Royal Caribbean med cruise 2005 legend of the seas - Page 3 - Cruises, Holiday Forums

We are doing Voyager the week before you, and will be doing self trips.

For Villefranche a couple of options. Wander around V, and perhaps go along to Nice which is "next door". Both are beautiful places, and V has a nice beach if that interests. Alternatively get the train to Monte Carlo, or Cannes in the other direction.

Rome is easy and cheap (£6 return, includes metro if you use it) to DIY. Train takes 1 hour to San Piatro stop (Vatican) and another 10/15 minutes to Terminaa (Centra)l Station. Do note the historical sites are not close to this station. You can either use the Metro (with your train ticket) or go straight out the main front entrance for Terminaa to the bus terminal and get an open-top bus which is hop on/off costing approximately £10. If you have never been to Rome it is worth doing the full bus circuit and then deciding where to spend time. You will be on a tight schedule, and if first visit suggest Coliseum/Forum then Trevi Fountain. You may, or may not wish to do Vatican City after that and can get return train from there. If your main focus is Vatican, get off train at San Piatro and start there, then you will know how much time is left. Trains run twice an hour, and secret is to plan a return train that will still give you 2 or 3 other trains as a contingency plan for getting back to ship in time. If you take the ship tour the coach journey will be 1.75/2 hours each way, and you will be whisked across a few highlights that you may or may not have chosen!

At Livorno, if Florence is what you want it is slightly more complex, but doable DIY. If Pisa, it is close and very easy, but really only a 1 to 2 hour visit.

At Naples we are doing Capri and getting hydrofoil basically next to ship. If first time there you may prefer Pompeii, which is easy to do.

We are doing Marseilles rather than Palermo, Sicily as RCI have changed our itinery. If you are same, Marseilles is not that pretty but you would probably want to see for yourself. Get the RCI shuttle bus to Centre and wander around Marina area and follow your nose. Apart from Marina, we were not impressed, and got back to ship and enjoyed relaxing there.

If it is still Palermo for your sailing, never been so cannot advise but it should be DIY'able.

There is a discussion forum "DIY shore excursions Med/Red Sea area" at the very top of the list of topics, very useful and should confirm some of above. If anything else needed just ask or send private message and I will respond. Am trying to paste in the most relevant comments from "DIY shore excursions" topic in edit mode so will be adding to this post, now lengthy and probably better printing, if of interest. Have numbered these (1-9) which are from other previous contributors. They cover the popular Med ports of Civitavecchia, Livorno, Naples and Villefrance (or Nice).

1) Have done both Pompeii and Florence on our own. Organised tours are usually costly compared with DIY. What you do get on organised tours is of course door-to-door transport and a knowledgeable guide. What we saw of guided tours resembled cattle herding - there were literally dozens of groups being dragged around Pompeii and Florence with guides shouting over all the other cacophony of noise at the sites.

We found it best to get a guide book (your local library or WH Smith have most of the popular tourist site books), read up on what you want to see then get the train.

Trains in Italy are cheap, prompt and frequent (Very important point to note - remember to time-stamp your ticket at the machines on the station otherwise a very 'jobsworth' ticket inspector will give you a hard time and possibly a fine on the train).

2) For Pompeii get to Naples station (Naples is a hell-hole at times - 8 lanes of traffic - with everyone blowing their car horns) and take the Pompeii Scaavi (less than £10 pp) train NOT the Pompeii train. This will drop you just a couple of hundred yards from the entrance to Pompeii. Pompeii was much larger than we anticipated and even a full day may not be enough to see it all - so decide in advance what you want to see.

Florence is just fabulous (but very busy with tourists - they just spoil it for the rest of us!!) so spend as much time as you can there taking in all the art and architecture (the Duomo is breathtaking). We took a taxi to Livorno station from the dock (£15-ish) and then train in to Florence really easy, approximately 90 minutes (remember to stamp your ticket!!).

3) In Livorno we took the taxi to the station (£10), but got the bus back, however we got off on the wrong side of the dock and ended up walking a long way from one side to the other – it was a bit confusing. Note that when you get your train tickets you MUST get them stamped in a time machine on the platform, otherwise a very ‘jobsworth’ ticket collector will give you a very hard time on the train and try to impose a fine for not stamping it. And unless you can understand 100 mph Italian with all it’s hand waving and gesticulating you’ll get into a bit of a scrape. We had to do a bit of grovelling to avoid paying a fine!!

In Florence there is so much fantastic art and history. We went to the Duomo, the absolutely stunning, breathtaking cathedral with the largest dome in the world. Unfortunately we couldn’t get in to the cathedral as it was closed – but we would definitely want to do that next time. From here it’s not far to walk to the museums and the Uffizi Gallery – with all the fabulous art. There are the statues of David and Neptune – superb. Then there’s the Ponte Vecchio over the river – take a walk over it and look at all the silversmiths/jewellery shops on the bridge. There was an outdoor market running on the day we were there (I suspect it’s on most days) with lots of leatherwork and great opportunities for a bit of haggling. There are some lovely back streets with ice cream parlours, coffee shops and general eateries to while away a bit of time whilst you gather your breath for more sightseeing. A fabulous place to be in our opinion.

At Villefranche we were tendered in to the small harbour from where you pass through a Tourist Information Office with very helpful staff who will give you all sorts of leaflets if you want them. Having passed through the office go to the right and keep going right following the road running parallel with the sea front and you will eventually see the steps leading up to the station above the road – no more than a 10 minute stroll. The station was very busy on the day we were there with lots of pushing and shoving for tickets and space on the platform – so go early and get tickets as soon as possible. Also watch out for pickpockets there in all the crush.

4) Getting to Rome is really easy and last year was only 6.80eur pp and includes subway/buses. The subway is easy only two lines a(red) or b(blue) and convenient for the sites.

Shuttle takes you to the port gates and <5min walk to the station.
They know what you want at the ticket office and just validate(time stamp) the ticket in the little yellow machine. There will be a load of people doing the same. When you get to Rome check the time table and platform you need to be on to get the train back. We picked time that gave us a fall back of time and at least one other train if we got it wrong

5) I second everything windjammer has said. 6.80E train/metro/bus is a real bargain by UK standard's. you can download all the maps from internet & quite easy to follow. If you need to go to Vatican, get off train at San Pietro station, afterwards take red line metro to central terminaii & blue 2 stops to coloseum then walk through forum & on to trevi fountain, pick up bus to go back to Terminaii for train, great day out. Around 20 mins after San Piatro to get to Terminaii if you are going to start there. Good luck.

6) We did a DIY trip to Rome last year on the Thompson Spirit, it worked out quite well, but when we reached Livorno we elected to take the guided tour of Pisa and Florence, I am glad we did because it was a memorable trip with a guided walking tour of florence and a lovely lunch followed by some free time to shop, then we boarded the coach for the trip to Pisa before returning to the ship
I do not think we could have done both Florence and Pisa on a DIY
Its is good to have an air conditioned coach to escape the heat,
A good cruise should offer some opportunities for DIY shore leave but sometimes the guided tour is the better option

7) so you are visiting napoli....bella napoli. a real pity you do not want to spend your time in the city itself. contrary to popular belief, it is a magnificent city and the home to the worlds first opera house, the worlds first archeological museum, the worlds first aquarium to mention a few.

However, as you wish to venture i hope the following will help. from naples you are best taking the jet boat to capri from the "molo beverello" the small harbour next to the main maritime station, i imagine your ship will dock there. there are numerous operators offering transport to capri and you will see all their ticket windows facing the castle. my advise, is go the the waterside and see the "metro del mare" kiosk. these are new and cost a fraction of the normal operators. the "metro del mare" is operated by the campania region.

on capri the option of the blue grotto is available however, this depends on time and water conditions. the cost is 11 euro for the boat to take you to the entrance where you exchange boats and pay a further 8 euro to go in. is it worth it? having been in 1000 times, my answer is no. i would strongly advise you to take another option...a full 1 hour cruise around the island visiting the green, coral and white grottos. this also takes in the faraglione rocks and is a perfect 1 hour seeing capri at its best. the cruise around the island costs 11 euro.

if you want to take in sorrento also then book a single ticket from naples to capri on the jet. from capri to sorrento take another jet (20 mins crossing). tou could spend some time in sorrento. if you then choose to call it a day you can take the "circumvesuviana" train from sorrento to naples. the trains run every 25 mins and cost 3.20 euro. the journey time is 1hr and 10 mins. however, should you wish to include amalfi then after time in sorrento you can take the "sita" bus from outside the train station in sorrento (opposite piazza lauro). the sita busses operate every half hour and cost 2.00 euro. the journey will take you along the amalfi coast passing positano, praiano, fiordo di furore and takes just over 1 hour. after time in amalfi you could then take the "metro del mare" service from amalfi to naples.

it all depends on how much time you have and how long you want to spend in these palces. you can get the metro del mare timetable at http://www.metrodelmare.com . should you like me to e-mail you the timetables for all services please do not hesitate to ask. the information is all up to date as i live in sorrento.

There have been a few post regarding doing Rome on your own. We did it the other week. When you dock take the shuttle bus, then walk around 10 mins to the station catch the train to Rome (make sure you get your ticket stamped there is a machine in the middle of the room where you have to stamp it yourself) 9 euros return, this will also cover your travel on the underground. It takes about 1hour 15 to Terminii, if you get of here and find the Metro (M sign) you can travel 2 stops and arrive at the Colloseum, (get yourself a map either off the internet of here before you go to Rome - they will rip you off) everything is close by, we then walked to the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and also managed to see St Peters square and were back on the ship for 4pm! It worked out alot cheaper than Thomsons were charging - they wanted £32 each just to drop us off in the centre of Rome. You can also then come back when you are ready.

9) From Villefranche it is easy to get to M-C by train where you would certainly want to see the Marina area, and up to the casino area. Also suggest the Palace and surrounding streets, including small cathedral. Once you get to M-C it is really just a question of asking someone and following your nose.

Rome by train is a breeze, and cheap. There are 2 train stops you need to choose between. First one is San Pedro (St Peter's) which is about an hours travel, which I would recommend if you want to spend a significant amount of time in Vatican City. The next one is another 10-15 minutes into the Central Station, but is not at the centre of Rome's historical area. If you go there you can either use the metro to get where you want to see or go out the main front entrance to the buses and get an open-top bus, which is hop on/off.

The difficulty you have with Rome is that your time is limited. Even if you leave as close to 8.00am as possible and get the earliest train, by the time you get on and into Rome it will be at least 10.00am. For the train back you need to give yourself a disaster recovery plan in the event of train delay or any other unexpected event. You will require to be back on board between 5.00-5.30, so really need to aim for a train around 3.00pm, to give you another two train alternatives. They run every half hour, I think. The best I think you could hope to achieve would be to do the Vatican, and then get over to the Coloseum/Forum area, which is well worth seeing but would take an hour for a walk-along view. You would want to get into the forum area and browse a little. If there is time left the Trevi fountain is definitely worth a visit and only a 15 minute job. Whatever you do, plan carefully and keep to time. The ship will not wait...

Just spotted two excellent Transatlantic repositioning deals on the Royal Caribbean website departing early December. For £306 plus tax (total £350ish) you get a 15 night cruise out of Barcelona, Legend to Caribbean and Voyager going to Galveson Texas via Caribbean & Mexico.

This is cruise only and obviously the downside is organising a flight back at a sensible price, but Barcelona is easy to get to and realistically priced. For any retired people out there, maybe an opportunity for a "cruise and winter stay"!!

Edited update....You can book with RC with airfare and all transfers included for the Voyager trip only. From Manchester return flight cost is £530 and from Edinburgh £480. Gives a total of £825ish-£875ish depending on source airport. Noticed that Newcastle was available and Aberdeen, but not London.

Further edit...Newcastle £520, Aberdeen £490, Belfast & Dublin roughly same as English airports mentioned.

As a Scot living in ideal location for easy transfer to Glasgow or Edinburgh, I think it is fantastic that you can fly from Aberdeen at same prices without the usual tortuous travel arrangements. There must be some Aberdonians out there attracted to this deal!!

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