Day 2

Sitting on a balcony with Alex, overlooking the Adriatic Sea while writing about being in Venice and Ravenna, heading to Dubrovnik, Croatia. Not a bad way to spend an evening.

As you can tell, we successfully made it to the airport and embarkation in Venice. We left Connecticut after my grandmother's funeral service (she had passed away earlier in June) and drove to JFK where we very painlessly made it through baggage checking and security. We grabbed a quick bite to eat (quick is certainly the wrong word to use... God help any of the tables our server had if they were in a rush to catch a flight) We arrived at our gate about an hour and a half before our scheduled flight time, which ended up being far earlier than we needed after our flight was delayed about an hour due to who knows what. We boarded the plane only to sit for another 20 minutes or so as they filled the plane with gas and water, though I have no complaints whatsoever about waiting for 20 minutes so we don't run out of fuel over the Atlantic. I've never tried it, but my guess is AAA isn't quite that advanced yet.

We arrived in Venice around noon after being shuttled from the airport to the port. When we got to the port, a young staff member explained to the bus the procedure for checking in and luggage claim, then hopped off the bus (which was parked with no driver). But she never told us when any of this was to happen or if we could get off the bus. So I got to have fun and talk with her in Italian, asking if it were O.K. for us to get off. She said yes and I relayed the message in English for the bus. Why yes, yes I did feel special. :-P Everyone needed to check in with cruise staff at the port and when we did so, we were slightly confused. Not by the process or lack of helpfulness by the cruise staff, which was fantastic, but by the question of “Room 7093... you have four people?” “Um... I sure hope not.” Apparently the room we are currently in had been booked by a couple who later cancelled, but the systems were never updated. So the good news is we do not have roommates.

Before heading out, we had a quick lunch at the buffet which is absolutely fantastic. We spent the majority of the afternoon trying to get lost in the side streets of Venice (no, we did not take a Gondola ride, waaay too much money.) After we were sufficiently exhausted, we decided to head back to the ship to explore it a little bit. Again, we're on the Pacific Princess if anyone wants to look it up and see images or a virtual tour. We left our stateroom for dinner at 8:15 and met our table-mates (who will be the same throughout the week) and of course had more great food. Appetizers, soups, salads, entrees and desserts, all at no extra cost. We were recently warned that people gain 1-2 lbs. per day on a cruise. With the quality and quantity it wouldn't surprise me.

This morning, we had room service bring a continental breakfast, all of which but the fruit was very good. It's quite convenient though, you decide what you want the night before, hang the list on your door and it arrives at the time you specified the next morning. We left around noon to take a bus to downtown Ravenna, which was fun- but not necessarily somewhere I would put on my top Italian locations list. The history however, is unarguably impressive. After the Roman empire started to deteriorate, the capital was judged too far from the font battle lines of the war with Gothic tribes, so the imperial capital was moved from Rome to Milano, then Ravenna. In 535, Italy was invade by Emperor Justinian and in 540 he established the Byzantine capital of Italy in Ravenna. Plus, I got to have real Pizza, so no complaints from me.

This afternoon we explored the ship a bit more and I, with little to no excitement or desire, entered a spa raffle with Alex, whose drawing was to be held at 5:30. We killed another hour or so, looking around the ship and checking out future cruises Princess was trying to sell. 5:30 rolls around and we head the spa to watch the raffle. About 10 minutes after they explain the different treatments and massages, the first ticked is pulled, a $250 gift card to the spa. Guess what Alex and I are going to be doing one of these days? Yup, that's right. Spending the $250 gift card I won. :-D

We're heading down soon-ish for dinner, then to the show Bonsoir Paris, which should be fun to see. I've been amazed, each time the ship has started moving, I need to look out a window to figure out if we've set sail yet. The water, at least so far *knocking on wood* has been glass. Tomorrow we arrive in Croatia, I believe around 7 or 8am. Maybe we won't be so completely exhausted and sleep through the club room breakfast... but we have fantastic room service to fall back on.