Cruise ship stop , Florence

Do you know the website cruisecritic.com ? It has tons of information about all, or almost all, the cruise ship ports of call. Where to go, what to see and how to do it. Plus the contributors on the forum there offer invaluable answers to questions.

Take a train. About an hour to Florence. Steves' Cruise port guidebook covers getting to and from. You should delete your questions here and repost under Italy in the Question and Answer section. You might get better responses because this section for Trip Reports after your return.

I will share my friend's experience of seeing Florence through a shore excursion. They were put on a bus packed with people, so they were a huge group walking around town. Because some people weren't keeping together, and the overall loading/unloading the bus, etc. her experience of Florence was just walking around for an hour and not being able to stop and see or go inside places that interested them.

You're probably way ahead if you can catch a train and go on your own as long as you plan ahead & know exactly where you want to go.

Some will say the excursions offered through the ship are expensive. And they are somewhat more costly than one can do alone. But, if you are on a ship excursion and there is a delay returning to the ship, the ship will wait. Not so if you are on a private tour. And the traffic, which is the usual reason for the delay, can become impossible for the smallest reason. We've seen people literally left at the dock on a number of occasions. If you do excursions on your own allow plenty of time for unexpected delays. Don't mean to be a downer, just something to think about.

Since you can easily get to and from Florence via frequent trains, that should not be a problem if allow an extra hour or so for the return.

Do you have Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports? If not, get it. It has detailed information on exactly what is involved in sightseeing on your own from each port. You can then decide if you want to do this, want to take a ship's tour, or want to take a private tour. On Cruise Critic there is a section of Roll Calls, where you can meet others on your sailing, and join them on a private tour, thus getting "best of both worlds" - smaller group and more customized experience than the ship's tour, but better price per person than a truly private tour for just you would cost.

The Cruise Critic site has a lot of info, but can be hard to navigate. Here's the Roll Calls page: http://tinyurl.com/ap7h55m

Here's the Italy Ports Forum: http://tinyurl.com/bwqtmhk

And here's the Florence Port Review: http://tinyurl.com/lmnkwoz. Scroll down, and you'll see tabs for Info, Things To Do, and Shore Excursions.

In addition to traffic delays, be aware that trains in Europe are sometimes cancelled. Usually there is a warning ahead of time but just be aware. We have done our own excursions on cruises in the Caribbean and never had a problem but be aware of the possibility of delay. If you do miss your ship, if your next port isn't too far away (Nice, Rome, for example) you could take a train there to catch up to the ship.

Better yet - just avoid cruises if you "really" want to see Europe.

"Better yet - just avoid cruises if you "really" want to see Europe."
Amen

We went to Tuscany on our own in December of last year and were invited to join childhood friends to take a river cruise to celebrate the 50th anniversary of a trip we made together when we were in high school. The difference in experience couldn't be more stark.

It was bad enough when our boat of 180 or so invaded one of the tourist sites. I can't imagine being part of a group of a couple of thousand.

Certainly "properly seeing Europe" while on a cruise ship is an impossibility but everyone knows that. Cruise passengers see what they want to see, what they have paid to see. The cruise itself is the travel experience and a safe, carefree way for some to travel for the very first time to foreign lands where English is not spoken. Scarey stuff for some.

I have been on a couple of cruises and I was taken with the number of passengers with mobility difficulties, etc., people with oxygen tanks in tow, people with service dogs. Most went on the excursions and attended all the entertainment offerings. Without the means and spirit to take a cruise to Europe or elsewhere life could be a bit boring for them and they are very privileged to be able to do so.

Oh, and PS ....... most of them are your fellow Americans.

And there are people who really enjoy the cruise ship experience. Then they get the added bonus of seeing a bit of foreign sights.

I'm voting for a kinder, gentler forum.

I'm voting for a kinder, gentler forum.

Huh? I have had two entirely different experiences in the last year and shared a little of my impressions of them.

I understand there are those who want a more passive experience. My wife and I subscribe more to the Rick Steves philosophy of travel and prefer to be more "close to the ground".

I also think that those who are first time travelers to Europe and first time cruisers understand clearly what to expect. We watched PBS last Sunday and saw several commercials for Viking River cruises. The onshore experiences they presented are nothing like what we actually experienced on our Viking River Cruise.

Just remember it is very inappropriate to take one personal experience and extrapolate it to a hundred percent for everyone. You can easily report your experience and let others draw their conclusions but to suggest your experience is the same for everyone else is pretty arrogant.

We just came off a Viking cruise that was just excellent. Everything was well beyond expectations with excellent guides everyday. Easily do it again and probably well.

Also sea cruises provide a lot of options and, IMO a very economical way to see a lot of Europe with limited time. For us it has worked very well. And what does "properly seeing Europe" mean or imply? We have properly seen, and especially our sons, a lot of Europe from cruise ships. Too many posters based their opinions of cruises on what they read or heard rather than what they have experienced.

"a very economical way to see a lot of Europe with limited time"

Yes, and money too! We took a Baltic Sea cruise a couple of years ago and it allowed us to see countries and cities like Tallinn and St. Petersburg that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to see. It was terrific! OP might well decide to return to Florence after this initial experience of dipping her toe in the water....

Just remember it is very inappropriate to take one personal experience and extrapolate it to a hundred percent for everyone.

I reported my experience. No extrapolation done. I'll leave it to the reader to digest my experience as well as your experience that you shared later in your post.

And what does "properly seeing Europe" mean or imply?

That's a good question, and as your post and other posts indicate, this differs according to the needs of the traveler.

I took my first trip to Europe 50 years ago last August. That's where I fell in love with my wife. Based on our travel philosophy and experience, here are some aspects of "properly seeing Europe" or our own great country for that matter.

• Know something about what you're seeing. The science teacher who took the 8 of us to Europe 50 years ago held monthly meetings from the time we signed up until we left. We were each assigned a segment of the trip and one or two of us had to give a report on what we would see and why we would see it. We were also encouraged to do research on our own. Guides can significantly enhance your experience and we have had some wonderful guides on our trips. Still, we did a lot of research before each of our trips and understood the history and significance of the places we visited.
• Interact with the citizens of the places you visit. While it's a good thing to smile at your waiter, try to get to a little deeper relationship. Our memorable experiences include helping our host at a remote Scottish B&B prepare fresh caught crab salad in his kitchen one evening, staying on a dairy farm and seeing all the newborn calves and getting to know Marco, our breakfast waiter at the Tuscan agriturismo. We got him to help plan our trip to a monastery to attend evening vespers done in Gregorian chant. He shared with us how much he loved Gregorian chant. We brought him back a Christmas present of a CD from the monastery, which brought tears to his eyes when we gave it to him the next morning. We still have the jar of honey he gave us in return.
• Experience local life. Hunt out the places the locals eat that are off the tourist path. We've enjoyed meals where the only English we heard was the waitress helping us read the menu. We've shopped at local markets and grocery stores. It was a small victory when we successfully shopped at a grocery store and no English was exchanged.

Some of the above can be accomplished if you are on a tour or a cruise, but it will take a little ingenuity and the moments will be more fleeting.

Again, this is just my opinion. We've done three types of travel in Europe: on a guided tour, on a river cruise on some do it yourself trips where we planned everything and struck out on our own. For us, the DIY trips were by far the most enjoyable and rewarding.