RCI Italy Cruisetour

[lcccbeloeil]

I had asked for advice about the land portion of the Italy cruisetour and Eastern Mediterranean cruise before we left and no one answered. I had assumed that a lot of people doing the cruise were also doing the cruisetour... but I was wrong! We were only 16!

 

What a fantastic tour it was! Our guide was Sharon Kivity (from England) and she was excellent. We had luxury four-star hotels in Venice, Florence, and Rome, with private guides in each city. We skipped the line-ups everywhere.

 

Sharon even arranged for our bus driver to take an expected detour to Pisa and a trip up the hills overlooking Florence. In Venice, she arranged for all of us to go for gondola rides... at much less than we would have paid had we done it alone... and she even bought each gondola a bottle of bubbly for the ride. I can't say enough positive things about this land portion and I wouldn't hesitate to take another land tour organized by RCI.

[travelteach326]

It sounds like you had a fantastic time and made the right decision! How many other passengers were on the cruisetour?

[lcccbeloeil]

Sorry for the late reply, travelteach326, I was away. We were only 16 on the cruisetour. That was great... we always had a huge bus for our small group so we could spread out. It was a good group... we all got along.

 

Everywhere we went we had our "Whispers" with us. We were issued an earpiece and a receiver that we wore hung around our neck. In many of the places we visited, the tour guide is not allowed to speak loudly (good thing because there are a lot of groups!), so she would speak softly into her microphone and we could easily hear everything she was saying through our earpiece. Allowed us to look around while listening to the guide. Came in very handy when we would split up and then gather again... she would call us on our Whispers and tell us to meet at a specific spot.

[mjwcruising]

I had asked for advice about the land portion of the Italy cruisetour and Eastern Mediterranean cruise before we left and no one answered. I had assumed that a lot of people doing the cruise were also doing the cruisetour... but I was wrong! We were only 16!

 

What a fantastic tour it was! Our guide was Sharon Kivity (from England) and she was excellent. We had luxury four-star hotels in Venice, Florence, and Rome, with private guides in each city. We skipped the line-ups everywhere.

 

Sharon even arranged for our bus driver to take an expected detour to Pisa and a trip up the hills overlooking Florence. In Venice, she arranged for all of us to go for gondola rides... at much less than we would have paid had we done it alone... and she even bought each gondola a bottle of bubbly for the ride. I can't say enough positive things about this land portion and I wouldn't hesitate to take another land tour organized by RCI.

 

DH and I are interested in doing a Cruisetour with land portion in Venice, Florence and Rome. Can you tell me if you skipped the lines at the Vatican?

 

Did you write a review of your trip. I would love to hear about it since we plan on doing what you did.

 

Thank You very much:)

[lcccbeloeil]

Hi MJWCruising,

 

We did the cruisetour last year (and the same cruisetour is so much less expensive this year!). It was fantastic... well the tour part was excellent while parts of the cruise were not (our guide in Turkey... see below).

 

I don't think I posted a full review but I spoke about our bad experiences, that's for sure.

 

The tour leader makes a big difference, I think. We had Sharon and she was wonderful!

 

All of the tour hotels were outstanding, especially the Albani Firenze in Florence. The free breakfasts were always delicious. The rooms are not huge but certainly bigger than a balcony cabin :o)

 

Yes, in Rome and elsewhere we never stood in line and always went in by a special door... except at Pisa. Pisa was not on the route but our bus driver and tour guide arranged for us to spend an afternoon there and I hope that every cruisetour goes there... but there’s no guarantee. There was no time to climb the stairs up the tower because there was a four-hour wait and we were there for just a short time. We did pay a little extra for this side-trip (maybe 20 Euros per person... can’t remember), but it was well worth it.

 

Our tour guide also arranged for a group deal for the gondolas in Venice and that was also worth it. We saved a lot of money there. She also arranged for the bus driver to take us to the top of a hill to get a fantastic view of Florence. She was excellent with restaurant suggestions, too.

 

In many locations the RCI tour guide is not allowed to guide us (only local guides who have been specially trained are allowed), so the RCI guide always stays with you but hands the job over to the specialist. Only one was less popular because her accent was very pronounced and it was difficult to understand her in the Whispers (headsets visitors have to wear in many churches and museums to listen to just your guide and not all the other guides that are everywhere).

 

You do have some free time, so plan it well. Visit the boards and ask questions about what you want to do. In Rome, we went to the Spanish Steps. Can’t remember any free time in Florence. In Venice, we walked and shopped A LOT! Take the Vaporetto water bus to get back to the hotel. Well worth it to save your feet. A little pricey (but much, much less expensive than the water taxis!!).

 

The cruise itself was superb. Taormina in Sicily was the highlight of our cruise. Athens was great because we took a private excursion with Petros at Athens By Taxi. I think we saw everything there was to see in Athens! Turkey is beautiful and we did the Virgin Mary House and Ephesus/Terrace Houses (loved it all) but hated the private tour we booked with ... EKOL. Our guide and driver insisted on lying to us twice... once to get us into a leather store and then to get us into a carpet store. Keep in mind that even the RCI tours take you to a carpet place or leather store, but because of our bad experience we’re not likely to return to Turkey. Our guide insisted that his behavior is perfectly normal in his country.

 

By the time we got to Crete we had planned to go see the ruins at Knossos, but we were “ruined out” and so we shopped in the city instead (it’s a short day... you have to be back on board early in the afternoon). Shopping in Crete was pleasant and stress-free compared to the high-pressure shops in the Turkish port of Kusadasi. In Kusadesi, the farther you walk away from the ship, the better the shopping is... better prices and no hassle from the shopkeepers. The shopkeepers closer to the ship were really unpleasant.

 

I highly recommend this cruisetour. If you plan to book a private tour guide in Turkey, ask around on the boards for recommendations and make it clear you do not want any surprise stops when you book and when you get there. I’m sure Turkey will be a much better experience for you.

[lcccbeloeil]

The wrong emoticon showed up (I used the keyboard instead of picking it from the list below). I meant to use a smiley face.

[lcccbeloeil]

Okay... let's try that again. No strange things attached this time I hope.

 

If you have any questions, please ask.

[mjwcruising]

We did a cruisetour to Alaska in 2008 and had a wonderful tour leader; I agree they can make a big difference.

We flew into Alaska a day in advance and wanted to stay in the same hotel that the tour would be staying in so we didn't have to switch hotels to join up with the group the following day. Celebrity wasn't sure until the final documents came out but using the Alaska board we had it narrowed done to 2 hotels. We actually made a reservation at both hotels and when we finally got our documents from Celebrity we cancelled the one reservation.

 

We hope to fly into Venice one day early and book the same hotel the tour is using. What hotel did your tour stay at in Venice. I have been searching these board for cruisetour in Eastern Med and haven't come up with anything for this cruisetour except for you.

 

Did you use Royal Caribbean air or did you book the air on your own?

 

I really appreciate your help and input.

 

We will be either cruising with RCI or Celebrity but their tour part of the trip is the same. In Alaska the buses and train is called Royal Celebrity.

 

The cruise part has a slightly different Itinerary. DH really wants to see Egypt (RCI); he's never been there but he has been to Athens and would like me to see it (Celebrity). I'm basically leaving it up to him to choose the itinerary because he has been to this area of the world however; I'm the one who will do the research and planning using (Cruise Critic).

I already have collected a lot of info on the ports of call that are possibilites. I have to go over everything I've cut and pasted and figure out what we want to do and what tour guides or taxi companies to use.

 

The rumor is the itineraries are to come out tomorrow for May 2011 which is when we want to go. Later today we are going over the 2010 itineraries one more time to make a final decision. We are assuming the itineraries won't be changing much, maybe just the ships. We hope to book a cruise tomorrow morning.:)

 

I am sure I'll have more questions later.

 

Thank You,

 

Mary

[lcccbeloeil]

We booked our air with RCI because we were traveling with another couple. We would have booked on points but they couldn't. Plus, we wanted to make sure that RCI was responsible for us should anything happen (my husband and I had booked our air with Carnival for a hurricane-season cruise and we were glad we did... the cruise was extended by three days and they had to find alternate flights to get us home!). Nothing happened and the RCI flights were more expensive than they would have been had we booked the flights ourselves.

 

In Venice we stayed at the Hotel Carlton on the Grand Canal. It was a beautiful hotel and centrally located for shopping. It's right across the canal from the train station and a two-minute walk from where the buses park when they go to Venice (Piazzale Roma). But, when we were on our way to Piazza San Marco by private boat, our tour guide mentioned that RCI was thinking of booking a newly refurbished hotel on the island of La Giudecca (if you look at the Google map of Venice, it's just south of Venice). When we got back, I wrote to RCI to tell them that that was a bad idea (hard to get to, can't walk to anything, must take water transportation, etc.) and they wrote back saying they would take my comments into account when choosing this year's hotel. So, I have no idea which hotel they booked.

 

You're not likely to find much info about the cruisetour here. We were only 16 and no one on our tour had ever heard of Cruise Critic. I don't know about the others who took this cruisetour on a different date.

 

For Alaska we are going with Princess. They other couple had cruised with them before and highly recommended them, we liked their itinerary best, and they gave us a really great deal because we are sailing with past passengers! Even though we had sailed with RCI before, they would not give us a penny off the cruise price when we went to Europe.

 

If you think of other questions, let me know. I know there was so much I wanted to ask last summer and there was no one to answer!

[mjwcruising]

lcccbeloeil,

we did it; we booked a cruisetour on Splendour of the Seas, May 2011

 

Tour:

5/6: Venice, Italy

5/7: Venice, Italy

5/8: Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy

5/9-5/11: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

 

Cruise:

5/11: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

5/12: Naples/Capri, Italy

5/13: Cruising

5/14: Piraeus (Athens), Greece

5/15: Rhodes, Greece

5/16: Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey

5/17: Cruising

5/18: Alexandria, Egypt

5/19: Alexandria, Egypt

5/20: Cruising

5/21: Messina (Sicily), Italy

5/22: Cruising

5/23: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

Now I have to read and organize all my notes and figure out what excursions we want to take and who to use. I'll keep you in mind if we have any questions.

PS. The person at RCI said they don't have a hotel picked yet for Venice, I'll have to check back later.

Thanks,

Mary

[lcccbeloeil]

Mary,

I think you won't be disappointed. Please ask if you have any questions.

[Novicane]

Hi,

Has anyone done the Norwegian Jade CruiseTour yet? Considering it for next year and would like some feedback. I cannot find on RCI the places we want for something similar. Besides, I have been on NCL twice and twice enjoyed. Anyway...traveling with 70 something year old parents around Rome will require comfortable transportation and tours. Not too concerned about other places quite yet. Want Rome, Naples, and Venice the most.

Thanks for any advice.