than that cruise would be one of the 12 day ones. I loved it so much, I would do it again in a heartbeat, but my checkbook is balking at that.

[PINEVIEW01]

I spent time pre cruise in Rome When I did the Liberty TA 9/05. But we did it ourselves. Booked a hotel and used a website to set up tours. It was wounderful. I still get mailings from the site and will use them if I fo again. If you do decided to do your own, the port of call site is a great help.

[Longin2cruise]

Will be sailing on the Freedom in 2 weeks. We booked our own air but do have the Carnival pre-cruise hotel & transfers to the ship. After reading various threads on the Europe board, I wish I had made the decision to go independently. We wanted the "centrally located first class hotel" & Carnival will not tell you what hotel they are putting you at. They'll only say "We use several different hotels." You can only find out your hotel assignment when you get your cruise docs. Not very good when you're trying to make plans. I don't know anything about any pre-cruise tours except for the day of embarkation. On the Europe board there is 1 particular tour operator in Rome who gets rave reviews & we have him booked for a day tour of Rome, transport back to Rome on debarkation & transport to the airport after our independent post cruise 4 night stay in Rome. This tour operator will tailor your tours to your specifications. As I understand the rules of this board, I am not allowed to give a specific recommendation unless you request it. If you're interested, just ask & I'll give you his name & e-mail address.

[lindasuej]

We are booked on this cruise for 8/26/08. Carnival does not have their hotels picked for that time yet. We booked through a travel agent and she notified Carnival that we might be interested in the pretour/hotel etc with transfers. As we get closer and they post the information she will let us know. But!!!!! our travel agent said that if you book air with Carnival and fly in prior to what they would fly you in for this cruise Carnival charges an air deviation fee of $75 per person unless the hotel is booked through them. Then the $75 is waived. What our travel agent has told us is that the hotels that Carnival picks is usally very expensive. It would be cheaper picking your own hotel and paying the deviation fee. The hotels that Canival has picked for 2007 are close to the airport and not the center of Rome. That is another factor you have to weigh. In reading the boards for (roll call) Carnival Freedom and the Europe boards you might get a better feel for costs if you book on your own. Even with booking tours on your own. Just a thought.

 

Linda & Tom

[Longin2cruise]

Carnival has us booked at the Visconti Palace Hotel which is not too far from the Vatican & it is expensive! I understand they sometimes use the Cicerone Hotel. As I said in my earlier post, I wish I hadn't chosen a Carnival hotel.

[Maryutah]

We were looking at booking our hotels through Carnival, but did some research, found what were CCL hotels, researched them, and then booked one - for about half the cost CCL offered. We then booked the "rome at a glance" transfer.

 

We are arriving Tuesday morning for our Thursday afternoon cruise, and are doing our own thing, hop on hop off busses, our hotel is w/in walking distances of many places etc.,

 

These boards are great for finding how to do your own thing, though we are doing mostly excursions by Carnival, you feel informed by reading roll calls, the Europe section etc.,

[Valentine's Mom]

My husband and I are going on this cruise in October and we were going to to a pre cruise package but $200 per night per person was a little too high for us. We did our own air and hotel for a fraction of the cost. I'll save that money for some nice Italian gold@ LOL

[AllenF]

I am doing a group cruise on the Freeom in Sept. go to this link we have tons of info posted alot cheaper than Carnival.

We have a room at for 140 Euro in the heart of the Pantheon

 

BEST Bed & Breakfast

 

 

 

Best Pantheon

 

Corso V. Emanuele II, 21

 

00196 Roma, Italia

 

 

 

Info and reservations:

 

Web-site: http://www.bestbb.it

 

E-mail: info@bestbb.it

 

Tel.: (+39) 392.560.1203

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=376

[mamawg]

We went on the Liberty in 2005 and had Carnival book our air and our 2 day pre cruise stay. They booked us at the Cicerone, which is in the Prati section, which is on the Vatican side. They do not offer any tours, except on the day of embarkation or debarkation if you are staying post cruise. So we booked one night time tour and did the rest ourselves. Carnival gives you a choice of staying at an airport hotel, usually the Hilton or Courtyard Marriott or a Centre Hotel, which is usually the Visconti Palace, Cicerone or a couple of others. You never know for sure which hotel they will choose until about 3 weeks before you leave on your trip. Most are not by the major sites, although if you stay at a Centre hotel you can usually walk to the sites but it might take some time. They also charge you a lot for these hotel rooms.

 

I feel very confident booking my own air and hotel this time and making tranfers to the hotel and pier. Just go to the Freedom site and you will gain a lot of knowledge and meet others who might want to share transfers with you.

[MichFish]

We are going in 2 weeks - and the prices that Carnival quoted us for the hotel were ummm. . . . lets say high.

 

We started checking web sites - MONTHS before our cruise and got a very nice rate at Visconti due to the extremely early booking. The rates we saw were not on the common travel websites - but at the hotel's direct web site - they had special rates based on how early you booked.

 

We are doing our own tours and arranged the Carnival xfr from Rome - - and conveniently enough - the xfr actually goes from the Visconti.

[whatawonderfulworld]

Will be sailing on the Freedom in 2 weeks. We booked our own air but do have the Carnival pre-cruise hotel & transfers to the ship. After reading various threads on the Europe board, I wish I had made the decision to go independently. We wanted the "centrally located first class hotel" & Carnival will not tell you what hotel they are putting you at. They'll only say "We use several different hotels." You can only find out your hotel assignment when you get your cruise docs. Not very good when you're trying to make plans. I don't know anything about any pre-cruise tours except for the day of embarkation. On the Europe board there is 1 particular tour operator in Rome who gets rave reviews & we have him booked for a day tour of Rome, transport back to Rome on debarkation & transport to the airport after our independent post cruise 4 night stay in Rome. This tour operator will tailor your tours to your specifications. As I understand the rules of this board, I am not allowed to give a specific recommendation unless you request it. If you're interested, just ask & I'll give you his name & e-mail address.

 

 

Thanks so much for your replay and, yes, I would love to have the name of the tour operator and his email address.

 

I'm kind of hesitant, read that "nervous", about making my own reservations. However, knowledge is power...which is why I come to CC.

 

The more I read, the better informed I'll be when it comes time to make our deicision.

 

Thanks again!

 

Ciao,

 

W A W W

[whatawonderfulworld]

My husband and I are going on this cruise in October and we were going to to a pre cruise package but $200 per night per person was a little too high for us. We did our own air and hotel for a fraction of the cost. I'll save that money for some nice Italian gold@ LOL

 

This will be our first Europaen tour..and our first trip to Italy. I was trying to crunch some numbers for our trip by looking at the costs for this October. All of the airfares I located were higher than CCL's. But I need to look into this further...I've gotten alot of good suggestions...and, obviously, i have alot more research to do.

 

Thank you again. What cruise itinerary are you taking in October?

 

Ciao,

 

W A W W

[whatawonderfulworld]

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge. I have alot of work ahead of me however you have all reinforced that the very first place anyone should come to is here, at CC.

 

Thanks a million!

 

Ciao,

 

W A W W

[Longin2cruise]

Thanks so much for your replay and, yes, I would love to have the name of the tour operator and his email address.

 

I'm kind of hesitant, read that "nervous", about making my own reservations. However, knowledge is power...which is why I come to CC.

 

The more I read, the better informed I'll be when it comes time to make our deicision.

 

Thanks again!

 

Ciao,

 

W A W W

 

His name is Stefano Costentini & his e-mail is romecabs@yahoo.com. He responds promptly with quotes & confirmations of bookings. I suggest you do a search, keyword Stefano, on this Mediterrenean thread. There are several pages of the rave reviews that he gets. If you can't find it, post here & I'll try to find it for you & give you the link. By the way, we are paying waaaay too much for the Carnival hotel, transfers to hotel & transfers to ship, $300+ per person. Wish I had done more research before.

[Sandy's Mom]

My DH and I took the HAL 10 day MED cruise. Our TA found us a deal for a 5 night pre-cruise stay within walking distance of most of the popular sites and public transportation to St. Peter's, The Coliseum, and othes more distant sites. The nearby tour office offered a tour to Pompii. It was also a short cab ride to the train station that got us to the HAL Pier.

 

The TA also found a great hotel for two nights in Barcelona. Again, a block from the area with all the "What's Happining" stuff going on. We got a great price on air fare via British Airways with a two hour layover at Heathrow where we could streatch our legs.

 

I we saved enough money to take a few extra excursions from the ship. I only regret not taking one more night in Barcelona.

 

Some people have suggestied that we book excursions once we dock as we would save lots of money. I would like to share that, if you do take advantage of on shore savings, make sure you take one that will get you back to the ship, at least, two hours before the scheduled departing time. We took a later excursion from our ship that was caught in a major traffic jam. The ship had to wait for us and fortunately, those who were also caught in the traffic but booked on their own, were able to make it to the ship before it departed. I watched from our balcony, the return of passengers on a full day ship's excursion, who were almost two hours late because their bus broke down and it took over an hour for the replacement to get there and an hour to get back to the ship.

 

Hope I was of help

 

Carole

 

P.S. For anyone who has photos of Rome and especially, the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel if they would be so kind as to share them with me. The disc I was using in my digital camera fried and I only have a few photos my table mate sent me. He had photos from a previous trip, that he took with a regular camera.

[MichFish]

That is the same tour operator that we have arranged to meet us at the airport and transfer us to our downtown hotel - - - and while we have not actually used him, he was been great with making the arrangements.

 

Talk to me about him in May lol.

[travelgirlie]

Hi Whatawonderfulworld! What cruise are you doing on NCL in September? We are doing the one that departs on Sep 2---I hope that is yours also!

[whatawonderfulworld]

Hi Whatawonderfulworld! What cruise are you doing on NCL in September? We are doing the one that departs on Sep 2---I hope that is yours also!

 

The one we're thinking about is for October 2008. Are you doing the Western Med or Greek Isles cruise?

 

Ciao,

W A W W

[travelgirlie]

It is NCL departing from Barcelona and we end up in Istanbul. Sorry to hear that you are looking at October, but have a great time!

[burrma]

I am doing a group cruise on the Freeom in Sept. go to this link we have tons of info posted alot cheaper than Carnival.

We have a room at for 140 Euro in the heart of the Pantheon

 

BEST Bed & Breakfast

 

 

 

Best Pantheon

 

Corso V. Emanuele II, 21

 

00196 Roma, Italia

 

 

Web-site: www.bestbb.it

 

E-mail: info@bestbb.it

 

Tel.: (+39) 392.560.1203

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=376

 

I am also taking a group (72 people) on carnival cruise and finding it very diffcult to find a reasonable hotel or B&B place for them to stay for 3 day post cruise in heart of Rome. Any help you cna give me would be appreciated. Thanks

[burrma]

I am doing a group cruise on the Freeom in Sept. go to this link we have tons of info posted alot cheaper than Carnival.

We have a room at for 140 Euro in the heart of the Pantheon

 

BEST Bed & Breakfast

 

 

 

Best Pantheon

 

Corso V. Emanuele II, 21

 

00196 Roma, Italia

 

 

 

Info and reservations:

 

Web-site: www.bestbb.it

 

E-mail: info@bestbb.it

 

Tel.: (+39) 392.560.1203

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=376

 

Thanks for this website. I've been in touch with them but still would like to read threads about groups staying here. Can you help me out?