KShuman

That's a great suggestion @gnome12.  I knew I could buy a local SIM card, but just decided weeks prior to the cruise I wouldn't 'need' it.  Of course, we were on the cruise when we found out about our family member's health issue and by that time - I wasn't prepared to go looking for a SIM card in our next port of call.  Thanks for reminding us all that we do have options when it comes to staying connected! 

I just returned from a Gate 1 Danube cruise from Budapest to Regensburg.  We had no issues regarding river levels so we were thankful.  We also had PERFECT weather so I am remembering May 25 - June 3 as a great time to cruise!  

I cannot compete with @JordanF's eloquent review or great photos, but I was on the same Gate 1 River Cruise with Amy/Jordan and agree with his positive comments about the staff, meals, ship, etc.  I thought all the staff was superb and as Jordan mentioned - Laura was a great activity director.  Our tour manager, Martin went out of his way to help me with a transfer to Prague after the cruise ended in Regensburg.  So he earns rave reviews from me as well.

I did take the optional tour to Vienna to the Schonbrunn palace and really enjoyed the history (as well as the beautiful gardens).  Because we learned a lot about Maria Theresa during the palace tour it was helpful as we heard more about her in other ports, specifically Germany and Prague.

I also agree with @JordanF that the WiFi onboard wasn't great.  We were have extended family health issues back in the U.S. while we were traveling and the poor WiFi caused some aggravation. If it had been a 'normal' vacation I probably wouldn't have cared as much about the lousy connection since I do really try to 'disconnect' while traveling, but the WiFi was one of the few things I would say needs improving.

This was my first Gate 1 trip and first river cruise and my husband and I will consider another one since Gate 1 delivered such value - I really wasn't expecting to see so much in such a short period of time.

Our family of 6 adults is on Independence of the Seas which leaves Friday, 11/11 from Port Canaveral.  Considering Hurricane Nicole is going to prob cause issues in the middle of FL as well as the coast - I am not sure my family can fly into Orlando on 11/10.   Anyone have prior experience with something like this?

Charles, if I go to the Dockyard Visitor's Center and buy either a day pass or a book of tickets (still not sure yet which I will buy) can I pick up the bus schedule there?  I would prefer to have a nicely printed bus schedule versus the sub-par printing that happens on my own printer!  Weeks ago I printed a Bermuda map at home and I like all the details on the map, but I almost need a magnifying glass to read some of the small print.  OLD age issues!  I am hoping to get a bus schedule at the Visitor Center, but if they aren't readily available than I can always print a copy.  I appreciate your input on so many of our CC posts.

A few years ago we cruised to Bermuda and took our son to Admiralty Park to play tennis.  We are going back to Bermuda in 3 weeks and plan to go to Admiralty again.  So if you are in Bermuda on May 20 or 21st - our son would be happy to play a game or two!  We will take the ferry to Hamilton and then take bus #4.  Admiralty Park is free.  I believe I had researched this years ago - there are very few places to play tennis for free on the island...when you are a cruise visitor.

We just created a photobook of our Explorer of the Seas Alaskan cruise in August 2018. I had to use SEVERAL pages for the Skagway port because our excursion was very picturesque. We took the Dyea Dave tour from Scagway's port to Emerald Lake. Dani was our tour guide and she was great. You can see my review of Dyea Dave under Trip Advisor. The motorcoach tour lasted from 8 am until 2:30. Dani then dropped us off and we went on the White Pass Yukon rail from Fraser to Scagway. Arrived back in Scagway at 4:30. It was a great way to spend the day and we still had time to walk through all the touristy shops in Scagway.

If you decide to book with a tour guide - make sure your group is small. I recommend 10 or less people. We just returned from a cruise on the Allure and we spent 3 days in Rome prior to the cruise leaving. We booked a cute rental near the Vatican through VRBO which saved us some money. It was close to the public bus so we could easily get to the Colisseum, etc. It was within walking distance to restaurants and the Vatican. We booked a tour through Dark Rome City Wonders and would not recommend them. Our group size was 20+ although they said it would be less than that. They did help us bypass the lines, but the Vatican is so crowded - it is better to be in a small group. I don't have a group to recommend, but the place is so vast - even with my Rick Steves book - I wouldn't try to do the Vatican on my own. I would buy the audio guide or book a private tour. Our private tour cost $70/ea and included entrance to the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and Basilica.

We used Dark Rome a few weeks ago for a tour of the Vatican. It was an awful experience. I recommend getting a small tour of 10 or less people to go through the Vatican so you can truly appreciate what you are seeing. Larger groups are difficult because you cannot hear what is being said and it's also hard to follow large groups because the Vatican is so crowded. I posted a Trip Advisor review today of Dark Rome - I cannot figure out how they get good Vatican reviews.

We just go off the Allure last week in Civit We disembarked around 8 am and took the free RCI shuttle into Civit. Where they dropped us off was a parking lot that had a $2 shuttle there that took us to the train station. This shuttle probably runs continually because it seemed to be set up for the purposes of getting us quickly to the train station. Even though we had 2 large suitcases and I suppose it was technically a city bus - there were no issues with us getting to the train station.

We used Lello & Co. a few weeks ago and had a great experience. Our driver picked us up at the port promptly at 8:30am. Took us to Pompeii where we met Lello at 9am which is when Pompeii opens. He bypassed the lines and we started the tour. Lello is a great tour guide for Pompeii. To be honest, I am not sure how you will get anyone who has more knowledge. I would go back again and see additional parts of Pompeii - and I would spend another 2 hours seeing the areas we didn't visit the first time. Lello knows a lot of people who are still excavating at Pompeii and you will enjoy being in small group. We arranged for a group of 8 of us to be on this tour - we did it through the cruise roll call - 4 couples signed up and we paid approx. $80/ea for the entire day. Don't quote me on the exact price because I paid for so many private excursions that I cannot remember exactly what I paid for each one since we visited so many ports. This didn't include the $13 admission to Pompeii.

After the 2 hour Pompeii tour our driver took us to Sorrento and then Positano. He gave us the options on where we could eat lunch and where we could stop to have an hour to shop. It was a great day and I would highly recommend getting some other people to share the costs and make this a great memory.

Let me start off by saying that I normally write very positive reviews. I am not a negative person and if you looked at my Trip Advisor reviews you would see that I don't have a lot of bad stuff to say. NORMALLY.

I cannot believe that Dark Rome City Wonders gets good ratings on their Vatican Tour. I had read the comments on Cruise Critic and looked at Trip Advisor, but I definitely messed up by booking this tour. I will take responsibility for booking this tour - I should have done more research and realized that 20+ people is not an appropriate group size for the Vatican.

We were told that it would be a group of 20 or less. That's a lie - we had 24 in our group on Sept. 6. We did have an English speaking guide, but her English was difficult to understand. That is not her fault that English wasn't her native language. Our guide (I am not going to mention her name because it really isn't her fault that we had a lousy tour - this is managements issue) We had headsets that were very crackly and for 1/2 the time didn't work. Consider this - as we walked from room to room - a large group of 24 cannot all pass through the halls together - as you get separated the headsets do not work due to the thick walls and distance that separates you from the guide. The Vatican is mobbed with people so there is no way to make this work unless you book a small tour of 10 or less. That would be my recommendation...take a tour with another company that has 10 or less people in it. Our guide was informed and knew her facts, but it was obvious that our group couldn't understand her - when she would ask us questions we wouldn't respond because no one could hear her or understand what she was asking.

Lesson learned - the Vatican is not the place to take a tour with over 20 people in September - it's just way too crowded. It's possible if you had a guide that spoke better English and if the Vatican was having a slow day it might be ok, but there is no way I would recommend using Dark Rome City Wonders. We paid $150 for this tour - they made over $1000 in 3 hours since they had such a large group - this company is only interested in making money...not in giving a great tour experience.

Hello! We were on the Allure 2 weeks ago and went to Pompeii. We arrived right when they opened at 9 am and the place was swimming with people. There were tour groups everywhere - most with 20+ people. We went on a small tour of 8 with Lello & Co. and it was worth every penny we spent. Lello is an excellent guide and explained so many things that you would never hear on a larger tour. If you want to go it alone - I can respect that, but I do want to tell you that this tour was one of the best I have been on in several years. Lello knows what happened there - his English is great - and you will learn more in two hours than you thought possible. There is a lot of walking on uneven surfaces so don't wear flip flops. This excursion requires sneakers! Even though we were on a small tour - Pompeii was so crowded with people that it was hard for us to see all the little areas that Lello wanted to take us. September is a very busy time.

Wow...I am surprised by the recent negative reviews about Dennis. I researched what guide to use before booking with Dennis-in no way do I think there are 'false' posts out there. I think everyone just has different expectations/experiences/perspectives. That being said...I am a very positive person and VERY seldom have anything negative to say about anyone. However, I would not say Dennis is the best private tour guide we have ever had. We have done private tours before - in Mexico, other Caribbean islands, etc. The biggest 'negative' for me was that I couldn't always understand him. Part of that is probably an accent, but I felt like I had to 'work' during our time together. I didn't feel it was a super relaxing time. We were with Dennis from 9 am till probably 4 pm...7 hours. We saw almost everything we wanted to see. I absolutely do not agree with the posters who think you can see the island in 3-4 hours. You can go on a tour for 3-4 hours, but you will NOT see the entire island. You will not get out of the car to take pictures. We started at the Dockyard where our ship was located. Dennis was there promptly and had a sign with our name on it. We went to Fort Scaur and took some pretty photos and Dennis explained some of the history. We climbed Gibbs lighthouse which I highly recommend. We fed the fish at the smallest drawbridge. By noon he had gotten us to the opposite end of the island so we could see the dunking of the gossip at St. George's. We went to Blue Hole Park and our teens jumped into the lagoon. Dennis used to take people there 20+ years ago when they had dolphin shows in the lagoon. We ate at the Swizzle Inn. We really had our pace changed at the Swizzle Inn because service was VERY slow. The World Cup was on and the place was busy and understaffed. I think it took about 1 1/2 hours to have lunch - even Dennis commented that it was unusual for the service to be that slow. Dennis did not charge us extra - even though we were with him longer than we expected because he knew that it took a long time to eat lunch and that it wasn't our fault. We also bought him lunch so maybe he thought it was a fair trade off. We paid $350 for the 7 hours plus a tip. Our cruise was offering a 5 hour tour of Bermuda on a big bus that would have cost us $400 and wouldn't have been nearly as much to our tastes/interests.

I apologize for not having a more detailed review of exactly everything we did, but this is a good sampling of things.

I would like to specifically comment on previous posters saying he didn't share much history. I have a different opinion. I will agree that he did repeat some things, but I think he told me he is in his late 70's...so I will give him a break on repeating things! But, he did share a lot of history as well as local info...who knew that a loaf of bread was $4 or more? UGH!

I have ABSOLUTELY no regrets on booking this tour. I will admit that if I had to do it over again - I would book the tour, but probably would not give Dennis an A+ recommendation. He was a nice guide, but with all the other posts and reviews - I would find someone that didn't have an accent...that was my biggest issue.

Thanks everyone for the comments. We plan on getting a taxi to take us the 9 blocks to get to the cruise terminal.

I agree that it doesn't make sense to save a few dollars if it's a hassle; however, a 10 minute ferry ride to/from the ferry parking lot is worth $120 to me. We are headed to Oyster Bay after the cruise and because I am not from the area I wasn't sure if I should be parking somewhere else before cruising out of Manhattan. I understand that I will end up crossing the Hudson twice on the morning of our return from the Bermuda cruise, but I really don't love the idea of paying $40/day to park at the cruise terminal lot...sorry, but I would rather spend that $120 in savings on a massage on the cruise!:) I am from Lancaster County - thriftiness is in my bones! My philosophy is it's ok to spend money, but I don't love spending it on parking! I want to spend it on excursions, spa treatments, etc!

We are driving from PA to hop on the NCL Breakaway out of the Manhattan cruise terminal on Sunday (tomorrow!). After reviewing lots of threads it seems like parking at Weekawken and taking the Port Imperial ferry over to the city seems like a good option for us. It would cost our family of 4 - $160/rt versus the $280 it would cost to park at the cruise terminal parking. I am fine with this option; however, I thought I would ask a question anyhow to see if I am missing another option since we are not heading back to PA when we return. AFTER we return from our cruise we are going to Long Island for a few days...would it make more sense for us to park somewhere else since we are heading to LI when we get back from the cruise?

In less than 2 weeks we will be traveling all around Bermuda with Dennis Hollis. Even though it was last minute - he had availability to take us on a 6-7 hour tour. I have teenagers so I don't mind skipping some of the things my DH and I have seen before so that we can do some unique things with the DS and DD. I have asked him to take us to Blue Hole Park and Tom Moore's jungle so we can go cave swimming and swing from the vines. I will write a review when we return, but thanks so much for all the great posts on these boards - it has made my planning so much easier!