Excursion advice for Mediterranean and Italian Sojourn

[cherylhans720]

First time traveling on Viking Ocean (have been on 2 river cruises). We usually like to explore places on our own, but realize the ocean ports are not in the actual cities on the itinerary. Has anyone been on this cruise and what is the MUST sees of the included excursions (free or paid). We are doing our own pre-extension in Barcelona for 3 days. Pompeii has always been on my bucket list since the 6th grade!  Is 4 hours in Pompeii enough? I see tours of "Florence on your own" with a charge for $130 per person. Is there a cheaper way to get there from port? As of right now, there is "no excursion" listed for Rome (Monday, 1/20/25). Is there a way to get there on our own? So many questions... Thanks for any advice/input. 

[lackcreativity]

You are doing two cruises back to back, and Rome is a turnover day (some passengers will leave and some new ones embark). There will be some excursions available to those of you who are continuing on to the next portion, but they will not be offered to you until you are on board. Look for a notice among the papers that show up in your stateroom.

When we took that same cruise last year, we took the Rome included excursion. At that time it was a panoramic bus ride around the city with some time on your own in Vatican City. We had been to Rome before, so that was adequate for us. If it is your first visit to Rome, you might want to consider other options. Sadly, I can't offer any help with that.

Since there is not an overnight in Rome, with a 60/90 minute ride each way, you will only have a chance to see a limited number of sites.

[longterm]

18 minutes ago, cherylhans720 said:

First time traveling on Viking Ocean (have been on 2 river cruises). We usually like to explore places on our own, but realize the ocean ports are not in the actual cities on the itinerary. Has anyone been on this cruise and what is the MUST sees of the included excursions (free or paid). We are doing our own pre-extension in Barcelona for 3 days. Pompeii has always been on my bucket list since the 6th grade!  Is 4 hours in Pompeii enough? I see tours of "Florence on your own" with a charge for $130 per person. Is there a cheaper way to get there from port? As of right now, there is "no excursion" listed for Rome (Monday, 1/20/25). Is there a way to get there on our own? So many questions... Thanks for any advice/input. 

We did the Italy, Adriatic, and Greece cruise in 2022 and loved it, so much that we're doing it again but adding the week before (Barcelona to Rome) and the week after (Athens to Istanbul) for a total of 4 weeks. 

The port near Rome is a little more than an hour away (Civitavecchia); you could hire a private car or you can take a train, but we took a car when we went from Rome to the port, and I think it took us about 90 minutes (but I'm not 100% sure now). 

Florence too is not on the water, so it's a drive to there too; we haven't done that drive, but I think it's also about 90 minutes away from the port. When we go in 2026, we'll probably take an excursion into Florence (the free one if possible), then go off on our own and then figure out a way to get back to the ship late that night.

 

Four hours in Pompeii is definitely enough; we did the Viking excursion there, and I seem to recall that we spent about 2 hours in the town itself. It's definitely worth seeing, and we'll probably take that excursion again, either the Viking excursion or a private one from Viator.

[lackcreativity]

You do have an overnight in Livorno (the actual port for Florence), so you have two days for excursions. Only one include excursion per port, so only one for that stay. The included one is for Pisa, and it might be a good one for the second day. For the first day, since you will be there overnight, I would do Florence that day. That eases the concern about arriving back at the ship if you want to use an outside tour or just do it yourself.

[OneSixtyToOne]

46 minutes ago, cherylhans720 said:

Has anyone been on this cruise and what is the MUST sees of the included excursions (free or paid).

We loved the included tour in Monaco. We did it late morning and timed it to end at the changing of the guard at the palace. We then bought a combined ticket to tour the palace and visit the Oceanographic Institute.

 

My writeup of Monaco starts at post 49. While not the same cruise, we did visit many of the same ports. This review might be helpful.

 

Edited September 4 by OneSixtyToOne

[cherylhans720]

39 minutes ago, lackcreativity said:

You are doing two cruises back to back, and Rome is a turnover day (some passengers will leave and some new ones embark).

Ahhh...had no idea!  Guess that explains lack of excursion that day. We'll have to do some research on how to get there. 

[lackcreativity]

2 hours ago, cherylhans720 said:

Ahhh...had no idea!  Guess that explains lack of excursion that day. We'll have to do some research on how to get there. 

Viking will offer a few excursions to Rome for those of you who are continuing on, but you won't know what they are until you arrive on the ship. You might want to have something figured out in advance. Check your invoice for the arrival and departure times for Rome. On our trip we got in port at 5:00 AM and departed at 11:00 PM. That was a nice window to plan around. Your times might be different (and even the planned times can sometimes change).

[kctwinmommy]

@cherylhans720 - I did a review of our cruise with those stops. You can read about it in my review, I'll post it below.

[kctwinmommy]

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3008938-mediterranean-adriatic-sojourn-cruise-review-420-5112024-with-classical-greek-4-day-pre-cruise-extension/

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, kctwinmommy said:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3008938-mediterranean-adriatic-sojourn-cruise-review-420-5112024-with-classical-greek-4-day-pre-cruise-extension/

 

Definitely, definitely check out Cindy's thread.Lots of helpful information there. 

 

6 hours ago, cherylhans720 said:

I see tours of "Florence on your own" with a charge for $130 per person. Is there a cheaper way to get there from port?

 

Yes there is. Florence about 70 miles from Livorno. We did this on our own only because we were overnight in Livorno; otherwise, we would have used Viking supplied services and let them worry about getting us back in time.

 

We took the train. We took the ship shuttle to the drop off point and then cab to the train station. We shared the cab with a threesome. On the way to the station, the cabbie said that he could take us to Florence for the day and named a flat-fee for his mini-van. We already had timed tickets for the Uffizzi and opted out but the threesome decided that it was a good price and took him up on the offer. You need to have more than 2 people to make this worth the effort.  (This is a very 'seat of the pants' thing because the supply of cabs that are able to do the day trip is limited; how long does one hang around the taxi stand waiting for the right driver to come along?).

 

So back to taking the train. There should be cabs on the dock; don't bother with taking the shuttle. The cab is a flat fee to the station, so share it with other couples if you can.

 

We bought our tickets at the train station. I wrote out what I wanted on a 3x5 card and handed it to the ticket agent. I made sure to choose direct trains so that we would not have to worry about changing train and not making the right connection.

 

Learn more about the trains on the trenitalia website. If you are comfortable doing so, you can book your tickets there. (I still like buying them in person; I don't know why).

 

Train station to ship is about 20 minutes plus wait time for a cab.

 

About the Viking on your own bus. Bus are not permitted in Florence old town. The bus will drop you at a bus parking lot near Santa Croce and you will have to get yourself back there at the end of the day.

 

All in all, we had a great day in Florence. We had errands to run and they took us from the train station to Santa Croce and back. I wanted earrings from a shop on the Ponte Vecchio (shop out of business and most of the shops now sell cheap junk; found the last quality shop on the whole bridge and bought my earrings). Had a glimpse at BIL's falling apart wallet that he had purchase at St. Croce Leather School many years ago and decided that we would replace for him while we were there. Hit the Leather Market at Republic Square and ended up with a leather tote (no lining, no zipper but sturdy and well made). DD wanted limoncello filled chocolates from the little shop that was near her old apartment. Amazing olde worlde shoppe. We also hit the Uffizzi (bought tickets well in advance) and had lunch -- and bought T shirts for the brand-new grandbaby.

 

[Peregrina651]

7 hours ago, cherylhans720 said:

Pompeii has always been on my bucket list since the 6th grade!  Is 4 hours in Pompeii enough?

 

Yes you can't see everything and 4 hours of ruins is plenty of time.  However, I suggest that you try to do both Pompeii and Herculaneum. Both cities were victims of Vesuvius. Pompeii is spread out; Herculaneum is compact (and a more recent find).  They are close enough to the dock that you could could probably cab from place to place (but I haven tried it or researched).Google will locate both sites for you and help you with timing.

 

There were cabs waiting as we left the cruise terminal. There were some cabbies working the tourist trade as you walked out of the gate and then there was a cabstand for those who didn't want to bargain for a tour.

 

In case of truly inclement weather there is the National Archeology Museum of Naples. Opens 10; closed Tuedays. It you can't see the ruins themselves, at least you can see some of the amazing stuff that was rescued and preserved.

[bookbabe]

FYI, for our Rome visit with Viking in April, none of the tours they offered once on board included going into the Colosseum.  Most were either completely on your own shuttle transports, or walking with a guide to see the outside of sites.

 

We booked a “Colosseum, Underground & Arena Floor: Guided Tour” excursion with Tiqets.com last minute once we discovered that.  Since tour tickets for the Colosseum have to be booked ahead of time in each guest’s individual name, that was one of the few companies that had last minute tickets available.  The tour itself was great, would have been better if it wasn’t a torrential downpour that day, although the logistics of getting to the tour meeting spot were a little stressful.  We were using Viking’s OYO shuttle to get to the colosseum area, then had to try to escape the guide who wanted to walk us all to the post-tour meeting spot and we just didn’t have time, we were running late for the tour at this point.  Things with Viking just moved way more slowly than expected because of the weather, and the inexplicable need for lengthy restroom breaks halfway to Rome on the bus trip there.  
 

Your time in Rome won’t be as long as you’d like, it’s a long slow ride there and back, at least if you take Viking’s included shuttle.

[cherylhans720]

20 hours ago, kctwinmommy said:

I did a review of our cruise with those stops. You can read about it in my review, I'll post it below.

OMG!!!!  This was AMAZING!!!  Thank you so much for your beautiful commentary, pictures, tips, etc. This has helped me so much to make decisions on what or what not to see!  Pompeii is definitely my dream bucket list place to go... so I will make sure we get at least 4 hours in (friends of ours went last year and actually went to the top of MV and were able to look down into the crater...so hope we can do this too). I feel we have similar tastes (gelato and croissants, Lol) - so this has helped so much!!!  

[kctwinmommy]

3 hours ago, cherylhans720 said:

OMG!!!!  This was AMAZING!!!  Thank you so much for your beautiful commentary, pictures, tips, etc. This has helped me so much to make decisions on what or what not to see!  Pompeii is definitely my dream bucket list place to go... so I will make sure we get at least 4 hours in (friends of ours went last year and actually went to the top of MV and were able to look down into the crater...so hope we can do this too). I feel we have similar tastes (gelato and croissants, Lol) - so this has helped so much!!!  

You're welcome! Yes, be sure to read about our day in Naples, my trip to Pompeii was disappointing. But I didn't plan it super well... However, your time there is less than you realize, and the traffic around there is more than they plan for.

 

And yes, gelato & croissants! Yum! LOL!

[Squillo]

On 9/5/2024 at 4:43 AM, bookbabe said:

 We were using Viking’s OYO shuttle to get to the colosseum area, then had to try to escape the guide who wanted to walk us all to the post-tour meeting spot and we just didn’t have time, we were running late for the tour at this point.  Things with Viking just moved way more slowly than expected because of the weather, and the inexplicable need for lengthy restroom breaks halfway to Rome on the bus trip there.  

Your time in Rome won’t be as long as you’d like, it’s a long slow ride there and back, at least if you take Viking’s included shuttle.

We were planning on taking the 7:30 am included "tour" (actually they just take you to one of 3 spots in Rome and then it's 'on your own'), and then ditching the 'tour' and taking our own tour that starts at 9:15 am. I am thinking now that 1:45 might not be enough time to make it to our meeting place? Do you think we should plan on arranging our own transportation to Rome earlier? This will be on October 20th, a Sunday.

[bookbabe]

10 hours ago, Squillo said:

We were planning on taking the 7:30 am included "tour" (actually they just take you to one of 3 spots in Rome and then it's 'on your own'), and then ditching the 'tour' and taking our own tour that starts at 9:15 am. I am thinking now that 1:45 might not be enough time to make it to our meeting place? Do you think we should plan on arranging our own transportation to Rome earlier? This will be on October 20th, a Sunday.

I can’t remember the exact timing, but the drive was at least 90 min to Rome from the port, plus at least a fifteen or twenty min bathroom break.  And we had about a 10 min jog to the meeting spot, it wasn’t close to the bus drop off point, it was on the far side of the Colosseum.  Our meeting time was 9:45 for the 10am tour and we just made it on time.  Now, it was pouring rain that day, so everything and everyone moved a little slower, and it was very crowded, but I’d spend some time with Google Maps and see the distances involved.  Your own transport would at least give you control of the variables.  Or try to see if they can move you to a slightly later tour.

[Squillo]

10 hours ago, bookbabe said:

I can’t remember the exact timing, but the drive was at least 90 min to Rome from the port, plus at least a fifteen or twenty min bathroom break.  And we had about a 10 min jog to the meeting spot, it wasn’t close to the bus drop off point, it was on the far side of the Colosseum.  Our meeting time was 9:45 for the 10am tour and we just made it on time.  Now, it was pouring rain that day, so everything and everyone moved a little slower, and it was very crowded, but I’d spend some time with Google Maps and see the distances involved.  Your own transport would at least give you control of the variables.  Or try to see if they can move you to a slightly later tour.

Thank you! This is very helpful.