Rome in Limo Florence and Rome

[ruadisneyfan2]

Has anyone prepaid for their tours? We booked RIL for all 3 Italian ports. Shortly after confirmation, we were offered 2 ways to prepay for a small discount:
1. Wire cash to a US bank in Miami (where RIL is based)by the end of March for a 5% discount.
2. Pay in full by cc and still pay full price but avoid the usual 5% cc surcharge. (otherwise pay driver in cash or TCs in Euros)

No change in cancellation policy.

I know people highly recommend this company but our total for 3 tours is over $2400. I had a bad vibe in wiring this much $. I've never wired $ before & I'm assuming banks charge a fee for this anyway, maybe wrongly assuming.

To me, this isn't such a great discount to make me jump through hoops.
For our Alaskan excursions that we booked privately, (helicopter w/glacier trek & Misty Fjords sea plane tour) we were given the option to prepay but we could use a cc and the discount was 20%. That seemed a no brainer to me.


With the RIL deal, the savings would be $123.33 which would be split with my parents.

We can get TCs in Euros for free through AAA so I don't mind making up 3 envelopes, 1 for each port, with the TCs in the exact amount, keeping in the cabin safe, and pulling one envelope out as needed, then tipping with Euros. At least we wouldn't be carrying so much cash and we'll have a money belt until we get on the ship.

Also my mom signed up for the Capital One visa which has 0% international fees so we could pay by cc now and not have to deal with it at all during our trip except tipping.

WWYD?

 

[DisneyOHFan]

We paid for ours in advance for the benefit of not carrying cash around not for the 5% savings. I also wanted to get as many things paid in advance as possible. They have really great reviews and repeat customers, so we felt comfortable. But I completely understand your hesitation.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We paid for ours in advance for the benefit of not carrying cash around not for the 5% savings. I also wanted to get as many things paid in advance as possible. They have really great reviews and repeat customers, so we felt comfortable. But I completely understand your hesitation.

Did you wire the cash? I don't know why this creeps me out. I guess it's not much different than when I pay my visa bill online.

Did your bank charge you?

 

[DisneyOHFan]

Did you wire the cash? I don't know why this creeps me out. I guess it's not much different than when I pay my visa bill online.

Did your bank charge you?

Yes, I wired it to their bank in Miami. My bank did charge a fee, but I can't remember the amount but it was less than 5%.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Yes, I wired it to their bank in Miami. My bank did charge a fee, but I can't remember the amount but it was less than 5%.

So I assume they give you proof that you're paid in full?

 

[DisneyOHFan]

So I assume they give you proof that you're paid in full?

Yes, I sent them an e-mail advising that the funds were wired and within 24 hours they sent me a receipt stating "paid in full".

 

[lilpooh108]

Did you wire the cash? I don't know why this creeps me out. I guess it's not much different than when I pay my visa bill online.

Did your bank charge you?

I personally wouldn't wire the cash. I know that they are reputable, but there's just no recourse if something goes wrong.

I just prepaid for our Rome day with the company I'm using, but I made sure to use a card (Citi Amex) that allows me to dispute charges which are more than 60 days old since the trip is so far out (Chase only allows online disputes if the transX was w/in the last 60 days).

The company we're using is reputable too, but you just never know.

 

[Anal Annie]

We are a family of 6.....2 adults, 4 children ages 12, 8, 8, and 5 at time of travel this summer. We have heard great things about Rome in Limo.....and plan on using them for Rome as well as Pisa and Lucca.

I was wondering if anyone just used the driver as a guide as opposed to getting an additional guide at the various sites.....does the driver give you enough information.....they do recommend an additional guide at the Vatican though.

I would love feed back on this....

While we did the other ports on our own we used Rome in Limo for Rome (did the Highlights of Rome) and Naples (did the Amalfi Coast + Pompeii) on our 2011 Med cruise. We also hired the extra private guides that they offered and IMHO that was THE best thing we did!! Totally worth the extra cost. Our guide in Rome was Serena and she met us at the Colosseum. Our DS was 14 at the time and she immediately engaged him into the conversation by asking him a lot of questions while we were walking toward the entrance. She got him thinking about what we were about to see and got him interested like no audio recording could do. She got him to ask questions and she answered all of them with such detail. I had pre-purchased our tickets online and she navigated us around the long entrance line that could have taken a really long time to wait in. After the Colosseum she went with us in the car to drop us off for lunch. We had an hour to ourselves then we met her and our driver after lunch for our tour of the Vatican. The lines at the Vatican were horrendous - but once again I had pre-purchased our entrance tickets as they recommended and she led us right past everyone to the front of the line. Once we were inside her knowledge was so helpful. She was an art history major and the Vatican is full of such amazing art she knew about all of it. She pointed out all the things we should notice - like the soot stain on the wall near the ceiling in Saint Peter's where the Cardinals hold their Conclave to elect the new popes. (I still can't believe they're doing that again NOW and we were THERE!)

Our guide that we hired through them for Pompeii (Carmine) was also wonderful with our DS. It allowed him to ask all of the questions that came to his mind while we walked through Pompeii. He could not have asked questions to an audio tape!! I was so grateful that both guides kept our son interested when he could have been very bored at that age.

If we ever get a chance to go back to Italy I would use them again in a heartbeat. We chose them because I had never read anything bad about them either here on the DIS or on Cruise Critic. I would highly recommend them.

Has anyone prepaid for their tours? We booked RIL for all 3 Italian ports. Shortly after confirmation, we were offered 2 ways to prepay for a small discount:
1. Wire cash to a US bank in Miami (where RIL is based)by the end of March for a 5% discount.
2. Pay in full by cc and still pay full price but avoid the usual 5% cc surcharge. (otherwise pay driver in cash or TCs in Euros)

No change in cancellation policy.

I know people highly recommend this company but our total for 3 tours is over $2400. I had a bad vibe in wiring this much $. I've never wired $ before & I'm assuming banks charge a fee for this anyway, maybe wrongly assuming.

To me, this isn't such a great discount to make me jump through hoops.
For our Alaskan excursions that we booked privately, (helicopter w/glacier trek & Misty Fjords sea plane tour) we were given the option to prepay but we could use a cc and the discount was 20%. That seemed a no brainer to me.


With the RIL deal, the savings would be $123.33 which would be split with my parents.

We can get TCs in Euros for free through AAA so I don't mind making up 3 envelopes, 1 for each port, with the TCs in the exact amount, keeping in the cabin safe, and pulling one envelope out as needed, then tipping with Euros. At least we wouldn't be carrying so much cash and we'll have a money belt until we get on the ship.

Also my mom signed up for the Capital One visa which has 0% international fees so we could pay by cc now and not have to deal with it at all during our trip except tipping.

WWYD?

We loved Rome in Limo when we used them. The Miami office is brand new and the ability to pay there is a relatively new option for them and I wish it was available back when we used them. When we went in 2011 I pre-paid their price in Euros a few months before we went via credit card (one that had no international transaction fees). I also had to pay by the end of March but there was no discount to do it. We are a family of 3 and we used them in 2 ports (with a small discount for using them in more than 1 port) and at the time the USD / Euro conversion rate was AWFUL. I think it was like 1.51 to 1 - so we paid the equivalent of something like $1,800 I think it was. Before we went I figured up 10% in tips for our drivers and guides and had those envelopes pre-made to bring in Euros. But the tours themselves I charged. I didn't want to mess with carrying all that cash & I didn't want to have to find an ATM or a bank. The private driver and tours and being on our own schedule was wonderful. We would sometimes pass a DCL tour group with a leader holding up a big Mickey Mouse head sign with a group number on it...then everybody straggling along behind. I was so glad we got dropped off around the corner from the Pantheon and a block from Trevi Fountain and across the street from Piazza Navona. When I priced out some of the DCL excursion prices for some similar itineraries they were in the same ballpark. Maybe they included lunch or entrance fees which we had to pay on our own but we still loved being on our own and not tied to a big group.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

While we did the other ports on our own we used Rome in Limo for Rome (did the Highlights of Rome) and Naples (did the Amalfi Coast + Pompeii) on our 2011 Med cruise. We also hired the extra private guides that they offered and IMHO that was THE best thing we did!! Totally worth the extra cost. Our guide in Rome was Serena and she met us at the Colosseum. Our DS was 14 at the time and she immediately engaged him into the conversation by asking him a lot of questions while we were walking toward the entrance. She got him thinking about what we were about to see and got him interested like no audio recording could do. She got him to ask questions and she answered all of them with such detail. I had pre-purchased our tickets online and she navigated us around the long entrance line that could have taken a really long time to wait in. After the Colosseum she went with us in the car to drop us off for lunch. We had an hour to ourselves then we met her and our driver after lunch for our tour of the Vatican. The lines at the Vatican were horrendous - but once again I had pre-purchased our entrance tickets as they recommended and she led us right past everyone to the front of the line. Once we were inside her knowledge was so helpful. She was an art history major and the Vatican is full of such amazing art she knew about all of it. She pointed out all the things we should notice - like the soot stain on the wall near the ceiling in Saint Peter's where the Cardinals hold their Conclave to elect the new popes. (I still can't believe they're doing that again NOW and we were THERE!)

Our guide that we hired through them for Pompeii (Carmine) was also wonderful with our DS. It allowed him to ask all of the questions that came to his mind while we walked through Pompeii. He could not have asked questions to an audio tape!! I was so grateful that both guides kept our son interested when he could have been very bored at that age.

If we ever get a chance to go back to Italy I would use them again in a heartbeat. We chose them because I had never read anything bad about them either here on the DIS or on Cruise Critic. I would highly recommend them.




We loved Rome in Limo when we used them. The Miami office is brand new and the ability to pay there is a relatively new option for them and I wish it was available back when we used them. When we went in 2011 I pre-paid their price in Euros a few months before we went via credit card (one that had no international transaction fees). I also had to pay by the end of March but there was no discount to do it. We are a family of 3 and we used them in 2 ports (with a small discount for using them in more than 1 port) and at the time the USD / Euro conversion rate was AWFUL. I think it was like 1.51 to 1 - so we paid the equivalent of something like $1,800 I think it was. Before we went I figured up 10% in tips for our drivers and guides and had those envelopes pre-made to bring in Euros. But the tours themselves I charged. I didn't want to mess with carrying all that cash & I didn't want to have to find an ATM or a bank. The private driver and tours and being on our own schedule was wonderful. We would sometimes pass a DCL tour group with a leader holding up a big Mickey Mouse head sign with a group number on it...then everybody straggling along behind. I was so glad we got dropped off around the corner from the Pantheon and a block from Trevi Fountain and across the street from Piazza Navona. When I priced out some of the DCL excursion prices for some similar itineraries they were in the same ballpark. Maybe they included lunch or entrance fees which we had to pay on our own but we still loved being on our own and not tied to a big group.

Somehow I missed this post. Sorry!

You are getting me so psyched for this cruise. I can't wait. I'm still flip flopping on whether to pay now or wait & wire vs. cc. Right now I'm leaning toward wiring the money. My local bank's exchange rate is better than visa's so that's extra savings there. 1.25 vs 1.3. It's not a huge amount:
$1913 wired w/discount @ 1.259
$2080 visa, no discount @ 1.300

Still, every little bit helps. The difference would probably cover our half of the gratuities.

I was wondering how much is an appropriate amount to tip. Annie, you said 10%. Is this the standard there?
For all of you who used Rome in Limo, how much did you tip your drivers & private guides. (We'll be getting on for Vatican & Pompeii.) I don't want to tip like a crazy person but don't want them to feel slighted either & they are all 9 hr tours so it's a long day.

Thanks!!

 

[Anal Annie]

Somehow I missed this post. Sorry!

You are getting me so psyched for this cruise. I can't wait. I'm still flip flopping on whether to pay now or wait & wire vs. cc. Right now I'm leaning toward wiring the money. My local bank's exchange rate is better than visa's so that's extra savings there. 1.25 vs 1.3. It's not a huge amount:
$1913 wired w/discount @ 1.259
$2080 visa, no discount @ 1.300

Still, every little bit helps. The difference would probably cover our half of the gratuities.

I was wondering how much is an appropriate amount to tip. Annie, you said 10%. Is this the standard there?
For all of you who used Rome in Limo, how much did you tip your drivers & private guides. (We'll be getting on for Vatican & Pompeii.) I don't want to tip like a crazy person but don't want them to feel slighted either & they are all 9 hr tours so it's a long day.

Thanks!!

I WISH our rate had been that low when we went. It was running 1.51 on the ship the week we went (they adjusted it weekly to keep up with the current rates - so if you needed to exchange USD for Euros for example that was the exchange rate that DCL used.) If it were ME I would pre-pay to get the better rate and to not have to carry all of that cash with me on the trip. You never know what the rate might do - if you wait it could go UP and you'd be stuck paying even MORE. It's a bit of a gamble but that's JM2C.

It might be a good idea for you to start a thread about tipping in Europe if you'd feel better to get some more responses on it but from the research I did back when we went it sounded like tipping in Europe is much less than in the US. Seems most of we would consider tipped positions are paid a higher regular wage (including servers in restaurants). In fact a lot of the restaurants we ate at in Paris included the tip and we just had to look on the receipt to see if it was added on. They love to get naive American tourists who don't know this and who then tip 15-20% again on top! I spent some time on the Cruise Critic Boards too when I was planning. Between here and there the general tipping range I found for just about anything in Europe was 10%.

BTW just to further back up this tipping difference on the Med cruises, when we went, DCL started automatically including the suggested tip amounts to the CM's on peoples onboard accounts. This was because the Med cruises are primarily European customers and they just don't tip like we do. The CM's on the cruises were being stiffed on their tips and were basically working for half of what they were accustomed to. The only way to get the CM's close to their regular gratuities was for DCL to add them in automatically. The day after the letter was handed out about the automatic gratuities I went down in the afternoon to guest services to ADD more money to our gratuities and there was some older Spanish gentleman down there raising all kinds of heck, yelling VERY loudly in both English and in Spanish, waving his arms wildly and just causing a huge scene over the tips being added on. In HIS COUNTRY they don't tip like that and he was making sure everybody knew how angry he was as he was saying and he didn't feel he should have to tip. It was quite uncomfortable and I felt badly for his servers and cabin attendant because they were about to get stiffed...

 

[MrsScooby]

We have 3 tours booked with RIL this summer (Florence, Rome and Naples) and I just checked our confirmation emails and none of them offer an option to pre-pay for the tours.

Is the prepayment option only for tours that are not shared with another family

I would love to prepay so as to not have to carry around the euros.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We have 3 tours booked with RIL this summer (Florence, Rome and Naples) and I just checked our confirmation emails and none of them offer an option to pre-pay for the tours.

Is the prepayment option only for tours that are not shared with another family

I would love to prepay so as to not have to carry around the euros.

Maybe that's why. We aren't doing a group tour, well, like the ones they offer through thieir website. It's just my family of 4 and my parents though I handled all the arrangements and just said we're a party of 6.

It would be complicated if it were different families from all over.
They also accept travelers checks. If you belong to AAA, there's no charge if you get them there. I've never had to get them in Euros before but I do know it's an option there. That was my original plan. I was going to make 3 envelopes labeled for each city and keep them in the safe on the ship and only take out the one I need. It seems a bit easier than trying to keep tapping ATMs &/or changing cash on the ship, worrying about daily limits and a lot of planning ahead once on vacation.

hth

 

[MrsScooby]

Maybe that's why. We aren't doing a group tour, well, like the ones they offer through thieir website. It's just my family of 4 and my parents though I handled all the arrangements and just said we're a party of 6.

It would be complicated if it were different families from all over.
They also accept travelers checks. If you belong to AAA, there's no charge if you get them there. I've never had to get them in Euros before but I do know it's an option there. That was my original plan. I was going to make 3 envelopes labeled for each city and keep them in the safe on the ship and only take out the one I need. It seems a bit easier than trying to keep tapping ATMs &/or changing cash on the ship, worrying about daily limits and a lot of planning ahead once on vacation.

hth

We kept money in envelopes for our Baltic cruise as there were so many currencies to keep track of. The only time we carried it all at once was when we went from airport to hotel and hotel to ship. Kept in travel wallets under our shirts. Otherwise kept it all in room safes.

I do have one of those pacsafe bags that I can wear crossbody, but not going to rely on that for too much.

I didn't know that AAA had travelers checks for no charge
I'll probably go that route. Thanks

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I WISH our rate had been that low when we went. It was running 1.51 on the ship the week we went (they adjusted it weekly to keep up with the current rates - so if you needed to exchange USD for Euros for example that was the exchange rate that DCL used.) If it were ME I would pre-pay to get the better rate and to not have to carry all of that cash with me on the trip. You never know what the rate might do - if you wait it could go UP and you'd be stuck paying even MORE. It's a bit of a gamble but that's JM2C.

It might be a good idea for you to start a thread about tipping in Europe if you'd feel better to get some more responses on it but from the research I did back when we went it sounded like tipping in Europe is much less than in the US. Seems most of we would consider tipped positions are paid a higher regular wage (including servers in restaurants). In fact a lot of the restaurants we ate at in Paris included the tip and we just had to look on the receipt to see if it was added on. They love to get naive American tourists who don't know this and who then tip 15-20% again on top! I spent some time on the Cruise Critic Boards too when I was planning. Between here and there the general tipping range I found for just about anything in Europe was 10%.

BTW just to further back up this tipping difference on the Med cruises, when we went, DCL started automatically including the suggested tip amounts to the CM's on peoples onboard accounts. This was because the Med cruises are primarily European customers and they just don't tip like we do. The CM's on the cruises were being stiffed on their tips and were basically working for half of what they were accustomed to. The only way to get the CM's close to their regular gratuities was for DCL to add them in automatically. The day after the letter was handed out about the automatic gratuities I went down in the afternoon to guest services to ADD more money to our gratuities and there was some older Spanish gentleman down there raising all kinds of heck, yelling VERY loudly in both English and in Spanish, waving his arms wildly and just causing a huge scene over the tips being added on. In HIS COUNTRY they don't tip like that and he was making sure everybody knew how angry he was as he was saying and he didn't feel he should have to tip. It was quite uncomfortable and I felt badly for his servers and cabin attendant because they were about to get stiffed...

Thanks. While I know tipping is not such a big custom there, I feel so cheap to tip such a low amount. Dh is a very generous tipper cuz his mom was a waitress so he knows how much tipped positions rely on tips, here anyway.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We kept money in envelopes for our Baltic cruise as there were so many currencies to keep track of. The only time we carried it all at once was when we went from airport to hotel and hotel to ship. Kept in travel wallets under our shirts. Otherwise kept it all in room safes.

I do have one of those pacsafe bags that I can wear crossbody, but not going to rely on that for too much.

I didn't know that AAA had travelers checks for no charge
I'll probably go that route. Thanks

The US$ ones are free. I can't say for certain of that for getting Euros but I know you can.
They also sell a Visa debit card that works like an ATM debit card but it's preloaded so you're not tapping into your regular bank accounts.

 

[MrsKP]

Has anyone prepaid for their tours? We booked RIL for all 3 Italian ports. Shortly after confirmation, we were offered 2 ways to prepay for a small discount:
1. Wire cash to a US bank in Miami (where RIL is based)by the end of March for a 5% discount.
2. Pay in full by cc and still pay full price but avoid the usual 5% cc surcharge. (otherwise pay driver in cash or TCs in Euros)

No change in cancellation policy.

I know people highly recommend this company but our total for 3 tours is over $2400. I had a bad vibe in wiring this much $. I've never wired $ before & I'm assuming banks charge a fee for this anyway, maybe wrongly assuming.

To me, this isn't such a great discount to make me jump through hoops.
For our Alaskan excursions that we booked privately, (helicopter w/glacier trek & Misty Fjords sea plane tour) we were given the option to prepay but we could use a cc and the discount was 20%. That seemed a no brainer to me.


With the RIL deal, the savings would be $123.33 which would be split with my parents.

We can get TCs in Euros for free through AAA so I don't mind making up 3 envelopes, 1 for each port, with the TCs in the exact amount, keeping in the cabin safe, and pulling one envelope out as needed, then tipping with Euros. At least we wouldn't be carrying so much cash and we'll have a money belt until we get on the ship.

Also my mom signed up for the Capital One visa which has 0% international fees so we could pay by cc now and not have to deal with it at all during our trip except tipping.

WWYD?

I didn't want to carry that kind of cash. We used Capital One and pre-paid. No problems. I would have wired but didn't want to have to juggle everything at work/kids and then figure all that out! They emailed me a form to compete & I scanned it back to them. Very easy!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I didn't want to carry that kind of cash. We used Capital One and pre-paid. No problems. I would have wired but didn't want to have to juggle everything at work/kids and then figure all that out! They emailed me a form to compete & I scanned it back to them. Very easy!

We may end up doing this. I went to our local TD Bank to wire the US$ equivalent of 1520E. They should easily be able to tell me this based on their current exchange rate. The clerk was so clueless I had to walk out. I really try to be patient & explain it to her but it just wasn't sinking in.
I know they have a simple calculator web page & even if that's not the one they need to use, it would still give her a ballpark figure. She kept plugging #s in, then saying, "no that's not it." then enter another.
She came up with $1100-something. When I explained that Euros are worth more than US$ so this figure MUST be well over $1520, she still didn't get it. Then I told her the calculator on their website gave me around $1900, she looked even more clueless.
sigh....
It's a sad situation when health care workers know more about banking than people who work at a bank.

 

[Anal Annie]

We have 3 tours booked with RIL this summer (Florence, Rome and Naples) and I just checked our confirmation emails and none of them offer an option to pre-pay for the tours.

Is the prepayment option only for tours that are not shared with another family

I would love to prepay so as to not have to carry around the euros.

When we booked with RIL back in 2011 they didn't offer the pre-payment thing up front to us - I emailed them and asked if we could. Jany was very responsive to emails. We did Rome privately and shared our Naples tour to the Amalfi Coast & Pompeii with another couple from our meet thread. I handled all of the arrangements with RIL and pre-paid up front and then the other couple just paid us their portion when we met up on the cruise. I can't remember 100% now if they gave us Euros or USD but I remember she ASKED me which I wanted (they were from the UK). I think I told her to give us Euros then I just figured that in as funds we didn't need to convert ourselves. So you can certainly ask RIL to pre-pay if you want, regardless of whether you're sharing or not. You just need to have 1 person/family who agrees to actually DO the paying up front I think.

Thanks. While I know tipping is not such a big custom there, I feel so cheap to tip such a low amount. Dh is a very generous tipper cuz his mom was a waitress so he knows how much tipped positions rely on tips, here anyway.

OK, so you want to be one of "those" American tourists they love to see coming!? I sort of felt the same way but my research said 10% was sufficient and the standard amount in Europe so that's the way I went. I prepared tip envelopes before we left on the trip - I had them already done up & labeled for our transfers in Paris and Barcelona, our RIL drivers and our private tour guides. Made everything so easy to have it prepared already. Then I didn't need to worry about having the right amount of change (and the single Euros are coins not bills BTW).

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

When we booked with RIL back in 2011 they didn't offer the pre-payment thing up front to us - I emailed them and asked if we could. Jany was very responsive to emails. We did Rome privately and shared our Naples tour to the Amalfi Coast & Pompeii with another couple from our meet thread. I handled all of the arrangements with RIL and pre-paid up front and then the other couple just paid us their portion when we met up on the cruise. I can't remember 100% now if they gave us Euros or USD but I remember she ASKED me which I wanted (they were from the UK). I think I told her to give us Euros then I just figured that in as funds we didn't need to convert ourselves. So you can certainly ask RIL to pre-pay if you want, regardless of whether you're sharing or not. You just need to have 1 person/family who agrees to actually DO the paying up front I think.



OK, so you want to be one of "those" American tourists they love to see coming!? I sort of felt the same way but my research said 10% was sufficient and the standard amount in Europe so that's the way I went. I prepared tip envelopes before we left on the trip - I had them already done up & labeled for our transfers in Paris and Barcelona, our RIL drivers and our private tour guides. Made everything so easy to have it prepared already. Then I didn't need to worry about having the right amount of change (and the single Euros are coins not bills BTW).

Jany is still there! and still responsive as ever. Is Jany a he or she?

You're right. I will try to leave our American customs at home. "When in Rome..." and all that.

 

[WDW Princess 71]

Can someone please explain to me how traveler's checks work, specifically with using them to pay for a tour? The company I'm using allows prepayment via credit card but they charge 10% for that, so I'm definitely not going that route. Our choices are to pay at the end of the tour in Euros cash or Euros traveler's checks, no charge for either. I am interested in the traveler's check option so as not to have to carry around so much cash, but I've never done them before. Can someone please explain how they work and how you pay for a service with them?