Wednesday: July 2
Venice, Welcome To Our Cruise Ship
The adventure is beginning for real. We are now on the boat, although we can’t get into our rooms for another two hours.
Amy had trouble sleeping last night, but I slept fine, although I had to take the comforter off around 6am. My stomach has been squirrelly all morning.
I had a moment of panic this morning, when Amy mentioned her passport. We need them to check in, and I wasn’t sure if it was in my carry-on bag (that I brought with me) or my big “checked” bag that they took away last night. Fortunately, it was in my carry-on bag. I’m guessing that if I had put it in my big bag, it could have been straightened out, but would have been a lot more hassle, and it would have taken a lot longer.
I sort of/almost screwed up the timing this morning. I thought that we were supposed to be down and ready to leave at 10:30, and that they were asking us to be down at 10:15 to avoid being late. So I was planning to head down around 10 or slightly later. Amy was more paranoid about the time, so we went down at 10. I figured that I could leave my carry on with Amy and wander around the hotel for 10 minutes or so.
We checked out of the hotel, and I went to find a seat. But before I could sit down, the Viking person said that we were leaving. I don’t know if this was coincidence, or whether our checking out of the hotel triggered things. I think we left the lobby around 10:05, and the boat left around 10:15. If I had come down at 10:15 thinking we were leaving the lobby at 10:30, I’m not sure what would have happened.
We took a larger boat (similar to the one from the airport) to the port area just south of Venice. This is the industrial port area. We got off the boat and got led on a short tour of the port area before getting to the embarkation hall. There, we waiting a few minutes for the line to die down, then we went to an area that reminded me of the departure desks for an airport. We showed them our passports and boarding pass, and they gave us our room cards.
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Then we had to go through something almost identical to airport security, and then we could board the ship. We first were directed to our muster station, where we got a 30 second demo of how to put on our life jackets. Then we went up to (one of the) restaurants, where we got an early lunch.
Unfortunately, with a squirrelly stomach, and having eaten breakfast not too long ago, I’m not really hungry. While Amy is eating, I’m typing this up.
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After lunch, we found some lounge chairs, in the shade, next to the main pool. We just lounged there for maybe an hour. Then we heard an announcement that we could go to our rooms (a bit earlier than predicted). Amy stayed there, and I went to the room and started unpacking. I think the room might be a bit larger than our room on the river boat, but the storage space was the same or perhaps a bit smaller.
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We got all of our stuff unpacked and put in drawers or hung up. We watched the welcome/safety video. It was then 3:00, and there was a ship’s tour starting at 3, so we hurried down to catch it. This is our first ocean cruise, and not surprisingly, there are a lot more things on this ship than we had on the river cruises. There are 3 main restaurants, and about 4 or so smaller cafes/grilles. (Actually, there are 4 restaurants, one of them buffet style, and a few smaller places.) There is the spa and fitness center, a hair salon, several stores, and lots of other things.
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After the tour, we made two more dinner reservations. There are two “specialty” restaurants that require reservations. We could make one reservation before sailing in each, so we made one more in each now that we were on board.
Earlier, we had thought about going into Venice today, but it would a 30-45 minute boat ride (with I don’t know what schedule). It might make sense if we wanted to go in and have dinner there, but there wouldn’t be enough time to go in, come back, and have dinner on board.
I went down to the atrium, got a latte, and I’m updating this blog. Dinner starts in 30 minutes, although we might wait 60-90 minutes before we go to dinner. I think this evening is going to be a fairly mellow “welcome to the ship” evening.
Tomorrow is our first excursions. Just to be different, Amy and I are doing different excursions.
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One thing that I didn’t realize before this trip is that we’re sailing on a brand-smacking new ship. How new you ask? It was apparently accepted by Viking on June 27th! It sailed down to the Mediterranean, and we are literally the maiden cruise. (Hopefully it won’t follow in the footsteps of Titanic and what it did on its maiden voyage.) Tonight, we will literally be the first people to have ever slept in this bed.
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We listened to a mini concert (pianist and cellist) doing Scandinavian music, then we went over for dinner at The Restaurant. We had a good meal and chatted with the couple in the table next to ours. Then we went down to catch a lecture about the history of Venice. The lecturer (the ship’s historian) was enthusiastic and animated, but Amy and I had trouble staying awake. It is now 9:30, and we will be hitting the sack very soon. Tomorrow morning is the Venice excursions, and at 3pm, we set sail.
My stomach has been squirrelly all day. I hope they leave sometime tonight, I’m getting very tired of squirrels.
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