This might be one of those short posts that I promised would be forthcoming this season, simply because we took the day off. Yes, that’s right. On the 34th day of our season, we made a port day into a sea day and spent it much like we might a leisurely day at home (which we actually do have, but only occasionally). I have long suspected that Ravenna might turn out that way for us.
We had another grey start to the day, coupled with some seriously chilly temps. Cold, in fact. The Pacific Princess is so small that having a hatch opened all day on Deck 3 Forward for the gangway sent an blast of frigid temps down our Deck 4 corridor and up the forward elevators and stairs. We wore our fleeces to breakfast in the Panorama Buffet and could have used our jackets on top of them; every time the doors to the Panorama Terrace were opened, the cold air flowed in from that direction, too.
G bravely said he’d leave the ship to see if there were any taxis selling tours on the pier, but I already knew the answer to that. The fact is that the Pacific Princess was docked in the Port of Ravenna, not Ravenna itself. We had already been warned that there would be no taxis, and our only option to get into the town would be to book a ship’s excursion or pay $26pp round trip for a Princess shuttle. And what is Ravenna’s claim to tourism fame? Several churches with exquisite Roman mosaics. Even Rick Steves can find nothing else to recommend the city to visitors to Italy.
I’m sure the churches are beautiful and the mosaics spectacular, but we just weren’t feeling it today. Instead, after G returned to the ship, we moved back to our cabin (fortunately already made up by cabin steward Prem. Go Prem!), turned the heat up to BAKE, found college football on ESPN and a 2G cellular data signal from land and spent the rest of the morning like slugs. The first game was definitely a replay (Maryland v Ohio State) and we already knew the outcome of that one because, while we may be on another continent, we haven’t been living under a rock. (McGuy had texted me about that one last Saturday; what a game!!) And then we watched Oklahoma State v West Virginia (sorry about that one, Steve), and both of those games were so exciting. Of course, we were watching them on a TV not much bigger than a laptop screen but they were the first football we’ve seen since we left home, and we were thrilled.
We took a break for lunch in the Panorama Buffet, and returned to our cabin for more football (in fact, it’s still on at 8:30pm), but we did get slightly more industrious. We both packed most of our clothes, and kept all the outlets plus the USB charging ports on our lamps busy getting everything charged before we fly to Dubai. Sonicare toothbrush, portable Waterpik, Fitbit, three pairs of ear buds…since we’re not certain which devices can be charged on the 220v we’ll have in Dubai (we know the Waterpik can’t be), we want to have everything at 100% when we leave the ship.
We received texts 48 hours prior to our flight to Dubai that we could complete our online check in, so we did that and added our boarding passes to our Apple Wallets, we inventoried our remaining Euros and counted our Dirhams and generally prepared ourselves for our upcoming travel day. Because tomorrow…we’ll be in Venice!
Captain Slight made an announcement at sail away that we’ll be picking up our pilot at 6:15am, and get to St. Marks Square at 7:15am, at the same time as sunrise. That was actually a relief; the alarm is set for 6am, and I was happy it didn’t need to be any earlier than that. We skipped dinner in the Club Restaurant (we almost never do that) and had a light dinner in the Panorama Buffet and then went to the 6:30pm performance of production show Bravo. We were very excited about this one, having just enjoyed it so much on the Sapphire Princess. Well, on the Pacific Princess it’s actually a mash up of Bravo and another show (I forget which one) with more contemporary songs, and I have to admit it’s not as good as what we saw on the Sapphire…but the Pacific Princess vocalists make up for it. They are Krystal Washington and Darrell Dexter, and what talents they are!
And that is how we happened to be tucked into bed early after the most relaxing day we’ve had since we left home. The few sea days we’ve had have all had commitments (formal nights, formal portraits, Captains Circle parties) and/or rough seas. Today had none of that, there was lots of football and we had cellular internet to boot.
In a case of nearly perfect timing, I received a notification today that my library loan of Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports book was expiring. We’ve been in Venice enough times that we don’t need the guide, and after tomorrow we’ll no longer be here anyway. I will miss the Pacific Princess, of course, as I always do when I leave it, but have my sights set firmly on the next segment of our vacation.
But first, Thanksgiving in Venice, and our fourth Thanksgiving on the Pacific Princess in the past five years (I just realized that). With the huge majority of the passengers being from the US, I suspect it will be more actively celebrated on the ship than it was on the Golden Princess last year in Australia.
Best wishes for a happy and safe Thanksgiving!
Well, that was fairly perfect timing, wasn’t it?