cruisegal415

Has anyone ever booked an excursion in Italy with "Project Expedition" tours? They have a tour we are interested in to both Pompeii and Herculaneum from Naples but there are no reviews. It is operated by Askos tours.

If we took a ferry from the port in Amalfi to Capri, is it difficult to wander around the island on our own? And if we wanted to go to Anacapri also, same question. Walking? taxis available? A day exploring these two places seems like a nice day. I see that the ferry ride takes about an hour, so we would have about 5 hours or so. We have to take a tender from the ship and I remember last time we did this, since we were not taking the ship's excursion, it took a couple of hours after we docked until we could get a tender from the ship.

This is very concerning, as our cruise is in August!

wow that is interesting and good feedback! We enjoyed Positano when we last visited, and I would certainly not mind going there and Sorrento again (love Sorrento, but it holds a special place as that is where my grandparents are from). That being said, we have visited there but have not been to Capri/Anacapri. Some folks recommend a boat ride around Capri, don't know if that is something we should look into.

Our cruise in August is landing in Positano. The cruise line offers an excursion to the Emerald Grotto, but having read about it, that sounds like a waste of time. My parents did the Blue Grotto and said we have to go there! However, when we were last in Positano several years ago, we took an excursion to Sorrento and really loved that town. I see there is an excursion offered that goes to Sorrento and Ravello, which is supposed to be beautiful also. For those of you who have done both, would you recommend a boat tour around Capri including the Blue Grotto, or a day in Sorrento/Ravello?

Our August Oceania cruise starts and ends in Rome. The last full day of the cruise is an overnight in Civitavecchia. Since we wil have spent three days pre-cruise in Rome, and will be transferring from the port back to Rome the next day, we have no desire to do a day trip to Rome. We are willing to jump on a train to see other parts of Italy that are do-able. I don't know that there is a specific "all aboard" time since we are overnighting so length of time may not be an issue. Any ideas/suggestions about where we could spend the day?

Mallorca Private Guides was the name of the company.

Thanks for the tip about looking at others for comparison! I was taken aback that they wanted full payment in September of 2023 for a trip in December of 2024!

Great tips! Thank you. My husband doesn't understand why we are building a cruise around Christmas markets, but it just seems so magical! Especially for the holidays. I think we will do the one that goes to Nuremburg, as hubby is a WWII history buff. I definitely want to skip Passau for Salzburg. I know it's a long ride there and back, did you feel that you had enough time there?

Yes! In fact the only things we bought on the ship were the add-on prices for our drinks, and our bill at check out amounted to a whopping $22.80. This included a $1.20 uncharge for something at Cafe Baccio twice and about 4 drinks at the martini bar. Certainly way less than paying the extra charge per day to upgrade to the premium plan! But in the end, we came out ahead, because they cancelled one of our excursions (the ship arrived too late due to weather) and we had on board credit, so we left with them owing us $$. LOL

Hello! Never taken a river cruise before, and haven't visited this part of the world yet. Been wanting to do a Christmas market cruise for years. We have the choice of two different Christmas Market itineraries on Viking One itinerary is this: 1st option: Budapest to Passau Day 1: Budapest (we would do a pre-cruise there and come a few days early) Day 2: Budapest Day 3: Bratislava, Slovakia Day 4: Vienna Day 5: Krems, Austria and Scenic Sailing, Wachau Valley Day 6: Linz, Austria Day 7: Passau, Germany Day 8: Passau, Germany This itinerary offers a couple of post-tours that we would be interested in: Prague, or Munich and Salzburg The other itinerary is this: Budapest to Regensburg Day 1: Budapest (again, would do a pre-cruise here) Day 2: Budapest, Hungary and Scenic Sailing Danube Bend Day 3: Vienna (differs from first option as includes an extra day in Vienna as opposed to Bratislava) Day 4: Vienna Day 5: Krems, Austria and Scenic Sailing, Wachau Valley Day 6: Passau, Germany (differs from above which has Linz, Austria) Day 7: Regensburg, Germany Day 8: Regensburg, Germany This itinerary offers a post-tour that we would be interested in: Nuremburg and Prague So I guess the difference is, one versus two days in Vienna, eliminating or keeping Bratislava (leaning towards the two-day Vienna one on this choice); one day in Passau versus two days in Passau, but the one day in Passau includes Linz, which we would prefer; two days in Passau versus two days in Regensburg (the second day of both are disembarking days, and we would go on to our post-cruise city). Which brings me to: post cruise choice: Prague and Nuremburg, or Munich and Salzburg? Both of those alternatives have equal appeal to me. If anyone has done one or the other or both of these itineraries, please weigh in on which you think is better? Thanks!

I have been trying to decide between the Danube and the Rhine for the Christmas market river cruise and was looking at one that sails Dec 22-29, but I read that some of the markets close right after Christmas. Also, being from south Florida, I wonder if it will be too cold for us?

We were on the Infinity May 15-24. No martinis were under $10. But they were gooood!

No it was our private driver and it was bumper to bumper getting out of the port.

It definitely depends on timing and the ship's schedule. We had to be back before 5:30 and since it took us about 45 minutes to drive from the port to the train station, we didn't want to chance being late on the way back. I think, in retrospect, as much as we enjoyed Valldemossa and the ride down, if I were to do it myself, I'd just take the train to Soller and the tram to the port of Soller and spend some relaxing time in both those places before returning to Palma to spend more time there.