kctwinmommy

Thanks to other CC members who recommended this company for our day in Rome. Like all other ships, we were docked down the road in Civitavecchia. We knew doing a Viking excursion wouldn't cover the things we wanted, plus would waste time being on a bus tour. In fact, we didn't even know our options until we got on the ship because it was a turnover day for the cruise. Anyway, our drive Francesca was there right at 7:30 to pick us up in the Mercedes van. By 8:30 she had us on one of the hills in Rome to see the city! She was able to just park in this little striped zone so we could snap some photos. After that she drove us into the city, pointing out things along the way, to the Colosseum. We didn't have tickets for that, but she dropped us off right by the entrance so we could walk around there for like 20-25 minutes. It's just so impressive to see in person! Then, she drove us over to the Piazza Navona, a really neat place by the Brazilian Embassy with beautiful fountains. Next, she drove us to the Vatican for our 10 a.m. tickets (purchase separately on our own), to the museum. Now, I didn't really enjoy the museum. It was so overwhelming, the variety of pieces, and the crowds were awful. Yes, having the pre-purchased tickets made us get in quickly, but the crowds were already pretty full. Although it only got worse, when we left around 12:30, the line was around the building and down the block. I can't say that I truly enjoyed the museum, although there were some good parts. Loved all the beautiful, detailed map paintings that were close to the Sistine Chapel. By this time, we were hungry, so we asked her to drive us someplace to get some pizza and pasta. She took us to a cute little sidewalk place, had some food, and rested for a bit. She had a little something by herself, but then waited at the car for us. Once lunch was done, it was around 2:30 p.m., so we only had about an hour and a half left before she had to drive us back. We knew we wanted to see a few more places, so off we went. She dropped us off again (with a block or so) to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. At every stop, she dropped us off in a place that required no more than a block's walk. This was such a time saver. Plus, she knows where everything is and how to get there quickly. For the major sights, she also had short little podcast type recordings she would play to explain the sight, which was nice. She didn't talk all the time, which was also fine. We'd been on tours every day where it seemed like all we did was hear a guide talk. But, she did point out some interesting things along the way (like the balcony where Mussolini declared war) and of course, answered any questions we had. The price is a little high, but when we considered that a bus tour through the ship would have been about 1/2 this price, and not have seen the same amount, it was worth it. Plus, it was nice to drive around in a minivan, not a giant bus. We had planned to split it with another couple if we could have found someone, but that didn't work out, and we were totally fine doing it on our own. Fountain in the Piazza Navona Overlooking Rome. We could see so much from up here! At the Trevi Fountain. It's super busy here, but we were surprised that people do move along and it's fairly easy to get a nice picture in front of it. Inside the Vatican Museum, the hall with all the maps! Our guide, Francesca Overlooking the Spanish Steps

We bought ours from Get Your Guide. We had booked a private tour through LimousIn Rome. They were amazing! It was great to have a personal driver to get us to all the sights we wanted to see. While expensive, that might be an option for you to get you to the places you want to see. The ticket into the museum will take you to the Sistine Chapel, it's basically where the crowd leads, everyone just moves through the whole museum, ending with that. We didn't purchase tickets to go into the Colosseum, but she still took us over there so we could walk around.

We bought ours through Get Your Guide. However, I made the mistake and didn't get ones that also included skip the line for the basilica, so we didn't get to see that. But, we got to the museum right at 10 a.m. for our ticket time, and we were able to walk right in. When we left around 12:30, the line to get in was down the block, around the building! Be aware, going at that time, it will take you about 2 hours to get to the Sistine Chapel. Literally, the entire crowd of people are going there. It's not like you can really just walk through things. It basically felt like swimming in the ocean. LOL! No control on where the tide takes you.

Yes, Olympia is totally a must do! We thought it was going to be kind of boring. But no! It's really neat. Plus, you can run the 200M race on the field where they ran the very first one. My husband did it, twice! LOL! It's really pretty and just so amazing to think of what took place there. And yes, the Acropolis and museum there are a must see as well. I would also recommend the changing of the guard. We did the National Archaeological museum too, it was pretty good, but very busy! There were a lot of school groups there. I would definitely get your Acropolis tickets in advance, and try to go early. We went on a Saturday morning, pretty early, before we boarded our ship (it was part of our pre-cruise extension through Viking). It was a slightly rainy morning, with a lot more dark clouds on the horizon, and by the time we were coming back down, the lines were so long already!

We did that on ours. I anticipated much warmer temps. But packing for a month makes it tricky too. I wish I had brought maybe one more pair of longer pants, and 2-3 more long sleeve shirts, leaving like 5-6 short sleeve ones at home. We weren't the only ones though. We were in line in Venice and a few people were commenting how they missed the mark on packing. It did get warmer by the end though.

Thought of a couple more general nuggets from our trip... I just want to cover as much as I can while I remember it. LOL! Laundry was quit easy to use, but the dryers are a bit temperamental. We found that we had to tinker with the settings a little bit to get our cloths dry. But that's also because I didn't want to dry on high heat and damage anything. But no big deal. We did laundry twice and all came out just fine. We definitely overpacked and didn't have a good grasp on the weather. Now, we were planning for a month, so the weather could change quite a bit. We had several days that were much cooler than I was expecting. We also brought the wrong rain gear, which resulted in buying the ever popular Helly Hansen rain jackets in Corfu (didn't have our sizes in the ship store). Not what we wanted to spend the money on, but when needed, they were invaluable. I really thought I needed more options for the evening, which I didn't. Since we didn't go to the restaurant every night, I didn't need to always change. I could have left about 23-30% of what I packed at home. I was surprised at how noisy it was in the hallways at times. Just still too many people that let their doors slam. However, I now travel with a white noise sound machine. It's great! It does block out a lot of the excess noise. I got a really small one on Amazon. I loved the cross body I bought for this trip. It held all that I needed, nothing extra that I didn't need, and easy to access. Plus, it kept everything close to my body. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BQW3M249/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

@emckeeve - this is what I wrote up after we did our bookings. Since we were new to the process, I thought it was good to help others who were also new. 😃

Don't forget, included ones must still be signed up for. You need to pick a time slot. If you don't, then you might get stuck and have to wait until you're on the ship to be added to one. I'll tag you in my post that I made, it might be helpful.

OK, so some thoughts on Viking in general, from being a first timer. So some of these things may be completely known by many of you, if not, they may be helpful to other newbies. These are just more general things about the ship and cruising with Viking. Since this was our first, these were the things that stood out to us. I went to the spa pool one day, saw they have the full size robes and wore it back to the room. I then kept it in the room after asking at the spa desk. I liked having the full size robe for after my showers. We also grabbed 2 of the blankets from the pool deck to use on our balcony. Again, we asked the room steward and he said no problem to keep them. Doing a cruise that is technically multiple segments of a larger cruise presents issues that we weren't aware of when we booked it. Our turnover ports (Venice & Rome) had challenges when it came to booking excursions. For Rome, we had already booked a private one, so that wasn't a problem for us. But for Venice, we had basically about 55 hours there (2 nights), so 3 days of excursions. Of course, we were in Chioggia, like all ships will most likely be from now on (or another port city an hour+ away). Things booked up so fast, we didn't have much of a chance to pick. We did enjoy our tour though. Also, you're considered being on 3 cruise segments, so we got a survey near the end of each week, and our account charged our gratuities each week. We found that departure times for included tours, when there were multiple options, could be a little wiggly. We made friends with another couple early on and went down with them for our tour in Olympia. They had 9 and we had 9:15. We checked in with the crew to assign busses, and they actually put us on the same tour, even without asking. Almost every tour we took never had a full bus. There were usually about 4-8 open seats at least on the large busses. We only had a small bus for one tour, and that one had like 2 open seats. When excursions are listed as demanding, we found that it almost always was because of the amount of walking or standing. We never went to the port talks live because we were usually off the ship. But we would watch the recorded version in the evening. It was good information about the port itself, and then a good idea of what your tour would entail. I can still hear her voice in my head saying "uneven cobblestones, ancient streets" as making a tour demanding. I mean, hardly any of the excursions through Viking are anything extreme. Make sure, when using an outside tour that they guarantee your return to the ship on time. When we had our port hours, we assumed that the time listed was the time we needed to be back on the ship. However, we learned that if my document said 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. (which was as lot of our ports), we had to be back on the ship at 4 p.m. We left at 5, and honestly, we left a little early a few times. The funny thing was Viking doesn't feel the need to announce it with massive horn blows. LOL! Only once they did it, I forgot which port. We took €1500 for our month. We had put 500 of that aside to pay for specific tours we owed in cash. We only needed to take out another €100 on our last day to cover a few things as we left town. We used our credit card at places that seemed more established, which were many. But this gave us money for tipping guides as needed and other smaller purchases. We never had a problem using a bathroom. Now, I know this is all subjective. I typically don't need one all day long while others need a few stops throughout the day. All of our guides were very much aware of this and often made sure the tour went near a bathroom, as public as possible. Or a local cafe. Not too many bathrooms that were just coin operated. For those who aren't sure about dining, this was a little different than our previous lines we've sailed on. We ate in the World Cafe more than the restaurant it turns out. Usually because we were tired when we got back, or it was late. We discovered that about 1/2 the things on the restaurant menu were also in the WC. And they have the 2 items always grilled to order (a steak and fish option). Washcloths and towels are a little rough. I believe this is what cause my face to become so irritated, I had massive red patches under my eyes. My husband regrets not taking a loofah (although I told him to just buy one there). I just feel their towels could use a little upgrading on the softness, and maybe size. I love a good large bath sheet! While everyone says don't worry about not getting into an excursion before you go, you'll be able to on board, that's not always true. Just be realistic about it. We had 2 things that we weren't able to get into. And almost every day, even throughout our cruise, all excursions were completely booked. Be hopeful, but also be prepared to not have it happen. Lost & found works! I lost my reading glasses in the theater and my Rick Steves in the WC. Both times we went to GS and someone had turned them in. So definitely go ask. Thanks to those honest people too! Please take the 5 minutes to watch the Quiet Vox video, or at least look at the quick reference guide included with them. We always had 4-5 people on their first tour asking for help. They have 3 buttons and 1 wheel, it's not that complicated. Also, the channel for your guide is always your tour group number!

And don't forget, you must get the SSP for both people in the cabin. Although the OP already commented that it's included as a promo for them. When it comes to gratuities, we waited to pay until we were onboard. Worked out fine for us. And like others have suggested, one reason to do it this way is that if you have cancelled excursions, the refund will go onto your account. This was able to help pay for our gratuities then. Again, this is just completely a personal decision.

Yes!! I'm not an IT person, but our friend was. Very knowledgeable on these things. And that's what she was saying, it wasn't that the systems themselves are bad, but the communication between them was difficult. We saw it with Guest Services and at the reservation desk for the dinning. Again, these weren't huge issues, but I do think it's good for people to be aware, as they might need to follow up on things.

Yes, there's a few things I want to share with them, so I plan on it this week. Just need to get better. And yes, linking them together was really weird. The first reservation never showed up on their account, but the second one did. And yes, I got the feeling that some of them were newer. And again, it wasn't anything major, but it was enough for us to notice.

Thanks! Got some steroids, some cough medicine (pills, which I've never taken for a cough!), and an inhaler. So far, unless any tests come back positive tomorrow, she said it's just a viral thing. Which of course, wipes out my energy. But I would like to share some of the highlights at least. 😃

It seemed that the things we needed help with, took them longer to figure out. When our friends and I went to link our Manfredi's reservation together, they really had a hard time with. She was confused on what we were asking, she kept thinking we were trying to make our table for 4 a table for 6, then she said she couldn't keep their other reservation and add them to ours, she said she had to cancel that night in order to them to ours, which didn't make sense. As far as I know, there's no limit on how many nights you go to Manfredi's. And then, the time we needed to change an excursion, they struggled to get us on the right one. And in fact, they actually cancelled us from the wrong one. Luckily, we had decided to skip it anyway. It was our last day in Venice, an on your own thing. We both were feeling under the weather that day, and the Pope was doing mass in Venice, so a lot of it was closed off. But, they cancelled it on us, by mistake. It just seemed that as we would try to figure things out, they had to get info from different places, like there's multiple systems to use.

Yeah, there were a lot of people coughing at the airport. The pollen there was awful too, it was all over the sidewalks, they had to hose it down. Not saying that's my issue... And it didn't ruin my trip in any way, grateful it was at the end, and I get sick being at home, so it can happen anywhere. 😉