euro cruiser

There is work going on at the Trastevere station: DA FS NEWS - RFI presenta il progetto di restyling della stazione di Roma Trastevere For those going to Trastevere, there is bus service provided during construction.

Years ago we took Alaska Rail from Anchorage to Whittier: Glacier Discovery Train | Alaska Railroad There is also a bus option: Anchorage to Whittier Alaska Park Connection Bus Line (alaskacoach.com)

A professional car service does this all the time, you just need to give them your flight information. Unless you have some reason to believe that you will be particularly slow, much slower than the average traveler, I don't think you need to do their job for them by deciding in advance a specific pickup time. Drivers aren't lone rangers, they talk to one another as well as their dispatcher. If there is a problem at the airport causing delays for arriving passengers, they'll know about it before you do. You may want to specify when you make the reservation that you will have checked bags to collect (but they will assume that for passengers coming from overseas).

The only easy ways out of Ravenna are a private car service or a ship transfer. There are public transportation options but they can be cumbersome and time consuming, not a great option if you have an early flight. The Bologna airport is about 60 miles from the port, while the Venice airport is 125 miles away.

No matter what you do from Venice you will have a change en route, assuming you are flying to Tampa International. Given that you have to change somewhere, I'd relook at Bologna as the exit point as it's much closer and easier to reach from Ravenna than Venice, and it's an easier airport to navigate. You can get flights on United to Tampa from Bologna with one stop at Frankfurt (code share with Lufthansa)

I think the increase in travel time is simply allowing for the bus connection to the port, if you look at ust the train schedule there is no change. The 6 euro Port Shuttle connection goes to the ship if in the outlying berths (#25), otherwise it goes to the cruise ship terminal. It does not drop at Largo della Pace.

There are, local (regionale), intercity (IC) and fast (Frecce) trains between Rome Termini and Civitavecchia every day. The regionale are the least expensive (4,60 euro) and most frequent trains, but they do not offer reserved seats, so it's a free-for-fall when you get on, and they leave from the Lazio auxilliary tracks three blocks from the main track head at Termini in Rome. They take longer to make the trip, between 60 - 123 minutes, and make several stops along the way (up to 12). IC trains are the most uncommon, only a couple each day. They are more expensive (11,50 last minute fare), offer assigned seats, and usually make only one stop en route. They depart from the main track head at Termini. Finally there are the Frecce trains. There are not many each day but they depart from the main track head, offer assigned seats, have more room for luggage, and make no stops between Termini and Civitavecchia. This is the most expensive option at 16,00 euro (base fare in second class) but you can get a better price by purchasing in advance. Only Trenitalia serves this route: EN - Trenitalia In all cases, if you choose Civitavecchia Porto as your destination you'll get a ticket for the bus (6 euro) from the Civitavecchia station to the port in addition to the train ticket.

Um, 50 people means somewhere between 50 - 100 pieces of luggage. Regardless of the port I think it's unrealistic to expect workers to tag that many pieces all at once, correctly.

In October I think your risk of morning mist is greater, I'd factor that into my decision.

I used to travel with someone who could not walk through ORD without eating an O'Hare dog, even first thing in the morning. 😬

No, it will not.

La Spezia is not a good port from which to visit Florence, regardless of how hard cruise lines try to market it that way, unless you are overnighting at La Spezia and don't need to race back. Livorno isn't great, but it's far better as a starting point for Florence. By car from La Spezia it's two hours each way, more with traffic, and you'd be driving in with morning traffic (but thankfully returning before the end of day commute). This may have changed, but it used to be that the port at La Spezia did not allow taxis or car service cars into the port, you were forced to use the port shuttle bus to the cruise terminal and be picked up there, taking away 15 - 30 minutes on the beginning and the end of your day.

As I said, simply not up to the standards of the rest of the HAL line, in my experience/opinion. Many aspects of the ship and the cruise experience were just off, not dramatically, but noticeably. Plumbing issues that defied repair for several days, rotted out doorframes, food arriving to the table tepid, not hot. The entertainment (other than the comedian) was not as good as I've seen on the other ships. All in all, we enjoyed ourselves on this cruise but will not choose the Noordam again, there are so many other great options in the line.

I'm curious about the taxi from Salerno, that will be an expensive trip. You could take the train (Trenitalia) to Portici-Ercolano, from there to the ticket office at the ruins is 1.7 km/1 mile on foot, or you could get a taxi from the station. I've seen taxis at the station, but even if there aren't any when you arrive there is a bar and they will call one for you.

??? Common? Absolutely not.

How are you arriving to the port? If by train, you can take the bus right to your ship.

Guides are not guaranteed at Herculaneum but they are often there. It's a much smaller site and easier to understand on your own with a decent guide book, if that's any comfort. It's a lot to get to both in one day but I think it comes down to your interest level. They are very different from one another, so it's not like you're going to see more of the same by going to both. Some people spend all day at Pompei and still want to go back, others take a two hour tour and are satisfied. It's pretty personal.

From the Anfiteatro entrance/exit it is a 700 meters/four-tenths of a mile walk to the Pompei Santuario Station for the train to Ercolano. The fare is 2,40 and you can buy the ticket from a machine in the station or just use Tap & Go with any Visa, Mastercard or Amex credit card. The train schedule for this line can be found here: ORARI NAPOLI -TORRE ANNUNZIATA - POGGIOMARINO_13 settembre 2023_5.pdf (eavsrl.it) The walk from the Ercolano Scavi Circumvesuviana train station to Herculaneum is just under a half mile. You would take the same train back to Naples. I would get off at the penultimate stop, Napli Piazza Garibaldi, and switch there to the #1 metro to get back to the cruise port (three stops to Municipio/Porto): ANM Web Site You can also use Tap & Go for the metro.

To make your visit as efficient as possible and give you the most options for getting from Pompei to Ercolano to visit Herculaneum, I suggest exiting Pompei at Anfiteatro rather than doubling back to the Porta Marina entrance/exit. This puts you close to the Pompei Santuario station for the Circumvesuviana local train line (Naples-Poggiomarino line), which you can take to Ercolano. On the offical map of the ruins you can see the Porta Marina entrance/exit on the left, near the middle, and the Anfiteatro entrance/exit on the bottom right: Pompeiweb2023.pdf (pompeiisites.org)

There is a public SITA bus that leaves from the Varco Immacolatella depot, less than a half mile on foot within the port area from the cruise terminal. There is a ticket office at the depot where you can buy the tickets, 3,30 euro each way. These are comfortable long distance buses (more seats than city buses) and there is one that leaves at 9:30 everyday (except Sundays, no service on Sundays/holidays) and arrives to Pompei Scavi at 10:05. The walk from the bus stop to the main entrance to the ruins (Porta Marina) is about 250 meters/two-tenths of a mile. Bus schedule here: 0 (sitasudtrasporti.it) In my opinion (and I think I've tried them all) this is the most comfortable and easiest public transit route to Pompei from Naples.

You could walk to the hotel in that much time, but there are also bus, tram and metro options. However, if the only thing pushing you towards this tour is availability of guides at Pompei, that's not an issue. They are guaranteed to be available every day that the ruins are open until at least 2 PM. Also, ticket lines are not an issue at Pompei. According to their charter, no one waits more than 15 minutes in line. You can easily purchase tickets on line in advance, if you want to, from the offical site here: Timetables and tickets - Pompeii Sites The tickets were just expanded, for a visit just to the main ruins you'd want the Pompei Express ticket, 18 euro. Until the end of this year there is an additional 1 euro fee to help with the flood recovery efforts in Emilia Romagna. So, if you want to, you can do this on your own using public transportation.

As there is no way to be certain, if you really want to go I'd switch to the early train.

I had the same thing happen with the bags. I went to Guest Services and they claimed to know nothing about it, they just called my cabin steward and dumped it on him. He found two of them somewhere and they were in the room when we got back from dinner. While management and crew do change over time (the captain, who was somewhat perfunctory in his daily comments all week suddenly came to life on Saturday when he announced that he too was getting off the ship and heading home from San Diego), I find that the overall tone of the organization remains. Each ship creates its own atmosphere and culture, which survives personnel changes over time, unless someone at the top makes a concerted effort to change it. Still, as above I enjoyed the cruise. I just won't repeat on the Noordam because I've seen how other ships within the fleet do it better.

It's unfortunate that your stop in on a first Sunday. I would seriously reconsider going to the Accademia unless you simply must see David and are sure you will never again be in Florence, because you will waste most of the day on this one thing. You might also consider getting on the roll call for your sailing to see if you can find some other folks to share the cost of a private transfer to Florence and back. It will cost quite a bit more than the train but divided among four or six people the same or less than a bus trip through the cruise line, and it will allow you the freedom to pick the time to go and return, without waiting for fifty other people to get on the bus.

I have been on the Zuiderdam (2011, 2022, 2023), the Rotterdam (old one in 2012, new one in 2023), the Eurodam (2013 and 2017), the Veendam (2016), the Amsterdam (2017), and the Nieuw Amsterdam (2019) prior to the Noordam last week. The Noordam simply doesn't live up to the quality of the rest of the fleet.