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Just took the Argo Bus today from the Civitavecchia Station to port, after arriving from Rome Termini on the IC 510 leaving at 9:57. It is only a 10 minute journey. The fare is 2 Euro per person (inclusive of luggage). Need to buy tickets from the news stand / bar in the Train Station first. There were only about 10 persons on board the bus, which is a standard size (and look) of a tourist bus. The regular buses are orange in colour.

I saw no timetables posted and cannot be sure whether service will stop during midday, but I suspect the service will continue throughout the day, as it is marked as a special service, and bearing in mind that midday is the peak arrival time.

Oceania Nautica will dock at Ocean Terminal in Tsimshatsui in Feb 2016. Ocean Terminal is right in the heart of the harbour and everything. For details, you can check out the oceanterminal website.

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Speaking of HK, the rain should stop by late September. There is still a chance of a late typhoon in early October. But after the middle of October, we should have blue skies. This is the best part of the year. January will see more clouds and overcast skies. I would recommend October over January/February.

BTW, Chinese New Year falls in early February in 2016.

Kyoto is not on the coast. It is about one hour or more from Osaka by train. The trains run regularly at about one hour intervals. They are very reliable and must be the preferred mode of transportation between the two places.

The main international airport for the Osaka area is Kansai International (which Sing Air flies into). Kansai is about 30 minutes by train from Osaka. There are several direct trains per hour, again quite reliable.

I know there is a direct train from Kyoto to Kansai, which takes about 2 hours, but I have not personally taken so I have no experience to share.

But if your departure from Kansai is late in the day, there should be no problem at all in leaving Kyoto in the morning and still catching your plane.

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Not sure about the direct train, but going from the Zurich Airport to Zurich Station is very easy. There are several trains per hour and the journey takes about 25 minutes only. The trains are double decker and there are no racks, you keep your luggage with you, but there is some space near the doors that everyone uses and watches. Only a few stops between the airport and the city, so quite safe. The train station is connected to the airport, quite convenient. And the manned information / ticket office is very helpful in the train station.

My wife and I went in the summer of 2014 (July and August). We had the pre cruise land portion of 3 days in Lisbon and Porto, 7 days on the river, and the post cruise land program of 3 days in Madrid. We on our own stayed for another 5 days in Madrid afterwards.

Speaking of the cruise itself, it was not a bad trip, but not as good as the one we had two years ago on AmaLyra on the Danube. I believe one of the reasons is that AMA does not own the boat, it is leased from a Portugal company with the crew, and quite apparently AMA does not have full management control, and the AMA branding is missing. The other reason is that the river trip is short, only about 150 miles I was told. So IMHO there is not enough sailing time. But don't get me wrong, it was still an enjoyable time and I consider the money well spent.

The difference is small as you can cross the harbour on the MTR in a matter of 5 minutes. However, most business travellers will stay in Central or Admiralty on Hong Kong side, closer to the banks and offices. Tourists generally stay on the Kowloon side as there is more shopping in the night time there.

Are you disembarking on Sunday or Monday? As Sunday mornings are slow business time for taxis, I would expect that there are many lining at the Kai Tak Terminal waiting for fare. For a Monday, it may be fewer taxis there between 8 am and 9:30 am, meaning a longer wait. I would suggest that you would use the taxi, actually easier than waiting for and meeting your transfer.

Hi,

I sailed on the AmaVida last August from Porto to the Spain border and took the post land package for Madrid.

Last week, I was in Seville and saw the Croisi Europe boat on the Guadalquivir. It did not look as nice as the AmaVida, not even close.

And then I visited its website and found that the boat would not sail to Granada, but passengers would be taken there by bus.

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I did the Vienna opera excursion with AMA 3 summers ago. It was a made for tourist event, anyone can buy a ticket from the street vendors and 90% of the audience were visitors to the city, if not all. But it was a good performance and the general feeling of passengers on the return bus was that it was an enjoyable evening.