Museum Reservations

Who was charging you twice face value? I'm almost positive that reserving through the official museums website is not double the cost. Also you can get a cheap phone card at Target or Walmart or wherever and call them yourselves for a few cents a minute and there is no up-front cost, I paid 3 euros more than the normal admission for my Accademia reservation. Since your time is so limited, you will only hurt yourself if you take the chance and show up at these museums without a reservation. But if you just call the museum yourself and do it over the phone (there's an English option), at least that way, if your schedule gets messed up and you can't make it, you haven't paid any money.

Better be safe than sorry, even in October! The Uffizi is a must-see. The Accademia is a mediocre museum, but does host the "David" which is spectacular.

Third-party sites indeed charge double (or more) of the ticket cost. Best thing to do is call the museum directly & get a reservation number. Day of your visit, skip the queue & get your "reserved ticket". Costs only a few bucks more & you pay on arrival. (So if you don't show, you don't pay.)

Without a doubt - make a reservation if at all possible. I was in Florence in late February a few years ago and waited over an hour and a half to get in the Uffizi. I had no idea it would be that crowded in February! Don't take any chances - the Uffizi is amazing! I didn't get to the Accademia so I am not sure - but I would imagine it can be crowded as well.

I was lucky enough to have my B&B make my reservation fo me. And then I paid for my tickets at each museum (14euros). Maybe someone on your cruise ship can make the reservations for you. I was actually early, almost 1 hour at the Uffizi, and they let me in anyway. There were considerable lines at each location for the folks who didn't have reservations. I was there from Sept 9-13 2008.

Call this number to make reservations for both the Uffizi and the Accademia. 011 39 055 294 883
Allow up to an hour (probably less) for the Accademia. The Uffizi will take longer; we scheduled it second. It takes about 15 minutes to walk between the two galleries.
It does not cost you anything to make a reservation. However, having a reservation number in your hand allows you to skip the lines getting in. We went two weeks ago and having reservation numbers for both worked like a charm. We were even an hour late for our Accademia reservation and they didn't even hestitate to let us in anyway...bypassing the "no reservation" line.

I tried calling on Saturday about noon Italian time. I was on hold for 5 minutes, then got a recorded message in Italian which ended with an English sentence, something like: try calling later, and the call ended.