SilentDad

Here's the setup--We had a group of 9 people who flew to Rome from Indiana to get onboard the Harmony OTS transatlantic. We decided it would be better to board the ship 3 days early in Rome ( Civitavecchia) instead of flying to Barcelona and spending our "jet lag" time on rooms and food there. ( We'd all been there several times before) I had used RIL before and had been very impressed with them and so decided to use them again.

Rome- After we got off the plane and "cleared" Customs ( that was easy) and gathered our luggage, we went out the last doors into the terminal and found a large group of people holding signs with names on them. I quickly found our guy, Wlad, who was going to take us to the hotel in the heart of Rome. ( Albergo Cesari) He was a driver, not a guide, but he told us interesting facts as he navigated the 45 minute trip into our hotel. He did an excellent job for us.

Rome to port (Civitvecchia)--The next day we were boarding the Harmony for our 3 day jet lag cruise to Barcelona. Our pickup time was noon and our driver, Sal, was there a right on time. It was obvious that Sal had limited English but we had hired a driver not a guide to get us to the port. Getting out of Rome was like trying to get out of a labyrinth but Sal managed all the narrow streets and twists and turns to get us to the port in about 1 1/2 hours. He did an excellent job.

Naples- The next day after we had boarded the Harmony, our port was Naples. We had hired RIL again to give us a tour of the area. Most of us were over 55 and some had limited mobility, so I had asked for a tour that had limited walking. Additionally, we had 9 people, which meant we had an 8 person touring van and an additional sedan. It really worked out well, since the people who might have had trouble getting into the van, rode in the sedan. It gave everyone more room. The two drivers, Diego and Tony, picked us up at the ship and both men were personable and spoke excellent English. We had a great day with them and they showed us beauty of the area. I had asked that we lunch at a place the big tour buses didn't go to and we were taken to Costantino's on the Amalfi coast. The view was spectacular and the food was good. Couldn't ask for anything better.

I'm sure some of you are thinking- 2 vehicles, 2 guides ? How much did that cost!? The cost of the tour ( lunch not included) was 1020 Euro which works out to about 113 euro a person. We included more to insure that these men were tipped appropriately for their services. In the end, it was much cheaper than the ship charged and we didn't have to deal with those big buses.

So, we used RomeInLimo three times in this trip. We all felt that we got outstanding service and value for the money we spent.

RomeInLimo is highly recommended not only by me but by everyone in our group.

Yep, Chris is right. We gave the driver less since when we changed vans, we also changed drivers and had the second driver for only one day. Give what you feel is right.

Tipping on tours

I believe the two day tour in St. Petersburg through Alla cost about $ 265 a person for the comfort tour. I think we (Chris & I) tried to tip about 10%. We gave our guide around $50 for the two days. I've forgotten how much we gave to the driver but usually it's 10%. We gave them our tips as we were getting out of the van at the cruise port.

The name of the Alla tour guide in Tallinn was Helen. I took notes. : )

While Silentbob007 ( chris) tends to be warm all the time, I tend to be cooler especially in the ship. I always pack one or two long-sleeved "shipshirts" because I'm always a bit cold. Must be either metabolism or old age--- hmmm, I'll pick metabolism.:)

I wanted to "add" some things to what Silentbob said-- I call him Chris.:)

The Stingray tour in Cayman was exactly what it was billed as-- a trip to have an encounter with the stingrays with a bit of snorkeling thrown in afterwards. It cost $40 each and was worth the one time experience. Native Way did an excellent job of taking care of us and provided what they said they would. I would use them again with no hesitation.

I also was a bit underwhelmed by the Freedom. I like the "boulevard" down the center of the ship. But I've seen that before and I guess I was expecting something new out of this class of ship. Still, as Chris said, I enjoyed the cruise and the ship. The one thing that irritated me-- that Chris didn't talk about-- was the scheduling of trivia. Personally, I enjoy trivia ( insert joke here) but I think we only got to go to 2 or 3 the whole week because of the scheduling.

Now I have to concentrate on getting to D+ which means----- more cruises!!:D