First time cruisers on board The Destiny

by **Miss Ritchie** on Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:47 pm

We are really looking forward to our first cruise in June this year; flying from Newcastle to Palma on 19 June for the Mediterraean Renaissance itinerary. I definitely want to visit Florence and Rome but with two children (10 and 7) am not sure what to expect if I book the excursion via the Cruise Ship i.e. is it more like a coach tour or do you actually get to spend a reasonable amount of time at the destination!! Also what sort of cost are we looking at. Is it simple enough to arrange something once you're at the port and do your own sight seeing or would you recommend booking an organised excursion via the ship. I'm at a loss so any advice anyone could give me would be most appreciated.

Many thanks.

by **2eak02** on Mon Mar 24, 2008 1:03 pm

We have done this trip and visited the same, we actually shared taxi's for the ports mentioned, this way you get to do what you want for as long as you want, dont forget to take something to cover up if you intend visiting the churches.

by **mummykins** on Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:18 pm

We did the same Itenary last August, we did the Rome on your own trip, which cost around �35 each, which takes you by coach to the vatican drops off around 10am and picks up around 4pm. The whole day then was free for shopping, sightseeing, which we did mostly by foot, only taxi used was from Vatican to the Colosseum then we walked the rest and saw all the sights from map supplied by tour company, and had time for some shopping too.
PS for the kids we found a Mcdonalds in Rome near the Partheon.

They also do guided tour which are more like a cattle market, getting herded around, and more expensive.

You can do it yourself much cheaper of course, but as Rome is around an hour away, we didnt want to run the risk of being late back as the ship won't wait for independant travellers.

Didn't do Florence, we went to Pisa instead which was under �30 for half day trip, which included guided tour of the Baptistery, Cathedral and outside of the leaning tower itself

by **nanabo** on Fri Mar 28, 2008 4:31 pm

Rome need to be done with the ship really as its two far away on your own. And they take you around all the major sights. Pisa is easy to do if you get the train and walk straight down the main Road, keep looking up the side street cos we neary missed it, we glanced up a street and could see the top leaning over what excitment it coursed, it was fantastic.

Bo