Vatican Limiting Visitors

Do you think that this means the Vatican Museum, or the whole Vatican City?

Hi Stan

I don't know. I was thinking that it refers only to the Vatican building but we will probably find out soon enough.

Hi Gail

Well, I am on a very large cruise ship, over 4,000 persons. I imagine a lot of the guests want to go to Rome and visit the Vatican.

I am in a group for persons who use canes, walkers and wheel chairs along with the helpers of those in a wheel chair., I think my group is a small group.

I will be there towards the end of October.

When I think about it, I am aware of how much pressure a cruise ship puts on a place like the Vatican. So maybe they are trying to manage cruise ship passengers.

We went to St. Peter's Basilica yesterday. It is free to see the Basilica and no limit on the number of visitors. There were large tour groups waiting in line with us (made no sense). But for the museum and Sistine chapel tickets are required and are sold in limited numbers. We were in line for 2:45 mins. before we entered the Basilica. My sister purchased tickets (with a tour group) for the Chapel, museum and the Basilica and did "skip the line." As far as the 75 days prior to your embarkation date that is your cruise requirement.

There really are no drastic new restrictions on crowds. There have been changes to some of the ticketing, but the number of tickets has long been limited, and have been selling out for years.

They are just strangely wording the long standing fact that tickets to the Vatican Museum are limited and do sell out. From the cruises perspective, they need confirmation well in advance that you are planning on taking one of their tours.

It does not affect you if you are going to St Peters/Crypt/Dome Climb on your own (No advance tickets available or needed) or if you are securing tickets for the museum on your own.

This is simply a lot of language and spin to the fact that it is extremely difficult for tour groups to get tickets under the new ticketing program. There won’t be any fewer visitors. Rick Steves, Gate 1 and other tour groups have dropped group tours of the Vatican Museums from their itineraries. Instead, they encourage those interested to book individual tours.

A cruise ship is a drop in the bucket to the Vatican. First of all, it docks some distance from Rome. Secondly , not everyone wants a Vatican tour. Finally, Rome has plenty of tourists from many sources to make up crowds.

I vividly remember a scene from the classic movie “The Scarlet and the Black” where the pope is walking through the Vatican Museums during World War II with the character played by Gregory Peck. They are discussing the Vatican’s position on helping Jews and escaped Allied prisoners in occupied Rome. The pope waves his hand at the treasures and says he needs to protect centuries of relics/treasures. The other’s response was, “The treasures of the church are its people”. To me this exemplifies some of the disappointment I felt in the Vatican Museums. There were terrible crowds, loud announcements, etc. However, it was the Sense that the Vatican had turned into a money making machine in the museums that was the biggest disappointment of all.

Thanks for all the info folks.

I hate crowds and I hate frenzy / chaos but this will be my one and only time to the Vatican. I hope that I will feel safe and protected within my small group. I am not afraid of being hurt but I tend to feel overwhelmed by crowds and mania.

Hello Carol ....

There is obviously some physical limit as to the maximum number of visitors that can fit in the Vatican Museum, or any tourist attraction, at any particular time.

My cynical opinion is that this is more of a ploy by the cruise ship to get their guests to book and commit earlier so that the cruise line can determine how many buses it needs to order.

Note that the cruise line does not say "there are a maximum of X Vatican Museum tickets available and once they are sold out, you will no longer be able to buy a ticket". IMO, the cruise line just wants to know 75 days beforehand if they need to reserve Vatican Museum buses for 30 people or 3,000 people and how best to work with the Vatican Museum to herd that mass.

Has any cruise guest ever been denied a ticket to the Vatican Museum if they tried to book VM tickets 76 days before the embarkation date?

With my admittedly limited experience with cruises, it is more likely that the cruise line would offer last minute money bonuses for shore excursions to sell their remaining empty rooms on the ship. A last minute booker might find they could get a Vatican Museum visit for "free" as part of their cruise.

Furthermore, when we did an NCL Western Mediterranean cruise, we found that we could find many alternative third party shore excursions at a lower price and smaller group size than those offered by the cruise line.

I know that some cities are starting to limit the number of cruise visitors. However, I have my doubts that that was the purpose of this particular email.

I was fortunate to visit the Vatican over 30 years ago. It was very crowded then. I can only imagine how bad it is now.

I tend to think this is basically a marketing ploy by NCL to get you to commit to their excursions months ahead of time. If NCL could really only get x number of tickets they may sell out of them more than 75 days ahead. They will still need the same number of buses- they will just go to other places than central Rome on other tours.

I know you personally need to go with NCL, but do wonder what another passenger would find for sale in terms of private tours on the day at Civi shuttle bus station. Or indeed whether someone who was able to take the train to Rome would be able to secure Vatican tickets privately well within that 75 day window. Anyone travelling by train the Vatican would have no idea whether you were a cruise ship passenger or had flown in that morning., or arrived overland.

Against the overall number of tourists in Rome or the Vatican per day the cruise ship passengers are a pinprick. If Civi port was suddenly closed tomorrow it would have almost no effect on Rome or the Vatican.

The more I read about conditions at the Vatican these days the less it is on my bucket list. Somewhere I missed the opportunity to go to in years past.

Sorry bostonphil, but I think you need to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for the crowds and chaos. This may be a case of getting way outside your comfort zone in order to view one of the world's great sights. It will be worth the difficulties.