agent00F

Oh, I meant the inside coliseum experience was almost 2hr total. It took about half an hour to find and then snake through the lines despite few mis-steps, at least an hour inside, and then more time to get out; and this was at hurry-up pace. Then getting into the Forum was another almost half hour (security line mostly) when it was visible from the street. If OP only has limited time (realistically about 8 hours), I think taking 1/4 of that for a site mostly visible from the outside could be applied to "see more different stuff" in such a big city. Going into colosseum is worth the time IMO if you had 2 days, but 1 day tours it's all about difficult tradeoffs, and you're right YMMV.

Yes it does save a lot of time vs normal line. Even with the timed ticket around noon it took us a while to get inside (outside area was very crowded & hectic) and in hindsight I personally would've taken that 2hr to catch some of the stuff around northern part of city I missed since I was also on a timer (and went in the other direction, walking uphill all day lol). Of course YMMV for everyone whether they prefer ancient artifact vs city-scape.

I would start near the vatican and try to get a guided 3hr tour which will allow you into St.Peters at the end through the back door skipping the line (but do ask if the specific tour you're booking does this). Look up the train schedules for time and allow yourself extra leeway as others have mentioned. If you have some buffer between the time starts you can always browse around the surroundings or even Castle St. Angelo next door. After vatican you can hit up Piazza Navona and Pantheon area, it's very nice. And depending on lunch etc you can pick a path past the Victor Emmaneul Monument down to the Colosseum (it will be downhill). For example you can hit up the Trevi fountain, but it's quite packed. There are other nice churches and such along the way if you haven't had your fill LOL. For a day, I would not recommend timed tickets to Colosseum because the effort it takes to get inside is not worth the time it takes nevermind timing the entry; you will walk past the Forum on the way and see a decent chunk of everything from the street.

Some of the complication for us is trying to reach both vatican and coloseum on one day. Walking from one to the other seems doable, but tricky with timed skip the line tickets. Train strike also doesn't help, with one tour operator saying there might not be trains at all. Looking to get some refundable private bus tickets just in case.

Ok, bit of a follow-up. Should I do the online check-in for the 3rd no-show passenger or no? I searched a bit, but the answers/threads didn't seem to address the weird fee for dropping someone. Now it's more clear that it's not really a fee so much as repricing the whole cruise.

Just found out some unfortunate news: this Rome day for Oct 20 is apparently on the national strike day for italian rail etc. Some sources of info say 6-9am or pm trains still run, others refer to some schedule like https://www.trenitalia.com/content/dam/tcom/allegati/trenitalia_2014/informazioni/TABELLA_B_Treni_garantiti_DPLH.pdf which Civitavecchia trains are not on. Tickets are still sold on Trenitalia site. Strike site: http://scioperi.mit.gov.it/mit2/public/scioperi 10/20 section: SCIOPERO GENERALE SETTORI PUBBLICI E PRIVATI INTERA GIORNATA:AEREO: 00.01-24.00; FERROVIARIO: 21.00 DEL 19/10-21.00 DEL 20/10; TPL: 24 ORE VARIE MODALITA'; MARITTIMO: ISOLE MAGGIORI DA 1 ORA DA PARTENZE, ISOLE MINORI 00.01-24.00; AUTOSTRADE: 22.00 DEL 19/10-22.00 DEL 20/10 Does this mean I should be booking other transport like bus etc, or does the "private motorway" stuff mean all those means are cancelled too. Really getting the full italian experience here, haha.

This NCL cruise has an overnight at Livorno, and leaves early-ish at 4pm the next day. We're planning to go to Florence first day, Pisa the second, and trying to decide whether to book a hotel at Pisa to save some time vs. going back to the ship. Seems like it doesn't take much extra time on the train, and the LAM BLU from station to port runs until 8pm, but not sure about cruise ship shuttles at the port? Do they run late or we might get stuck w/o way to get back to the ship? Just trying to figure out if there's something we've not considered, thanks.

For the 3hr tours, it seems they do the museums, then chapel, then basilica. I was told they have special permission (skip line) into st.peter's, but leaving early means potentially missing that. So now it's between 2pm guided tour, or just 2-2:30 entry quick self-tour (likely missing out on basilica), or saving vatican for next time. To clarify, this day is mid-cruise so we'll be going into Rome in the morning w/o luggage. We're trying to squeeze in coloseum midday and decided to go there first because it's more flexible on time since we can hang around the forum next door first before 11am timed entry (whereas if we schedule 10am vatican and get there late we might well miss out on entire tour). Having never been there, the connection back to the ship seems confusing with many stages and different options (like 3 different ways to get to the ship even after getting off train). Cruise advises getting on at least 30m prior (7:30). Yes I know it's a squeeze trying to see the city and vatican on the same day, I'm just scheduling the hours and seeing what works or not. Thanks for all the advice.

Ok, this is a bit complicated question, for our trip from the Vatican to the cruise terminal. It's our last stop of the day and there's 3hr tours (incl museum/chapel/st.peters) starting at 2pm or 2:45pm with the former $20 more per person. The NCL ship leaves at 8. There's a train from the San Pietro station at 6:02, arriving at 7pm with a 20min walk to the port entrance. Is this way too tight of a schedule for the 2:45 (which I booked but is refundable), to end the tour bit early and take a taxi to San Pietro? Please advise, thanks.

I called them today to drop the 3rd passenger and rep told me there's a fee for it, and suggested finding a replacement as with manager approval he can just swap w/ no fee. Fee also goes higher soon as we're supposedly still in the 1-2 months 75% fee window. I didn't know about no-showing until googling afterward, just hoping to get advice from more experienced travelers. Thanks.

Hi all, hope you can help with this. We wanted to drop a (free) third passenger from a cruise and NCL demands an extra $600+ "fee" for it, which seems strange for less work for them. I've seen here that people no-show for cruises and nothing happens other than not getting a refund (which is fine). What's also strange is that they can swap a passenger for no fee... So what to do here? Thank you for any advice.