Mediterranean Ports - Getting off Symphony

[DanPorges]

We are working on planning our day to day activities for the 7 night Mediterranean cruise leaving Barcelona on the Symphony.  Its a cruise for my wife and I as well as our 8yo and 4yo boys.  As we look at the various ports, we are trying to determine if some of the options for trains, buses, etc are feasible to do on our own instead of relying on the RC Packages that are in some cases extremely expensive.  Some of the key questions we are hoping for some guidance on:

• For the ports (Mallorca, Marseille, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples) does the Symphony dock at the port or do we require a tender?  
• Specifically in La Spezia (Florence/Pisa) - We are interested in heading to Florence to walk around in the city on my own.   We found bus tours that starts at 9:30am, goes for 8 hours and includes 4-5 hours of free time in Florence.  My concern is what time we can actually plan to be off the boat.  According to CruiseMapper, we dock in La Spezia at 8am on Wednesday, June 14th.  Is it likely we would be off the boat and to the bus at "Largo Michele Fiorillo" by the 9:30am departure time?
• If the example above is cutting it too close, does anyone know if there is an option through RCL that would ONLY be a bus to Florence that would be more directly tied to the ship's schedule?  It seems all the tours they offer are either Florence and Pisa combined or are full guided tours which we are not looking for.
• Lastly, any recommendations for Rome (Civitavecchia)?  We want to do a tour of the Coliseum, but the excursions through RCL seem again extremely overpriced.  Has anyone had specifically good luck with another provider?

Thanks in advance!!

[wordell1]

4 hours ago, DanPorges said:

We are working on planning our day to day activities for the 7 night Mediterranean cruise leaving Barcelona on the Symphony.  Its a cruise for my wife and I as well as our 8yo and 4yo boys.  As we look at the various ports, we are trying to determine if some of the options for trains, buses, etc are feasible to do on our own instead of relying on the RC Packages that are in some cases extremely expensive.  Some of the key questions we are hoping for some guidance on:

• For the ports (Mallorca, Marseille, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples) does the Symphony dock at the port or do we require a tender?  
• Specifically in La Spezia (Florence/Pisa) - We are interested in heading to Florence to walk around in the city on my own.   We found bus tours that starts at 9:30am, goes for 8 hours and includes 4-5 hours of free time in Florence.  My concern is what time we can actually plan to be off the boat.  According to CruiseMapper, we dock in La Spezia at 8am on Wednesday, June 14th.  Is it likely we would be off the boat and to the bus at "Largo Michele Fiorillo" by the 9:30am departure time?
• If the example above is cutting it too close, does anyone know if there is an option through RCL that would ONLY be a bus to Florence that would be more directly tied to the ship's schedule?  It seems all the tours they offer are either Florence and Pisa combined or are full guided tours which we are not looking for.
• Lastly, any recommendations for Rome (Civitavecchia)?  We want to do a tour of the Coliseum, but the excursions through RCL seem again extremely overpriced.  Has anyone had specifically good luck with another provider?

Thanks in advance!!

1.  All stops are docked - no tenders on Oasis class ships.

2.  You can get off pretty early but La Spezia has a shuttle that will bring you from the ship to the small terminal area that will add extra time.  You still should be able to make a 9:30 departure. 

3. HOWEVER, Florence is not very close to La Spezia and traffic in Italy is always unpredictable.  I would be very concerned about getting back on time.  I would personally do a ship tour if I were going to do Florence.  If I had to do it on our own, I would pay extra for a private driver to give you more control of the return time.  I looked into this last year and we ended up going to Cinque Terre instead which was very easy to do on our own.

4.  There is so much to do in Rome, it is very overwhelming and depending on the day, there could be lines at all the major tourist spots.  The organized tours will get you access into places like the Colisseum. 

You could look at 3rd party tour operators like VIator for some ideas.

 

[Mike6453]

2 hours ago, wordell1 said:

1.  All stops are docked - no tenders on Oasis class ships.

2.  You can get off pretty early but La Spezia has a shuttle that will bring you from the ship to the small terminal area that will add extra time.  You still should be able to make a 9:30 departure. 

3. HOWEVER, Florence is not very close to La Spezia and traffic in Italy is always unpredictable.  I would be very concerned about getting back on time.  I would personally do a ship tour if I were going to do Florence.  If I had to do it on our own, I would pay extra for a private driver to give you more control of the return time.  I looked into this last year and we ended up going to Cinque Terre instead which was very easy to do on our own.

4.  There is so much to do in Rome, it is very overwhelming and depending on the day, there could be lines at all the major tourist spots.  The organized tours will get you access into places like the Colisseum. 

You could look at 3rd party tour operators like VIator for some ideas.

 

when yo stopped in florence and went to CInque terre did you do this on your own or throught RC?

[FireFishII]

26 minutes ago, Mike6453 said:

when yo stopped in florence and went to CInque terre did you do this on your own or throught RC?

They did not do Florence. Instead they did Cinque Terre.

I did not like the idea of being stuck on a bus for 1.5 hours to reach Florence.  So instead I plan on staying in Livorno and do my own walking tour.  

[berkeleykel]

There is an excursion called "Explore Florence" that gives you 3 hours of independent touring.  I'd be wary of a tour that promised more time than that because of the length of the drive (I think it is like 2-3 hours each way).  If it is not a Royal excursion you'd want to leave a couple of hours to spare in case of delays.

I did not go to Florence because I think that much time on a bus sounds miserable even for an adult, let alone young kids.  I did La Spezia instead.  There are details in my blog below (we were on Wonder last year but the itinerary is the same on Symphony this year).   We also did the Coliseum on our own (fast train to and from Rome and a semi-guided tour of the Coliseum with a tour guide provided by the Coliseum). 

 

[wordell1]

5 hours ago, Mike6453 said:

when yo stopped in florence and went to CInque terre did you do this on your own or throught RC?

As stated above, we did Cinque Terre and not Florence.  A lot of people do Florence from La Spezia, but it is a long trip and my opinion is that if you are doing a long trip, I would book a RC tour where you are guaranteed to make it back before the ship sails.

If you do decide to do Cinque Terre instead, this was my review.

 

 

[Traveler]

Although both Florence and Rome are quite far from the ports, there are several options to get to these places from the respective ports.

If you are arriving at Palma, you can buy round tickets to a bus that will take you to the city for approximately 10 Euros per person.

If you are docking at Marseille, you can take a bus from the port to the old port for around 20 Euros per person, or you can walk 12 minutes to take a free shuttle from the port entrance that will take you to the downtown area.

If you are arriving at La Spezia, the port is about two hours from Florence. If you want to go to Florence, I highly recommend taking a self-guided ship excursion. If you aim to visit Cinque Terre, you can take the free shuttle to the port entrance, go left (if facing the town, right if facing the sea), and walk 5-10 minutes on the boardwalk until you see a ticket office and small boat. For around 50 Euros, you can buy a ticket to the boat that can take you to any of the 5 towns where you can visit and jump on the next boat to the next town or back. Just check the timelines and plan accordingly. I suggest going off first at the most distant place you want to go and making your way back, stopping at more places.

If you are docking at Civitavecchia and want to go to Rome, you have several options. You can take the shuttle to the port entrance, where you can go on one of the self-guided tours to Rome (external companies). Once the bus is full, they will start driving and drop you near the Vatican City. They are much cheaper than Royal Caribbean. The cheaper and faster way will be to take the train. To go to the train station, you can either walk 15 minutes or take a bus outside the port for 2 Euros. Prices for the 50-minute trains are around 10$ per person each way, and the 70-minute ride can cost around 5$ or less. Here is the website that I use to book such trains, but there are others as well: https://www.thetrainline.com/en/train-times/rome-to-civitavecchia-citta. This will bring you to Termini station in Rome, around 15-20 minutes' walk from the major attractions or a quick ride using the Metro or taxi.

Finally, if you are arriving at Naples, the port is walking distance from the city. If you want to go to Capri, you can book a one-hour ferry from the port, which will be one-fourth of the price compared to the ship.

 

[ChessE4]

I wouldn't plan on long days with young children. Our son was 13 when we did Royal's Med cruise with all day tours. Last fall Europe was incredibly crowded, complicating parental tasks. Maybe pick one longer excursion?

[Jim Dom]

Planning for June Cruise.  We are going to take the Express Train from Civitavecchia to Rome.  We want to tour the Vatican.  Trying to book a Skip the Line Tour there.  If we leave as soon as we can from the ship, 3hat time would work to book a 2-3 hour tour?  Would like to walk / Metro around Rome after.  What time would we need to be back to the ship?

[JasonOasis]

Europe can be a lot with young children. 

I did this same cruise that your booked on in the spring of 2019 and my husband and I booked every shore excursion through external companies.  I forgot the tour group we used in Marseille but I do know we did a walking tour it was a very small group that included lunch and stopped by this soap shop where we were allowed to make our own soap with the help of a expert of course.  I still have one of the soaps I made I told my husband we can't use it all we have to keep one as a souvenir.  

We used Viator (they have both an app and you can find them online) and booked tours through them in Mallorca and also Naples. In Naples we both wanted to go to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast.  Royal was charging some outrageous price like $239 dollars per person and you would be on a bus with 40-50 other people I was like hell no.  With Viator our tour group was only 6 people they picked us up from the pier in a Mercedes Benz luxury van that had recliners. We had a local driver that took us to all the places we wanted to go although lunch was no included he took us to this local restaurant in Sorrento and the price for our 10 hour tour was only like $115 dollars per person. 

In La Spezia we took off on our own and took the train to Florence (Royal was charging to much money to go to Florence on a bus) because I wanted to see and shop at the Ponte Vecchio and I also wanted to see the statue of David.  Luckily back in 2019 the ship was in port something like 15 hours and we got up early to make sure we were off because we knew we faced a 2 hour 30 minute train ride.  We are adventurous which is why we did this on our own but it was a very, very , very long day but it was worth minute of it. However I would NOT recommend you do this with small children, we were wore out by the time we got back to the ship however we made it back an hour prior to the all aboard time. 

In Civitavecchia we did the same thing we got off the ship and took the train to Rome.  The train station in Civitavecchia is within walking distance of the port but there is also a shuttle.  In 2019 the price for a one way ticket was around $5.00 (it was like 4 Euro which I think back then was like $5 dollars) and the ride to/from Rome was only 48 minutes (so a lot closer than La Spezia to/from Florence).  Again because we are adventurous and because I had already been to Rome we took off on our own to explore Rome and have some lunch.  

It was great we saved a ton of money in both Florence and Rome by taking off on our own but I would not suggest people do that unless you are absolutely comfortable doing something like that, can navigate these European cities and streets, and lastly know without any doubt that you can absolutely get yourself back to the ship with at least an hour to spare before the all aboard time. 

Our last full day onboard was an at sea day and I don't think we even woke up until something like 2 or 3 pm we were so wore out from the previous days of just going, going, going.  What I will say is this any Oasis Class cruise out of Barcelona is fun but pace yourself.  That cruise in 2019 was our first European cruise we went to placing I had never been to before and I know I over did it by thinking I have to get it all in all at once on this cruise. I'm not sure why I thought that but end although we had fun and memories for a life time we did WAY TO MUCH. God willing there will always be another cruise so don't approach this cruise thinking you have to get it all in, in this one cruise because it can be a bit overwhelming especially if you're use to simply cruising the Caribbean and Mexico like we were.

[Marga]

For Rome, just take a train into the city. If you buy your tickets in advance your seat is secured and there is no hassle at the trainstation.

The train website is called Trenitalia.  What I did is download the app fro Trenitalia. Make an account and add a method of payment. 

Then just book the train when you are ready. You can even book 5 minutes ahead of time, tickets might be a bit more expensive at that point though. I would leave the train at the St Pietro (Vatican) station and walk from there or take a subway. 

Train app is available in English and tickets are very cheap and certainly much cheaper than with RCL. Keep in mind that some trains do the trip in 35 minutes while others take over and hour. Make sure you pick the right one

 

Colosseum you can you book tickets online on their official website. You do need to pick a timeslot, this is mandatory for crowd control. 

[Stephanie]

My husband and I did this itinerary in 2018.  First, it is absolutely fabulous! But, I will say it is A LOT.  We were exhausted b/c I tried to cram in as much as possible. Everyone else has given you lots of good advice, so I'll just add a couple of things....  

- Most of the RCCL "guided" tours aren't that regimented.  Yes, you have a tour guide, but they give you time at each stop to explore/shop on your own.

- I've always been a proponent of saving money by booking thru local tour companies vs. the ship.  In this case, I booked everything through RCCL and I was so glad I did. The bus trips to Florence and Rome are very long and the traffic was awful. Our bus and a couple of others were late getting back from Rome due to traffic - way past the sail time.  But, since it was a RCCL tour, the ship waited for us. They will not do that for non-RCCL tours. You are then responsible for getting yourself to the next port & back onboard.  Not something I wanted to try to do in a foreign country!

- Highly recommend taking the ferry to Capri. I would love to see Cinque Terre, but Capri was by far our favorite place we visited.  That is, if you like a more laid back, chill vibe.

- I'll reiterate what the others said - Europe with littles is a lot - especially Rome where it's very crowded.

[Riley]

Quick note: in Mallorca the Hop On-Hop Off bus stops right outside the terminal exit (look for the red sidewalk stand across the street when you go out the doors) but it can be a LONG walk from the ship to the terminal exit, depending on where the assigned berth is. 

 

[Bruin Steve]

We are on the same ship/itinerary for the April 30 sailing--one month from today.  We have actually done similar cruises many times and have been to all  of these ports before.  Being a seasoned cruiser, we have learned to go with private tours far more often than cruise line shore excursions...except for 1)  Where there aren't any good private options or 2) when we have a large amount of onboard credit to spend.  For our upcoming sailing, we had some OBC to spend and got a little lazy and booked RCCL excursions in four ports.  However, the Rome excursions seemed WAY overpriced.  So, in Rome, we found a non-ship excursion...this one:

https://www.driverinrome.com/tours/best-of-rome-very-small-group

...for 125.00 € per person...

They'll pick us up at the ship...take us into Rome and visit all of the typical tourist attractions...in a SMALL GROUP--much better than trying to follow 40+ other passengers on a big bus cruise line tour.

If you think you really want to do it "on your own", remember that, from the ship in Civitavecchia, you'll need a ride to the train station, a train into Rome Central and transportation all over the city...then, you'll need to make sure you get back on a train, and get back to the ship well in advance of your sailaway time.  It's just not that easy...and you won't save that much over the cost of one of thes organized tours.  There are several other companies offering similar tours as well.

In the other ports, RCC may get a little less overpriced...but, in each port, you can likely find local tour companies offering reasonable alternatives.  Spend a litte money and avoid all of the pitfalls of trying to find your way to and around cities you don't know well.  It will be well worth it. 

[KHill]

Does Royal offer any tours that climb the Tower of Pisa once on board? They don't show any pre departure. Thanks.