Florence/Pisa..ship tour choice

[bluenoser2]

My husband and I are having an uncharacteristic disagreement on one of our ports! Can anyone help me? I have resigned myself to the fact that we will be doing a ship's excursion - he's not the adventurous sort. We've never been to Florence, so we don't know what to expect or do - and yes, we know we can't do it all in one day! He does want to be able to get to both Florence and Pisa in our day. So our choice is the guided tour that Princess gives of Florence and Pisa, which appears to start with Florence: "Explore Florence on a guided walking tour. Visit the Piazza del Duomo and the Piazza Della Signoria. View the 15th-century cathedral, the Baptistery with its massive bronze doors before taking in the statue of David at the Accademia Museum. Before returning to the ship, travel to Pisa to view the Leaning Tower. " The Florence and Pisa On your Own tour begins in Pisa with an hour to spend, and then on to Florence for 4 hours on your own. The first does include lunch and entrance into some of the places, and of course, is $$ more! Has anyone experienced either of these sort of tours to give us some guidance? Thanks so much - you're all so helpful, I love this place!

[GirlWriter]

What date will you be in Florence/Pisa?

[chipmaster]

There is always safety in numbers and on a big bus tour. The princess tour isn't cheap and from what I saw is a big bus tour with 50 of your friends and a guide holding a little princess flag to lead you around. For probably less you could find a tour share or book your own private tour with a minivan and 4-7 of your friends. I think the going rate for RIL is about 500 EUROs/van holds about 7 people, you do the math and see what works. We used private in Rome, FLorenc/Pisa and Naples. I'd say I'm not adventurous and wanted no risk related to schedule and was scheduling for large group of people from 7 to 80 years old. Lets say the private tour went like a dream in all 3 ports. The RIL drivers weren't guides, they drove us to each site and dropped us less than 20 meters from each site making it easy for my 80 year old father to minimize walking. They shared lots of history and trivia for us, bought our reserved tickets at Academia, pointed us to the best resturant across from St Croce. In Pisa we climbed versus viewed the tower, did everything you mentioned and also had time to walk to Pointe Vechio for about 30' and some great gellato at a stop outside florence.. We got back to the ship, showered and were on deck enjoying a drink by the pool as the big buses came back. IMHO skip the bus unless you really don't want to send a few emails and get a tour togather you will make an experience of a lifetime without spending more.

 

Good luck!

 

My husband and I are having an uncharacteristic disagreement on one of our ports! Can anyone help me? I have resigned myself to the fact that we will be doing a ship's excursion - he's not the adventurous sort. We've never been to Florence, so we don't know what to expect or do - and yes, we know we can't do it all in one day! He does want to be able to get to both Florence and Pisa in our day. So our choice is the guided tour that Princess gives of Florence and Pisa, which appears to start with Florence: "Explore Florence on a guided walking tour. Visit the Piazza del Duomo and the Piazza Della Signoria. View the 15th-century cathedral, the Baptistery with its massive bronze doors before taking in the statue of David at the Accademia Museum. Before returning to the ship, travel to Pisa to view the Leaning Tower. " The Florence and Pisa On your Own tour begins in Pisa with an hour to spend, and then on to Florence for 4 hours on your own. The first does include lunch and entrance into some of the places, and of course, is $$ more! Has anyone experienced either of these sort of tours to give us some guidance? Thanks so much - you're all so helpful, I love this place!

[dfwguy62]

My personal experience... My first ever cruise was in the Med and I didn't really know anything about excursions or doing things on my own. So I opted for ship's excursions in all ports (I think). In Livorno, I took a fully guided tour to Florence and Pisa as you mention. While I enjoyed the sights and such, I recall being a little disappointed that I didn't have more time on my own. We spent far longer on lunch in a restaurant than I would have preferred. I'd rather be out walking around and eat off quickly some where. I also recall the streets were often narrow and crowded and that our large tour group stringed along behind the guide for quite a distance some times as we worked thru the crowds and over cobblestone streets. We'd then have to wait for the stragglers to catch up before the guide could speak to the group. It was a little frustrating. The pros -- the guaranteed bus transportation to the locations and back to ship. That's about the only one I can come up with.

 

On my second Med cruise, I was now a seasoned cruiser. This time, we took the train from Livorno to Florence on our own and did everything in Florence at our own pace (including a stop for gelato).

 

On the first cruise, I also did a Rome-on-your-own excursion thru the cruiseline. I found this to be an acceptable compromise between the two extremes. The ship guaranteed the transportation, but I was free to see and do what I wanted at the destination.

 

If you're at all able to research and plan your walking journey out in the locations, I vote for using the one that gives you transporation, but the freedom to do as you desire. This assumes you have already made your decision to not do the port on your own fully.

[bluenoser2]

Shay...we will be in Florence/Pisa on June 9. Thanks everyone for your help - tonight I'll show DH your wise advice and see how I do at persuading him.....wish me luck!

[6rugrats]

You absolutely do not have to be the adventurous sort to do this on your own! We always get one of the DK Eyewitness travel guides, such as DK Top Ten Florence, which gives you a good overview of what there is to see, and how to plan your day. You can often find these in the library, if you want to just give them a quick look.

 

It's very, very easy to take the train yourself. Lots of detailed information how to do this; do a search in this forum, or use google. You can easily walk from the train station in Florence to all the major sites.

 

I hate large group tours with busloads of people and would prefer to move at my own pace. Highly advise you though to purchase tickets in advance for any museums you would like to visit to avoid long lines.