Share a shore excursion in Italy - anyone used this company?
 

http://www.shareashoreexcursioninitaly.com/home

We will be on the Ruby Princess next year and are looking at options for our shore time in Naples, Rome & Florence. Has anyone used these people? We have four in our party but maybe be able to get another 4 to make up the maximum 8 for their mini-buses.

I would appreciate any info, thanks in advance.

cruisecritic.com port reviews these are usually inflated price

Go a fair amount better to hire a driver/guide cheaply

at the port.. or even better hop a local train

Naples for me last 4 euro train to Pompeii/Sorrento 20 min

had a wonderful cheap time eurocheapo.com cheap budget tips

for each city watch out for all the scammers on and off the

ships some scam for hundreds of euros...

Sorry, Im not familiar with the company you list. I would, however, recommend you check out this link:

http://bit.ly/vyndkk

For Ruby Princess excursions. Here you can select your sail date, and get excursions tailored to your cruise backed by a 3rd-party consolidator that offers guarantees. They also offer package discounts if you book for multiple ports.

Good luck!

qwovadis, thanks for your reply. I guess hiring someone at the port is a good idea but I think we would like to have something sorted before we go. In Naples we would like to do a drive along the coast. I will check out the eurocheapo site though. Thanks for the advice on the scammers too.

That is an interesting site, triathlete, thanks for posting. I will have a good look at all those excursions.

Thanks again.

Here is who I had , with great satisfaction.

For Rome you can contact:

Executive Limousine Rome at [email protected]

They are very good and have a driver to pick you up at the dock and then he drives you to Rome , where you meet your guide.

For Florence and Leaning Tower of Pisa contact:

Italian Limousine Service at [email protected] and

ask for Paolo ( he was terrific). His wife had triples a few years ago !!!
If you want tickets ahead of time he can get them for you... like for example you have to have a ticket to climb the Leaning Tower of Pisa.


For Naples contact:

[email protected] , his name is Giovanni Rotondo and what a

pleasant happy man he is.

He will take you down the Amalfi Coast and make sure you are back in time for the ship

Hi Percy

Thank you so much, just the sort of info I can use. I appreciate your time in posting. I will chase them up.

Thank you again
Maudie

Maudie

You are more than welcome.

We are all here to help each other ! :)

Percy, just out of curiosity are these people with a company or individuals you have used?

I know this sort of seems weird but how do I verify who they are if I just send off an email?

Just being cautious, one never knows these days!

Oh whoops, I did some googling I think I can answer my own questions about the first two. Sorry Percy.

For Rome our driver met us at the dock.... holding up a sign with my name on it.

He drove us the 53 miles to Rome and we meet our Tour Guide there.!!

What a guide !! When I saw her I went "gulp"!!!. She was about 25 years old and a dead ringer for Catherine - Zeta Jones....

made it a bit difficult to look at some of the sites...but I forced myself. :)

For Florence:

Paolo ,also works for a company but he had his own vehicle.
He got us tickets ahead of time for some of the museums and also to see the Statue of David.

For Naples:

Giovanni, works for himself. He is about 30 years old. Good looking, slim, and always happy with that infectious smile.

I sat in the front seat with him and as we drove down the Amalfi Coast, I felt like James Bond , going around those hair-pin curves!!!

Your in for a treat.

But you know in Naples there were so many good guides waiting at the dock to just take you anywhere you want to go.

So if you booked a tour guide and for some reason he did not show up...you are not really stuck !!

Good Luck

Percy, you are a treasure! Thanks so much for all the info. Sounds like we would be doing the same things as you. Loved your descriptions of "Catherine" and Giovanni - what a hoot.

Have you been on any cruises to the Caribbean? We are on a repositioning cruise so will end up at Ft Lauderdale, the deal to continue on for another 7 days was too good to resist. We will be stopping at Princess Cays, St Maarten, St Thomas and Grand Turk.

Thanks again.

Hi Maudie

Never been to that part of the Caribbean,I mainly did the western part which included Grand Cayman, Costa Rica, Cozumel etc.

I have done the Panama Cruise.

Good for you for doing the extra 7 days, it will be a needed break after crusing the Atlantic for 5 days.

Have a good time. :)

Oh that's a shame, I was hoping to pick your brain further:S-

Yes, I am sure we will be pretty tired after all that site seeing and cruising.

Again many thanks for your help.

Kind regards
Maudie

Sorry about that but I have not been to the Eastern Caribbean ! :)

We did a med cruise a year ago. We hooked up with people on cruise critic who were seasoned travelers and they planned all of our visits at each port. They were all fabulous, and economical compared to the ships costs. I would try and get to know the people on cruise critic sign up for roll call. It is the best way to meet and greet prior to the sailing. For Rome we had a private man who spent all day with us and another couple. Our first day we covered so much, territory and gained so much knowledge. It was well worth it in price since time is so priceless. My most enjoyable cruises ever. Enjoy---

Hi diann24, thank you for your suggestions. I have looked at the roll call for our ship on cruisecritic - lots of information there. But I do not find that site easy to read with all the members "advertising" their cruises it takes so long to wade through all the posts.

But I am slowly getting some ideas that I am following up. I am sure we will have a wonderful time and meet some great people.

Thanks again.

I used driverinrome.com when we did our med cruise back in 05. We used them in Rome, Florence and Naples. We had for 2 days the son - Daniele and another driver in Naples. Great trip and very personable. Daniele took us to the highlights and we stopped along the way so we could shop. Boy we shopped at every port.

You can also go on cruisecritic.com and sign up for your cruise. We chatted with alot of people on there prior to our cruise. You can also get more to join your own tour if you all like the same things. Which is really hard.

Thank you Karmine2, I will have a look at that site. Sounds like you had an awesome time.

As I said above I really don't find the cruisecritic site to be easy to read and tend to only skim bits and pieces. We are happy to just do our own thing. Thanks again.

Percy, you have not been to to the Eastern Carribbean? I'm shocked!

Maudie, you can try Rome Cab. They are reputable and has good reputation. I contacted them last year and wanted to use their service but it didn't work out as we did not have the number of people we needed to make it cheaper. They were helpful and gracious even though we didn't use them.

Thank you Eschew, I will give them a try. That seems like a reasonable price too. I didn't have any luck with the suggestions Percy gave me, sent emails but no replies.

Thanks again.

Eschew:

Yes, I have not been( yet ) to the Eastern Caribbean!!!

When I think of going it is hurricane season and then I wind up going to Europe.

But I have to get to the Eastern Caribbean.

Maudie:

Gee that is too bad about those e-mail addresses I gave you.

I have all their business cards so I just took the e-mail address off the cards. Hmmmmmmm!!!

But you know sometimes you do not get a reply to your email until weeks later.

I know because I gave an e-mail address to a person in who was taking a tour to St.Petersburg Russian.... this person did not hear from the tour guide in St. Petersburg for a month and then finally got a reply. !!!

She took the guide and loved the experience.

But I always wonder about those sloooow replies !

Hi Percy, can you get to the Eastern Caribbean before I go, then I can really pick your brain!!! Just kidding. I think we might be there during hurricane season - hope the ship is fast so it can out run one - yikes!

Oh well, you never know I still might get a reply then. I some times wonder if there are 1000's of emails all just flying around out there looking for somewhere to go.

The ship tours from Naples all go to a cameo factory - we have no interest at all in spending our few hours in port at one of them. That is one reason we would like to sort something out for ourselves. We really aren't "tour bus" type people.

I shall keep looking and I might find a reply from one of those companies soon.

Maudie: for Naples, your choice could be Amalfi coast, Pompeii ruins, Sorrento, Capri. Can't see them all on one day so you will have to pick one. Cameo factory? Don't waste your time. Cameo shops are all over the place there. I am surprised that the ship is doing cameo factory tour (opps .. I forget, they get percentages of sales)

Percy: Hurrican doesn't affect Eastern Carribbean as much as the Western Carribbean so it would be safe even during the hurriacne season. The frequency of Hurricane there is much lower. I have yet seen any cruise ship get caught with a hurricane. They avoid them and make different port stops. There are plenty of islands around southern and eastern Carribbean so even if it becomes a dealer's choice, you still can't go wrong anyway.

Maudie:

With a tour guide at Naples you can do
Pompeii Ruins , Almafi Coast and Sorrento...but no time for Capri.

Eschew:

Thanks.

Yes, I have to get down to the Eastern Caribbean soon. :)

Oh no, not intending to do "everything". I think Pompeii deserves more than 2 hours so we shall keep that one for when we can return on a longer trip.

We would just love to spend a day driving the Amalfi coast, stopping off for photos, having a glass or three of wine and a yummy lunch at some little place with a stunning view - assuming the weather is kind. Just a relaxing enjoyable day with our friends and plenty of laughs.

Good news about Hurricanes too!

Oh and I love this board so much better than CruiseCritic! Such nice people and its so MUCH easier to read.

I think with a guide you can do Pompeii, then drive the Almafi Coast .... stop for photos along the way ... and then relax with wine and lunch at Sorrento and then

shop a little at Sorrrentos.

Your guide will know when you have to head back to the cruise ship.

Anyway when you make contact with a guide ask him about this.

It all depends on how much time you have at Naples, and what day of the week. We were lucky that we landed on a Sunday morning. Most people were in church and hardly any traffic in the morning.

You will need a minimum of 4 to 6 hours to do any type of justice for Pompeii. By the way, there is a very nice store that carries a lot of Cameo (and other mercahndise) at the market just outside the Pompeii ruin. It is right at the front corner, you can't miss it. I am sorry that I did not remember the name of the store. DW bought a Valentino purse for a very good price.

For the Amalfi coast, you want to enjoy it "slowly". Forget about the wine, do the lemoncello, and lots of it. There is certain charm when it is clouded over, maybe even a light drizzle may add to the atmosphere, add on a rainbow or two ...

Capri is just a pile of rocks and I will leave it at that. It is definietly over-hyped, just like Cabos. And I whole heartedly agree with the comment about here versus cruise critic. I am on both board but I post here a whole lot more often.

Thanks heaps for your suggestions, especially the limoncello. Naples will be a Friday for us. Yes, slowly, slowly does it.

Yes Pompeii will wait another few years until we can to it justice, it's been there a while now:S-

Hadn't even considered Capri really, that is a place that may or may not have to wait for the future.

I have been looking at our Roll Call on the CC site, it just takes so long to wade through all the posts. About 3/4 of the page are people "advertising" how many cruises they have done or are doing, just not my scene at all. I am more than happy to meet new friends on a cruise but I don't need to live the their pockets and have parties and drinks planned months before we go. But that's just me!

I typically signed up for the roll call, find out what are the chatters on the ship or the destinations. I may even showed up at the meet and greet (only sometimes) and hear what the group discussion were like. I have met some truly nice people, and I have changed my excursion booking based on their experiences (example: adding Terrace houses for Ephesus) and comments. But, on the other hand, I have also met the type that you described: how many trips in thhe last year and how many times they have been where, yada yada yada ... I have no patience for that and I just politely bowed out.

Capri's claim to fanme is probably from that old movie with Sophia Loren in it. The rock formation, the Roman Villas, the Harbor are all quite charming. If you only have part of a day, the Almafi Coast would be #1 if you enjoy the relaxation and good scenery.

Hi Eschew, lovely chatting with you by the way.

Oh I agree, I have picked up some interesting snippets of information on the roll call but the rest of it leaves me cold.

We had a fantastic day out in Hawaii with some people we shared a taxi to Pearl Harbour with, they live in Brisbane which is a long way from Perth but they have managed a quick visit here earlier this year and we communicate by email regularly. We all just clicked and made for some very happy memories as we sailed back to Sydney.

I am so looking forward to seeing the Amalfi Coast, another one of those places I have always wanted to see and can tick it off the bucket list - that for some reason just seems to get longer rather than shorter.