fredandkell
I'd rather be cruising
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2013
- Messages
- 1,386
Haven't seen them mentioned much on here (and a forum search turned up only a dozen or so hits) so thought I'd mention Tom's Port Guides as a great planning tool for Med ports (well, actually any ports). They are free, online, and have detailed pictures regarding the things we are all always asking like, "How do you get to the port," "What does it look like," "How far is the train station," etc.
One of the more useful things I was reading was just on the Civitavecchia port guide. We had already decided to do a DCL excursion since we're with kids. He had this paragraph in the guide: "Civitavecchia is a very busy port for cruise ships because Rome is a very popular cruise destination and it's the departure point for many cruises. In May 2010, our Princess ship announced there would be 14,000 passengers at the port, public transit would be crowded, and that travelers should plan on a 4 to 6 hour wait for taxis to Rome unless they had made previous arrangements. The trains were so crowded they did not even stop to pick up passengers. Princess arranged a special train car to take passengers to/from Rome. I believe it is wise to check the number of ships and passengers the day you ship will be in port. Go to this website www.cruisett.com This site lists all cruise ports and the schedule of all ships in port by date."
Well I had been to Cruise TT before, but I had never noticed the "Port Load" feature he mentions that tells you how many passengers will be in port that day. When I looked, on our day, there will be 13,864 passengers all docking and heading to Rome, which makes me extremely glad that we're doing a DCL excursion and not fighting all those people for public transportation!
So anyway, thought I'd pass along this website as I have not seen it mentioned much here and I found it very useful and have just picked up a few tips I haven't seen elsewhere.
One of the more useful things I was reading was just on the Civitavecchia port guide. We had already decided to do a DCL excursion since we're with kids. He had this paragraph in the guide: "Civitavecchia is a very busy port for cruise ships because Rome is a very popular cruise destination and it's the departure point for many cruises. In May 2010, our Princess ship announced there would be 14,000 passengers at the port, public transit would be crowded, and that travelers should plan on a 4 to 6 hour wait for taxis to Rome unless they had made previous arrangements. The trains were so crowded they did not even stop to pick up passengers. Princess arranged a special train car to take passengers to/from Rome. I believe it is wise to check the number of ships and passengers the day you ship will be in port. Go to this website www.cruisett.com This site lists all cruise ports and the schedule of all ships in port by date."
Well I had been to Cruise TT before, but I had never noticed the "Port Load" feature he mentions that tells you how many passengers will be in port that day. When I looked, on our day, there will be 13,864 passengers all docking and heading to Rome, which makes me extremely glad that we're doing a DCL excursion and not fighting all those people for public transportation!
So anyway, thought I'd pass along this website as I have not seen it mentioned much here and I found it very useful and have just picked up a few tips I haven't seen elsewhere.
