Rome In Limo - Continuation of Previous Thread, Community Guidelines Apply

[mauimary]

4 hours ago, SharonK said:

I’m hoping I can get some clarification about booking with RomeInLimo.  I used them 12 years ago after connecting with other on our roll  call.  I was not the one who made the initial contact with Jany and arranged the tour and don’t remember how it all worked. Next year we are going on a cruise (Equinox Oct 3) with stops in La Spezia and Naples and cruise ending in Rome.  We want to use Rome in Limo in these locations.  If I arrange the tour and post it on the roll call to get other to join I believe RIL calls this a shared excursion.  But I don’t want it posted on their website.  If I keep it as a private excursion RIL only takes my credit card.(does that make me responsible if someone from cruise critic who committed to going is a no show?). I would appreciate any insight I can get.  I know RIL is a great company to deal with.  I started a roll call for our cruise but no one has joined it yet.

Sharon the way I have arranged tours with RIL or other tour companies on our roll call is I book it about six -9 months out.  I book it as a private excursion and I pick the size of the group.  I don’t like to post it on the roll call too early as too much can change before next Oct. People cancel and forget they committed to your group. I have booked tours with RIL in all these ports. All very successful. 
 

1. I post my tour and price and group size.    I use a gmail for contact on the roll call and I ask anyone that is interested to write me privately off the boards.  ( I do not use our own private email).     I do not like to go back and forth with everyone on the roll call itself. It’s not fair for other members to have to take up all the space organizing your tour. 
2. I ask for commitment once they have expressed definite interest and I want to know their names and stateroom number and contact email and phone. 
3. I do not ask everyone for their ideas on what they want to see.  I research it ahead of time and get input from the tour company. Then I post my excursion. 
4. Touch base after final payment with everyone. 
5. Arrange a brief face to face meeting with everyone in your group onboard so you know who you are looking for. 
6. Get off as a group.  That way you are not waiting for stragglers. Set a meeting place and time. 
Make sure everyone knows they need Euros for excursion and tip).  
 

We have never had a problem with a NO SHOW as I keep our arrangements tight and communicate  with participants. There is always the risk someone will cancel and that’s the risk you take but have found it easy to replace them by posting an opening on your tour.  Folks are always looking for a private tour.  We have the highest regards for RIL. They are great to work with.  
Hope this helps. 
Mary. 

Edited August 31, 2023 by mauimary

[SharonK]

1 hour ago, mauimary said:

Sharon the way I have arranged tours with RIL or other tour companies on our roll call is I book it about six -9 months out.  I book it as a private excursion and I pick the size of the group.  I don’t like to post it on the roll call too early as too much can change before next Oct. People cancel and forget they committed to your group. I have booked tours with RIL in all these ports. All very successful. 
 

1. I post my tour and price and group size.    I use a gmail for contact on the roll call and I ask anyone that is interested to write me privately off the boards.  ( I do not use our own private email).     I do not like to go back and forth with everyone on the roll call itself. It’s not fair for other members to have to take up all the space organizing your tour. 
2. I ask for commitment once they have expressed definite interest and I want to know their names and stateroom number and contact email and phone. 
3. I do not ask everyone for their ideas on what they want to see.  I research it ahead of time and get input from the tour company. Then I post my excursion. 
4. Touch base after final payment with everyone. 
5. Arrange a brief face to face meeting with everyone in your group onboard so you know who you are looking for. 
6. Get off as a group.  That way you are not waiting for stragglers. Set a meeting place and time. 
Make sure everyone knows they need Euros for excursion and tip).  
 

We have never had a problem with a NO SHOW as I keep our arrangements tight and communicate  with participants. There is always the risk someone will cancel and that’s the risk you take but have found it easy to replace them by posting an opening on your tour.  Folks are always looking for a private tour.  We have the highest regards for RIL. They are great to work with.  
Hope this helps. 
Mary. 

Mary,

thanks so much for your response which is the information I needed.  I also have no doubts about Rome in Limo.  So at the end of a tour does everyone pay their portion in euros or would I have to collect the money from each person and then pay  RIL?

I so appreciate you taking the time to respond!

Sharon

[mauimary]

1 hour ago, SharonK said:

Mary,

thanks so much for your response which is the information I needed.  I also have no doubts about Rome in Limo.  So at the end of a tour does everyone pay their portion in euros or would I have to collect the money from each person and then pay  RIL?

I so appreciate you taking the time to respond!

Sharon

Sharon..  We have kept our groups small (6-8)so everyone gave the guide their own share.  Do whatever you feel comfortable with.  
 

RIL has also arranged for guides for Pompeii and the Vatican for us. We paid the guides separately but I would ask Janny if they now pay them for you or should you pay them directly. 
Enjoy your cruise. 

[SharonK]

9 hours ago, mauimary said:

Sharon..  We have kept our groups small (6-8)so everyone gave the guide their own share.  Do whatever you feel comfortable with.  
 

RIL has also arranged for guides for Pompeii and the Vatican for us. We paid the guides separately but I would ask Janny if they now pay them for you or should you pay them directly. 
Enjoy your cruise. 

Thanks Mary!

[BaseballMomof4]

Did the Ravello, Amalfi, Positano tour this September with Alex and this was definitely a highlight of our trip!

Alex is so knowledgeable of the area and really made this trip - he kept us ahead of the crowds, had great information during our rides between the towns and took us to a fantastic restaurant with incredible views!

I HIGHLY recommend this tour and if request Alex you will have a fantastic day!!

[bellavita1]

We had another great adventure!! I have used Romeinlimo three times and they are top notch. I’m also going back to Italy next June and have tours booked with them already. We had Lucca in Sicily and he was so young and energetic and full of knowledge of his region. He was so fun he also recommended a delicious restaurant off the beaten path in Taormina , which was probably one of our best meals in Italy. Also, a wonderful tasty canolli at Roberto‘s in Taormina. We also went to Castelmola. Cute little town with fun shops and restaurants. In Rome we had Piero which I requested for the second time. So passionate about his country, and it was fun to see an old friend again. We went to Pagnanelli restaurant in Castel Gandolfo, which he had taken us before delicious!  What views and the wine cellar is a must. We have been to Rome before and wanted to explore some different sites so he took us to some hidden gems in the area and did not disappoint. We toured with him for two days, visiting the Capuchin monks and the catacombs. We were tired before him. He never would’ve stopped showing us around. Can’t wait to see him again next year. We also booked a airport transfer. The gentleman was very prompt and we got to our airport destination very quickly with all of our many bags. I would always recommend ROMEINLIMO. It’s a fantastic company. They truly care about your experience and also want to keep your business 

 

 

[Jonesthecat]

I’ve just found this thread. They sound a great company but I can’t get in contact with them. The contact page keeps saying there is an error on it. Does anyone have contact details for them other than their contact page on the website? 

[FLCruiser97]

37 minutes ago, Jonesthecat said:

I’ve just found this thread. They sound a great company but I can’t get in contact with them. The contact page keeps saying there is an error on it. Does anyone have contact details for them other than their contact page on the website? 

info@romeinlimo.com

Jany is the contact person. She will always get back to you.

[BaseballMomof4]

On 10/6/2016 at 1:01 PM, samavarcruiser said:

This make sense, that thread was really long.

I would LOVE to hear from those who have used this company lately.

Tell me more about your day in Rome out of Civitavechia, Amalfi coast out of Salerno and Florence out of Livorno, I am planing a cruise to Italy next year and need your help.

Do you recommend a private guide for the Vatican and Herculaneum?

This is not my first cruise but have never used a private tour company in the past, just getting little old for those trains :)

Thank you in advance for all your help and recommendations.

Used them in September and they were fantastic.  Used the transport to the port from Rome, used them in Messina and also on the Amalfi Coast - Alex on the Amalfi Coast was fantastic!!  

 

 

[SharonK]

1 hour ago, BaseballMomof4 said:

Used them in September and they were fantastic.  Used the transport to the port from Rome, used them in Messina and also on the Amalfi Coast - Alex on the Amalfi Coast was fantastic!!  

 

 

Did you doPompeii with the Amalfi coast?  I’m looking at the Pompeii, Sorrento, and Positano excursion.

[Jonesthecat]

8 hours ago, FLCruiser97 said:

info@romeinlimo.com

Jany is the contact person. She will always get back to you.

Thank you so much! 

[BaseballMomof4]

10 hours ago, SharonK said:

Did you doPompeii with the Amalfi coast?  I’m looking at the Pompeii, Sorrento, and Positano excursion.

I did that one back in 2013 - it's a wonderful excursion!

[SharonK]

7 hours ago, BaseballMomof4 said:

I did that one back in 2013 - it's a wonderful excursion!

I'm getting ready to book that one.  Thanks Baseball Mom!

[BaseballMomof4]

3 hours ago, SharonK said:

I'm getting ready to book that one.  Thanks Baseball Mom!

It's worth it to pay for the guide in Pompeii - it's huge and it helps when someone explains what you are seeing.  Enjoy!!

[SharonK]

Will be cruising Barcelona to Rome in October.  I’ve already booked two tours with RomeInLimo - one to Pompeii, Sorrento, and Positano, the other Lucca and the Tuscan Riviera.  My question is about Rome. We have considered the Civitavecchia  transfer to Rome but everything in the first half of that tour we feel we can do on our own the next day (Trevi fountain, Spanish Steps, etc.).  So we are considering doing a guided tour of the Coloseum in the morning (after the transfer from the port), lunch and then the guided tour of the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, etc. .  Has anyone done a tour like this with RomeInLimo?  They can arrange it for us as two walking tours or with a driver.  I would love some feedback from anyone who has more experience in Rome than I do. Thanks in advance!

[SharonK]

I have booked 3 tours with RIL and found people through our rollcall to join us.  We usually pay in cash but one person wants to use Zelle which RIL's website says they accept.  My question is:  Does anyone have experience with some folks paying cash and others Zelle? I have no experience with Zelle but will also consider using it.  I will ask RIL but wanted to hear from folks who have done this.

[Hollyann]

I just returned from our first trip to Europe. We sailed on the Sun Princess from May 4 – 18.  While it is our first trip to Europe, we have been on ten cruises in the past and have almost always used off-ship excursions.  Being a bit nervous about going to Europe, we wanted to be sure to use a reputable company. After reading 17 pages of glowing reports on RomeInLimo (RIL), we decided that we wanted to do as many tours as we could with them. Jany from RIL replied back to every email the very next day EVERY time I emailed her - and I had MANY. (I think that woman deserves a day off ☹). I am sure that the only reason it was the next day is due to the 10 hour time difference. That speediness alone gave me great confidence in the company. 

 We ended up booking 5 tours with RIL. The difference with European tours such as RIL is that they require a “commitment” when booking say a van of 8. Whereas tours in the Caribbean only require that you commit your party of 3 - if the others do not show up - you do not have to pay for them.  We were lucky that we found two couples traveling together that happened to live in our state and we ended up booking a lot of RIL and they booked some Viators for us. 

Our first tour was our big splurge - just my husband, 31 yo son and myself going to Pompeii, Sorrento and Positano. As it turns out, the other four had ONE ship’s tour booked with on board credit and I knew that we wanted to spend the majority of our time in Pompeii. This was also the ONE tour that we were nervous about getting back to the ship as there is a narrow road that if it should get blocked there could be issues, so my family wanted to go to Sorrento and Positano first for just a quick visit.  We put that in our request and Daniel, our driver was wonderful about meeting our needs.  We were picked up at 7:30 am, zipped ahead of the ship’s tours did a quick tour of the Amalfi coast and we got to Pompeii about 1:30.  He arranged the timing so that we could meet with the Pompeii guide for a walking tour of Pompeii.

Our next tour was Pisa and Florence – we had a reservation for the 7 of us.  Again, we had an English-speaking driver, Antonio this time.  While they technically are not tour guides, all of the drivers spoke good English and filled us with information about the cities and sights we were seeing.  We did not wish to climb the Tower of Pisa but stopped for a photo shoot – it was much taller than I thought it would be! And we drove on to Florence.  The other four did not wish to go to the Accademia, but we had tickets for 1pm.  Antonio gave us good meeting points and after dropping the four off, he insisted upon meeting us to take us to the Accademia.  We are so glad he did because his Italian help us get our tickets with our prepaid voucher and then get in the correct line.  It would have been much more difficult without him. Another wonderful day!

When we disembarked in Rome, and the other group of four adults and us had booked hotels to stay for three nights.  We arranged a “Post Cruise Tour from Civitavecchia”.  Jany was willing to tailor it to our needs because we did not want to go to the Vatican or Colosseum as we had planned to do that the next two days. Instead, we booked a trip similar to the “Hidden Rome Highlights”.  Again, our driver was fabulous, filling our brains with more sights and information than we could absorb! He picked us up at the ship and dropped us off at our two different hotels 8 hours later. He stayed with our luggage every time we got out of the van.

Saturday, we had a walking tour of Ancient Rome and Julia was our guide at the Colosseum.  We split the fee again among the seven of us. She was raised in Rome and as required of all guides in Italy, she had to pass their test to be a guide. The knowledge she had was amazing. Plus, we found out she would be our guide for the Vatican on Monday!  We felt so lucky to have her again. She was very prompt again – I cannot even begin to say how helpful everyone was – helping us to skirt the lines (of course we had our tickets in advance) and the knowledge that they had.

As far as the cost, we had booked more than five tours, so we did receive a discount.  Being our first time to Europe, I was skittish about having to carry enough Euros to pay in cash at the end – it totaled up to more than we wanted to carry.  There is a 5% fee to use a credit card, but I get 2% cash back so we thought about doing that. As it turns out, in January they offered a credit card discount. So us and the other party decided to pay off two of the bigger tours in advance (One was about $130 per person and one was about $85 or so).  Jany was good enough to allow both of us to pay our own parts of the tours.

The walking tours we could not pay off in advance but that was less and $35 each for the 7 of us. Not a big amount of Euros to put in the safe or carry around.

Not only are off-ship tours better and more personalized due to the smaller size.  But vans can get in so many more places – especially in Rome!  Plus, they are so much cheaper than the ships tours. I am still following the Sun Princess thread and am seeing reports people stuck on buses full of coughing people and getting sick afterward.  That is another bonus!  I have NEVER written a review this long, but am so thrilled with this company and the service that they provided that I had to add to this glowing thread.

 

Edited May 27 by Hollyann
typos

[gmachar]

We are just back from a TA on the Oasis with 2 weeks in the Mediterranean after. For our stops in Italy we booked private tours (4 of us) in a mini van with RomeInLimo. We had Marco in Rome twice - Hidden Rome & Rome highlights,

in Florence we had Sabrina twice for Florence/pisa and Lucca & the the Tuscan countryside and from Naples we had Giovanni for Sorento, Positano & Pompeii.

Every tour was great & the drivers could not have been better! For us it was worth it to have just our group (and most of the tours were cheaper than ship tours). 
Absolutely recommend this company!

Charlene

[SharonK]

20 minutes ago, gmachar said:

We are just back from a TA on the Oasis with 2 weeks in the Mediterranean after. For our stops in Italy we booked private tours (4 of us) in a mini van with RomeInLimo. We had Marco in Rome twice - Hidden Rome & Rome highlights,

in Florence we had Sabrina twice for Florence/pisa and Lucca & the the Tuscan countryside and from Naples we had Giovanni for Sorento, Positano & Pompeii.

Every tour was great & the drivers could not have been better! For us it was worth it to have just our group (and most of the tours were cheaper than ship tours). 
Absolutely recommend this company!

Charlene

This is wonderful to hear as we have 3 tours booked with them in October and 2 of the are the same as yours!

[gmachar]

28 minutes ago, SharonK said:

This is wonderful to hear as we have 3 tours booked with them in October and 2 of the are the same as yours!

Looks like others think their drivers (who really were great guides) were the best, but we sure loved the ones we had!

[FamilyAtSea.travel]

We booked a private tour of Sorrento, Positano, and Pompeii from our Naples port through Rome in Tours and I'm happy to report they did an excellent job.

 

Our driver, Johnny, was awaiting us just outside the port upon arrival and got us on the road ahead of the crowds. 

 

We visited Sorrento and Positano along the Amalfi Coast first and he expertly navigated the heavy traffic and extremely tight roads. He's local to this area so he was able to provide a perspective on things that only a true local can. He shared stories of growing up in the region, how things have changed, and stopped by some incredible photo ops along the way.

 

To do all three of these sites in a single port day is a lot and as a result, we only had 30 minutes in each location before having to move along. 

 

In Positano we walked down to see their lava stone sand beach with shops and boutique hotels along the way. In Sorrento we toured their town square area filled with shops, restaurants, and vendors. 

 

While in Sorrento, before heading to Pompeii he brought us to a local olive farm where we had an excellent four-course lunch paired with wine. 

 

Upon arrival at Pompeii we met with a tour guide who was able to offer an in-depth retelling of the history of Pompeii with stories of what things were like for this ancient civilization 2,000 years ago, leading up to and on the day of the disaster that tragically cost them all their lives.

 

Following the tour, Johnny met up with our tour guide at Pompeii, picked us up, and returned us to our ship (the Celebrity Equinox) with plenty of time to spare before we left port.

 

The cost for the tour was $700 ($550 for the driver + $150 for the guide at Pompeii) which had to be paid in cash (at the end of the tour). 

 

The communication leading up to the tour with Jany was prompt and professional. Johnny did an excellent job of providing insights, showing us some incredible sights, and delivering us to the various locations safely and ontime.

 

We're very pleased with the experience and would recommend Rome in Tours to anybody who wants a higher quality excursion outside of the overcrowded cruise ship excursions.

[Goodapple]

We did customized tours. One was from the airport to our hotel, as we arrived at 8:30 in the morning with our family of eight and our rooms were not available until 3:00, plus it was the national holiday with many roads in Rome being closed for parade, etc.  We first drove to Nemi for their annual strawberry festival and then to Castel Gandolfo for lunch and sight-seeing.  Our driver dropped us off very close to our hotel and the police let us walk through the street barrier to get to hotel.  We also booked private transportation from hotel to the cruise port the next morning, which went smoothly.  The third excursion was a Bolgheri Wine Tour at our first port of Livorno.  Reviews for each follow.
Everything went perfectly. We loved Nemi and the strawberry festival, even though it was raining. The flower displays were lovely and strawberries delicious. Our guide Mauricio provided extra umbrellas and we arrived early enough to avoid parking problems. Castel Gandolfo was beautiful in the rain as well. The sun came out and our guide gave us interesting facts during the drive to and from and also made a special photo stop for us at the Vatican City. We couldn't have asked for more.
Everything went smoothly on our transfer the next morning from our hotel in Rome to airport. Our driver was very congenial and also shared some interesting facts.
The following day we had a wonderful Bolgheri Wine Tour with Laura, who presented us with a wealth of information during the trip. She was very helpful and took great care to make sure we were comfortable and to watch for uneven steps, watch for approaching cars, etc. Laura recommended a wonderful restaurant for lunch where we had pasta made from scratch. Both wineries we visited were fantastic and the scenery was beautiful. All eight of us had a great time!