Were you recently on an NCL Italian/Mediterranean cruise? Did you do shore excursions in Italy?

[PomPoot]

My understanding is you had to take NCL shore excursions to leave the ship in Italy.  What was your experience like doing Italian shore excursions? Good? Bad? Many of the shore excursions available boast "alone time," which doesn't seem possible given the Italian mandate. Did you actually get any time to explore alone or are they actively misinforming guests with the descriptions? (Example: one of the shore excursions is titled "see [name of Italian city] on your own.")

[julig22]

Yes, just got back.  As far as I know, nobody was able to leave the ship unless it was with an excursion.  However, we were allowed free-time but I think that depends entirely on the location and/or tour guide.  I went to Sorrento and Pompeii out of Napoli and our guide said that both locations were unrestricted - so after the guided tour, we could wander around town.

Out of Liverno, (Lucca and Pisa), our guide said we had to stay with the group (wink wink) - so again, free time to wander.

[PomPoot]

1 hour ago, julig22 said:

Yes, just got back.  As far as I know, nobody was able to leave the ship unless it was with an excursion.  However, we were allowed free-time but I think that depends entirely on the location and/or tour guide.  I went to Sorrento and Pompeii out of Napoli and our guide said that both locations were unrestricted - so after the guided tour, we could wander around town.

Out of Liverno, (Lucca and Pisa), our guide said we had to stay with the group (wink wink) - so again, free time to wander.

You are just the most helpful person! Thanks! I'm so touched you'd take time out of your day to help me out so much. 

 

[tinkr2]

Yes excursions were required to leave the ship. Capri was great bc you could do what you like the entire time once there. The Rubber boat tour to Livorno had a nice amount of free time. I ha d 2 other tours that I hated that marched us around in a bubble and most of the time on bus. They may have been fine for others but I never do ship excursions.

[CruizinKittie40]

It was weird.  We just got off the Epic on Sunday and here was our experience:

 

Mallorca-- We were on a bus and went to one restaurant/"castle" and had lunch as a group.  Not able to really stop anywhere and explore.

Sardenia--Guided tour.  We were given the opportunity to stop for restrooms and snacks but no real shopping.

Rome--We could only shop at one store at St. Peter's Basilica and one store beside Trevi Fountain. We were given a frigging tuna sandwich for lunch.  no thanks. 

Pompeii---we were given absolutely no restrictions, even walked back to the bus by ourselves without the group as we got horribly lost in Pompeii. If you go, get the map.  there are 3 entrances and we did not know this and ended up on the wrong exit.  Very scary experience.   

Pisa--After the guided tour we were on our own and could shop anywhere, no restrictions. 

 

It was weird, like it got progressively more lax as time went on.  I can't remember which excursion, Pompeii I think, we ended up back at the port and the tour people didn't really know where we were supposed to go to get back on the ship so just turned us loose.  We were in a port terminal that had a lot of shops so we got tons of souvenirs there.