danif Posted September 23, 2007 #1 Share Posted September 23, 2007 1st time traveling to Europe. We are planning on flying into Rome 2 days prior with the included Oceania Airfare. Are these flights fairly easy or are they usually many stops and take many hours? Are the transfers worth $154.00 a person or is it more feasible to hire your own transportation from the airport to the hotel and then take transportation from the hotel to the port? What transportation companies would you use? What hotels are highly recommended in Rome? Are there private tour guides that can streamline the tours through Rome? I would assume they need to be hired in advance. From the experienced travelers - what would you recommend as must sees and how would you go about setting up private excursions (if needed), walking tours, and/or recommendations in the following cities so as not to use the cruise line excursions unless you feel they may present the best value? Sorrento/Capri? Amalfi/Positano? Porto Cervo, Sardinia? Florence/Pisa (Livorno) Portofino? Monte Carlo, Monaco? Saint Tropez, France? Provence (Marseille) France? Mallorca, Spain? Barcelona, Spain? With this action filled itinerary, it seems one gets to hardly enjoy the ship. Do most people skip lunch on the ship and eat ashore? We love great food and would kindly appreciate any recommendations both on the ship and in the cities. Sorry for all of the questions but, we would really appreciate some help on planning our trip with the excellent opinions from the many seasoned, savvy travelers out there.:) Thank you, Danif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ripleyroxy Posted September 23, 2007 #2 Share Posted September 23, 2007 I can let you know some of the info in about 3 weeks. I am sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to Europe. We board Insignia this Thurs for the same itinerary as you. This is our first cruise! We are in Paris for 1 day, then Rome for 3 days pre-cruise. Getting exicted. The itinerary for ports looks excellent which is why I chose it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surus Posted September 23, 2007 #3 Share Posted September 23, 2007 Daniff, We are on the same cruise next June. Have you registered on Roll Call? It's not our first trip to Europe but our very first cruise. I will be interested in the replies you receive as we will probably book our own tours in many of the ports or rent a car and explore on our own. We were in Rome 7 years ago and did not have a guide, just visited the highlights on our own. It is an amazing city. We are flying in the morning of our departure, due to arrive at 8 am. Hopefully this will be enough time (12 hours) to make the ship. See you there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tennisfan08 Posted October 7, 2007 #4 Share Posted October 7, 2007 Hi, We are also first time to Europe on this sailing. We are looking to share shore excursions if you are interested. I was told by others to book your own because are better and less expensive if you can get a small group together. I am currently looking at a full day from Livorno to Siena and Chianti with a tour guide who comes highly recommended on these boards. I would like to do maybe one or two other private tours. We would also like to enjoy some time on ship. Let me know on the Nautica June 13, 2008 Roll Call at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=628861 if you are interested or come up with some on your own you might like to share. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogotraveler Posted January 1, 2008 #5 Share Posted January 1, 2008 1st time traveling to Europe. We are planning on flying into Rome 2 days prior with the included Oceania Airfare. Are these flights fairly easy or are they usually many stops and take many hours? Are the transfers worth $154.00 a person or is it more feasible to hire your own transportation from the airport to the hotel and then take transportation from the hotel to the port? What transportation companies would you use? What hotels are highly recommended in Rome? Are there private tour guides that can streamline the tours through Rome? I would assume they need to be hired in advance.From the experienced travelers - what would you recommend as must sees and how would you go about setting up private excursions (if needed), walking tours, and/or recommendations in the following cities so as not to use the cruise line excursions unless you feel they may present the best value? Sorrento/Capri? Amalfi/Positano? Porto Cervo, Sardinia? Florence/Pisa (Livorno) Portofino? Monte Carlo, Monaco? Saint Tropez, France? Provence (Marseille) France? Mallorca, Spain? Barcelona, Spain? With this action filled itinerary, it seems one gets to hardly enjoy the ship. Do most people skip lunch on the ship and eat ashore? We love great food and would kindly appreciate any recommendations both on the ship and in the cities. Sorry for all of the questions but, we would really appreciate some help on planning our trip with the excellent opinions from the many seasoned, savvy travelers out there.:) Thank you, Danif We are going to Rome 3 days early for the same cruise. We have booked an apartment which is 100M from the Colosseum. The website is: http://www.apartmentsapart.com/Europe/Italy/Rome/Apartments/Detail/1654 There are 4 of us and I found this apt. to be a much better deal. Also, they offer pickup service from the airport for 65 Euros for all of us. They have other apartments and I think the amenities are worth it. We are booking a tour: http://www.viator.com/tours/Rome/Skip-the-Line-Vatican-Museums-and-Sistine-Chapel-Tour/d511-2390GRET3/TR This seems very reasonable. I have been to Rome before and feel this tour is absolutely necessary, but I feel I can see much of Rome on my own. We will book a tour of the Colosseum because we didn't go inside on our last visit and these tours are inexpensive. As far as the cruise ports, we plan on doing our own thing for the most part. We will probably hire a private driver for Florence in order to see David, the Ufizzi, and the Tower of Pisa. Check out tours that are recommended on these boards. I did this when we did the British Isles and had outstanding tours! Good luck! I hope your cruise is wonderful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CathyCruises Posted January 2, 2008 #6 Share Posted January 2, 2008 I highly recommend pre-buying tickets for the David and the Uffizi--you can get them on-line. Otherwise you will spend your whole day waiting in line! It will be more economical to just hire a driver if you already have your tickets. You can take the train from Rome to Civitavecchia for a pittance compared to the transfer the cruise line charges--but leave plenty of time. It was less than 10 Euro/pp. We really enjoyed doing the hop on-hop off (HoHo) bus in Rome--just got off at the places we wanted to explore, then got back on and went to the next place! They have earphones with translations into about 9 languages--that let us spend as much or as little time as we liked--HATED the ship's tour in Florence when they made us walk for 4 hours before we were allowed to sit down! Then fed us lunch of roast beef and mashed potatoes--in ITALY! Good luck and have fun Cathy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lane40 Posted January 3, 2008 #7 Share Posted January 3, 2008 We get onboard when you guys exit in BCN. Make sure cabin 6088 is nice and clean and ready for me....lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sacway Posted January 4, 2008 #8 Share Posted January 4, 2008 You don't say whether you have frequently traveled or what your experience is with jet lag, or the time zone you live in. We fly from the West Coast. At best the flight for us is a one-stopper, though we have had 2-stoppers. Do you have a non-stop itinerary possible? Our flights land in the AM, we take the train to Rome and get there early afternoon. You might consider checking out a guide book to see what *you* want to see, the city has dozens of "must sees" so you would do well to select a few, we pick one major spot a day (e.g., Vatican Museums, or fountains in old Rome, or walk the ancient wall, or visit a catacomb, or go to the Forum/Colosseum, or go shopping in our favorite neighborhoods) and then make sure we leave several hours for naps and meals. Try to get up in the morning and out the door relatively early, to get some sunshine and reset your diurnal clock. Then, by the time you get to the ship, you will be ready for this vacation. Have a wonderful time in the finest city in the world! As for lunches, we often go off the ship first thing in the morning, drop back in for lunch, and then head out again for an afternoon of fun. (We'll be on this route at the end of June, in the opposite direction.) We might have a drink in town, but unless there's a specific local cuisine or restaurant that interests us, the food on O is excellent so we prefer to eat on board. Ask a dozen people, however, you should get at least 13 answers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2kiwis Posted January 4, 2008 #9 Share Posted January 4, 2008 You can't go past Claudio if you want a tour guide for Rome and/or Florence. We used him last year for both places and he was fantastic. He got tickets etc ahead of time so we did not have to wait. 4 of us went with him in his mercedes "people mover" = very comfortable!, it could take more. The price was very reasonable as well. :) :) His details are as below: Claudio Caponera www.limoinrome.com claudio@limoinrome.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forensic Posted January 9, 2008 #10 Share Posted January 9, 2008 A few years ago my DH and I stayed in a great hotel in Rome, it was a Best Western, called the Hotel Canada. It was a wonderful true Italian hotel. Each room was slightly different from the other. They had a great breakfast, included. It was one block from a subway station and very reasonable prices. They had a brochure about tours that were available from most of the hotels in the area including the Hotel Canada. We signed up for a number of the 1/2 day tours and they were all excellent. Someone would come to the hotel lobby and take us to the tour bus and at the end bring us back to the lobby. Our favorite one was the "Rome by Night: tour. They took us to Trevi Fountain at night and a few other famous landmarks, they took us up to the top of one of the 7 hills that surround Rome so that we could see the whole city by night and then they took us to a fabulous restaurant where we were all served a wonderful, Italian dinner from antipasto to dessert with ALL of the bread and wine we wanted. There was live musical entertainment and the ladies received a long stem rose. It was one of the most memorable evenings of my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NAS-KARR Posted January 9, 2008 #11 Share Posted January 9, 2008 I don't know if you folks are aware of it or not but your cruise is listed on the "Roll Call", you may get alot more help and/or info if you ck in there. Happy cruising e CIAO, ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuck.qc Posted October 19, 2008 #12 Share Posted October 19, 2008 Danif... I have all the same questions...1st time cruise, same trip booked for June 09. Now that you've been what info. can you give me! I have been reading posts and I find that the more I read the more confused I get...HELP!! L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myrtlewinston Posted October 20, 2008 #13 Share Posted October 20, 2008 Sorrento/Capri?Amalfi/Positano? Porto Cervo, Sardinia? Florence/Pisa (Livorno) Portofino? Monte Carlo, Monaco? Saint Tropez, France? Provence (Marseille) France? Mallorca, Spain? Barcelona, Spain?... Hi, Sorrento/Capri: I've done the ship excursion to Capri twice. No regrets. Porto Cervo: N/A. Florence/Pisa: I'd do the "Florence on your own" excursion and give Pisa a wide berth (didn't care for the streets of tacky souvenir vendors). Portofino: I missed it on both cruises. Monte Carlo: I took a public bus from there to Nice and had a great time. When I got back to Monte Carlo, I took a sightseeing tram. This year, I took the bus to Eze and also had a nice time. After that, I went to to Casino, and was disappointed. Provence: I took the excursion to Aix, a very pretty college town. Mallorca: N/A. Barcelona: You can do it on your own. A good number of sites are near the port. Bon voyage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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