Excursions

[manime]

First time cruiser, so really am a novice. Doing a Med cruise in July. Question is should I book the ships excursions early or leave them to closer to the time of the cruise. We are a family of four with 12 & 16 year old girls. Cruise is Barcelona, Majorca, Ibiza, Cittaveccia, Palermo and Savona. Thanks for any replies.

[phider]

First time cruiser, so really am a novice. Doing a Med cruise in July. Question is should I book the ships excursions early or leave them to closer to the time of the cruise. We are a family of four with 12 & 16 year old girls. Cruise is Barcelona, Majorca, Ibiza, Cittaveccia, Palermo and Savona. Thanks for any replies.

 

You probably won't be able to book your excursions yet but closer to 2-3 months prior. The point about booking safely in advance, would be to ensure a spot, but it is possible to book on the ship subject to availability.

 

Be aware that the Costa excursions are somewhat expensive, and can run you up quite a lot of money. Of course, its relative depending on your pocket, but you could also choose a few specific port of calls where you get on excursions, and do it yourself on the rest.

 

Rome is 1 hour and 10 minutes away from Civitavecchia by train, and costs 10 euro pp roundtrip. The train station is about 500 meters from the port drop off area (you get driven from the ship disembarkation area out of the port by shuttle bus for free). Once at the Roma Termini, you could opt for the hop on/hop off bus (the completely turn around time for the hop on/hop off bus is around 2 hours and 15 minutes, excluding the time you stay at each spot of course) or simply walk to different sites, such as the Colosseum, which takes about 30-40 minutes on foot or about 8 minutes by taxi and costs about 10 euro.

 

You should easily be able to do something yourself in Barcelona. Costa provides shuttle busses for 6 euro's per person roundtrip to and from the ship and into city center. You can purchase these tickets directly on the ship at the automatic portal stands or at the Tour Office the day before.

 

By the way - never buy any souvenirs offered at any tourist locations or street sellers, and don't get lured into having pictures taken by people in costumes (my advice anyways).

 

When you do things yourself at port of calls, just make sure you're off the ship first thing, so you get as much out of it as possible.

 

Philip

Edited December 12, 2013 by phider

[phider]

Here are pictures of the public train ticket from Civitavecchia to Rome (you get two separate tickets, one from Civitavecchia to Rome and one from Rome to Civitavecchia).

 

I have also included a picture of the shuttle bus tickets you can purchase from the Costa Tour Office on the ship the day before arrival at the Barcelona port. If you buy them from one of the self service portal stands directly with your Costa Cards they look different (its a machine print out from those stands).

 

Philip

[AnonymousCruiser69]

with four people, you can probably book private guides for your tours for the same or less cost as the ship's tours.

 

do take a look at the ports of call section here on cruise critic for suggestions/questions about specific ports.

[manime]

Thanks for the info. We are going on the Favolosa. I can book on the Costa site, have been able to since I booked this last September. Have booked the AI already. Embarking from Barcelona and have 4 days there after the cruise. Rome was the big one for us and you are right that it is quite expensive. Basic tour including return trip is around £200 for the family, so it is quite expensive.

Thanks for the info, really appreciated.

[phider]

Thanks for the info. We are going on the Favolosa. I can book on the Costa site, have been able to since I booked this last September. Have booked the AI already. Embarking from Barcelona and have 4 days there after the cruise. Rome was the big one for us and you are right that it is quite expensive. Basic tour including return trip is around £200 for the family, so it is quite expensive.

Thanks for the info, really appreciated.

 

Ok. If you decide to DIY for Rome, you will get jumped by external tour sellers and taxi caps twice. Once when you leave the Port Shuttle Bus, which transports you from the ship out of the port area, and second once you leave the shuttle bus area (door to the right of where you get put off from the port shuttle bus).

 

I would recommend to say NO to any of them. The taxi caps will offer you rides to Rome for around ~150 euros roundtrip, and will sell them as tour excursions to different sites - but none speaks anything near English.

 

Of course - no one tells you about the 20 euro round trip train option either.

 

How long do you have at the port from you are able to leave the ship, until you must be back?

 

By the way - Rome tourist attractions are scuffed with beggars and people that want to sell cheap souvenirs - takes some of the experience in my opinion. Try not to look like tourists if possible.

 

Philip

[manime]

Philip, again thanks for the reply. I am led to believe that we have 10.5 hours from leaving the boat, need to check that though. I have a guide book for Rome but never been there and thought that the boat excursion would save a lot of hassle although it is quite expensive I think.

Looking forward to it as we've never cruised before and it's an itch I'd like to scratch as they say. Again thanks.

[manime]

Philip, again thanks for the reply. I am led to believe that we have 10.5 hours from leaving the boat, need to check that though. I have a guide book for Rome but never been there and thought that the boat excursion would save a lot of hassle although it is quite expensive I think.

Do you know if the boat excursions get cheaper the nearer to the cruise or do they stay the same right the way through.

Looking forward to it as we've never cruised before and it's an itch I'd like to scratch as they say. Again thanks.

[phider]

Philip, again thanks for the reply. I am led to believe that we have 10.5 hours from leaving the boat, need to check that though. I have a guide book for Rome but never been there and thought that the boat excursion would save a lot of hassle although it is quite expensive I think.

Do you know if the boat excursions get cheaper the nearer to the cruise or do they stay the same right the way through.

Looking forward to it as we've never cruised before and it's an itch I'd like to scratch as they say. Again thanks.

 

I understand. No, I have not seen that the excursions get cheaper the closer you get to the departure date of the ship.

 

Philip

[Capricruiser]

I never pre-book excursions because frequently the tour magazine you'll find in your cabin lists additional tours not on the website. In any case the price is always the same whether you pre-book or sign up once on the ship.