Naples, Italy Port Reviews

4.4

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1923 Naples, Italy Port Reviews

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by SBY

The motorways through Napoli are covered with litter and the area itself seemed very dirty with the homeless tents and trash. There didn't seem to be much to do at the port area. We purchased a "Pompeii on your own" excursion which was truly a disheartening experience. If you take this cruise, you MUST book a guided tour. At the entry to the Pompeii site, there were only 2 women working in the ticket booth, our bus (along with over 20 others I counted) arrived there shortly after they opened and the line for tickets grew rapidly. Our "guide" that was on our bus explained she was on the bus to answer a few questions for us but even though she was a guide, we didn't pay for one so she could not answer any questions about the site we were visiting. When we had been in line almost an hour, another guide that was walking around explained that all guides could go to the front of the line and cut in and buy tickets for their groups ahead of everyone else, which is why the line was not moving. Our "guide" did not explain this, and when she was asked how long we may have to stand in line, she shrugged one shoulder and said, "hard to say - you didn't pay for a guide so you get what you get". We only had a few hours at the stop and after an hour and a half in line (in the rain) we hadn't made it under the covered section yet. I witnessed someone from another group that had made it to the front of the line getting physically shoved in the chest by someone else. I wasn't close enough to hear the argument clearly, but voices were raised and physical assault took place. It was shocking. Quite a while later, when we finally made it to the front of the line, the people standing next to us said something to one of the Italian Tour Guides who started yelling at them, it was truly appalling the language and the volume and the aggression being shown by someone who should be acting as an ambassador to his country and its tourism industry. The man who was being yelled at didn't say anything, but the lady, who was very upset, asked the tour guide twice to stop shouting at them that they had apologized for the misunderstanding, it seemed to only infuriate him more and the tirade he launched into was unprofessional regardless of whatever indiscretion prompted it, his biggest concern seemed to be that he had rights and we as "non guided tourists" did not and we should read the signs, and if we were too stupid to read the signs he would translate for us. About that time someone not with our group walked forward and explained that you could use an app and buy a ticket and bypass the line or go to the right hand side window and pay in cash. It helped to diffuse the situation as those with cash moved to the other side and bought tickets and continued on. It was really unfortunate we didn't know that information an hour or two before. There were signs at the bottom of the windows sort of explaining this, but you couldn't see them as they were only about 5"x7" and not visible until you were right up to the window. At the end of the day when returning to the bus many people complained to our "guide" about the altercations that happened, her response was, we should have purchased a guided tour. The worst was, another gentleman and his wife standing beside me in line only spoke Spanish, very little English. He was one of the ones who asked our "guide" how long the line could take, he eventually found a Spanish speaking guide that allowed him to join her group, unfortunately, he and his wife were the two who did not make it back to the bus that day and we left without them. I have no idea if they made it back to the ship. The NCL excursion description said that tickets needed to be purchased for attractions upon arrival for these "on your own" tours, but no where do they explain that the lines could take multiple hours to get through and you risk not seeing the excursions at all because you had to stand in line to get a ticket. This is information that would likely sway people to take a guided tour where they didn’t have to stand in line if they knew the reality of the situation. I would definitely do it differently next time. In fact after this trip we went to the excursion desk to try and re-book our other excursions so this wouldn't happen again it was such a disturbing experience.

Visited: Sep 10, 2017

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5

by kcstephenson123

Favorite port. Went to Positano, Sorrento and Pompeii. Enjoyed all the stops. Just wish we had more time. Went through RC. Was a small group tour. Guide was great.

1

by dbfuller

Horrible tour. Avoid the Capri, Sorrento, Pompeii tour. Guide was unorganized, told us nothing about any of the places we went. We were supposed to have 2 hours in Pompeii, but had less than one hour.

Visited: May 02, 2019

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