Today was our last day in Venice - we were scheduled to "shove off" at 1 pm. Currently, however, it's 2:35 pm and we're still in port. The captain reports that it is too windy for the ship to safely leave the harbor. I think it might have something to do with the fact that the water here is very shallow and they have dredged "paths" in to the harbor that are deep enough for the large ships to dock. The wind may be too strong to stay in the deep area easily.
So, until then, I'll post! We have had a pretty slow day, so far. We were up just after 6 am, had a bowl of cereal and a banana, and were ready to hit the gym when it opened at 7 am. As I've said on other trips, you have to be there right when the gym opens, or it becomes very crowded and you have to wait until later in the morning or early evening to get on to the machines. Andrew did the elliptical and I did a 4.5 mile run on the treadmill. Then we did about 40 minutes of weights. We both agreed that it felt good to get back the gym after almost a week off!
After the gym we decided we needed to make a quick run to the Co-op grocery store to get a couple of bottles of wine to have on board. At 9 am it was pouring rain and so windy that, all around, umbrellas were "popping". We bundled up and trudged off. A short ride on the people mover and then the vaporetto and we were standing in front of a lovely selection of 3 Euro bottles of wine (about $4.20) - I love Italy! Choosing two, we moved toward the register. On the way, we happened past the detergent area, and thought we should pick up a bottle of laundry soap there, rather than buy it in the launderette on the ship. Buying something like laundry soap in a non-English speaking country is a challenge. We've noted that items that would be purchased by tourists are often labeled in English, as well as Italian. Not so with the laundry detergent, however. We chose a bottle that had a picture of a towel on it (others had shirts, which we thought a closer match, but were too big for our use) and we'll hope for the best!
We then made our way back to the ship, where we arrived completely dripping wet (yes, we had an umbrella but, as I said, it was too windy to use it most of the time). We congratulated ourselves on deciding to shower AFTER we got back, rather than before!
Once we were showered and dressed, it was almost 11:30 am, and were were ready for lunch! We trotted up to the buffet, and had big salads and Andrew had fish and I had chicken. Yum! From lunch, we wandered the ship a bit. It's fairly similar to the other ships we've been on, however Princess ships are much more "elegant" in their color scheme than the Carnival ships. We then headed back to the cabin with the plan that we would watch the sail-away from our balcony. We're still waiting for that to happen! On the upside, I got in a quick nap!
Oh, gotta run! It's time for the muster drill. We have to get our lifejackets and head up to our "muster station" where we would go if there was an abandon ship order. The drills are mandatory on cruise ships and, they come looking for you if you don't check in at your station. If we ever get out of Venice, we'll have a full day at sea before reaching Naples on Saturday morning. Tonight will just be dinner in the dining room for the first time, maybe followed by some time in the piano bar.
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