Costa Serena - Rome the Classical City Excursion

Hi All,

I posted this question in the Ports of Call forum, and I was told to post it also here, so... here it is.

In May (2014) we (family of 3 adults) will be in our first Mediterranean Cruise. We did our homework checking the different options for excursions in Rome, we read the reviews, but as they weren't specific regarding the name of the tour, we are confused.

I've 2 questions regarding a tour:

In the Costa website, they have a excursion called 'ROME,THE CLASSICAL CITY'. This is the first part of the description => "We will depart from the port of Civitavecchia by bus and drive along the highway towards Rome, where our guide will be waiting for us. We will begin a beautiful panoramic bus tour admiring the Thermal baths of Caracalla and Circo Massimo. After leaving the bus we will begin on foot towards the Trevi Fountain before continuing towards Venice Square where we will be able to admire Il Vittoriano, the Column and Il Foro diTraiano along with the Senatorial Building. We will then continue towards the ruins of the Roman Forum (externally) before heading up to the Colosseum (external visit), the great amphitheater symbol of the eternity of the Roman civilization that could hold up to 80.000 spectators. In this area we will be able to admire the imposing Arco di Costantino, the last of the triumphal monuments of the classical age, erected in 315 in celebration of the victory of Costantino over Massenzio which took place close to the Milvio Bridge. After lunch, we will visit the Basilica of St. Peter which sits on the grave of the Saint himself who died in the II century"

Question 1 (items in red): I read in several reviews that the tour is bad and that for several attractions, like these ones, they just pass with the bus and that you are not allowed to leave the bus, just taking pictures from the interior of the bus. Is this true?

Question 2 (item in green) : regarding the lunch, several reviews mention a loooong (90 minutes or so) lunch. Is this true? If I'll be one day in Rome, I would rather prefer to enjoy the city instead of a gourmet lunch ;)

If anyone did this excursion or have information, I'd love some advice

Thank you in advance

Pat

Have spoken to friends who have been to Rome and they all say the same - do not do a ships tour.

Do your research and take the train into Rome. You can either walk round the sights or alternately do the Hop On Hop Off bus tour see all the sights from the bus and then decide which ones you want to spend more time at. The train also stops at the Vatican if you want to see that first.

I think we are on the same cruise and that is our intention.

Pat,

There are multiple options to visit Rome.

The low budget option is to take the shuttle bus to the fortress and walk 10 min to the train station. A daily ticket including public transportation in Rome is 12 Euro (you can buy the ticket right at the promenade on the way to the station or at the station). There´s also a Fast Train which runs once a day for 15 Euro. In Rome there are multiple Hop On Hop Off busses.

Another option is this bus company which offers from transport up to guided tours. They meet you right at the stop of the port shuttle bus.

steamboats

Thank you for the answers! Indeed, we decided to do Rome by ourselves and we are evaluating the different options

moonglum: our cruise is Costa Serena- May 8th from Barcelona, are you taking the same cruise?

steamboats: I checked the Civitatours website as well as the Smart Cruise Tours website. Both have mixed reviews here at CC. Do you have any comment?

Thank you again

Pat

Pat,

I´ve only used Civitatours for an airport transfer. I´ve been to Rome several times on land trips. So I never needed a guided tour when being there by cruise ship. Anyway the transfer was very well organised.

steamboats

 

moonglum: our cruise is Costa Serena- May 8th from Barcelona, are you taking the same cruise?

 

 

Pat

Yes doing same cruise - flying in from Newcastle on the Thursday and staying overnight in Barcelona and then joining cruise next day. Never done Costa before so quite looking forward to the experience. What about you?

Hi steamboats,

Ok, thank you for the answer! :)

Pat

My wife and and I took the roma tour today (15 May 2015) from Civitavecchia Port with Civitatours and had a horrible experience. Firstly the tour bus did not depart on time as they were trying to get more people to join the tour. Instead of 9.30am, the bus departed on 9.45am only. They did managed to get one additional couple to sign up.

During the morning tour, one old couple almost got left behind. I informed the tour guide that they are behind but instead of waiting for them, she told me that she will walk slowly ahead. I took the initiaitve to wait for them and show them the way. Only when we are all in the bus, did she starting counting the passengers.

In the afternoon, we were dropped off at the Trevi fountain and told to made our way to Piazza Nirvano at 3.50pm. We were 5 minutes late and to our horror the tour guide were no way to be seen. We had to take a taxi to the port terminal which cost us 170 Euro. We meet the other passengers at the port terminal as we took the same port bus to the ship. We learned from the old couple whom we help that the tour guide was not aware that my wife and I were not at Piazza Nirvano. She only knew 2 passengers were missing after she started counting at the bus. By then, I suppose it was too late to do anything. Had she done a head count at Piazza Nirvano and waited for another 5 minutes, we would not miss the tour bus. I find the tour guide attitude very unprofessional and not all bothered or concerned about her passengers. With that kind of attitude, she is certainly not suitable to be tour guide.

We are very traumatized by being abandoned by the guide. Worse thing is that the company was willing to pay us only 50% of the tour fares which amounted to only 27 euros for the both of us. When we refused and email back to them, they did not even brother to reply to our email.