Doing Med ports on Own questions

[dlgrn3]

I've been looking for the contact info that I had mentioned before on Antonio, our taxi driver in Naples. I guess I had put it in a "really safe" place that even I couldn't find it

Here it is...just as he wrote it for us.

Antonio - Taxi driver in Napoli (Naples)
+39 3385 643 176
+39 3201 472 507

email address is ADEBIASE05@yahoo.it

If I knew how to post pics, I would post one of him. Any suggestions?

Good luck and get ready for a fun ride, he is not only fun but will play italian music as well as some frank sinatra. His cab can only accommodate 7.

If you do book with him, please send me a PM so that I can give you info on us--to let him who sent you.

Thank you so much for all your help! You have no idea how much you have helped me out (and from the posts many others) I appreciate your time and patience, because I know many people have been asking you questions over and over.

 

[jokicha]

Thank you so much for all your help! You have no idea how much you have helped me out (and from the posts many others) I appreciate your time and patience, because I know many people have been asking you questions over and over.

It is my pleasure. Reading others posts is how I was able to do all of the ports on my own with 3 kids! Ask lots of questions...sometimes there is information that we know that forget to include.

 

[dlgrn3]

I've been looking for the contact info that I had mentioned before on Antonio, our taxi driver in Naples. I guess I had put it in a "really safe" place that even I couldn't find it

Here it is...just as he wrote it for us.

Antonio - Taxi driver in Napoli (Naples)
+39 3385 643 176
+39 3201 472 507

email address is ADEBIASE05@yahoo.it

If I knew how to post pics, I would post one of him. Any suggestions?

Good luck and get ready for a fun ride, he is not only fun but will play italian music as well as some frank sinatra. His cab can only accommodate 7.

If you do book with him, please send me a PM so that I can give you info on us--to let him who sent you.

My PM is not working for some reason? but I wanted to let you know that I have reserved Antonio and his brother for the day because there are 9 of us. I spoke to him on the phone, he was very nice and helpful, my email address is dlgrn3@sbcglobal.net if you would like to contact me and give me info that I can share with him. Thank you again for your help and referral.

 

[jokicha]

My PM is not working for some reason? but I wanted to let you know that I have reserved Antonio and his brother for the day because there are 9 of us. I spoke to him on the phone, he was very nice and helpful, my email address is dlgrn3@sbcglobal.net if you would like to contact me and give me info that I can share with him. Thank you again for your help and referral.

I'm happy for you!
I hope your day is as wonderful as ours. We only spent about 1 1/2 hours at Pompeii so that we could get to see the amalfi coast. I'll email you with info.

 

[arbitrage]

That sounds like a lot to me, but may be possible. You might check out the TrenItalia website for schedules
http://www.trenitalia.it/en/index2.html

Remember, that you must tender in La Spezia. They had lines in the morning for tendering and required that passengers get passes to get off the ship. By the time we left the ship around 11am, passes were no longer required. But I'd leave yourself sometime to get on and off ship. Also remember that Rome is the day before La Spezia...and that's a real busy sight seeing day.

We didn't stop at Vernazza, but it looked beautiful from the train.

In terms of restaurants, there were wonderful seafood restaurants...we had lunch in Monterosso and it was some of the best food we had in Europe the whole trip. And shopping was good, too .

Thanks so much for the information. Well we decided to keep our ship excursion for the afternoon Pisa and try to get to and back from Vernazza. Hopefully we can get there and back by 1:00

 

[hawaiian mickey]

aloha,

Could you please give me the fax number to the Vatican Museum so I can reserve our tickets. How do you address the fax and to whom?


much mahalos.
hawaiian mickey

 

[arbitrage]

I addressed it to whom it may concern.

The fax number is

011 39 0669885100

make sure you put the names of the people in your group and age and the time requested I put a range but my sheet only shows a tour at 10:30 11:30 12:00 and 2:00 as options so don't request later then that. Again it only took me a week to get it back, so good luck. I also put how excited I was to visit, so not sure if that helped

Scott

 

[jokicha]

I addressed it to whom it may concern.

The fax number is

011 39 0669885100

make sure you put the names of the people in your group and age and the time requested I put a range but my sheet only shows a tour at 10:30 11:30 12:00 and 2:00 as options so don't request later then that. Again it only took me a week to get it back, so good luck. I also put how excited I was to visit, so not sure if that helped

Scott

I would add that you are on a cruise and that is the only day that you will be visiting. You may want to give them a fax number that can be checked by someone else in case you haven't received a confirmation by the time you leave on your trip. We used my husband's work and were able to get the confirmation code by email. Good luck!

Scott...you were pretty lucky! Several people I know had to wait weeks...have fun!!!

 

[sharolyn]

We used the bishops office for american visitors and was able to get a tour with a tour guide for our group!! They also offer individual tours...their website is:

http://www.pnac.org/general/visiting_vatican.htm

I think they offer more options than straight with the vatican. And I must say, our tour guide was great!! She has been working at the vatican for years and knew all the ins and outs. Anyway, it is another option. We were not able to get a tour through the vatican directly, but we did manage to get a tour through the bishops office.

 

[arbitrage]

I would add that you are on a cruise and that is the only day that you will be visiting. You may want to give them a fax number that can be checked by someone else in case you haven't received a confirmation by the time you leave on your trip. We used my husband's work and were able to get the confirmation code by email. Good luck!

Scott...you were pretty lucky! Several people I know had to wait weeks...have fun!!!

One other tip for advice for all of you is to go http://www.jfax.com and you can get a free incoming fax account (make sure you only sign up for the free one) and then install the fax reader software. They send you an e-mail of the fax to your e-mail address and then you can open it from anywhere. that was my original plan for the Vatican fax was to have it come by e-mail while on the ship.

 

[grizbuzz]

Does anyone have friends that took a taxi to Mondello Beach, just a couple of miles outside of Palermo? It looks like it is a popular place to go in the summer, and I did find bus route information, but would rather just take a taxi, if possible. DCL is charging an obscene amount of money to just go to the beach , and I just cannot imagine that the taxi ride from Palermo to a few miles away (Mondello is Palermo's main beach) would cost anything over 40 Euros, if that.

I would greatly appreciate any information, even if it is on folks' general experience with the taxis in Palermo. thanks!

Just found this info on the web re. getting to Mondello on taxi or bus. Too bad I couldn't find it before left. Good luck!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...-Palermo_to_Mondello_Lido-Palermo_Sicily.html

 

[sharolyn]

TAKE THE BUS, the taxi ride is over 150 euros rt!! the bus is less than 5 euros. Yeah, you would think it would not be expensive, but wrong on this island! Just thought I would let you know, it is less than the disney excurions, but high for a taxi ride.

 

[CruisnParkers]

Hello,
Can someone please post the info on where to get the free colosseum reservations? I must have missed it!
Thanks,
Jen

 

[JeanieP]

Just found this info on the web re. getting to Mondello on taxi or bus. Too bad I couldn't find it before left. Good luck!

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...-Palermo_to_Mondello_Lido-Palermo_Sicily.html

This is soooo helpful! Thanks for helping out a stranger -- you are too kind!

 

[Belle2002]

Just wondering if anyone has or is planning to visit Monreale while in Palermo. This is something we would like to do on our own, but we are looking for more info like where we catch the bus etc. Any info would be great!! Thanks.

 

[Vailcruiser]

Just to back up what Jokicha said about booking a tour with the Vatican: We tried this too, and they faxed back a confirmation only TWO days before--so they can leave you wondering pretty much up to the last minute. (We also did Rome completely on our own.)

In the meantime, before we left we had decided to book a tour of the Vatican with a tour company that had been recommended to us, and we were VERY pleased (see icontours.com if interested). It was about a 3, 3 1/2 hour tour of Vatican museums, Sistine, and St. Peter's with someone extremely well versed in art history. We found it worth it to have a good guide for this part of our day.

The major sites really are quite easy to find and do on your own, so if none of the DCL excursions are doing it for you, and you enjoy making your own adventure, I say go for it! We were very glad we did.

One thing to note: Don't remember if this was anywhere else, but the shuttle from the ship to the port entrance at Civitavecchia must have ended early, because a LOT of people who got back at around 8:00 that night never had one after waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Finally a bunch of us started walking to the ship (not what you want to do after a LONG day in Rome, but oh well), and one of the tour operators stopped not quite halfway down the road, let us all on and took us back. Don't know whether Disney asked the the to do that or if they just volunteered after seeing us all walking, but that was quite welcome!

Thanks for the info. We are on the 8/8 cruise and are really thinking about canceling our DCL exc. and trying it on our own. I really want to see the Sistine! When you booked ICON, did they make your reservation at the Vatican? That is one of our biggest concerns. Did you take the train in on your own? What time did you meet up with the ICON guide? Did you then do the Colosseum on your own? Sorry for all the questions. Any/all info would be so grateful! Thanks so much!

 

[hawaiian mickey]

Aloha,

Does anyone know the proper amount about tipping in Europe? Do they expect it?

mahalo,
hawaiian mickey

 

[arbitrage]

Thanks for the info. We are on the 8/8 cruise and are really thinking about canceling our DCL exc. and trying it on our own. I really want to see the Sistine! When you booked ICON, did they make your reservation at the Vatican? That is one of our biggest concerns. Did you take the train in on your own? What time did you meet up with the ICON guide? Did you then do the Colosseum on your own? Sorry for all the questions. Any/all info would be so grateful! Thanks so much!

We did rome on our own and it was very simple to do the train. It is about a 10 minute walk to the train station from the shuttle and then we took the 8:00 am train into Termini. Get the birg pass and it is 8 euro each for all day rides on the train, metro and busses.

absolutely fax in your request to the vatican. we got a reponse and we walked past what seemed like at least 500-1000 people and got right in. a 2 hour tour was 23.50 euro each. well worth it.

When doing the colliseum walk across the street to Palentine Hill and buy tickets at a very short line as those tickets are good for the coliseum as well. once you get to the colseeum stay to the left in the tour line as you already have tickets. we walked past proably several hundred people there as well.

We did the turistic bus and paid 14 euro each to take us around town, but you can walk most of it.

We took a 5:36 train back to the ship with no problems

 

[jokicha]

Arbitrage:

It is good to hear you had a great time! Thanks for starting this thread!

 

[Vailcruiser]

We did rome on our own and it was very simple to do the train. It is about a 10 minute walk to the train station from the shuttle and then we took the 8:00 am train into Termini. Get the birg pass and it is 8 euro each for all day rides on the train, metro and busses.

absolutely fax in your request to the vatican. we got a reponse and we walked past what seemed like at least 500-1000 people and got right in. a 2 hour tour was 23.50 euro each. well worth it.

When doing the colliseum walk across the street to Palentine Hill and buy tickets at a very short line as those tickets are good for the coliseum as well. once you get to the colseeum stay to the left in the tour line as you already have tickets. we walked past proably several hundred people there as well.

We did the turistic bus and paid 14 euro each to take us around town, but you can walk most of it.

We took a 5:36 train back to the ship with no problems

Thank you so much.