On any European cruise I will always book the entire enchilada with the cruise line booking. The flights, airport transfers, and tours in port. That is what our family of 4 did and it worked out great. Stress free! That is what you want on a cruise vacation...less stress!
The only port where we skipped the cruise ship tour was for Rome. Rome is not a port. The ship anchors at Civitavecchia. The cruise ship tour price was very expensive for 4 people. Some people on ship told us to just take the train from Civitavecchia to Rome, about a 45 minute ride. The train station is not far from the cruise dock. We saved a ton of money by doing that. We got off the train at San Pietro station which is walking distance from the Basilica and just explored the city from there. Caution: trains in Italy on Sunday’s are not frequent. Do not miss the really good Gelato near the railway station.
entropy12 wrote: “On any European cruise I will always book the entire enchilada with the cruise line booking.”
Do you book the cruise with the cruise line or do you use a travel agent? I use a TA that discounts the Cruise Line Price by at least 8%. You can still book flights, tours, transfers, etc., through the cruise line.
I save my miles/points and use them to fly free one way to Europe come back on a B2B Med/TA...
I dont go the day before I usually go about 10 days before the 1st cruise starts...