Day 36: Venice to Dubai

We were up early today; there is no sleeping in on turnaround days, even one where the Pacific Princess overnighted in Venice. There were no sounds of the ship maneuvering against the pier, but people started disembarking the Pacific Princess particularly early, plus there were the sounds of truck traffic bringing in supplies and food stores (our cabin was pier side, and, for the first time this cruise, I closed our room darkening drapes to shut out the bright lights). 

We were in the Panorama Buffet by 6:30am, and meeting up with our disembarkation group in the Cabaret Lounge by 8:40am. We had opted to take a Princess transfer to the Marco Polo Airport. Venice is one of the few cities in the world where, hauling four months worth of life’s necessities, I would always opt for a Princess transfer. 

We had quite a wait at the airport, but we had minibar sodas and waters to see us through and a few leftover Euros to spend on snacks. We were able to check our suitcases at noon, and that freed us up to go through security. Honestly, I think that every part of the world does this differently. In Venice, the shoes stayed on but the coats came off, and liquids were placed in a bin on the conveyer belt. In French Polynesia, we were looked at as if we were crazy when we put liquids in a bin.

Luckily, we had a much coveted but seldom granted empty seat between us, and that made all the difference in flight comfort. Of course, it helped a great deal that the flight was just under six hours. G napped a little but I did not. I think, for the first time in my life, we had a baby of about 14 months who cried the entire flight. I felt sure she’d fall asleep once we were airborne, but no such luck. Oh well, if I eventually felt like crying too, I can only imagine how her parents coped. She was a darling, all smiles and flirts…as we were disembarking the plane. 

Getting through the Dubai airport was time-consuming…a long walk, a massive elevator to a train, another long walk, a long line for immigration, another long walk to baggage claim (so much time had passed that I feared our luggage would have been removed and sent to lost luggage), and, finally, one more passport control stop. We ordered an Uber to take us to our hotel, and that turned out to be an inexpensive but harious experience; every single Uber car was a black luxury sedan. Thank God for Uber’s license plate information! We memorized the last four numbers and walked up and down the sidewalk looking for “our” car.  Driver Mohammed from Sri Lanka was a dear, loading and unloading the big suitcases and acting as tour guide, too. Frankly, I had been amazed. The airport at 1am was as busy and lively as any airport on a busy afternoon. 

As for our hotel…well, people all around the world have spent less time and effort buying a house than we did in choosing our hotel in Dubai. We looked at but immediately discounted the Burj Al Arab, the sailboat-shaped luxury property that impressed the world when it first opened. Sure, it was ridiculously expensive, but it wasn’t unusually so for a luxury hotel in Dubai. But we were far more interested in being in Downtown Dubai, by the Burj Khalifa (the world’s tallest building), the Dubai Fountain (the world’s tallest fountain complex), and the Dubai Mall (the second largest in the world). Sunset is early at this time of year; we wanted to feel like our day wouldn’t end when it got dark. 

We settled on The Palace Downtown, and, to celebrate our milestone anniversary, went big with a fountain view, Burj Khalifa view room. Well, was it is simply unreal, and we have a front row seat to the LED light show on the Burj Khalifa and have dancing waters so close that, if the wind is blowing, we might get sprayed. 

Of course, arriving at 2am last night, we cared not a bit about any of that. We wanted room to open suitcases, hot showers (massive, with a large rainfall showerhead, and a comfortable bed (also massive, we could go the entire night without so much as touching feet), and our room offered all those, too. By 3am (midnight in Venice) we were asleep.

Day 35: Venice

Happy Thanksgiving!  We had a wonderful holiday in Venice, one that we’ll remember forever. It started early, when the alarm went off at 6am. We dressed very warmly and went up to the Panorama Buffet. It was still dark out, but we could see the pilot boat leaving the ship, so we knew the pilot was on board. We had breakfast and then, when it became a bit light outside, went up to Deck 12 to watch as the Pacific Princess passed Sant Elena. 

Just as Captain Slight had predicted last night, we reached St. Mark’s Square at exactly 7:15am. He had also said sunrise would be about the same time…but it was well hidden behind a heavy layer of clouds. In fact, the air was at that saturation point right on the borderline between a light mist falling and not, and it stayed that way most of the day. Still, even on a grey day, a sail into Venice is a spectacular day. 

The first light of day revealed a soggy Venice

St. Mark’s Square, the Doges Palace and the Bridge of Sighs

The Church of Santa Maria Della Salute

Church of Santa Maria Del Rosario that we visited later in the day

Either moving or remodeling...life in Venice is complicated. A truck on a barge to get things to your house. 

We arrived at the maritime port by 8am, but the ship wasn’t cleared by the local authorities until about 8:20am. And that’s when we walked off, knowing exactly where to go to get to Piazzale Roma. We decided today that the port of Venice one of the most user unfriendly ports in existence. It takes a good 30 minutes to get from a ship to Piazzale Roma if skipping the People Mover, and using that might add or subtract 5 minutes or so, depending on the wait. If port security was moved closer to the Grand Canal, and if the People Mover went right to security, it would save passengers a good deal of time. 

Once at Piazzale Roma, we bought a one day pass for the AGTV public transit (vaporettos, buses and trams…but not the People Mover) for €20 each and immediately took a vaporetto over to Giudecca, an area we’d not ever visited. While we were there, we checked out the Hilton Stucky for a possible future stay. It is a beautiful property. 

Raised platforms for a flooded Venice

A colorful produce display in Giudecca

These little shrines built into walls are found everywhere in Italy 

From there we took a vaporetto across the Giudecca Canal to the Church of Santa Maria Del Rosario. We have passed this church on the ship every time we’ve sailed into or out of Venice and had never been inside. Well, it cost €3 and photos weren’t allowed, but it was absolutely spectacular.  Next we took a vaporetto to St. Mark’s Square. We wanted to hear the noon bells at St. Mark’s Campanile. At about this time, G said my mom had responded to a photo he had texted her, so I knew she was awake an I called her using Vonage (For 1 cent per minute!  Get the app!!) and we had a nice Thanksgiving Day chat. 

Although we hadn’t had to walk through water, water was lapping up over the sidewalks, so that we would stay close to the buildings if the sidewalk was narrow to avoid getting splashed. Still, we were frozen by then, so cold that, when we boarded vaporetto line 1 to follow the Grand Canal back to Piazzale Roma, we actually sat inside where we couldn’t take photos. We returned to the ship and recharged our iPhones and drank warm beverages for 45 minutes or so, and then headed back out again. 

Bridge of Sighs

Fashionable Italian footwear for a flooded Venice

Accademia Bridge over the Grand Canal

Choppy water on the Grand Canal

Gondola parking



Note his traditional hat lying in the gondola 

By the time we returned to the Pacific Princess at 5:15pm, we had walked nearly 28,000 steps and ridden on at least six vaporettos, not bad for two people who really had no formal plan for the day.

G stuck with a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and said the turkey was delicious. I had shrimp and scallops and felt the same way. He had pumpkin pie with maple pecan ice cream for dessert; I had mango sorbet. Following dinner, he went to the Cabaret Lounge to get seats for tonight’s special performance by the Venetian Chamber Orchestra (we had seen them before and loved them) while I went back to the cabin to finalize my packing. I joined him for the concert, and afterward we returned to the cabin where I sat on the bed while he finalized his packing.

Holiday display in the Atrium

The decorated Club Bar

Tomorrow at this time we’ll be in Dubai. After being cold every day for the past week, I am almost entirely certain I will not be cold again until we return home in February. 

Life is good. :-)

I will not be publishing posts each night during our time in Dubai, but will do a bit of catch up when we get to Singapore. I’m not sure if they will be daily posts, or simply a composite of our time there. It’s just a bit of an anniversary break to focus on my husband instead of my blog. ;-)

I will sleep well tonight (I hope)!

Day 42: Venice (second day)

Today was truly the best day, weather-wise, that we've enjoyed in Venice. We are finally having the weather I'd imagined we'd have in early October and vice-versa. I guess it's no coincidence then that today was also our favorite day we've spent here. 

After breakfast in the Club Restaurant and then phoning Room Service to change out some minibar items, G ran over to the small market right at the pier and purchased a case of fuzzy water...er, water with gas, and brought it back on the ship. I am probably set until Fort Lauderdale and this leaves the entire minibar for G to consume. We're both happy with that. We then walked off the ship together and walked the familiar route to Piazzale Roma. We had wanted to walk through Venice to cross all four bridges over the Grand Canal but discovered yesterday that that's not an easy thing to do. In fact, last evening I used the Maps.me app to plan a walking route to the Rialto Bridge (possible) and then from the Rialto Bridge to the Accademia Bridge and that's where I ran into trouble. The walking route had us boarding a vaporetto for a portion of the trip. In other words, you can't get there from here. 

 

The Ferrovia Bridge over the Grand Canal at the train station 

 

 

We had some of the best lighting for photos today

 

This gondolier was great; hat AND striped jersey not covered by a jacket

 

 

Given that, we bought just 75 minute passes for the vaporetto and took the #2 to the Rialto Bridge. There we disembarked and crossed over the Rialto on the outside of the bridge and then back over it on the inside between the many shops. Even today, clearly the off-season with just two small ships in port, the crowds at the Rialto were crazy-making. (In fact, I didn't realize until we'd gotten home that I didn't take a single photo of the Rialto Bridge that day. It was too crowded with people.) It didn't help that the Rialto is under construction but we were not unhappy to quickly board vaporetto #1 up to the Accademia Bridge. The Accademia was much more sane and we enjoyed looking at all the gondolas and cafes around it. We went up and over the bridge and then back again and looked longingly at some of the food being eaten in the sidewalk cafes but we had one more stop to get to before our vaporetto tickets expired. We boarded a #1 vaporetto going back toward Piazzale Roma and rode it just a couple of stops to the Toma station. We knew that, from here, we could visit our next stop and walk back to the ship. 

 

 

 

 

The beautiful- and less crowded- Accademia Bridge

 

 

 

The mossy slime on building doorsteps. I can imagine things get a bit smelly here in summer. 

 

We stopped at an ultra-clean cafe for cappuccinos and to use the bathroom (about the same price as using the public WCs) and then continued to walk northwest through side streets much larger than where we found ourselves yesterday.  Our goal was to reach the Frari Church, also known as Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. Most would rate this church lower than St. Mark's Basilica but I was much more impressed with it. The church is a Franciscan church whose name means Church of the Brothers in English and it features the work of  three great Renaissance masters: Donatello, Giovanni Bellini, and Titian. I lost count of the number of masterpieces and incredibly ornate altars and even G enjoyed our visit. It was beautiful art in the setting for which it was designed, and just the perfect amount of it. It's well worth the. 3€ admission fee, and provided yet another candle-lighting opportunity. 

All of the following photos were taken at the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (which you can tell was my favorite church in Venice) and represent just a small percentage of the works of art found there:

 

 

I think this holy water fount used to be filled but now a simple howl of holy water is provided

 

The Altar of St. Anthony by several artists

 

A monument to the artist Titian erected almost 300 years after he died 

 

 

The Altar of the Presentation by Giuseppe Porta detto il Salviati

 

Yet another candle lighting opportunity (I don't believe I missed many)

 

 

Sacristy (triptych by Giovanni Bellini)

 

 

The Bernardo Chapel (triptych by Bartolomeo Vivarini)

 

Vivarini triptych detail

 

The Assumption by Titian

 

 

 

The Chapel of St. Mark

 

 

 

The choir

 

 

The altar of Madonna of Ca' (meaning house of) Pesaro

 

Tomb of Doge Giovanni Pesaro

H 

Tomb of neoclassical Italian sculptor Antonio Canova

 

 

For the first time this season in Venice, we weren't racing against the clock to get back to the ship. We meandered through the well-marked streets to Piazzale Roma, and stopped into a bed and breakfast and a hotel to check prices and accommodations in case we get the opportunity to cruise from Venice again. We've decided Piazzale Roma is our favorite part of the city to stay in prior to boarding a cruise ship. We also stopped by a wine store to purchase a couple of bottles of Italian wine to take back to the ship. It was about 3:30pm when we reboarded the Pacific Princess and all onboard time wasn't until 4pm. Go us!

 

We were starving but wanted to get cleaned up for the evening first, and by that time the muster drill for those passengers who just boarded the Pacific Princess yesterday was underway. So we went up to the Pacific Lounge to await the PES hors doerves and our final sailaway from Venice. Disappointingly, it was pitch dark when we finally sailed just before 5pm. For those passengers who did the last cruise and this one, they arrived in Venice in the dark yesterday morning and left in the dark (or near dark) both 12 days ago and today. The only pretty sailaway we enjoyed was on October 4. 

It was margaritas and chips and guacamole night in the PES Lounge and we scarfed down both margs and guac...but not so much that we went to dinner full. I chose a garden salad and the seafood pasta and sorbet for dessert and we took some Greek wine (I can't begin to tell you the name, because the label is Greek to me) but it's what I enjoyed last cruise in Rhodes and was a gift. It was a wonderful accompaniment to dinner. 

The Welcome Aboard show at 7:45pm was the first time we've seen our new cruise director, Frank Castiglione, since he boarded yesterday. Frank had been CD for a couple of our Emerald Princess cruises last winter.  Comedian Rikki Jay (another Brit...all of our guest entertainers have been from the U.K.) did a short show and I finally warmed to him enough to think about seeing his longer show in two nights.  Crawling into bed, even one with these crap Pacific Princess mattresses, is simply the best feeling after a long day of walking a bazillion steps. Today was our fourth port day out of eight in a row; tomorrow in Koper, Slovenia is a sort-of sea day with a 2pm departure. Something tells me using the high speed WiFi in the port terminal will be a big part of our day.