Biggest Independent excursion mistake I have ever made was in 2000. After departing the ship in Civitavecchia my 3 1st time cruiser friends and I boarded our taxi for an ambitious tour of Rome. We toured for over 8 hours and I finally had to say no more, lets go to the hotel. We had made arrangements to overnight in Rome and catch the ship the following day in Livorno. Went to the Hotel Scalinata (which was wonderful by the way), took a little nap and then went walking. It was All Saints Day and everyone was on the street. Maximized the day and stayed out late catching a few hours sleep before heading to the Vatican the following morning. Did a quick 3 hours there and then ran to the train station for our train to Livorno.
On the express train I was congratulating myself on a very well planned 2 days for friends and then the clouds began to darken. It started ran cats and dogs but no biggie since we were just going to get on the ship and finish up the cruise. Well we got Livorno, hailed a cab, and I said take us to the ship. Which ship he said? There were none! I insisted that it was supposed to be there so we drove to the harbor and he called the harbor master. OMG the ship had gone to Nice instead. So he took us back to the train station (remember it raining buckets and buckets outside) and we purchase tickets to Genova to meet the ship for disembarkation. My friends insisted on purchasing the train tickets (they knew nothing of train classes) and we ended up on a local train. Several hours later we arrived in Genova went to the hotel we had stayed at pre-cruise and through the luck of the Gods they had rooms. Checked in and I sat vigil watching for her to pull in. At 2AM she docked and I proceeded to awaken everyone. Talk about a group of grumpy people. We hailed a cab (at least we had very little luggage) and drove to the ship. The gangway was extended and the fellow there did recognize us and let us on. Once aboard we needed to pack our luggage and get it to the holding area as well as tip our staff.
Everything worked out well and was an adventure. From there we flew to Prague for 4 days ending a perfect Mediterranean holiday. You gotta have those oop's or it just ain't fun!
jeff
