Help me build a Naples-based excursion!

What sort of excursions s the cruise line offering? That will give you some idea of what might be possible.

Salerno is probably too far, unless that is your only destination.

my extended family

What is the age range? Summer and Pompeii means HOT, so some folks may be slowed down and just how much you want to try to do should get a long hard look.

Age range: 13-70. :)

Cruise lines: I don’t trust some of the timelines of their options (we haven’t had great luck with getting bussed around with 55 other people in the past) , so im hoping to build something private.

Hi there, I agree with Joe, summer & Pompeii with ages 13 to 70 really needs another hard look. Some of the steps inside Pompeii are high & streets uneven with large stepping stones, it would be exhausting for some of your group. It still might be a good idea to check what sort of excursions the cruise is offering, as they have to guarantee people make the boat ride back, good reference.

I would pick something easier than Pompeii, you mentioned a "cute little Italian village". Why not take the local ferry to Sorrento, walk around and have gelato and perhaps visit one of the nearby villages like Piano di Sorrento, adjacent to Sorrento? That would be enough in the heat of summer. There's quite a bit written on the Forum about Sorrento, use the search bar at top for more ideas. Crystal B talks a lot here about Sorrento. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/12-nights-in-italy-jul-aug-2023-trip-report-part-2-sorrento

Thanks for all of this insight.
I’m going to try to talk everyone out of Pompeii. :)

What I was trying to convey wasn't to take a cruise line excursion, but to use what they cover in their excursions as a guide to what you could reasonably cover on your own or using a local guide.

I’m going to try to talk everyone out of Pompeii. :)

I hope not, BUT If you are successful, please consider Herculaneum. Similar experience, but on a smaller scale, so could be more manageable and leave time to do 'something else'.

hey hey vandelay2001
how many people are in your group? my own opinion is to look at cruisemapper.com check your ship and date to see how many ships are docking in naples. (if 3 ships that's almost 9,000 people) wanting to do the same as you. what are your means of transportation to get to these places if possible? buses and trains will be crowded, no A/C, packed like sardines and hoping to get on either one with people waiting in long lines and dealing with the heat!!!
you say 11 hours, what is actual time to get of ship and departure time?
remember it is jubilee 2025 (the holy year/pilgrams of hope & spiritual renewal) expecting millions of people to participate or hoping to see the pope. rome will be packed along with the other big cities. be prepared.
pompeiisites.org or cnn.com/pompeii limited visitors
summer months are "crazy busy" and will need each person's name on reserved ticket with designated time slots with passports/ID's required. can your group sustain the walking/roaming, summer heat/wear a hat, dust, crowds. don't want unhappy/grumpy people.
i would make a list of must sees & do's/ok to miss/ no time, talk over and discuss with family, make sure they understand everything involved.
been on a few cruises and we hired a private taxi/tour, sent email with our wants and they offered what was possible to enjoy the day. we were very adament about returning to ship before departing. it was a set price, not per person. we were registered on cruisecritic.com , made a post who was interested in sharing tour and wanted only 4 to 6 people, picked us up at port in small van and off we went. best thing we ever did, let the local do the driving, stopping at local shops, attractions, talking about area and what we are looking at. usually 4-6 hour tour, dropped off near port, had a cocktail and appetizer before boarding, anticipating to not deal with the cruisers all wanting to board at once. we had a fabulous tour and happy we did it this way.
sc8adolfo.it
rainbowlimos.com
just a couple taxi/tours to check out. some other posters will chime in with others available to research. good luck and have fun. been to naples for a day trip from rome. one of my favorites day trips, many just hear about how dirty, gritty, lots of garbage which is true but so much history, yummy pizza and desserts, lots to see, nice people. don't forget to have gelato. i always say if you haven't been you have no room to talk about it, just what you hear. some say the same thing about milan.
aloha

Actually, if you can figure out transport, Joe32F made a great suggestion. Herculaneum would be a worthy alternative. Smaller, still see effects of the pyroclastic cloud that descended onto Pompeii, but smaller and with many fewer visitors. Consider using a tour agency for the logistics of your short shore excursion - Mondo Tours comes well recommended. But then you don't have much time for that 'cute little village' experience! Someone on the Forum recommended sun umbrellas for Greece, I'd look into that for the heat sensitive in your group.

Princess

There are 20 of us and we're willing to hire a guide.
While we technically have 11 hours off ship, I'm only wanting to speak for 8 of them to be safe.
Perhaps it will be better to just focus on Sorrento and Pompeii.
However, a boat ride would be nice.

Riddle me this: IF we skip Pompeii, what would our best options be for Sorrento and a boat tour? I know we'd need to get a couple of vehicles/boats.

vandelay2001, it's pretty hard to drag vital information out of you. How many of the guests use two canes, a wheelchair, or cannot have nuts or gluten present at their lunch table? Do any of them think they are going to get to wade on a beach? This target area is absolutely jammed with tourists from May to September. In case you miss the ship departure, what is the next port? Are you making plans like this for six ports?!?

BTW, with 20 people and limited time, you may well want the banal but satisfactory hot-cafeteria setting inside Pompeii. They are set up to serve mass-food quickly. They also have more than one bathroom. There is no food inside Herculaneum, and you cannot re-enter either excavation on a same-day ticket. There are limited restaurants near Herculaneum, but our European slow-food lunch there took nearly two hours, in a very informal, formica-table setting.

You need a guide, just because you must have someone with the authority to order souvenir buyers to get ON the darn bus, so that they can meet the timeline (unlike those ship tours you talked about) that you have set for the day. You also have to prevent independent-minded guests from going somewhere other than the place you have planned, for their lunch. Is the Naples port stop a Tender anchorage, or tied up on shore? What is the actual required re-boarding time, not the "sail-away" time? Will some of your guests be delayed in getting ashore because they have lower-budget cabins that exit the ship later?

I would also hope a guide knows a system for buying 20 tickets quickly, all at once, instead of 10 to 15 people fumbling for Euros that they don't have.

You need to collect a lot more information, maybe from a printed guidebook. Sorrento is a perfectly nice town, but it does not "look like" Positano, which you seem to be describing as a photo opp. Or maybe you mean Cinque Terrre? I don't mean this as unkindly as it sounds, but Sorrento is more like a (very large) cruise shopping mall, but with a cliffside view. It's not like a tiny Italian village with old widows in black, shopping with wicker baskets on their arms. But Positano and Amalfi are not like that either, they're just older (i.e. pre World-War II) and prettier.

You don't have time to go to Positano, partly because of traffic delays, but also the total distance and parking restrictions. I imagine there is a ship tour that spends 90 minutes in Pompeii and does go to Positano, but they do it with 5 busses, almost every day of the year, for one cruise ship or another!

Google for "photos Pompeii" and take a hard look at the monstrous, bulging cobblestones (on some streets) and extraordinarily high curbs (also on some streets). Even people with no significant mobility challenges may find Pompeii something of a struggle, and that's aside from the impact of the expected summer temperatures. It takes a lot of extra energy to walk on those wretched cobblestones, and on one occasion I needed assistance from someone else to step up onto the very elevated sidewalk. If the place is crowded (I assume that's a given in the summer), there will be spots of gridlock on some sidewalks, and the only way to avoid those will be to step down onto the cobblestones, walk around the impassable spot and climb back up. I'm about 5'2" and visited Pompeii at the age of 71. Although I walk, on average, about 6 miles a day when I'm in Europe, Pompeii wasn't easy for me, and I was there in March.

....and that's aside from the impact of the expected summer
temperatures.

Amen. Pompeii is huge and nearly devoid of shade; it's a real cooker in summer: was there 1st time in July when I was a lot younger; 2nd time in early October and it was plenty warm even then. The heat issue actually concerns me more than the terrain as that wouldn't bother me as much and I'm nearly 70 now. Still, you know your eldest members limitations better than we do.

But the other issue is the sheer size of your group. There's no way I'd try to herd a group of 20 around independently in a region with the transport challenges this one has, which is going to be hot and VERY busy, and with a back-on-ship deadline. Hands down, I'll vote with the need to sign on for a ship's excursion or hire a professional guide service that will handle the transport, tickets, shepherding the group around and making sure everyone gets back to the ship on time. Really, for your own sanity I can't underestimate what an undertaking this would be for you to handle independently. Even trying to manage lunch with a group that large will be a challenge, thus the aforementioned suggestion for the cafeteria at Pompeii.

I just checked the Rick-endorsed Mondo shared tours for their "Sorrento, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast Shore excursion from the port of Naples" tour but the largest group they seem to be able to handle transport for is 19. So, take a look at their other excursions from Naples as well? Some of them can handle groups up to 25, and the cost isn't bad when spread amongst 20.
https://mondoguide.it/shore-excursion-from-napoli

I just returned December 4th from one month in southern Italy. Spent November 26th to December 4th in Naples.

For your consideration: two thoughts regarding Pompeii- - the Villa De Mistieri which is at the far end of Pompeii has an entrance to Pompeii. It is a fabulous villa, wonderful frescos, and it would be or make a great visit. The rest of Pompeii with the quote "roads" the way they are would be extremely, extremely difficult especially with your group and in May with the crowds and the heat.

Opolontis: this beautiful Villa is similar to Misteri. You can take the circumvissuviana train to Torre Annunziata train station. There is a special train that goes there on the circumvesuviana line track three that goes directly to Torre Annunziata. Or make sure that the circumvesuviana train on track one stops at Torre Annunziata. Site is fairly new it is just the villa but Ticnit might give you a sense of Pompeii, without the hassle and the crowds and the terrible, terrible pavement.

You would then have enough time to wander around Naples and or even go to the Archeological Museum enhancing your visit to a pompeian site.

Tickets: tickets to Pompeii are 22 euros and would include Misteri of course and Oplantis. If you just go to Oplantis the ticket is 8 euro