Mediterrenean Cruise-Florence on your own

[miami mama]

We will be doing the Mediterrenean Odyssey cruise in March. We would like to take Viking transportation for the Florence On Your Own option. If anyone has taken this excursion, I would really appreciate answers to the following questions:

 

When are you picked up from the ship to leave for Florence?

How long does it take to get to Florence?

Where do they drop you and pick you up in Florence?

How long do you generally have in Florence?

 

Thanking in advance.

 

[AuntieWerewolf10]

Send an email to tellus@vikingcruises.com with you booking number and they can give the details about you excursion. I asked about Florence Market & Food Excursion: Extension to Florence on your own. 

We dock at 8:00 am. The excursion is scheduled for 9:45 - 6:45. Depart port is 8:00 pm.

(The excursion you mention has the same times per MyVikingJourney shore excursion.)

Tellus said the transfer into the city takes approximately 1.5 hours.

[miami mama]

Your information is helpful as we are in port 8 to 8 so the times you list make sense. I will also email tellus for this just to be sure. 

Thanks.

[Peregrina651]

Figure half an hour after arrive at the port until they start loading the buses. Back on board time will be 7:30pm and the buses will all aim to be back before then.

 

Twelve hours in port less an hour for formalities less three hours travel time there and back leaves about eight hours.  Don't expect to arrive in Florence before 10am and probably closer to 10:30 am.  Don't expect to leave Florence any later than 6pm--with back to the bus time even earlier.

 

When I asked about where the OYO bus would drop us a couple of years ago, I was told on the Lungarno dell Zecca Vecchia, more or less where the red location pin is. Buses are not permitted in the tourist area, therefore they have set up drop off/pick up points for the tourist buses :

 

 

We ended up taking the train to Florence and not the OYO bus, but we were overnight in Livorno and not worried about getting back to the ship before it departed. We took the ship shuttle to the drop off point, got a cab to the train station (did not know that we probably could have gotten a cab right on the quai). We bought our tickets when we got there, making sure to take direct trains there and back so we would not have to worry about changing trains along the way. It wasn't hard to do and the train doesn't get you much further from what you want to see than the bus. The only difference is that if a bus with 30 or more pax is late, the ship is going to wait for it.

[miami mama]

Thanks Peregrina. The drop off place still makes sense since tellus said the meet up place was Santa Croce and from there you walk back to the bus.