Most recent and (probably last) ship tour

Today was Naples, and our last stop before disembarking in Rome tomorrow. For this port, we'd booked our first ship tour in quite a while. We opted for that because all the private tours our friends were hosting were longer than we wanted. We (at least me, and I do all the booking) wanted Sorrento and Pompeii, but not the Amalfi coast. Celebrity had what they called a Taste of Sorrento with Pompeii - Small group. Since it was what we were looking for, and also had some tasting, I thought it would be a good tour for us. I picture about a dozen of us with personalized attention from a guide, much like all the private tours we do. Because it was before Celebrity changed their policy, we paid in advance (now you can use on board credit).

So, up early since we were supposed to go to the theater at 7:45. At 7:20 we went to Luminae, but they weren't open yet. We then thought we'd get the express breakfast in the dining room, but they weren't open yet either (with tours departing that early you'd think that the restaurant at least, would be open to accommodate them). So up to Cafe al Bacio for coffee and a pastry. At 7:45, we arrived in the theater to collect our (pretty much hated) stickers. The few times I've done ship tours recently it was for things like flights, so not a sticker thing. Oh well, I can suck it up for a day.

They called our tour and told us to go down to deck two. Down we went and off the ship. There was a line of buses there each with a number corresponding to the stickers. This I expected, but what I did not expect was that our small group was in a full size bus, not a van. It was too late for a refund, and I really wanted to see the sights, so I hoped for the best. We got in, as did 22 other people. Turns out their idea of small is 24. Mine is 12, no more than 16. oh well.

We headed out with the guide, Fabio, on a headset explaining what we were seeing. Our first tasting was a Lemocello store. They offered Lemoncello, candy, and olive oil tasting, and we're pretty sure it was simply a kickback store for the guide company. We were there with full bus tour 15 - same tour name, just without the Small group designation.

After a couple of tastes and pictures of the view and 10 minutes (of the allotted 20) we went back to the bus without buying anything. Our next stop was to be a farm to taste mozzarella.

We arrived at the farm and were escorted into a room that looked like a restaurant or a bar with table set up with a plate with 3 kinds of cheeses, bread, bread with a hot spread, and a couple of pieces of salami. Also on the table was white wine and water. About 1/3 of the room was set up for us. After we finished the tasting, we were ready for our tour of the farm, but Fabio was busy talking to other guides. We gathered him up, and watched a cheese making demo, and then got a tour. That was fairly enjoyable. We also did purchase some olive oil in the gift shop, because the sample was great.

From there we headed to Sorrento. The bus stopped in a square, and we thought we'd be on our way, but wait - there was a shop we were hearded into so we could learn about how wood inlay is done, and by the way, they ship free and today only the price quoted would be charged in US dollars, not in Euros.

Once we could escape, we wandered around for a while and grabbed a pizza. We then went back to our meeting point, stopping at a grocery store to get some lemon candy for Glen's work. (We got some for us too - yummy!)

Next stop - Pompeii. The road in was full of campgrounds, hotels, restaurants, etc and looked totally like a tourist trap. We parked in one of the many lots and walked to the plaza in front of the site. Our guide led us to the cameo store, and told us to go in, take the brief tour while he got the tickets. So, we had to learn how they make cameos. We got out as quickly as possible. When Fabio caught up with us, he had some people with VR headphones for us. Those were cool once we were inside. Armed with a bottle of water, we went in.

We visited several sites within the sites, although I would have preferred more time there, and less time at stores. I sent Celebrity an email about that after the cruise. Got an apology and that was about it.

Once we finished there, back in the bus and back to the pier. On the whole, I thought the excursion had been misrepresented, and I remembered why I don't do ship excursions.

At Michael's club later we ran into to Claude and he said that their private tour went to the Lemoncello stop too, so maybe it's standard.

Dinner, and then packing. It was a great trip and we will be back on Celebrity again.