Time boarding the ship from pre cruise tour?

[Tina0922]

Hello all,

 

Does anybody know roughly what time the land tour arrives at the ship. My family trying to met up with each other to board together. Some of us are doing cruise only and others taking the 5 day land tour prior.

 

We are taking cruise tour 4EB on the Mariner next month. The land tour states we visit the Vatican in the morning then break for lunch prior to driving the 45min-hour to get to the pier... Just wondering roughly what time so the other family members dont sit & wait all afternoon when they too can tour Rome on their own prior to boarding. Thanks.

 

Tina

[cb at sea]

If I were NOT on the tour, I'd go ahead and board the ship and start using what I'd paid to use!

Why make folks wait?

Just meet up for drinks sometime in the afternoon. If everyone knows everyone else's cabin #, they can leave messages on the cabin phones, to let you know when everyone is there, and where they'll be!

[Tina0922]

Thats usually what we do here in the states but we have our cell phones to contact each other & not a special occasion....In Rome we are not bringing them. The family wants to make sure we get on board photos since we are all celebrating parents' 40th anniversary and figured it would be easier for them to enjoy their time in Rome in the morning and just meet pier side to board together.

 

Plus we are all well seasoned cruisers....we know ship layout, what to expect & see on board so boarding ASAP is not a big deal. Would rather see Rome, which we never been to than see a ship we know about.... Thanks though

 

Tina

[April-in-NC]

Thats usually what we do here in the states but we have our cell phones to contact each other & not a special occasion....In Rome we are not bringing them. The family wants to make sure we get on board photos since we are all celebrating parents' 40th anniversary and figured it would be easier for them to enjoy their time in Rome in the morning and just meet pier side to board together.

 

Plus we are all well seasoned cruisers....we know ship layout, what to expect & see on board so boarding ASAP is not a big deal. Would rather see Rome, which we never been to than see a ship we know about.... Thanks though

 

Tina

 

Does the group picture have to be the "Welcome Aboard" picture? You could get a group picture at any time througout the cruise if that is the big reason for waiting to board together. Just an idea...

[orchidj5]

We were on the same tour last summer only the ship was the navigator-so perhaps i can provide some insite-although i will tell you that they changed our itenarary a bit since we were in Rome on the last Sunday of the month when the vatican muesums are not open on sunday so we had that tour on Sat afternoon and the archeological tour on sunday morning. the luggage goes from the hotel directly to the ship so you dont have to worry about that at check in-ours was already in our room when we boarded. I seem to recall that we had about 45 minutes in piazza Navona to get something to eat-thats not much if things are busy and a really short time by italian standards so be prepared for that. We boarded buses at about 1300 and arrived at the pier around 1430 (1pm and 230pm). check in went reasonably quickly and i think we were on board and in the room between 1515 and 1530 ( 315 and 330). The caveat to all of this is that the length of the Vatican tour is going to be driven by how busy it is when you are there-and where they do the lunch break-there are places closer to the Vatican than piazza navona.

Have fun-we had an amazing vacation. and-assuming they are using the same tour company-the guides at all the sites are really amazing.

[Tina0922]

orchidj5, Thank you very much. That is what I was trying to figure out.

 

I know it may sound 'silly' but my family likes getting the Welcome Aboard picture that has sail date and all. Plus it makes a great opening page in the scrap book, hense why we want to board together. I will let the other family members that will be touring Rome on their own about the time frame.....and thanks for the added information.

 

Tina