euro cruiser

Yes, there will be plenty of taxis available as you leave the cruise port. There is a round trip, fixed fare to Herculaneum by taxi of 80 euro that includes a two-hour stop at the ruins. This should be plenty of time. To get the fixed fare you must tell the driver you want it before the trip begins/before he engages the meter. The fare chart is posted in every licensed cab and has the key points translated into English. You can also download the chart from the city's web site and take a copy with you, so you can point at what you want. The chart is in the pdf file below the cartoon of the taxi here: Comune di Napoli - Servizio Taxi There are often guides available at the entrance to the ruins but they are not guaranteed to be there, as they are at Pompei.

Guess we'll just disagree on this. Unless one is very slow, or very far from a main station, I don't think it's a wash but you make a good point that the time savings aren't as great as I implied. Moreover, you can eat during a train ride and use the bathroom without making a stop, saving some time. Finally, I think you'll get the best of a driver's input in an eight hour day, no need to stretch it into twelve or more hours.

My first trip to Rome was my first trip to Italy. I didn't speak a word of Italian at the time and I stayed for a month without scratching the surface of things to see and do. I would seriously consider spending the entire time in Rome, maybe doing a day trip from there (Florence or Naples/Pompei are easy to reach by high speed train for the day, without the need to pack up and change hotels).

No matter how good RIL is, they can't travel as fast as the high speed trains. It would be a MUCH better use of your time to take a fast train from Rome to Naples and Rome to Florence, then have your car service pick you up there and return you to the train station at the end of the day. That will significantly lessen the amount of time in the car. Rome to Sorrento is about a three and a half hour drive if traffic is normal (google maps consistently underestimates travel time in Italy). High speed train from Rome to Napoli Afragola takes one hour, plus about 90 minutes by car to Sorrento. Rome to San Gimignano by car is about three and a half to four hours. High speed train to Florence is an hour and forty minutes, plus a little over an hour by car to San Gimignano.

What entrance? There is now an elevator at the Civitavecchia station, eliminating the steps to get under the tracks and up the other side.

She had a sign up sheet with hours from 9 AM - 5 PM, with one hour off for lunch from 12 - 1, plus people like me showing up at five till nine trying to get her attention.

We would have paid the corkage fees if they had been assessed, we understood the risk but decided that being able to have the wine we preferred while enjoying our balcony was worth the extra $20 per bottle. I don't think it has anything to do with honor, it was in checked luggage that they have the full legal authority to search. No one ever asked me if I carried something on, if they had I would have been truthful. Life is too short to risk ruining a good time over $20 here or there, nor is it worth the guilt that accompanies lying (for me, anyway).

We just got off this cruise this morning. Yes, there were disappointments, especially missing Huatulco, but overall we had a great time. HAL in general has an older clientele, on longer cruises that's even more the case. Health issues happen, as one who has frequently cruised with an elderly parent and two other health-compromised family members I've always felt confident that emergencies would be handled. I was glad to see that this was still the case. Besides the two evacuations that happened during the cruise, this morning two ambulances met the ship at Port Everglades and took two passengers off. I did notice many differences from pre-Covid cruising but it was difficult to know if they were cost cutting measures or a result of inability to fully staff the ship. I wrote an extensive feedback survey about the things I noticed, none of them deal breakers but annoying nonetheless. As a side note, as much as unhappy folks tend to find one another, the fact that you could not get time with the future cruise consultant for the last week of the cruise tells me that not everyone was as disenchanted as the OP.

Well, reality is somewhat different than the website. I checked with our HAL cruise consultant a week before boarding our cruise three weeks ago and she told me that decisions about corking fees are made on the spot, by folks on the ship. She said that there was no hard and fast rule and that they seemed to target "egregious" behavior. My roommate and I each packed three bottles of wine in our checked luggage for a two-week cruise. No comment and no corkage fees. We consumed the wine on our verandah.

I just got off a HAL cruise, my first since Covid, and for the first time I selected a set dining time. In the past I always wanted the "freedom" of anytime dining, but fixed dining was a revelation for me. It was lovely to have a set table, for two, the same table each night with the same neighbors around us and the same servers. Looking around there were lots of two-tops in the third-floor dining room, where fixed diners eat. We never even waited to be seated, just walked in and right to "our" table. The new (how new is it?) Club Orange makes it even more difficult for anytime diners, the lines are longer since Club Orange members have a separate line and are seated before everyone else.

Just for fun, take a look at these two villas in the Sorrento area: Villa Glenna: Self catering villa in Sorrento, Italy (summerinitaly.com) Villa Dulcibella: Self catering villa in Sorrento, Italy (summerinitaly.com)

...laughing up her sleeve she said ... I don't care when you go there, unless you are going by helicopter there is no way that you can get from Positano to Amalfi in ten minutes. Absolutely no way. It's about 16 km/10 miles between Positano and Amalfi but the one-lane-each-direction, winding road that is way oversubscribed with cars and buses means that even in the middle of the night, or just after dawn, the best you can do is about 20 - 25 minutes. In the middle of the day, in season, it's more like 45 mintes.

With three nights I would consider staying in one of the towns suggested above rather than the rather insipid Civitavecchia, especially since you're willing to pay for a car service to get around. Also, if you stay in either Orvieto or Tarquinia, you could spend an entire day or two just exploring the town, no need for a car or driver. I know Civitavecchia has her defenders here on the boards, but you can visit everything of interest there in less than a day. Why not stay somewhere that's both a great place to stay and to visit?

Are you looking to please everyone? How are the kids feeling about Pompei? If it's not a highlight for them, perhaps allowing them to choose the location along the coast will balance the day for them.

You might consider renting a villa with a private pool, assuming you can find the right number and configuration of bedrooms for your family (having done this for my own family many times I know it can be challenging to meet everyone's needs). If a villa doesn't suit, Sorrento might be a good choice for you. There are a lot of hotels to choose from at various price points, lots of restaurants, and easy access via ferry to Capri. This is my favorite supplier for villas in Campania: Vacation rental in Italy - Villas and Apartments Amalfi Positano Sorrento Tuscany (summerinitaly.com)

It is easy to get there on your own. If Pompei (or Pompei and Naples) are the only places you will be going this is a great opportunity to save yourself some money and DIY it. If you will be there between now and the first of April, the ruins will close at 17:00 (5 PM), in the summer months (April-October) closing is at 19:00. In either case, you'll want to get off the ship and hustle towards Pompei as quickly as possible. You have at least two public transport options. There is a bus that departs from Varco Immacolatella (600 meters/four-tenths of a mile on foot from the cruise port) at 13:30 (1:30 PM) that you should have no trouble making, this would be the fastest and easiest routing. There is a ticket office at the bus depot so it's easy to get the ticket and hop on the bus. https://www.sitasudtrasporti.it/archivio/Download/corse/sitasud/Campania/Salerno/5684ad13-da51-4090-8f04-5fb8652025fe_5001_12_09_2022.pdf/0 More cumbersome but still not difficult is the Circumvesuviana local train. https://www.eavsrl.it/web/sites/default/files/ORARI NAPOLI SORRENTO_dal 1 settembre 2022_1.pdf

It could also be simple lack of awareness. While the news of upcoming strikes is also published in the newspapers, in addition to the government web site, if you don't read Italian it's possible to live there and be ignorant of what's coming. It can feel random and spontaneous if you're out of the information loop. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard from tourists about "random" strikes. They are making a common mistake of assuming that what happened the one or two times they visited must happen all the time. And they're filling in the blanks with what makes sense to them, assuming it was unknown in advance just because they didn't know.

While it's always true that "anything can happen", anywhere, let's not drag out that old trope about train strikes. Unlike in the States, unplanned or wildcat strikes are almost unheard of in Italy. It's very easy to know in advance if there is a public transportation strike planned.

Yes, it's physically possible but you will have limited time at each site. That may be all you want/need, I just want to point it out. Assuming a normal arrival time at Salerno, you could be at Herculeneum shortly after opening, and on your way to Pompei by noon. That will allow you two or three hours at Pompei before heading back to Salerno. If you decide that you want to try this, come back closer to your travel date and we can walk you through the specifics.

For perspective, the train station in Salerno is about a mile and a half, on foot, from the cruise port. There you could get a train to Portici-Ercolano (the train trip takes just over an hour), then walk just over a mile to the ruins (Herculeneum). After seeing them, it's a four-tenths of a mile walk to the Ercolano Scavi Circumvesuviana station. It's about 15 minutes on the Circumvesuviana train to Pompei Scavi, the entrance to the ruins is just around the corner from the station. If you visit the ruins in a "one-way" path, exiting at the Antiteatro exit, it will be a half mile walk to the Pompei Trenitalia station to get the train back to Salerno (about 45 minutes). At this point you've got the mile and a half walk (or a taxi) back to the cruise port. All of the train transport will add up to only about 10 euro, vs. about 400 - 500 euro for a private car service.

Odds are you'll need to pay for a private tour for something so specific. It's a lot to try and see both in one day, the Pompei site is huge. There is public transit that can get you from Salerno to each site and back, fairly easily. You just wouldn't have much time at either place.

I keep forgetting that we can add pictures on CC. Here's a view of the palace at Caserta, taken from the gardens.

An easy day trip that doesn't take much planning is the royal palace and gardens at Caserta. It's a little over an hour by high speed train from Rome, and the palace is directly across from the train station so there's no need for ground transportation once there. The palace takes about an hour to tour, then the gardens can be explored for hours. In the warmer months they have various means of transportation through the gardens, or you can walk. cultura.gov.it

It's not hard to secure a passport to avoid pickpocketing. It's a personal risk assessment, what are the odds and costs of losing it/having it stolen vs. the odds and costs of needing it and not having it. I prefer not to leave anything of value in hotel room safes, which are notoriously unsecure. It seems that everyone can get into them with relative ease except the room tenant. Hotel staff and contractors can get in them in seconds. That's why the hotels won't guarantee anything placed in them. If you want real security you need to ask them to hold your things in the hotel safe, which they do guarantee (usually).

The issue with carrying ID isn't about check points, I can't remember a time when I've been asked for ID other than at an arrival point (airport, train border crossing, ferry port). The vast majority of tourists will never encounter a situation where it's necessary to produce identification while visiting. However, if it does happen and you can't produce the ID, it can really ruin your day. Especially on a cruise, when you have only a few hours in a place, why risk wasting any of them over something so easy to avoid?