Advice Please for NCL Mediterranean

We have booked the NCL (Epic) Mediterranean Cruise for June 2019. We chose to embark and disembark in Rome so that we can spend a few extra days at the end of the cruise seeing Rome. In our past cruises (Disney, RCL, Celebrity, Princess, and Carnival) we have only used the excursions offered through the ship (cruise company). However, after looking at the prices of the excursions on this Mediterranean Cruise, I think it would be much more economical to book our own excursions through other companies. My questions:

1) Is this too risky - how can I ensure we make it back to the port before the ship leaves?

2) What companies have you used and were you happy with them?

3) What are some of the "best"?

4) If you have done this, what are your suggestions for excursions?

If you have advice... please share!

Thanks!!!

If you select a trusted provider, then it's not risky. They get thousands of passengers back on time each year.

Personally, I've used leisure-italy.com for Naples twice now and found them fantastic. Make the most of your roll call in getting others to share the cost and the experience. In Naples, do go to Pompeii but take in Herculaneum if you can - it's very different. I'd recommend a guide for both.

Cannes can be worth doing on your own. There are lots of things in easy walking distance, or short ferry ride (try the Lerin islands), from where the tender lets you off. Same goes for Barcelona, where the hop on hop off bus is excellent value.

It's a great cruise. I've done it twice now and really enjoy it.

Check out the PORTS OF CALL board for EUROPE you will get ideas on what is out there. ALSO join your roll call, often there are people who are booking private tours and need to fill a van and you get a better tour, more personalized and for less money. I have never booked cruise line tours and haven't missed a ship yet (touch wood!)

There is a lot of research for you to do, finding out what you want to see, what you can actually do on your own and what needs transportation etc.

My advice for ItalyNaples if you plan on going to Pompeii --- skip that town and go to Herculaneum instead. It is shadier, it was destroyed by the same eruption as Pompeii, it is also less crowded, the mosaics are wonderful, and the buildings much more intact and you can do this on your own!! Take the train and get off at Ercolano its a short walk from the station and it will only cost a few Euros per person for the train tickets.

Back in 2010 we used "Rome in Limo" for tours in Florence, Rome and Naples / Pompeii. It was fantastic, but I would check with the current reviews in the Ports of Call boards for each port. A lot can change over 8 years.

If you select a trusted provider, then it's not risky. They get thousands of passengers back on time each year.

Personally, I've used leisure-italy.com for Naples twice now and found them fantastic. Make the most of your roll call in getting others to share the cost and the experience. In Naples, do go to Pompeii but take in Herculaneum if you can - it's very different. I'd recommend a guide for both.

Cannes can be worth doing on your own. There are lots of things in easy walking distance, or short ferry ride (try the Lerin islands), from where the tender lets you off. Same goes for Barcelona, where the hop on hop off bus is excellent value.

 

It's a great cruise. I've done it twice now and really enjoy it.

THANK YOU!!! I will look into leisure-italy.com. You mentioned using the Roll Call to find people to share the cost. Do I just go to the "Roll Call" and ask for people who are interested in joining up for an excursion?

Check out the PORTS OF CALL board for EUROPE you will get ideas on what is out there. ALSO join your roll call, often there are people who are booking private tours and need to fill a van and you get a better tour, more personalized and for less money. I have never booked cruise line tours and haven't missed a ship yet (touch wood!)

 

There is a lot of research for you to do, finding out what you want to see, what you can actually do on your own and what needs transportation etc.

 

My advice for ItalyNaples if you plan on going to Pompeii --- skip that town and go to Herculaneum instead. It is shadier, it was destroyed by the same eruption as Pompeii, it is also less crowded, the mosaics are wonderful, and the buildings much more intact and you can do this on your own!! Take the train and get off at Ercolano its a short walk from the station and it will only cost a few Euros per person for the train tickets.

THANK YOU! I didn't know to look on the Ports of Call for Europe. I am new to Cruise Critic and trying to learn how to best gather information from posts and then how to post my own questions.

I always enjoy the Med on my own, it is simple. BUT, there are a lot of people who just are not able to go without being guided. It depends on you. I simply take public transportation, buses, trains etc and enjoy my time, extremely cheap, compared to what some people pay. :) I don't agree to skip Pompeii, I've certainly enjoyed both ruins, locations.

IF you can go on your own, a superb resource is to download the Rick Steves Europe app. Excellent detailed walking tours, with the Pompeii- being a big winner, as example. :)

There are also numerous - tip based - "free" walking tours available. I done many of these.

I've never had a problem with using private guides on our trips to the Med. You might check out the Ports section also to get some names of companies.

In Naples, do go to Pompeii but take in Herculaneum if you can - it's very different. I'd recommend a guide for both.

I have used ship's excursions, however I remember the Herculaneum guide saying it was best to visit in the afternoon as the sun was at the correct angle to see the interiors of the houses. You could do both in one day, but it gets very hot in Naples in the summer!

It may be seasonal - we were first ones in in the morning and the light was very good for the interiors. That was in November. Or maybe we just focused on the ones lit in the morning.

We did this in May this year embarked and disembarked in Rome. I booked transfers using the port authority link and not only were they there on time but we had great service too.

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We also were on the Epic in May this year and embarked and disembarked in Rome. We spent 4 nights prior to the cruise in Rome. We did all private tours for each of the ports. In Rome I highly recommend What a Life tours. We toured with them for Vatican and Colosseum. We used Rome in Limo for the other ports in Italy. They were really good and would recommend them.

I’ve done Pompeii and Herculaneum independently on land trips, on one occasion doing both on the same day.

On my visit to Pompeii last year in June it was very hot with little shade. You can’t take in anything bigger than a very small bag - they have lockers, so take a shoulder sling or belt for your water bottle (essential). Using a guide will get you quicker through the queue for tickets, but you can hire an audio guide.

Pompeii is huge - the suggested routes in the leaflet run (from memory) from 2 up to about 8 hours! However it’s one of the most famous tourist sites in the world, very much a one off, and afterwards you would regret missing it. We booked a private guide for 4 last year and paid around 70 euros each plus tickets. We met the guide at the station close by - trains run from Naples on the Circumvesuviana railway.

Herculaneum is smaller and very different, but I doubt you would have the energy to walk around both in hot weather, over 40C 104F when we were there. Best to visit as early in the day as possible for either. If travelling independently to Herculaneum it’s quite a long walk in hot weather from the Circumvesuviania station.

My suggestion is to go to Pompeii and then on to the National Archeological Museum in Naples where they have amazing mosaics and other objects retrieved from Pompeii.

we did our own private tours in the med on NCL. We used Discovery Guided Tours and they were excellent. Our Guides were wonderful and we got to see all the sites we wanted to see in a short period of time. The guides were well aware of what time the ship was scheduled to leave and they knew the traffic patterns well. Obviously there are no guarantees when you use a company that is not contracted by the ship, but we figured the ports of call were also not that far away from each other and we could make it to the next one if we missed the ship. It was a non-issue for us as we never came close to missing the ship.

IF you can go on your own, a superb resource is to download the Rick Steves Europe app. Excellent detailed walking tours, with the Pompeii- being a big winner, as example. :)

There are also numerous - tip based - "free" walking tours available. I done many of these.

Rick Steves does an amazing job. Between his Cruise Ports guidebook (also known as the Blue and Yellow Bible), the app, and the audio tours for the app, you can do it all yourself.

Buy the Pompeii ticket in advance.

When we did the Med cruise on the Epic (left from Barcelona) we did all excursions with the ship with the exception of Rome, which isn't where you need advice on. But for others, Rome is so easy to do on your own with the train.

Our rationale on excursions is if it is close enough to the ship we do on our own, if we are going far away we do with a tour group.

For Livorno port, we wanted to hit up Florence and Pisa and Florence is about 100 miles from port so we just did the bus trip. It was nice as got a good nap between Florence and Pisa.

For Naples we did an excursion to Mt Vesuvius and Pompeii so it was hard to do them both on our own.

Cannes did a ship excursion to Monte Carlo.

My issue when I have tried to book 3rd party places I am concerned about them not having enough people in the group and the tour not going. At least with the ship tour, I know it will go. We rented a private driver / guide before and the experience has been so-so. Once we had a person we loved. The other couple times we really didn't care for the person, so we are done with private guides as we don't want to spend the day with someone we don't really like. At least on a tour if we don't like the guide we don't have to feel obligated to make small talk with them.

I'll give you two examples of do-it-yourself on a Greek cruise with another line- Santorini and Athens.

Santorini- had to tender in. Then cable car up to the top of the mountain. Then public bus from the town at one end of the island to the town at the other. Lots of potential to get left behind, right? Wrong. The public bus was packed with people from the ship- nearly everyone had the Rick Steves book or the Frommer's. It was a tight connection coming back. I made sure to keep at least one person wearing a ship's tour sticker behind me- my total cost- $10. Ship's tour- $129

Athens- disembarked at the dock. Caught a taxi to the start of the subway line. Took the subway to the Acropolis. I beat the tour from the ship up there. Used the RS audio tour on my ipod. The tour was so strung out, the people in the back couldn't hear the guide- they were just walking like sheep. After the Acropolis, I did the RS audio walking tour thru Athens that started at the base of the Acropolis. had lunch in a local restaurant. Took the subway to the end of the line. Grabbed a public bus back to the dock. Total cost including the admission to the Acropolis? $40. Ship's tour? Over $200.

I did that as a single, middle aged woman traveling alone during a Greek work stoppage and strike. People all over the world use local public transport to go about their daily lives. It's ok to do it on vacation as well. The ships scare you by hundreds of dollars into taking their travel options and my personal opinion is you can have a much more personal and local experience enjoying a city on your own.

THANK YOU! I didn't know to look on the Ports of Call for Europe. I am new to Cruise Critic and trying to learn how to best gather information from posts and then how to post my own questions.

Ports of Call board here on CC: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5

Happy hunting :)

THANK YOU!!! I will look into leisure-italy.com. You mentioned using the Roll Call to find people to share the cost. Do I just go to the "Roll Call" and ask for people who are interested in joining up for an excursion?

Yes. The more details about the proposed trip you can give the better. If you're not comfortable with paying the full cost yourself, and need the others, then I suggest posting to gauge interest before you book the tour. Interest can be a bit variable in the Meditterranean roll calls - some are very active, others less so with no rhyme or reason.

Used easitaly tours for Rome and Vatican City last year and couldn’t have been happier.

We were on the Epic MED cruise in April 2018. We used Rome in Limo at all 3 Italy ports. It was awesome and the highlight of our cruise. They met us at the port and we were able to plan our day according to our likes. The price for 5 was very reasonable and the vehicles were fabulous. Definitely recommend Rome in Limo.