spicykimchi

Thanks mapleleaves and cruisemom42 - very helpful! I wish NCL would provide this information on their website, but I understand why they don't (competes with their "[city] on your own" excursions). The NCL phone reps I spoke to a few weeks ago told me that cruise passengers generally need to be on board 1.5 to 2 hours before the stated departure time at each port! What a waste of time that would have been if we cut our time at Rome / Florence short, only to be the first ones back on the ship. The NCL rep also said they weren't aware of shuttles taking passengers from the ports to the train stations - even noting that any shuttle service was provided by the port authorities, not by NCL. I believe that's the case in Civitavecchia, but the Livorno shuttles seem to be organized by NCL (considering the $25 can be charged to your room). Fortunately, our busiest port days (Salerno, Civitavecchia, and Livorno) are all docked, so we will use the 30 minutes prior "all aboard" time as our guideline until we hear from NCL. This is our first ever cruise, so we have very limited knowledge when it comes to Mediterranean cruises, NCL cruises, or cruising in general. At times I wish we had booked with a travel agent who could hold our hands a bit (we booked through Costco Travel), but I'm glad to have found this community to help us with our planning - wish I discovered this board sooner!

Thanks euro cruiser! I saw that thread shortly after and posted there. Appreciate the help!

I've been hearing / reading about this shuttle ($25 from Livorno port to Livorno train station) - is this offered both ways, or just in the morning from the ship to train station? I've read some comments that upon returning to the Livorno train station in the afternoon, there were no direct shuttles to the train station (but there were shuttles to Piazza Grande, where you could hop on the shuttles back to the ship). We'll be on the Norwegian Viva next month and will be in Livorno from 7:00am to 7:00pm. Our return options are a 3:28pm train (arrives in Livorno at 4:48pm) or a 4:28pm train (arrives 5:48pm). We would prefer to take the later train so we can maximize our time in Florence, but I sense that could be a fatal mistake if there is no paid shuttle that goes directly to the port. We still have no idea what our must-be-back-on-board times are for each port (assuming 30-60 minutes before departure).

Thanks a lot! We booked the Frecce return train. Do the regional trains often have issues with working air conditioning? For now, we booked an early regional train (~7:20am) since our first stop is the Vatican (Roma S. Pietro), but given the heat wave in Rome / hot summers generally, we could consider switching our itinerary around. Not to get off topic, but are you also familiar with the Livorno port? We plan to do the same thing there (plan our transportation to/from Florence ourselves), but not as certain since there are no Frecce trains / return trains are rather infrequent.

This has been an incredibly helpful thread - thank you euro cruiser and others who have contributed! My wife and I will be on our first ever cruise next month (Norwegian Viva - 9 day cruise), and we have a port stop in Civitavecchia. We are trying to plan our own transportation so we can maximize our time in Rome and had a few questions: 1) How much buffer time should we build into our morning? If our port arrival time is 7:00am, then what is a realistic train time we can make? We don't have NCL status and did not buy the Priority upgrade (sold out), so I don't expect to be the first ones off the ship (our ship fits 3,250 passengers). The Port Mobility website states that the €6 direct shuttle (from ship to train station) takes approximately 15 minutes. Are there long lines to get on those shuttles? We were thinking about taking the 8:19am train (Regional train) - is that realistic, or should we shoot for an earlier or later time? Since Regional tickets are good for 4 hours, should we just buy the earliest ticket (e.g., 7:18 or 7:44)? 2) Like the above, how much buffer time should we build into our afternoon / evening? I am unable to purchase Express tickets (they may be sold out - TrenItalia website says "We are sorry, this travel solution cannot be purchased on this sales channel"), but there is a Frecce train that leaves Roma Termini at 4:57 and arrives at 5:44 (and to the port by 6:05). Is that fine or cutting it too close? Our departure time is 7:00pm. Appreciate the help!