Celebrity excursion: Historical Florence and Accademia Museum

[NCteacherlovescruising]

Has anyone done this tour with Celebrity?  Just wondering if it includes tickets to the Accademia. It doesn’t say if it does or not, nor does it give a time we would need to buy them for. 

Overview

Discover magnificent art, historic sites, and authentic Italian cuisine as you tour the exquisite city of Florence. Kick off your adventure at the Accademia Museum, where you'll discover renowned works of art, including Michelangelo's famous statue of "David." Next, you'll head to the Cathedral Square to view the Duomo, the baptistery, and Giotto's bell tower, dating back to the 14th-Century. Other stops include the iconic Ponte Vecchio Bridge and the Church of Santa Croce (exterior visit only).

Highlights

• Admire an array of classic artistic masterpieces at the Accademia Museum.
• Gaze out over the magnificent Arno River from the spectacular Ponte Vecchio, a medieval stone arch bridge.
• Savor an authentic Florentine lunch at a local restaurant and enjoy free time to explore the city.

[WrittenOnYourHeart]

Given that it SAYS you're going to see masterpieces at the Academia, I think it's a safe bet admission is included.

[Iamthesea]

I would do this tour on-my-own, and have!  You will see much more doing a private tour and purchasing your own tickets.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

3 hours ago, Iamthesea said:

I would do this tour on-my-own, and have!  You will see much more doing a private tour and purchasing your own tickets.

You used a private tour company?  Which company?

[mahdnc]

Yes, admission should be included in the Celebrity shorex.  However I agree that this is worth doing as a private tour.  You will see much more--such as not setting for seeing the exterior of Santa Croce, but actually going inside to see where Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante, and Machiavelli are laid to rest.

[bigbenboys]

We booked through Celebrity. Our tour was just the train ride. We booked tickets for Accademia Museum ourselves. 

[cruisemom42]

29 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

You will see much more--such as not setting for seeing the exterior of Santa Croce, but actually going inside to see where Michelangelo, Galileo, Dante, and Machiavelli are laid to rest.

 

Here's a little known fact:  Dante is actually NOT buried in Florence but in Ravenna. What you see in Florence is just an empty tomb.

 

Dante was a political exile from Florence and died far away. Unfortunately for Florence, they realized too late what they had tossed away as Dante's posthumous popularity grew. By the time of the Medici popes (who were, of course, from Florence) they tried to get the bones back from Ravenna, but Ravenna wasn't dealing -- they actually went so far as to hide the bones when a commission from Florence came calling.

 

So -- for those who think there's nothing worth doing in Ravenna -- add Dante's tomb to the fabulous mosaics as another attraction.

[Iamthesea]

We actually liked Ravenna and also saw the tomb.

 

To the OP, there are many private tour companies that you can find online.   You really only need someone to drive you.  I am not sure where your ship docks, but we have enlisted private drivers in the past to take us to places like Pisa, and Cinque Terre from Livorno. 

 

We did not actually hire anyone when we went to Florence.  We took a train from Rome. Purchased our tickets as soon as we got to Florence and found the Accademia, then went back for our skip-the-line entrance time.  While waiting, we walked through the city admiring the architecture and popped into a few shops.  We also purchased tickets to tour the Duomo.  After touring there, we walked across the bridge and found a lovely sidewalk cafe for lunch.  Then we walked around the back side of the river and found a wonderful Gelato place before walking over to Ponte Vecchio and the surrounding artist areas.    We ate dinner in a square near the train station before heading back to Rome.  We had a lovely day!  

[George C]

Seeing David was amazing you are standing just a couple of feet away , we did a combination of Pisa the Florence followed by a wine tasting in a vineyard, this was a private tour by papillon we had 8 from our roll call it was by far the best excursion we did in Europe, they got us tickets to skip the line to get in the museum.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

13 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

We actually liked Ravenna and also saw the tomb.

 

To the OP, there are many private tour companies that you can find online.   You really only need someone to drive you.  I am not sure where your ship docks, but we have enlisted private drivers in the past to take us to places like Pisa, and Cinque Terre from Livorno. 

 

We did not actually hire anyone when we went to Florence.  We took a train from Rome. Purchased our tickets as soon as we got to Florence and found the Accademia, then went back for our skip-the-line entrance time.  While waiting, we walked through the city admiring the architecture and popped into a few shops.  We also purchased tickets to tour the Duomo.  After touring there, we walked across the bridge and found a lovely sidewalk cafe for lunch.  Then we walked around the back side of the river and found a wonderful Gelato place before walking over to Ponte Vecchio and the surrounding artist areas.    We ate dinner in a square near the train station before heading back to Rome.  We had a lovely day!  

We have an overnight in Livorno. We have a tour for the first day visiting Siena, a steak lunch, and a wine tasting that includes some really good wines. My husband and I are into good wines so it’s a priority for us. However, it’s expensive and so far we haven’t found anyone to share the excursion. I thought about just taking the train but it sounded like getting to the train could be an issue. What was you transport to the train and back to the ship from the train station?  Another option for us is to take a day trip from Rome. We will be staying there 5 nights post cruise. 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

2 minutes ago, George C said:

Seeing David was amazing you are standing just a couple of feet away , we did a combination of Pisa the Florence followed by a wine tasting in a vineyard, this was a private tour by papillon we had 8 from our roll call it was by far the best excursion we did in Europe, they got us tickets to skip the line to get in the museum.

I will check this tour out. Thanks!

[RichYak]

I agree with the others. There's no way I would do a Celebrity excursion to Florence.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

2 hours ago, RichYak said:

I agree with the others. There's no way I would do a Celebrity excursion to Florence.

Well crud. Private excursions are expensive and it seems difficult to get to the train. I finally got dh to sit down over the weekend to finalize our plans for the two days there. We agreed to one private excursion but thought this x excursion seemed adequate.  We especially liked that it seemed to hit the major places we wanted to see and would give us until the last minute to get back on the ship. I will speak with him again. 

[Essiesmom]

We were on HAL and took the bus transfer and ‘Florence on your own’.  The guide on the bus walked us to the plaza where Santa Croce is, showed us a leather shop where we could use the restrooms, and from there we were on our own.  EM

[RichYak]

13 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Well crud. Private excursions are expensive and it seems difficult to get to the train. I finally got dh to sit down over the weekend to finalize our plans for the two days there. We agreed to one private excursion but thought this x excursion seemed adequate.  We especially liked that it seemed to hit the major places we wanted to see and would give us until the last minute to get back on the ship. I will speak with him again. 

Private doesn’t need to mean just the two of you. Look for small group excursions on sites like Viator. It ends up cheaper and far more comprehensive. Smaller vehicles can get to more places than the big buses. Worst case, you keep the Celebrity excursion you have. But it can be done cheaper and better. 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

23 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

We were on HAL and took the bus transfer and ‘Florence on your own’.  The guide on the bus walked us to the plaza where Santa Croce is, showed us a leather shop where we could use the restrooms, and from there we were on our own.  EM

Celebrity wants $105 for a train transfer and only gives us 4 hours to explore on our own. We’d pay it if they let us stay longer. 
 

15 minutes ago, RichYak said:

Private doesn’t need to mean just the two of you. Look for small group excursions on sites like Viator. It ends up cheaper and far more comprehensive. Smaller vehicles can get to more places than the big buses. Worst case, you keep the Celebrity excursion you have. But it can be done cheaper and better. 

That’s true. We’ve done those before. I guess if we don’t do Celebrity, I was hoping for it to be in the 2-8 range so we’d have more input on what we see. However, I did read this feedback to him and he agreed we should cancel and look at private options. I really want to see a few things in Florence and none of the group tours hit them all. I wish there were an easy way to get there to Florence. It looks easy to diy once you’re there. 

[mahdnc]

5 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

I really want to see a few things in Florence and none of the group tours hit them all. I wish there were an easy way to get there to Florence. It looks easy to diy once you’re there. 

 

Hopefully you will figure out a way to do Florence in a manner that pleases you.  It is a beautiful city--even if Dante isn't buried there.

 

 

 

[George C]

1 hour ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Well crud. Private excursions are expensive and it seems difficult to get to the train. I finally got dh to sit down over the weekend to finalize our plans for the two days there. We agreed to one private excursion but thought this x excursion seemed adequate.  We especially liked that it seemed to hit the major places we wanted to see and would give us until the last minute to get back on the ship. I will speak with him again. 

Almost all our excursions were private excursions with normally 8 total people from our roll call , they were cheaper than ships excursions. 

[RichYak]

3 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

We have an overnight in Livorno.

I looked up what I think is your cruise to try to help further. Is it Livorno or La Spezia?

[NCteacherlovescruising]

33 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

 

Hopefully you will figure out a way to do Florence in a manner that pleases you.  It is a beautiful city--even if Dante isn't buried there.

 

 

 

I’m sure we will. 

 

9 minutes ago, George C said:

Almost all our excursions were private excursions with normally 8 total people from our roll call , they were cheaper than ships excursions. 

I put some feelers out there but so far nobody has expressed any interest at all. 
 

8 minutes ago, RichYak said:

I looked up what I think is your cruise to try to help further. Is it Livorno or La Spezia?

 

Originally it was La Spezia, but they changed it to Livorno. 

[George C]

11 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

I’m sure we will. 

 

I put some feelers out there but so far nobody has expressed any interest at all. 
 

 

Originally it was La Spezia, but they changed it to Livorno. 

Our papillon excursion left from Livorno. It was in a new Mercedes van with lots of leg room , guide/driver was great . 

[NCteacherlovescruising]

5 minutes ago, George C said:

Our papillon excursion left from Livorno. It was in a new Mercedes van with lots of leg room , guide/driver was great . 

Sounds nice!  Hopefully we can get a couple to join us to cut down on the cost. We have a private excursion the other day there that goes to Siena and a wine tasting so we would do the one without the tasting with Papillon. 

[George C]

2 minutes ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

Sounds nice!  Hopefully we can get a couple to join us to cut down on the cost. We have a private excursion the other day there that goes to Siena and a wine tasting so we would do the one without the tasting with Papillon. 

Papillon actually gave us a choice to spend extra time in Florence or do wine tasting we chose the wine tasting, of the 8 only 4 wanted the museum the other 4 wanted to do something on there own.

[NCteacherlovescruising]

8 minutes ago, George C said:

Papillon actually gave us a choice to spend extra time in Florence or do wine tasting we chose the wine tasting, of the 8 only 4 wanted the museum the other 4 wanted to do something on there own.

You said they got you skip the line tickets for the museum. Accademia, right? That’s the one we want to see. 

[Turtles06]

7 hours ago, NCteacherlovescruising said:

You said they got you skip the line tickets for the museum. Accademia, right? That’s the one we want to see. 

If you haven’t done so already, please visit the Italy Port of Call forum here on CC (link below). You’ll find and can also inquire about recommended private tour operators. Hopefully you can put together (or join) a small group from your Roll Call. 
 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/464-italy-ports/

Edited July 25, 2023 by Turtles06