Civitavecchia-beginning Rome Excursions for Epic

[Son of a son of a ...]

Hi all -

 

We are less than six months out from our Western Med cruise on the Epic. I am the unofficial "Julie McCoy" for the vacation ... MIL & BIL joining us.

 

Our most talked about port is Civitavecchia, which is the gateway to a Rome excursion. I checked the NCL site for your cruise and I don't see any excursions offered. I expect they will open up in a few months.

 

Regardless, I am now trying to research one-day excursions for Rome ... like time, itinerary, price, etc. I checked the "destinations" part of CC and I was led to a bunch of individual reviews with scant info.

 

So, my post to this board is whether anyone is willing to share their experience with the NCL Rome excursion, as well as, experiences with private tours. Any recommends would be helpful.

 

Many thanks!

[sc2011]

My cruise is in April, so I can't report back yet. However here is our private tour information.

 

We are delighted you are considering us to show you around! At Italy Rome Tour, we are specialize in creating personal and custom Rome sightseeing tours, including the most important Cities in Italy. With us, you will experience a Private Tour based on your unique wishes, needs and desires.

 

Shore excursion from Civitavecchia to Rome

 

Pick up at the pier at 8:00 A.M. will be right in front of the Boat exit door.
There will be your driver with your last name printed on a paper-sheet sign. You’ll drive in a smooth motorway through the country and see the Etruscan Landscapes with my Luxury Mercedes Mini Van. It will take approx. 80 minutes to get to Rome. The drive will continue along Ostiense Road and arrive at the Pyramid built for Caius Cestio.

At this stage of the tour we will be inside the ancient Roman Wall built by Emperor Aureliano (270 AD). This area inside is considered Downtown Rome. We will then arrive at the Circus Maximus, the large ancient stadium for chariot races. Behind the stadium you will see the Palatine Hill where the villas and the domus of the emperors were built. At this point you will be able to see the Arch of Constantine and the Colosseum.

 

We will stop here, and you will be able to visit the Coliseum and the Roman Forum on your own if you wish. In order to avoid lengthy and time-consuming queues, I will obtain the entry tickets in advance as a complimentary service for my clients (the Coliseum charges 20 Euros per ticket reservation included).

 

Following the Coliseum, we will stop at the top of the Capitol Hill for a great view of the Roman Forum, then just drive to Piazza Venezia where you will see the Vittorio Emanuele Monument, dedicated to the first king of Italy, (the wedding-cake of Rome). In 2 minutes we will be at the Pantheon, the most untouched monument you can see today after more than 2000 years still standing!!! The Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps will be the next stop, and please, let me tell you that the most famous Steps in the World are not Spanish but … built by an idea of the French Cardinal Polignac and the Italian Engineer De Sanctis!

 

After a light lunch including pasta or pizza in a very nice typical Roman Trattoria (pizza, pasta, gelato …), you’ll be ready to visit the Vatican Museum where you will admire the vast collection of masterpieces, including the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel. Admission to the Museum is 25 Euros per person and, if you wish to skip the line …. you should better have a Private Guide in the Vatican Museum that I can book for you at a price of 150 Euros for 2/3 hours. It will take two/three hours to visit the Museum, The Sistine Chapel and The Basilica. Believe me, the Guide is optional of course, but highly recommended to gather knowledge about the number 1 Museum of the World!

 

If you don't want to see the vatican museum it will be possible to take you to see the catacombs before to go back to the port.

 

Around 4:00 P.M. we’ll be ready to go back to the Port, exhausted but happy.

 

The cost is 490€ and includes Mercedes minivan and driver/guide.

 

Option 1: Vatican tour guide customizable for 150€ extra but you will visit the Colosseum and Roman Forum on your own

 

Option 2: Colosseum and Roman Forum tour guide customizable for 150€ extra but you will visit the Vatican Museum on your own

 

Option 3: Vatican tour guide and Colosseum tour guide Customizable for 210€ extra ( there won’t be enough time to see even the Roman Forum unfortunately )

[Sauer-kraut]

Go to the PORTS OF CALL board for ITALY

Rome in Limo always gets good reviews. Also how to do Roma DIY as well as making sure you book your Vatican tix prior to departure so you don't have to stand in line.

[misskirby]

If you feel the need for an excursion, go for it. However, you can do Rome on your own easily and for a much more reasonable price than you'll find elsewhere. On our recent Epic cruise, that was the port we did on our own. The ship will bus you to a local point in Civitavecchia and from there it's about a mile or so walk to the train station. I was able to look online before we left and find the train times from there to Rome so we'd know ahead of time. We took the train to Rome Ostiense, then hopped on the metro for 2 stops and got off right at the Colosseum. Had prebooked our tickets there, so were set. After that, got back on the metro, a few more stops to Termini Station where we switched to the other metro line. Got off at the stop nearest the Trevi Fountain and walked to that. Back to the metro to the stop near the Vatican Museums. Again, had prebooked tickets there, so went through and saw that, then walked over to St. Peter's Square. From there walked to San Pietro station, and headed back to Civitavecchia and the ship. It was for sure a lot of walking (I think we clocked it at 9 miles that day), buuuut we saved a ton of money doing it that way vs a tour. Especially considering there were 9 of us. Anyway, just an option to consider.

[Shawnino]

Go to the PORTS OF CALL board for ITALY

Rome in Limo always gets good reviews. Also how to do Roma DIY as well as making sure you book your Vatican tix prior to departure so you don't have to stand in line.

 

Very sage advice.

 

We did Rome in a golf cart prior to embarkation through "My Best Tour"... good fun.

 

We then had a stopover day in Rome as the ship switched from E./Med to W./Med. I passed Rome to go to the countryside instead, but my wife went into town and did Vatican and Villa Borghese on her own. She loved it.

[nolatravelgirl]

I have a VERY detailed review of my tour with Rome in Limo. You can read it here starting at post #73. While Rome is easy to DIY if you have a couple of days, I would not recommend it if you want to hit all the highlights in a single port stop. The day is just too short to be dilly dallying. Let me know if you have any questions after reading my review.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2256323&page=4

[Boschmann]

I chose Civi as my embarkation point primarily because I didn't feel the Rome excursions as listed above were for me - way too much packed in. The NCL tour is the only way we would have tried due to fears of missing the ship departure, but heard from other cruisers it was too much to try to do in a day. We had four days in Rome before our cruise and still didn't do everything we wanted. Public transit was fairly easy, but not efficient enough to pull it all off in one day. My advice since you have one "day" is to pick either Roman ruins (Colosseum/Forum possibly Pantheon & Trevi if you don't go inside previous two) or Vatican, not both. It would take days to see everything I would like to have seen in the Vatican museums alone.

 

I recommend a private tour company or just a hire a private car/van even though it might cost more than public transport as time is your biggest foe. Port shuttle bus to Civi public bus (or walk) to Civi train station is a time killer, then various bus/metro/train connections once in Rome eat too much time. Most of the tour companies I used in Italy were happy to modify their tour to what I wanted, for example in Naples I used Mondo Guide and booked their Herculaneum, Sorrento & Positano tour. We switched around the order to go to a separately booked a one hour cheese factory tour outside Sorrento and cut Positano out completely to give us more time in Herculaneum. We still didn't have enough time in Herculaneum - tried to do too much in one day. I think you can get a Rome tour company to do a less hectic version allowing you to see fewer things in better detail and make it easier to get back in time.

 

As to the need of a guide, I found on our private tours that even though they said the driver was not a guide and only spoke basic English, both were very good guides and spoke English well. Once inside the Forum & Colosseum there are good rentable audio guides or better yet Rick Steeves free podcasts (listen to them at least once before you go). If you choose no guide for Vatican museums remember at the end once you are leaving the Sisteen chapel there are two exit doors the one on the left takes you back around to the museum entrance/exit. The one on the right (marked tour group exit) will take you directly to St Peter's Basilica. From the museum entrance/exit back to St Peter's is a long walk and then you have to go through the security line again, take the right door if possible. When we went no guard was watching and they didn't care as most people used this exit. Otherwise if they're enforcing the guided tour only policy slip in with a tour and look like you know what you are doing because it will save at least an hour if you want to see the Basilica/square. The only trick would be to get your driver's phone number so you can tell them which exit you are at.

[b_cruise]

Yes, go to port of calls and find your Roll Call.

 

I like to start my own tours because then you can get what tour you really want. Then just post on your roll call.

 

I have used italytoursharing.com every time and have been extremely happy with them. You can go to their web page and look at all the tour options. They came highly recommended from cruise critic and I was very happy I used them.

 

My whole roll call is using italytoursharing for our cruise coming up again!!

 

Does anyone know when the 2017 Europe will be released? Sorry, I don't mean to steal the thread...ill post on main page.

[MeHeartCruising]

...I checked the NCL site for your cruise and I don't see any excursions offered...

 

NCL allows you to search for their typical port excursions even before they open up for booking for your particular cruise. Here is a link to the current results for Rome. If you choose to book a tour thru NCL, there are 15 excursions to choose from, including current pricing. Of course, some of these may change thru time, but it gives you a good idea of what they offer.

 

https://www.ncl.com/excursions/search?qs=N%3D4294966549%26Ne%3D8057%26Nr%3DAND%2528p_Record_Type%253ASF%252Cp_Shorex_Status%253AAVL%2529%26Nu%3Dp_Shorex_Package_Id

 

Personally, I would either do-my-own-thing or book with a reputable third party tour company. But sometimes, booking thru NCL might be the preferred approach.

Edited December 15, 2015 by MeHeartCruising

[Markwa]

Hi all -

 

We are less than six months out from our Western Med cruise on the Epic. I am the unofficial "Julie McCoy" for the vacation ... MIL & BIL joining us.

 

Our most talked about port is Civitavecchia, which is the gateway to a Rome excursion. I checked the NCL site for your cruise and I don't see any excursions offered. I expect they will open up in a few months.

 

Regardless, I am now trying to research one-day excursions for Rome ... like time, itinerary, price, etc. I checked the "destinations" part of CC and I was led to a bunch of individual reviews with scant info.

 

So, my post to this board is whether anyone is willing to share their experience with the NCL Rome excursion, as well as, experiences with private tours. Any recommends would be helpful.

 

Many thanks!

 

Hello, i am on the March cruise and a lady called REDBARB has arranged a trip for us. If you go to rollcall for the EPIC 16th March and read the posts there is a website link that may assist you.

[Son of a son of a ...]

Thanks everyone for responding, and many thanks for the links and suggestions!

[CincyJen]

If you feel the need for an excursion, go for it. However, you can do Rome on your own easily and for a much more reasonable price than you'll find elsewhere. On our recent Epic cruise, that was the port we did on our own. The ship will bus you to a local point in Civitavecchia and from there it's about a mile or so walk to the train station. I was able to look online before we left and find the train times from there to Rome so we'd know ahead of time. We took the train to Rome Ostiense, then hopped on the metro for 2 stops and got off right at the Colosseum. Had prebooked our tickets there, so were set. After that, got back on the metro, a few more stops to Termini Station where we switched to the other metro line. Got off at the stop nearest the Trevi Fountain and walked to that. Back to the metro to the stop near the Vatican Museums. Again, had prebooked tickets there, so went through and saw that, then walked over to St. Peter's Square. From there walked to San Pietro station, and headed back to Civitavecchia and the ship. It was for sure a lot of walking (I think we clocked it at 9 miles that day), buuuut we saved a ton of money doing it that way vs a tour. Especially considering there were 9 of us. Anyway, just an option to consider.

 

Terrific advice. Thank you so much!

[Fc2360]

We did on our own using ho ho bus it was a lot to pack into the time we had 3 hours out for trains plus rail Italia canceled trains in the afternoon leaving us no spare time to get back.(very stressful ) . We were on NCL spirit late October