Naples — Where the Ship Drops You Off at the Front Door

When you dock in Naples, you don’t have to worry about how to take a train or taxi into town to see the sights. A tourist information desk near where you disembark can give you a map, answer your questions, and send you walking on your way to explore this gritty city.

Here in Naples, the ship docks right in the town center. As in every port we visited, there’s a non-cruise-sponsored, tourist-information desk there staffed only when the cruise ships arrive. While the cruise companies are a bit conflicted about providing information to enable independent travelers to do their own thing smartly, these city tour desks are generally enthusiastic about providing practical info to help independent travelers figure out what to do and where to go. With the help of a city map and a felt pen for taking notes, you can walk into a city within minutes of disembarking.

Some friends that I made on board were new travelers. They walked 100 yards off the ship, went through the cruise-shop terminal, and peered into the urban jungle of Naples. They decided it was too much, turned around, and spent the day on the ship enjoying the pool. They even had a poolside pizza in honor of the city they were missing. Had they kept on walking for fifteen minutes, they would have found themselves in a classic Neapolitan world like this…without a hint of tourism.

Naples is a delight, even without the traditional sightseeing. Skipping Pompeii, Capri, and Naples’ great museums, I spent most of my day simply wandering the streets of perhaps the most gritty and colorful city in Europe. As I found on several occasions, within minutes of disembarking, I was immersed in the wonders of this port town — without a hint of the mass cruise industry. The main downside to cruising: Limited time in each port. Still, you can accomplish a lot in eight hours.
Comments

8 Replies to “Naples — Where the Ship Drops You Off at the Front Door”

  1. The ceo’s of several major cruise lines were interviewed in the Monday, 26 Sept. 2011 edition of the USA Today newspaper. They felt the biggest advantage to cruising was: a bundled expense (value) covering virtually everything on board except special restaurants. In addition, they mentioned having a base – including your own room/bed, meals etc. I suspect cruise lines could draw customers from Rick Steves-type bus tours, but I don’t think RS will draw customers from cruise lines. Each has different needs. RS ETBD is no longer really thru the back door but it’s still roughing it by cruise line passenger standards. A comparable trip to RS on a ship would probably be a freighter.

  2. I agree. I don’t think the people who take cruises are really RS type travelers. I can see them possibly using a RS guidebook that covers a city in 8 hrs but beyond that I think Rick may be searching for new business that won’t be there.

  3. Close my eyes as tight as I can and I still can’t imagine Rick Steves on a cruise ship. I can understand why he splits from the ship and the crowd at each port! I wish he would have tried a European river cruise on a ship with only 100+ passengers rather than a cruise ship with thousands. I’ve done both and there’s a huge difference. Maybe he’ll do that next – I’d love his opinion.

  4. A business person can imagine RS on a cruise ship for the following reasons: it affords him the opportunity to contrast his style of travel with that of typical cruise ship passengers; it promotes the sale of his guide books/aps; it gives him personally a chance to decompress and
    it’s deductible. :-)

  5. Deductible? I am sure from RS past posts that he is not one of THOSE wealthy elites who take advantage of tax loopholes. Why that wouldn’t be fair.

  6. Glad to hear this input on Naples, we were just there and we really missed out a lot from intimidation. We went to Pompai in the morning and then intended to spend the afternoon in Naples, and it just seemed so confusing. We spent about an hour walking around and didn’t really know what to do and where to go, and we are veteran RS travelers. We were just intimidated by the “gritty” people hanging on the street and the garbage that was piled all over. So if we find ourselves down in that part of Italy again, I will buy the “cruise book”, and do some homework first. I agree that the cruise is a short time at each port, but it is a good easy way to vacation if you don’t have the time and passion to plan a trip from the ground up. I have done it both ways, and whether you see the Vatican from a cruise ship or on your own it is the same Vatican. And this is a viable way for many people to see the world.

  7. My wife and I are just three weeks away from our first trip to Europe. And yes, we are doing it on a Celebrity cruise. In planning for our shore times, we have purchased RS’s Italy book, the Barcelona book (our embarkation/debarkation port), and recently the newly published “Cruising Med ports” book. I think it is great that Rick is trying cruising.

    Honestly, I don’t think we could eat two meals a day on land in most of Europe for what we are paying per day for our cruise. And thanks to RS books, we have most of our port days well planned out – including Naples!

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