Carnival Rome and Vatican Tour

[cleobella]

Hi,

Carnival is offering a Rome and Vatican tour for just $175 pp. It is a 12 hour day with 3 hours free time in Rome after a guided ride and the afternoon at the Vatican with a guide. Does this seem worth it? I wonder if anyone has done this and maybe has some feedback?

Thanks

[hubofhockey]

The only 12-hour Rome/Vatican excursion I saw as available is called Rome Highlights and Vatican Museum and the cost is $180 and includes lunch and two hours for shopping or time at your leisure.

 

I may be prejudiced against cruise line excursion, especially those on crowded buses. Some people like them. I think the big drawbacks to this one is that the whole morning is a drive by. They talk about all of the places you see. But you see them from a bus. The afternoon is a visit to the Vatican where they will give you headphones for a tour. They do say that they will skip lines.

 

The good thing about the Carnival Rome port days is that they begin at 7 am and end at 10 pm. This one looks like it starts at 7:15 am and the bus heads back to the ship at 5:45 pm. We are also going on the Magic and I thought the generous time at port was great for taking the train in and really walking around and experiencing Rome as opposed to seeing it from a bus. You may want to consider a hop on hop off bus day and get a Vatican tour from a licensed guide doing land tours. Different people have different comfort levels. Good luck.

[KirkNC]

We did the trip on our own, spent six hours "on our own" and did a three hour tour of the Vatican with Angel Tours (excellent) for a total cost of $264 for three people or $88/pp. We used the train (9.5 euros/pp), it is very easy to do.

 

Kirk

[wantocruisemore]

If I were you I would skip the "cattle call" tour since as others mentioned, alot is just drive bys. Do some research and either do it on your own or arrange for a private excursion. With the private you will come out cheaper for a better tour and you can combine with some in your roll call to bring down the price (if there are less than 4 of you).

 

Also, think about what you want to see and work from there. I don't mind a ship's excursion when you have just one destination and it's far from port, but no way for the cattle call tours that spend more time on the bus or waiting for people to get back on.