Pre-cruise hotel package or on our own?

[Lalof]

We are on a Celebrity cruise next July.  We leave from Rome (Civitavecchio).  We plan to get to Rome a few days early so we have some time to explore.  And eat. (Mostly eat). Celebrity offers a 3-night pre-cruise package for $1,444 that includes a driver pickup at the airport, hotel, 2 half-day tours and then transport to the port. Has anyone taken a package like this?  Did you find it worthwhile?  We are debating whether we could finding out own hotel/tours/transportation could result in spending less money, but taking up a bunch of time to research and book.  It seems like there could be some comfort in having the cruise line take care of the details for us.  

Thoughts?

[CruiserBruce]

You can almost always do better on your own. Sometime much less.

[carlmm]

Depends on the hotel, of course, but most probably you can get everything for much less.

[marazul]

It is easy enough to find out. Look through the Hotels in Rome thread on this board and look at the price of  transfers with romecabs.com or look up a shared shuttle transfer. 

[mapleleaves]

what are the 2 half-day tours ?  Do they interest you ?

[Lalof]

39 minutes ago, mapleleaves said:

what are the 2 half-day tours ?  Do they interest you ?

The tours are of the major highlights, plus we would have a day to do whatever we want. Trying to find out what hotel would be included as that might also be am important piece.

[marazul]

23 minutes ago, Lalof said:

The tours are of the major highlights, plus we would have a day to do whatever we want. Trying to find out what hotel would be included as that might also be am important piece.

If the tours are only drive-by tours, you may be better off doing tours on your own.

[megr1125]

I'd book it on your own.  You'll probably save money, can do what interests you and not overpay a cruise lines' inflated hotel rates.

 

Streets in Rome can be small and crowded.  Big vehicles won't get close.   My Aunt and Uncle did a night time golf cart tour  (I do not know which one) and got a lot closer to sites and they raved about it.  (She's fussier than I am and I am super fussy).

 

Just a thought.  Also, if you find some hotels on line, and email them, sometimes they'll offer you a slightly better rate.

[BarbaraEH]

I tried to look into the Celebrity 3-night pre-cruise package a few months ago and had a number of questions that Celebrity couldn't answer like what hotel was included. I was told to send a message to their shore excursions group and never got a reply. So I started looking into booking it ourselves and it has proven to be less to book it all ourselves...almost $900 savings (based on the $1,444 price you quoted above) for the two of us and that includes meals which aren't included in the Celebrity pricing. I have spent quite a bit of time researching everything though so there may be a trade-off between savings vs. time.

[cattalystt]

On 8/19/2023 at 11:30 AM, BarbaraEH said:

I tried to look into the Celebrity 3-night pre-cruise package a few months ago and had a number of questions that Celebrity couldn't answer like what hotel was included. I was told to send a message to their shore excursions group and never got a reply. So I started looking into booking it ourselves and it has proven to be less to book it all ourselves...almost $900 savings (based on the $1,444 price you quoted above) for the two of us and that includes meals which aren't included in the Celebrity pricing. I have spent quite a bit of time researching everything though so there may be a trade-off between savings vs. time.

I have a cruise scheduled out of Rome with Celebrity this year. Early on it gave a generic option for the 2- and 3-night pre-cruise package, but now it actually also includes the option to choose either the Crown Plaza or Empire Palace hotels. I imagine this may change sometimes, but also may give you/anyone a good idea of what hotels to expect, should you book. Enjoy!

Edited August 27, 2023 by cattalystt
a word added

[cruisemom42]

Most times cruises use hotels that are less central; sometimes in areas far from good restaurants, etc. (The Crowne Plaza mentioned above is one such…).

 

In my opinion it’s important to be in a walkable area so you can have some independence and not have to take a taxi to every meal and site. 

[Got2Cruise]

Go on your own  It’s very easy to book the tours you want thru TripAdvisor or Viator. 
 

The only time it would be worth it is if it’s a hassle to get to the city to the cruise port independently.