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Rome (Civitavecchia)
Port Rating:  The next morning we toured the Coliseum again on our own. We got there early, right after opening and spent a couple of hours. We noticed the entry line was pretty long on the way out and were glad we got an early start. The Coliseum is like a museum with exhibits and historical information posted all over, so unless it’s what you like to do, there is no need for a tour guide. We spent the rest of the morning exploring the older part of the city before getting a cab from our hotel in Rome to the Port. We may have spent more than we should have on this one way trip, but again it was point to point and the taxi had permits into the Port so it saved us a 15 minute walk with baggage from the gate. The books say 110-140 Euros for this trip and we paid at the higher end of the range.
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Jerusalem (Ashdod)
Port Rating:
We entered the old city at the Jaffa gate and toured the Tower of David complex. A couple of guidebooks from Barnes and Noble that I'd brought along helped us know what was where. We shopped for trinkets, and some ended up spending hundreds on olive wood carvings and having them shipped home. My suggestion to you would be to wait to buy and not get to impulsive early. The shops closest to the main gates may not discount as much and I was told by one merchant close to the gate that he would only take shekels. Interestingly, there was a money changer next door that he recommended. Later, I found that most merchants take dollars and euros as readily. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of shops in the old town, so shop around before spending at the first shop. The better deals seemed to be away from the gates. Just for comparison, I bought several diet cokes in the old city (over two days) and the prices ranged from 3 shekels to 14 shekels (or roughly $1-$3+ dollars each). So prices vary widely. (The sheckel is worth about $.27- $.28 each right now).
My best suggestion on shopping is to prepare to ignore the peddlers. If you make eye contact or do too much window shopping, it become difficult without being rude to break away. One merchant that had a sign that he sold stamps refused to sell me stamps unless I bought something else. I walked away. By the way, you can mail from the ship while you’re in port without buying postage locally.
It did not seem that the churches inside the old city were enforcing the dress code as strictly as we thought they might. There were good sized crowds and many women had bare shoulders and knees and were not stopped. Out of respect, our group did conform to the recommended dress codes. There is a lot to see in the old city and it would probably be easy to get lost.
Our guide service on the second, third and fourth days was “No Limits Tours” by Ahalan Olympus and could not have been better. Our guide was Yahav Zohar and what an energetic, well spoken, educated and informed Israeli guide! This firm used a newer, well equipped, air conditioned 20 passenger bus and charged by the tour, not by the person. So our friend Doug who we met through Cruise Critic was able to get us on the bus and we had a great group. The price was significantly lower than if we’d booked by the person on the cruise and I figure for what we got, my wife and I saved at least $1500 over the price of the cruise sponsored excursion.
I noticed that as we passed by many guides used by larger groups (particularly in Israel, Greece, and Italy) had poor English skills and would have been hard to understand. Also some of these groups were much larger than our 16-18 person contingent. The places we visited are too large to mention here, but the Mt. of Olives, Via Delarosa, Garden of Gethsemane, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Garden Tomb, the Western Wall, Masada, Dead Sea, Nazareth, Galilee, Mt. Carmel were particularly meaningful to us.
Everything regarding the tours went well. We were extremely satisfied with our experience (even the mud and floating in the Dead Sea!).
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