Rome on your Own on the Mediterranean Cruise?

[Clare]

Anyone ever taken the train from the port into Rome for the day and toured on your own instead of booking an excursion? Would love to hear your experiences and tips!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Anyone ever taken the train from the port into Rome for the day and toured on your own instead of booking an excursion? Would love to hear your experiences and tips!

I'll admit that the one cruise that we went to Rome, we did a ship's excursion, but I doubt that I'd be comfortable doing it on my own.

It's at least an hour from Civitavecchia to Rome. And I've ridden Italian trains - they don't always run on schedule. I'd be so nervous about getting back in time, unless I built in a couple of extra hours.

 

[Clare]

It's at least an hour from Civitavecchia to Rome. And I've ridden Italian trains - they don't always run on schedule. I'd be so nervous about getting back in time, unless I built in a couple of extra hours.

Thank you for your response - you have a very good point. We would need to leave plenty of room to get back to port. We done lots of traveling in large cities using public transportation (American and internationally), and although we have tours scheduled in other ports I was just toying with the idea of doing one city on our own. I worry we will get a little irritated with tours every day since we are used to doing things on our own. Just thinking it over...….

 

[Dug720]

Does Disney offer an “On your Own” tour where you are in their transportation to and from the city, dropped off at the meeting point for the return trip, and then free to do whatever until then? Royal Caribbean had that a few summers ago and it was nice to have my freedom but know I had a ship-based ride back in case of a delay with getting back.

 

[ahain]

I like the idea of an "on your own" tour, but with cruise line transportation excursion, but From a cruise line point of view, this seems kind of risky (from a "the ship will wait for people who are late if they are booked on a cruise line-sponsored excursion" point of view. In my experience, it seems like there is almost always at least one group that doesn't make it back to the rendezvous point on time. If it's a cruise-line sponsored excursion, does that mean that they HAVE to wait for the stragglers? or do they leave the stragglers behind?

 

[FSU Girl]

I prefer doing an excursion through the cruise because it's so far from the port and there is a lot to see and do there it helps having a guided tour take you everywhere. My parents don't like excursions and have done Rome on their own multiple times from a cruise. They take the train into the city, said it's very easy. Just make sure to return a little early to ensure you make it back on time since there is a big distance to cover and you don't want to get delayed. There has never been an issue for my parents, but it would stress me out.

 

[Quellman]

You can take in a fair amount in Rome depending on your preferences. Collesseo, St Peters Basilica, fountain trevi, pantheon. I haggled a tour operator outside the collesseo. I Paid for the walk up St Peters. Do an official tour of the papal archives to include the Sistine. The official guides have preference over all other tour operators and can quite literally force other groups to move. I don't know if you could swing the Sistine, Colosseum, and St Peters in one day however. So you need to divide your time based on what you want to see. Viewing the forum from outside was good enough for me for example, same with Roman Baths.

Public transit in Rome isn't the best as the subway doesn't really let you off directly next to anything you want to do. So you'll still use a taxi a fair amount. I walked just about everywhere. There are public water fountains all over the place too. I wouldn't worry too much about traffic. Just leave city center about 2 hours before you need to be on the boat.

 

[Dug720]

I like the idea of an "on your own" tour, but with cruise line transportation excursion, but From a cruise line point of view, this seems kind of risky (from a "the ship will wait for people who are late if they are booked on a cruise line-sponsored excursion" point of view. In my experience, it seems like there is almost always at least one group that doesn't make it back to the rendezvous point on time. If it's a cruise-line sponsored excursion, does that mean that they HAVE to wait for the stragglers? or do they leave the stragglers behind?

They will wait as long as they can - they do incur fees and fines for late departures, but will wait as long as they can. IF the excursion can not get back (a few years ago, a glacier sled dog excursion in Alaska got stranded at the musher’s camp when weather prevented the helicopters from coming back and they had to spend the night there), the cruise line will make arrangements to get you back to the ship or next port at their expense.

When I did the Rome on Your Own on RCCL, the bus almost did not make it out of the garage. If it had not, we would have had to wait for another bus or been put on the train and the ship would have waited or gotten us to our port at the Amalfi Coast the next day.

 

[fredandkell]

We looked at the Rome on Your Own excursion last year and ended up doing Imperial and Renaissance Rome instead. What I thought was crazy is ROYO is $18/pp more than IARR, but you get much less - you only get the bus ride to and from, you get one less hour in Rome, and you get none of the intermediary travels from point to point. Plus, if you get stuck in traffic in Rome or in a line somewhere and you don't make it back to the ROYO bus pickup point (and Rome is a big city, takes a while to get across it) then you're still going to miss your ride back to the ship, which to me, is the main reason for taking a ship's excursion - the group doesn't leave you behind. We were happy with the IARR excursion; there's a review of it in my signature if you want to read it.

As far as taking a train on your own, something that discouraged me from doing that is checking CruiseTT to see how many ships were in port that day. When we were there last summer, there were over 18,000 people in port!! The Tom's Port Guide mentions that when that happens, often the trains fill up and people have to wait for the next one (or the next one) to be able to get to the city center. He also references hours-long waits for taxis when this happens. So if you're in port on a busy day with lots of other ships, I think the DCL excursion is the safest best to make sure you actually make it to the city.

 

[soniam]

Rome is definitely not a port to do on your own due to the distance from the actual port to Rome. Maybe pick a different port to do on your own, one where the port is close by, and then do a tour in Rome. That way you won't get sick of tours.

 

[VBC]

Highly recommend getting a private limo.

When we did our Med cruise last year, we did Naples and Pompeii on our own. Little bit of walking to the train station, but doable.

We weren't going to mess around with Rome and Florence. Although we lived in Europe at the time, there were too many uncertainties (particularly in Rome).

We hired a private limo online for both Civitavecchia/Rome and Pisa/Florence. It isn't cheap, but its a lot less expensive than the Disney excursions and far more flexible. In Rome, we took our drivers advice and saw most of the major sites (including the Vatican - book your tickets in advance). When we went to Pisa (different driver), we went up the tower, visited the chapel, and were leaving for Florence when the Disney tour bus arrived from the port.

The drivers are professional, and know the cities very well.

 

[Ariel3379]

Does Disney offer an “On your Own” tour where you are in their transportation to and from the city, dropped off at the meeting point for the return trip, and then free to do whatever until then? Royal Caribbean had that a few summers ago and it was nice to have my freedom but know I had a ship-based ride back in case of a delay with getting back.

Yes, they do.

 

[Mommb]

When my family did Disney’s “Florence on your Own” excursion several years ago, we were told that anyone who was not back at the meeting place by the given time would be at risk of being left behind. This wasn’t a problem in Florence because the main sights were within a 20 minute walk from the meeting place, and the surrounding area was easy to walk.

It would make me nervous to count on being in a certain place at a certain time in Rome, where there are many more main attractions and they are farther apart. We had a driver for a private tour, and it felt like we were speeding around the city to get to everything we wanted to see and make sure we were back at the ship well before all-aboard. We had no regrets doing a private tour that picked us up at the pier rather than a Disney excursion, since the main touring companies know how much time to allow to get back to the ship (and communicate with their home office about potential traffic delays).

If you know exactly what 2 or 3 places you want to go in Rome, and exactly where they are relative to the train station, then touring entirely on your own might work but would be risky if there were train delays. If you are just trying to avoid too many excursions and/or save money, I would recommend getting an experienced guide in Civitavecchia/Rome and going on your own in a different port.

 

[tlprice]

This is why I did the Barcelona to Rome cruise last summer. I couldn't imagine only having one day in Rome. Our cruise ended in Rome so we chose to spend three days in Rome after our cruise. We did everything on our own, but had plenty of time to do it without worrying about getting back to the ship.

 

[Clare]

This is why I did the Barcelona to Rome cruise last summer. I couldn't imagine only having one day in Rome. Our cruise ended in Rome so we chose to spend three days in Rome after our cruise. We did everything on our own, but had plenty of time to do it without worrying about getting back to the ship.

This would have been our preference by far, but the dates on this particular itinerary didn't work for us.

 

[Intr3pid]

What's your next stop? If it's Naples or Florence, you can always rejoin the ship the next day if you happen to miss it in Rome. Well, you can drive or take the train along the entire Italian Riviera / med coast in less than a day...

 

[braysmommy]

We did! I researched a lot and we had a great day. We made sure to catch a train back that gave us a cushion we were comfortable with. Back in plenty of time.

 

[Dug720]

When I did it (the On Your Own tour) I knew from the tour description that the bus would drop us near the Vatican. I knew the things I wanted to see that day - and knew what things were out for sure - and went to google maps and printed walking directions to them in an order that made sense. I also met up with an Italian friend for lunch and she walked me to a couple of other places. I got back to the meeting point and actually had time to go in St. Peter’s, which I had put on my “next time” list knowing that the day was merely a taste.

So you can actually see a good amount with proper planning.

 

[GPaLarry]

Two things:
First, we only do DCL excursions because we are too old to sweat tight schedules (grandkids activities excluded, however) and we have found that almost every guide that DCL hires is truly an expert in their fields, many very local residents (our Vatican guide lived next door to it). These DCL trips, in many cases, include "fast passes" that either get you in early (parks, museums, etc.) or help you bypass the long lines (Colosseum, Vatican, etc.). Maybe locally booked trips can do the same, but to us this is a plus.
Second, our first DCL cruise, in 2008 aboard the Magic (yes, Magic), through the Panama Canal included the dreaded "late excursion" adventure. We were to leave Acapulco (DCL doesn't stop there any more) at 2 pm. The ship always started on time, so at 2:10 I told my wife that something was wrong. I couldn't see the dock below from our porthole stateroom, so I went up top and looked over the railing. Only one gangplank remained with several Magic officers running around, thumping their watches (we don't thump watches much today). Finally, at 2:45 a bus comes flying up to the dock's processing tent, the door opened and the passengers ran through the tent, up the gangway and in a heartbeat we almost laid rubber getting out of there...we had to get into the queue for the canal next and couldn't miss our turn. Found out later that the bus had a flat tire way back in the boonies...but DCL waited for them. There has to be a limit as to how much time they can do this for many $$ reasons.
Cruise on...

 

[lilsonicfan]

We looked at the Rome on Your Own excursion last year and ended up doing Imperial and Renaissance Rome instead. What I thought was crazy is ROYO is $18/pp more than IARR, but you get much less - you only get the bus ride to and from, you get one less hour in Rome, and you get none of the intermediary travels from point to point.

I am shocked how expensive DCL’s “Rome on your own” excursion is considering it’s basically just transportation. We are taking an MSC cruise and MSC offers that “excursion” for $65 per adult and $47 per kid.