Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Water taxi to ship

We were having a great day- early walk for me, breakfast, Frari Church, Vaparetto cruise, lunch outdoors where it should always be in a perfect world, a great afternoon of live Opera and now we had walked back to our wonderful hotel.

Minette on the front desk called our Water Taxi. I thought I would have time for a beer before it came but she said the taxi would be here in 5 minutes. Not enough time to have a relaxing beer alas. The hotel manager came to see us off and asked if I wanted a couple of free beers to drink on the taxi : a very nice gesture which I declined as my hands would be busy with the camera and camcorder.

All of the staff on duty came to shake hands and say arrivaderci-another nice gesture.

The taxi came and our luggage was loaded in, followed by two excited travelers.

The hotel manager is waving to us from the dock as this video begins....


The driver stopped to pick up a friend on the way. He had an issue with getting the boat into gear soon after and we sat still in the water for two minutes or so while they debated the problem. Soon we were underway again. The taxi cost 100 E and took about 25 minutes including the delay.

Once ashore and in the terminal we had a security check by the Italian dock security team. There was no Princess staff there so we had to walk our luggage 300 yards to the ship.


We showed our boarding passes to the Princess security officer at the foot of the gangway and carried our luggage up into the ship where more security officers were waiting.

We had booked cabin 6088 but the security officer, reading his passenger manifest, told the cabin stewards to take our bags to 6033. I told him-no 6088. He instructed the stewards-6033. I said you can take them to 6033 if you want but they need to end up in 6088! He stood firm. One of the stewards had already taken two bags to 6033 in the meantime.

He ended up taking us upstairs to Passenger Services to check our room number, even though it was written on our luggage tags by Princess. There he was told 6088 and instructed both stewards via walkie talkie to take the bags to 6088. What a waste of our time! What a poor welcome. No apology was offered, nor did I push for one.

We were on board the ship and now in our rooms and that's all that mattered.


Living room seen from the entrance hallway





Big screen TV tuned to the navigation channel


Bedroom with lots of closets and an extra TV






We began our usual routine where Carol unpacks and I go for a walk (and a beer)

We had made a reservation for our welcome aboard meal (complimentary to Suite passengers otherwise $25 each) at the Sterling Grill which is the ship's steakhouse and one of two specialty pay-restaurants on board, the other being Sabatini's Italian Restaurant which was closed this evening while we sat at the dock in Venice overnight. Carol would meet me in the Sterling at 9.30 so in the meantime I went to the Tahitian Lounge at the top of the ship, overlooking the bow, for my inaugural beer which is my usual way to commemorate the start of my cruise.

To get to the lounge I took the elevator from our floor and when it arrived there were two Australian couples in it, dressed-up and all holding happy drinks. They were are fun bunch (as all Aussies seem to be on holiday) and they told me they had already been on the ship for two weeks-doing one cruise after another (called a Back to Back or B2B for short). They immediately put me in holiday mood after the aggravation of getting our room.

In the Tahitian Lounge they had 4 tables at the back of the room for the smokers so I set up camp there and was soon joined by a tall Kiwi (New Zealander) called Scotty who was traveling alone for a month's vacation, including some time in Greece when he got off the ship in Rome. He would rejoin the ship a week later when it docked in Athens again. A married couple from Manchester soon joined us. They had 300 days of sailing on Prncess ships under their belts.

Here's the video that covers our first dinner on the ship and brings us to the end of our second day in Venice....


Sunday, December 28, 2014

Venice Opera

Between taking the photos on our Vaparetto cruise I was also running the video camera, switching back and forth trying to capture as much as I could as I was seeing some of the canal that was new to me.

Here's the video I was shooting....


Once back in the hotel we had to change into our opera clothes and pack everything else. The hotel had given us a small room to store our luggage in while we were at the Opera. We were lucky this room wasn't booked that day. It had no view, a very small bathroom and a single bed but it was ideal for our needs and a very generous gesture on the part of the hotel.

We left for the Opera with two hours to spare before curtain as we needed to eat lunch. We passed back through the square I had discovered the day before and the two restaurants there were serving lunch and savory smells filled the air. We thought that it might be better to stop and eat here rather than by the Opera House which would surely be much busier.



We decided to eat at the one which was the least busy- called Aquapazza (umbrellas at left) and were quickly greeted by a waiter who gave us menus and took our drink orders. Just like dinner at Da Raffaele I was prepared for disinterested or even rude waiters (based on some TripAdvisor comments) but they were not to be found and we settled in for a nice alfresco lunch, parts of which will appear in the following video.

No wine for me at lunch as I dread falling asleep at the Opera but a cold Italian beer was certainly refreshing.


First dish was "on the house"- wonderful fresh bruschetta with some deep-fried cheese



My main course was steak and fried potatoes-very simple and very tasty indeed. Carol had a lemon risotto which got her seal of approval.

Suitably fortified we paid our bill and took the 5 minute walk to the Opera House. In that 5 minutes the sky darkened. We had 30 minutes before we had to be in our seats and I chose to have one last espresso before going in. I sat at an empty table at one of the cafes next to the Opera and ordered.

At the precise moment the coffee landed on the table it began to rain. Waiters scurried to clear tables and tilt the chairs as people standing in the square fled the rain to enter the Opera House. I quickly paid for my coffee and drank it in one gulp and followed the herd.

We had taken a big umbrella from the hotel so avoided getting wet and sitting in damp clothes for 3 hours. We joined the wedge of people heading up the marble stairs to the box level. We had bought the tickets on line some months before and had a box with a great view of the stage. The box had 4 chairs and ours were the two at the front (hooray!). An Italian couple in their late 50's sat behind us.

The Opera wasn't a favorite of mine by any means- Il Trovatore by Guiseppe Verdi but it was really well-sung and staged and the orchestra was excellent and kicked up a fine energetic sound.


The view from our seats before the Opera began.

The only thing that wasn't great about the Opera was the chit-chat between the couple behind us as the music was playing. This is not the right thing to do at the Opera. We paid to hear the singers and musicians and to be transported out of Venice for 3 hours by the drama taking place on the stage.
At one point I had had enough and my patience was worn to threads so I turned round in my seat to face the couple to tell them to be quiet, in Italian, so they would get the message. They shut up after saying something to me in Italian that was so fast I could only make out the word "wife".

Luckily the intermission between acts came along and I was able to go outside where it had stopped raining and the sun had come out. I joined the smokers and drinkers out there for 20 minutes and shot some video as I had had my cameras with me all the while. In the USA I would have had to hand them into the coat-check lest I try to record the performance.

Carol stayed behind in our seats and when I returned found she had been talking to the Italian lady while I was gone-talking in Spanish which was the only language they could share in common.

The good news was that the second half of the Opera was enjoyed in peace and at the end there was an exchange of handshakes and smiles with our box neighbors. All's well that ends well.




Carol really enjoyed her afternoon at the Opera.

Up until this time I had been able to put the upcoming cruise to the back of my mind as I was living in the moment of simply discovering Venice but the next thing on our list of must-do activities was to (a) walk back to the Hotel and once there (b) get a Water Taxi to the ship and leave our hotel behind.

Here's the video from our lunch and the Opera House.....



Saturday, December 27, 2014

Grand Canal

Vaparetto tour continued...

Rick Steves has an audio guide based on a trip he took on the Vaparetto. The commentary is timed to the actual Vaparetto time between stops so he can actually tell you what you are seeing which is something I can't do.





This is the Venice Casino which was interesting to us as it was  once the Palazzo Vendramin where Richard Wagner rented rooms to compose his opera Tristan und Isolde. He died here in 1883.





A street market selling fruits and vegetables






Hotel Al Ponte Antico which is close to Rialto Bridge and where Rick Steves stays in Venice.











Our journey had come to it's end and now we had to change into our Opera clothes and find somewhere to eat lunch before the show....

Friday, December 26, 2014

Grand Canal Vaparetto trip

We had hours before we needed to lunch and go to the Opera, dressed in our Opera clothes which we could also use on the Formal Nights on the ship, where passengers dress (or not) for dinner.

We had a Vaparetto pass so we could use the water bus  as much as we wanted so our plan was to ride one up to Piazzale Roma where the dry land begins and then back down to our hotel to get dressed for our Opera afternoon.

These photos and the video that will follow will give you an idea of the boat traffic on a sunny Saturday.


A Water Taxi



A trash barge




This is the Venice train station above


After the train station (Ferovia stop) comes the Bus Station at Piazzale Roma where we leave the Vaparetto to sit for a while. We stayed down at the canal level rather than go up the short flight of steps to the square where all the buses pull in to unload their passengers from the airport.



There's a dramatic footbridge spanning the canal here



Soon it was time to take a Vaparetto back down the way we had come....






Alilaguna is the water bus that does the Airport runs and makes fewer stops on the Grand Canal

To be continued.......