Anyone gone on the "Rome on Your Own" DCL port excursion?

[go2wdwnow]

Hello,

We are booked on the 9/8 Med cruise
The only "Mild" level Rome port excursion is full so I wasn't able to pre-book it.
I was curious about the "Rome on Your Own" excursion.
Has anyone gone on this?
Do you know where in Rome they drop off and pickup?
Is it close to the Vatican Museums?
Since they give you "7 hours at leisure", I suppose we could make this our own "Mild" level excursion.

Thanks!

 

[Belle2002]

We did "Rome on Your Own" in 2007. I can't remember where exactly they dropped us off, but it was fairly central, and walking distance to some attractions. We took one of the HOHO buses which took us to the Vatican and other sites. We found out after that we should have just taken the subway to the Vatican and then walked between the other popular sites. The HOHO wasn't great and didn't save us any time. The bus that you take into Rome will have a guide on board so you will be able to ask questions and get some advice on what to do when you get there.

 

[Adsmama]

how many people are in your group? It is VERY easy to take the train to Rome and for 9 euro per person you get the train to rome and all public transport within rome. I would suggest buying a good map but that would be it. The train is reliable just give yourself some extra time in case you miss the first one coming home for the night. You can check for strikes in Italy by doing a google search. Lastly, the bus is about 30 minutes longer ride. Just a thought.

 

[emmalouisenicholson]

how many people are in your group? It is VERY easy to take the train to Rome and for 9 euro per person you get the train to rome and all public transport within rome. I would suggest buying a good map but that would be it. The train is reliable just give yourself some extra time in case you miss the first one coming home for the night. You can check for strikes in Italy by doing a google search. Lastly, the bus is about 30 minutes longer ride. Just a thought.

Thats exactly what we did and it was very easy to do!

The Train Station is a 10minute walk from the Port

Trains are frequent and the journey took just over 1 hour (check out Trenitalias website for timetables)

The €9 BIRG ticket covers Train/Metro & Bus travel all day
(Remember to stamp your tickets in the Yellow machine before getting on the Train)

There are also good instructions here:- http://www.roninrome.com/%20transportation/cruising-come-to-rome-for-the-day-2

Once in Rome Termini we took a Metro to the Colesseum firstly & then again onto other sights such as Trevi Fountain/Spanish Steps & the Pantheon

Just make sure you allow yourselves plenty of time to get back to the Ship

Hope this helps!

 

[Scoobydoo76]

Thats exactly what we did and it was very easy to do!

The Train Station is a 10minute walk from the Port

Trains are frequent and the journey took just over 1 hour (check out Trenitalias website for timetables)

The €9 BIRG ticket covers Train/Metro & Bus travel all day
(Remember to stamp your tickets in the Yellow machine before getting on the Train)

There are also good instructions here:- http://www.roninrome.com/%20transportation/cruising-come-to-rome-for-the-day-2

Once in Rome Termini we took a Metro to the Colesseum firstly & then again onto other sights such as Trevi Fountain/Spanish Steps & the Pantheon

Just make sure you allow yourselves plenty of time to get back to the Ship

Hope this helps!

I agree. We were on the 2007 trip and we did Rome on our own. I was very easy to take the train to Vatican City. We also pre-booked a tour of the Vatican Museum. The tour lets you skip the HUGE lines and allows access to Sistine Chapel. You can also pre-book and audio guided tour of the Colesseum. Once again you will avoid the lines. I definitely suggest doing Rome on your own. We saved a bundle and were able to see all the sights on our list (basically everything). My kids thought it was the best day of our Med. Cruise.

We did Disney excursions for all the other ports. They were fabulous, but it was fun to be on our own.

We are doing the Baltics cruise in a few weeks and plan to explore every port except for St Petersburg on our own. In Russia you need a special visa that I don't want the hassle of dealing with.

Have fun and happy planning!

 

[ColoradoDisneyFreaks]

Hello,

We are booked on the 9/8 Med cruise
The only "Mild" level Rome port excursion is full so I wasn't able to pre-book it.
I was curious about the "Rome on Your Own" excursion.
Has anyone gone on this?
Do you know where in Rome they drop off and pickup?
Is it close to the Vatican Museums?
Since they give you "7 hours at leisure", I suppose we could make this our own "Mild" level excursion.

Thanks!

We're also booked on your cruise, we contacted limo in rome to set up a private tour for our family, but they can take more and the cost goes down. We've got 4 of us, DD is 9 and DS is 7 so wanted to get a nice overview of everything, which they said they can do. You can PM me if you're interested in joining in.

 

[disneywonderfun]

From personal experience, one can easily go from the central Rome train station, to the Colleseum, through the Forum, cross over to the Vatican, backtrack to the Trevi, Pantheon, and Spanish steps all within the time provided. Rome is a very easy city to go around on your own.

DWF

 

[misseulalie]

We did this excurison in 2007 because we left the kids on the ship and wanted the security of knowing if the bus was late the ship would wait. If we didn't have the kids on teh ship, we would have done the train. BUT the trains can be unreliable at times. (One group of friends took the train, and they wanted to take the 7pm train back. Well, it just never showed up, so they had to wait for the next one.) They got back to the ship with about 20 minutes to spare.

The bus dropped off guests at Piazza Barbarino. Though they also left a group off near the Vatican. I don't know if that is common or they just did that.

We saw the Vatican, St. Peters, Colluseum, Spanish Steps, Lunch, and some window shopping. It was fast paced, but worth it. We felt it wise to leave the kids on the ship.... (For us it was a good decision, for others it may not)