Rome as a port of call - how much time?

[fortmilles]

I see a lot of information about getting to/from Rome from the Civitavecchia port, and recommendations about the train, private car, etc. That is all extremely helpful as this is the first time my family and I are headed to Europe.

 

I am trying to get an idea how much time we can expect to have in Rome when factoring in the travel to/from the port. We will most likely want to play it conservative to make sure we don't miss the last call....

[marazul]

To be conservative, allow 3 hours for coming and going. Make sure your cruise has a 10 or 12 hour port stop if you really want to have plenty of time in Rome.

[ksm77]

We have done Rome as a port of call twice. Both times we used the ships transportation to and from. It worked great for us. It will take about 90 minutes by bus that the cruise lines provide. It is more expensive but worth it to us. We knew right where to meet up with our bus driver we were not worried about something happening that would cause a delay and make us miss the ship. On both of our experiences we left the ship at 7:30 am was in Rome by 9:00 am. We had to meet our driver by 4:30 pm back on ship by 6:00. Ship left around 6:30 - 7:00 pm. We had spent a week in Rome a couple of years before these trips so we knew our way around. I think you would need to do a lot of research for what you want to try to see. You will be let out in a central location. The first time we were dropped near the Trevi Fountain. They picked us up at Piazza del Papolo. The next time we were dropped off & picked up at St Peters. If we had not had some knowledge of Rome I think we would have spent much of our time trying to find our way around. Whatever you decide Rome is amazing.

[Jimjamz]

We did our own way on the train which is completely doable but you need to be the slightly intrepid traveller type and have good scheduling/planning abilities and enjoy walking. We used the BIRG ticket (from the info centre at the train station). Covers cost of return train and metro in Rome and costs 12 E per person. The excursion ticket to get tour bus to and from Rome was 50E pp and didn't include any subway/metro rides.

[John Bull]

Advantages of the train

- waaay cheaper than ship's excursion.

- you can alight at your choice of station in Rome, and board for the return trip at a different station - no need to back-track to your starting point. So for example you can take the train to Roma Ostiense to first visit the Colosseum, then make the Vatican your last visit & take the train back to Civi from Roma San Pietro.

- your BIRG train ticket also covers Rome's metro and service buses (not ho-hos).

 

Disadvantages of the train.

- you have to get from the ship to Civi station. This involves a free shuttlebus from ship to port gate, then a payable shuttle or 20/25 minute walk to the station. Ditto your return. The train journey is quicker than by road - train takes between 60 mins & 100 mins depending which Rome station, but the overall journey time takes longer - how much longer depends on how long you have to wait for a train.

- the regional trains are jam-packed at cruisers' times-of-day. You'd be very very very very very unlucky to find that you can't squeeze on, but you'll very probably have to stand.

 

If you take ship's bus transfer, then as long as you're on-time at the pick-up point in Rome getting you back to the ship is the cruise line's responsibility. But this tends to be over-played by cruise lines - if a train carrying hundreds of passengers is delayed I'm pretty sure the ship will wait. But we catch the second-to-last suitable train back, leaving the last one as a back-up in case we foul-up.

So our safety net costs us about half-an-hour.

 

Overall, I think ship's transfer will give you a little longer to see the sights.

 

Whatever transport you choose, you do need to research, have a planned route, pre-book tickets for places you want to visit inside - the combined Colosseum/ Forum/ Palatine Hill ticket (but you'll not have time for Palatine Hill) and the Vatican options - and be prepared to amend that route / skip one or two sights depending how well you keep up with the clock. On a single port-of-call day you'll get to see the main sights, but you won't see them all & you won't have long at every sight.

We used the train. Off at Ostiense, metro from the adjacent Piramide metro station to Colossum (inside visit). Then all on foot.....through the Forum & exit the Forum at Vittorio Emanuele (there's an exit but not entrance at this end of the Forum, so can't be done in reverse), to Trevi, to the Pantheon (inside visit, very quick & easy), Piazza Navona, cross the Tiber on Ponte Vittorio Emanuele (Sant Angelo castle on the right), St Peter's Square (no inside visit to Vatican), 20-minute walk to Roma San Angelo station for the train back to Civi.

Something like this.......

https://goo.gl/maps/y369kTn2wp32

(but googlemaps won't walk thro the Forum so it uses the adjacent Via Del Fori Imperiali)

 

JB :)

[fortmilles]

I saw the note about the tour bus being 50E pp. Is that a shore excursion or is that arranged some other way? I don't see where NCL has it listed as an excursion on their site, so I want to make sure that's even an option for me. They do have some outrageous private options, but I'm not looking for that.