Pre-Cruise 3 or 4 day Hotel/Tours in Rome; have you done it?

[RFLOUNDER]

We are booked on a 20-day cruise in Sept. onboard HAL's Noordam. Cruise is RT from Rome port. Since we have never been to Italy, we are considering Holland America's Pre-Cruise extension for either 3 or 4 days, but those pkgs. seem quite expensive. I realize they do include decent hotels, advance ticket purchases to avoid lines at St. Peter's, and transportation to and from attractions/hotel. Also, to the ship before embarkation. But is it worth the big ticket price? Or maybe ALL of Rome is quite expensive????????

 

Has anyone taken this Pre or Post-Cruise option? Did you feel it was a good value? We are in the Over-The-Hill Gang agewise :D, so is this a better option for us rather than trying to book hotels/ sightseeing/ transportation for ourselves? Or is that easy to do? Are there other tour options we don't know about? We are traveling from the USA (Left Coast) and need at least a couple days to get "right side up" and into the correct time zone :eek: before cruising.

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

R Flounder

[Mike073]

I would do it on your own with a private guide. We used driverinrome and were very satisfied. They helped with hotels, transportation and touring.

[cberge]

We are booked on a 20-day cruise in Sept. onboard HAL's Noordam. Cruise is RT from Rome port. Since we have never been to Italy, we are considering Holland America's Pre-Cruise extension for either 3 or 4 days, but those pkgs. seem quite expensive. I realize they do include decent hotels, advance ticket purchases to avoid lines at St. Peter's, and transportation to and from attractions/hotel. Also, to the ship before embarkation. But is it worth the big ticket price? Or maybe ALL of Rome is quite expensive????????

 

Has anyone taken this Pre or Post-Cruise option? Did you feel it was a good value? We are in the Over-The-Hill Gang agewise :D, so is this a better option for us rather than trying to book hotels/ sightseeing/ transportation for ourselves? Or is that easy to do? Are there other tour options we don't know about? We are traveling from the USA (Left Coast) and need at least a couple days to get "right side up" and into the correct time zone :eek: before cruising.

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

R Flounder

The ship's do charge PER PERSON so it makes it more $$$$ to do,and yes,you could do it on your own OR have a TA book for you as well.If this is the first trip to Europe I would say do the ship's trip precruise if you would feel comfortable.I realize I am going against CW on this,but sometimes it can be best,and not everyone travels the same or is comfortable booking all you want to do on your own.Just something to think about.

[Longin2cruise]

I, too, am a member of the Over-The-Hill Gang. I think it would definitly be to your advantage to arrange everything yourself. I've done both cruise packages, & booked my own hotels & private tours & absolutely prefer doing things myself. What kind of hotel are you interested in, one of the American type or would you consider something with old world atmosphere & charm? If you would let us know we can make some recommendations. In the meantime you could look at the websites for venere & romeby. Also check hotel reviews on Trip Advisor & check back here if there are any hotels you are interested in & someone can always advise you. Rome has fairly expensive hotels especially in the city center & be prepared for hotel rooms that are significantly smaller than you would find in the US. Food can be found at various prices including very reasonable.

 

I always use Rome Cabs for tours & transportation & they are excellent. Transfers from the airport to city center hotels is 45.00 Euro per car for 2 people, NOT per person & they drive beautiful new Mercedes autos. Cost of transfers from Rome to Civitivechia is 130.00 Euro for 2 people NOT per person. They give excellent tours of Rome as well for around 45.00 Euro per vehicle per hour. They can arrange for Vatican tours & tickets in advance as well as the Colosseum. This would, of course, be extra. You would need to contact Stefano for an exact quote to be sure that the prices I've quoted are still in effect at this time. You can e-mail him at romecabs@yahoo.com & he will promptly reply & there would be no obligation if you're not interested.

 

Good luck & come back here & let us know more about your hotel preferences.

[martyap]

Really depends on your level of energy and adventure. Rome is very easy because most sites are walkable or easily reached by taxi or metro.

 

We spent 5 days in Rome this past October. As a guide, we stayed at the Albergo del Senato, a very nice 3 star hotel, right next to the Pantheon. Cost was about $300 per night including breakfast. The Pantheon is in the historic centre so it was easy to walk to Trevi, Campo de Fiori, Piazza Navonna, Spanish Steps. We took the #116 mini bus to Borghese. Also walked to Trastevere and the Jewish Ghetto. Restaurants are EVERYWHERE!!! You will not go hungry in Rome!

 

As for transfers, there are plenty of companies that can be booked from the airport to hotel and then to the port for less $$$ than cruise transfers. If you share with others on your roll call it will be even less.

 

Excursions are a very costly portion of a European cruise. We prefer booking our own or sharing private tours with others on the roll call board. Have never taken a ship's excursion yet but they are certainly very convenient. Really depends on your budget and the amount of time you want to spend preparing and reading.....every port requires a plan.

Marty

[hezzy]

On our cruise last year we stayed 3 nights pre-cruise in Rome with arrangements made by Oceania. Our hotel was the Intercontinental de la Ville at the top of the Spanish Steps. Great location, but soooo expensive. We used a guide arranged by them, excellent. Now, we are going again this year and will do 3 nights post-cruise in Rome and we are making all our own arrangements. It is very easy and there are a lot of great tour guides. Just use these boards and do your research about location, etc. and you will be fine. We are staying at the Marriott Grand Flora this time. Not such a great location, but we are using points. Should save a lot of money. We found the Rome historic district to be very easy to explore. Just research before you go.

 

Good luck.

[nparmelee]

Over which hill? There are so many... sigh.... So easy and so much cheaper to do on your own. On your own you can concentrate on sites that interest you more.

[swalm22]

We just book the ms Noordam for a cruise at 28 July 2009 and book the hotel by our self in the center of Rome about 100 meter from the Central Station Roma Termini, metro and Colosseum just easy walking distance.

The Hotel Serena is 3 star with very good reviews and the cost are 43 Euro p.p. include breakfast. If you arrive on the airport Fiumicino (FCO) you can take the Leonardo Express train every 30 min. brings you to the Station Roma Termini inside 31 min. cost about 10 Euro p.p.

With this you can do the tour very easy by yourself and saves you a lot of money.

Hopes this could help you.

[agabbymama]

Not sure how "over the hill" you are, but I am 62 and my travelling companion was 78. She has mobility issues (more severe than I knew) and walking was a real problem. Our hotel was near the Vatican and I had planned to walk to San Pietro to catch the Ho/Ho bus for transportation around Rome. She wasn't able to do that, so taxi's became our mode of transportation, as well as the Ho/Ho bus. And it was amazing that the Vatican never moved, nor did the hotel, but the fares to get there kept changing. We were then told, the time of day makes a difference, and if you call the taxi, they start charging from where ever they are, not once they pick you up. One trip was 5 EUR, another was 7 EUR and yet another was 11 EUR. So if you use taxi's be sure to get the fare before you get in the cab.

 

And no matter how good a map you have, it is difficult to follow, as the streets (even though they've been there for years) are not accurately depicted on the maps. I had planned to do Piazza Novona, Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain one day. We made it to Spanish Steps and Trevi. We were stopping and resting as much as we were walking, and of course had the obligatory gelato stop. We left the hotel at 8:00 am and returned at 7:00 pm. Never making it to Piazza Navona at all.

 

Second day, back to the Ho/Ho stop and rode all the way around Rome back to Termini, and stayed on the bus to the Coloseum, so we saw the Forum, Coloseum and Circus Maximus that day, another full day of walking.

 

While there are plenty of restaurants around Rome, you have to be careful as to prices. Most are ala carte menu's and very expensive, as well as a service charge for sitting. We didn't go into any restaurants at all, we did have pizza and sandwiches from lunch trailers (we call them roach coaches here in the US) at approx 11 EUR or $17 for a slice of pizza and soda.

 

Next door to our hotel, was another hotel run by a religious order, and they prepared breakfast and dinner. It wasn't a restaurant, you couldn't order what you wanted. We went there only one night, the price was good at 15 EUR pp or about $22, but we had wine with dinner, salad, pasta, beef tips in gravy, bread and cheese & fruit for dessert.

 

I also found a small market a block from the hotel and bought some ham and bread and yogurt for our last night in Rome.

 

I planned for 18 months, getting maps and brochures from all the ports tourist boards, and had Plan "A". My big mistake was not having a Plan "B" for when plan A fell apart, and it did consistently. SO we ended up taking a few ships excursions, and booking a couple with others on our roll call.

We had a good cruise, but it could have been better. If you plan to do your own thing, be sure to have a back-up plan and roll with the changes, you can't always control things.

 

And know that Europe as a whole is going to be very expensive, with an exchange rate right now of $1.35 to 1 EUR. When we went it was $1.60 to 1 EUR, so it is a little better, but could still get better too. Plan a budget, then take double that. You can always bring it home, if you don't need it.

 

Have fun planning, then taking your cruise.

[mountainmare]

I just posted a mega review http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=962710.

Anyway at the end is Rome. Our ports may be different but I included our budget for each day. Consider renting an apartment or trying a B&B. We used cross pollinate to find a place to stay and were very happy with their service. If you want info on where we stayed let me know. We are 59 and 62, traveling with people in their late 60s.

[CathyCruises]

Yes, I would like to know about accomodations in Rome. On a trip to Paris, I think I spent more time researching hotels than we actually spent IN Paris, but I ended up with a place I loved at a great price. So any and all info very welcome. What is 'cross pollination' in this context?

 

Cathy

[mountainmare]

Cathy

cross-pollinate is the name of the people who have lists of rentals and B&Bs they are reccommended by Rick Steves and were easy to work with.

http://www.cross-pollinate.com

I was e-mailing a person named Steve.

We stayed at Residenza Navona First and the person who helped alot there is Serena. For once the rooms were better in person than on their website. We had rooms one and two that were on the first (really the second) floor because when she saw our luggage she didn't want to give us a high floor. http://www.residenzanavonafirst.com and maybe say attention Serena, she said if I ever wanted to get in touch with them to ask for her. They may also have other properties. I would stay at Navona first again. Previously we stayed at Rezidenza Canalli which is a wonderful hotel--but very expensive in season. You can see the top of the Pantheon dome from the terrace at the Navona First, the location is perfect, but no elevator. Rooms 6, 7,8 are on the upper floor--if you have lots og luggage not a good idea. They carried out luggage up for us, but we left early and had to handle our own luggage them.

Hope this helps.

[retiredslug]

We too are visiting Rome for the first time and are also on the 20 day Noordam, only in May. If you can stretch your pre-cruise visit to 5 days you may want to consider an apartment. Two years ago we met a couple who had just returned from Rome and had stayed at this small apartment and highly recommended it to us. So we have rented the same place--making the arrangements via email has been fairly simple. The owners have several apartments from which to choose. Much cheaper than most hotels. Seems like a good location. We will post our experience upon returning in June.

 

http://www.dolceroma.com/bb-colosseum.htm

 

Bill

[mountainmare]

You can rent an apartment for as little as two days (most of the time at least three).

I agree this is a less expensive way to go.

[mountainmare]

Bill--thank you--I've saved this info for our next trip tp Rome, these apartments look wonderful (sorry to hijack but had to say thanks)

[jff50]

Not sure as to your mobility. We did 4 days in Rome after a Transatlantic cruise last May. For 1 1/2 of the days we did walking tours with Angel Tours. Not sure what they were called , but we did 3 of their walking tours in those days (historical Rome, fountains, and Vatican). They did a great job. They handled all the tickets (as well as being the guide) and we avoided lines. Loved it. The other full day we had, we did a HOHO bus for the various sites. We stayed at a hotel that is about 1/2 mile from the Vatican called Les Chambres D'or. Seemed very reasonably priced for a rome hotel, and the people there were great.

 

Between walking and the HOHO bus, we found it very easy to get around Rome.

[RFLOUNDER]

As the OP on this thread, I sincerely thank ALL of you for your great suggestions and tips. I just KNEW that the world's friendliest cruisers would come up with some wonderful ideas and recommendations for us!!! Thank you, Thank you. :)

 

We are getting very excited about our trip in September and will do some further research on hotels and the sights we want to see in Rome before departure on our cruise. I am a huge fan of "Plan Ahead" which I think is probably an actual REQUIREMENT for seeing the sights in a city like ROME when we have limited time there. I would say exactly the same thing about San Francisco (near my home) if you should be lucky enough to come and visit there. Hint: Sept. and Oct. are the best weather in SF!

 

Again, thank you to everyone for your helpful tips; I really appreciate it. We do consider ourselves to be in the "Over the Hill Gang" :p (60's and 70-ish), but we are loving life and trying to keep ourselves in good shape for that upcoming port-intensive 20-day cruise of a lifetime!

 

Are you with us??? ;) Ready, now, Hup, two, three, four............

R Flounder