Noordam July 24th review LOOOOOOONG

[KirkNC]

Hi Kirk,

 

I hope you will be kind enough to answer another question (and anyone else with input is welcome to as well!).

 

The ship's kids' program is only open 8 to 4. Would it be reasonably possible or not for my husband and I to leave the ship just after 8, get a taxi and then the train to Florence, and be able to see David (Accademia) and spend some time at Uffizia, walk around Florence a bit, on the train again and stop at Pisa and get back to the ship before 4 pm? We don't need a restaurant lunch (can eat on the go). Not sure how much time to allow. (It may be he'll have to come with us - he's a great traveller, but the a long time in museums might not be very interesting for him. Just typing this I realize I am probably not allowing enough time . . .) Any suggestions much appreciated!

 

Yikes, that is not a lot of time, if you can't get off the ship until 8:00 you will miss the 8:11 train. The next train is not until 9:11, that one puts you in Florence at 10:33 so you could have an 11:00 Accademia reservation. If you spend about 45 minutes in Accademia and than walk to Uffizzi (its about 15 minutes, you should be able to grab something to eat while you walk and make a 12:15 reservation at Uffizzi. You would need to be back at the station by 2:30 to catch the 2:43 train which puts you back in Livirono by 3:23. The walk from Uffizzi to the station is also about 15 minutes. So it can be done but it would be very rushed. I would call Ship Services and see if you can make arrangements for a babysitter for both the front and back end of your stop so you could really enjoy Florence, it is such a beautiful city I hate for you to rush through it. I am sure the babysitting would not be cheap but if you pickup 2-3 hours in FLorence, that is priceless!

 

Kirk

[wefamily3]

Yikes, that is not a lot of time, if you can't get off the ship until 8:00 you will miss the 8:11 train. The next train is not until 9:11, that one puts you in Florence at 10:33 so you could have an 11:00 Accademia reservation. If you spend about 45 minutes in Accademia and than walk to Uffizzi (its about 15 minutes, you should be able to grab something to eat while you walk and make a 12:15 reservation at Uffizzi. You would need to be back at the station by 2:30 to catch the 2:43 train which puts you back in Livirono by 3:23. The walk from Uffizzi to the station is also about 15 minutes. So it can be done but it would be very rushed. I would call Ship Services and see if you can make arrangements for a babysitter for both the front and back end of your stop so you could really enjoy Florence, it is such a beautiful city I hate for you to rush through it. I am sure the babysitting would not be cheap but if you pickup 2-3 hours in FLorence, that is priceless!

 

Kirk

 

Thanks again. I heard back from HAL and they only will provide sitters if the parents are on the ship, so I guess he's coming with us that day. Can I ask where you pre-purchased your museum tickets - when I do a search, various sites come up that seem to be "middle man" companies with service fees (unless that is just the way it 's done)? I so wish we were here more than a day - which means we'll have to come on a land trip some day to spend some time exploring Tuscany . . . Appreciate all your help!

[KirkNC]

Thanks again. I heard back from HAL and they only will provide sitters if the parents are on the ship, so I guess he's coming with us that day. Can I ask where you pre-purchased your museum tickets - when I do a search, various sites come up that seem to be "middle man" companies with service fees (unless that is just the way it 's done)? I so wish we were here more than a day - which means we'll have to come on a land trip some day to spend some time exploring Tuscany . . . Appreciate all your help!

 

I guess it must be for insurance coverage or something. Here is the site to buy the ticket:

 

http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/Uffizi/default.aspx

 

Just print it out and take it to the window at Academia and Uffizzi. Make sure you get in the right line. At Uffizzi there were three lines, one for those with a reservation (this will be you) who need to "check-in" and get another ticket, a line for those with no reservation and one for those who have a reservation and have checked-in. Once you check-in you go to the second line, both of these lines move fairly fast. We got in the first line around 12:00 and were inside about 12:20 with a 12:15 reservation. They won't let you in the first line until fifteen minutes before you reservation...confused yet? The first line you need to get in is on the right as you face the river.

 

At Academia there were two lines, those with and those without reservations, just ask the people in front of you which line is which, I think the reservation line was to the right of the door but I might be wrong. Enjoy Florence, it is magnificent.

 

Kirk

[Divi]

Hi Kirk

I was intrigued by your post where you mentioned the Good Reader app for carrying maps and other useful documents with you when you went to various ports starting in Barcelona. I just downloaded the app on to my iPod Touch.We have a cruise next year starting in Barcelona and I'd be interested in knowing some of the web sites you used for getting information. Any hints about using the app would also be appreciated. If you don't wish to post that info here on CruiseCritic could you please send it to my email deenrandy@gmail.com.

Thanks Randy

[KirkNC]

Hi Kirk

I was intrigued by your post where you mentioned the Good Reader app for carrying maps and other useful documents with you when you went to various ports starting in Barcelona. I just downloaded the app on to my iPod Touch.We have a cruise next year starting in Barcelona and I'd be interested in knowing some of the web sites you used for getting information. Any hints about using the app would also be appreciated. If you don't wish to post that info here on CruiseCritic could you please send it to my email deenrandy@gmail.com.

Thanks Randy

 

I don't mind sharing at all. I used several sources.

 

Maps: I have Map Source (a Garmin product) on my PC so one thing I would do is save pictures of my maps for each city we were visiting. You can also do this using Goggle Maps by saving your current map view as a picture. In either case I would have favorites saved on the maps with the locations of restaurants, bus/metro/train stations or stops, museums and other places of interest. My Map Source product also loaded waypoints into a handheld GPS which was usually useful (sometimes tall buildings blocked the signal). Here are some sites I got maps from:

 

http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/maps/barcelona-metro-map-printable.html

 

http://www.siabarcelona.com/RutaMontjuic-ht/MontjuicENG.htm

 

http://www.tmb.cat/en_US/barcelona/moute/planols/lineametroplano.jsp?linia=1

 

This last one I did all the lines I thought I might need.

 

http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/transport/barcelona-cruise-port.html

 

 

Schedules:

 

I had train and bus schedules saved (see attachments)

 

I also had write up on places from whatever source I could find, sometime Wikipedia, sometimes just a site on the internet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palau_G%C3%BCell

 

http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/transport/barcelona-metro.html

 

 

I would save the above as a Word file so I could load it into Good Reader. I would look at them the night before to refresh my memory so I did not need to look at them the next day.

 

Really just anything I came across that could be helpful I saved either as a Word doc or a picture and than uploaded it. I did have sub directories in GR so I could zero in easier.

 

Some of my favorites were writeups CC members and others did on "How to" subjects:

 

http://www.ftroute.com/LIV_FIR_LIV.htm

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1004051

 

I hope that helps, let me know if I can answer any questions.

 

Kirk

 

 

 

Kirk

Naples Bus schedule.pdf

forum map RS.pdf

[Divi]

Hi Kirk

Thanks a lot - the info you provided looks very comprehensive. I really appreciate the time you took to provide this.

tanks

Randy

[wefamily3]

I guess it must be for insurance coverage or something. Here is the site to buy the ticket:

 

http://www.b-ticket.com/b-ticket/Uffizi/default.aspx

 

Just print it out and take it to the window at Academia and Uffizzi. Make sure you get in the right line. At Uffizzi there were three lines, one for those with a reservation (this will be you) who need to "check-in" and get another ticket, a line for those with no reservation and one for those who have a reservation and have checked-in. Once you check-in you go to the second line, both of these lines move fairly fast. We got in the first line around 12:00 and were inside about 12:20 with a 12:15 reservation. They won't let you in the first line until fifteen minutes before you reservation...confused yet? The first line you need to get in is on the right as you face the river.

 

At Academia there were two lines, those with and those without reservations, just ask the people in front of you which line is which, I think the reservation line was to the right of the door but I might be wrong. Enjoy Florence, it is magnificent.

 

Kirk

 

Thanks! The soonest I could tx was 12:30 for Uffizia (which I booked) and only pm tx are available for Accademia (haven't booked yet). I am still planning to get off the ship as early as possible, and debating what the odds are of showing up at Accademia in the early am and getting in without a reservation, or if we should stop at Pisa in the am instead, and see Accademia AFTER Uffizi, then head straight to the train station to return to Livorno. Any input by anyone appreciated . . .

[KirkNC]

I will say that when we went to Accademia the line for those without reservations was not very long, maybe 30 people. Now there had just been a pretty hard rain so maybe that dissuaded some from standing in line, I don't know. I also would think that the line would move pretty quickly. Outside of David, we did not spend much time there. The other sculptures were nice but by that time we were having some sculpture burn out having been to Uffizzi and Bargello. Florence is very compact so it would not take you long to walk by and see if you could sneak a quick peek. David really is magnificent.

 

Kirk

[wefamily3]

I will say that when we went to Accademia the line for those without reservations was not very long, maybe 30 people. Now there had just been a pretty hard rain so maybe that dissuaded some from standing in line, I don't know. I also would think that the line would move pretty quickly. Outside of David, we did not spend much time there. The other sculptures were nice but by that time we were having some sculpture burn out having been to Uffizzi and Bargello. Florence is very compact so it would not take you long to walk by and see if you could sneak a quick peek. David really is magnificent.

 

Kirk

You have made my heart sing - I was sickened that we would not get to see David and was thinking we would have to give up Uffizzi (even though I just reserved the tx) to reserve for Accademia instead. We will get there as early as we can and line up right away. I really want to thank you for all of your advice.

 

Darlene