Tag Archives: Italy

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 12: Pisa and Florence, Italy

September 18, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 18th – Livorno, Italy

Another early port day, another 6:15am wake up time, and another excellent burrito for breakfast! And again, we met our roll call friends in the lobby to get off the ship by 8am. Today would be the last of the 3 tours I organized with Rome in Limo, and we met our guide Rafaeli (Rafa for short) outside the port area with our oversized 8-person van. I think it was probably the same size as the 12-person vans we used in Athens and Izmir, but there were only 8 seats inside. It had a huge trunk space, so we suggested to Rafa that he should install a bathroom in the back haha

Once in the van, we drove for about 20 minutes to our first stop: Pisa! We arrived by 8:30am, and Rafa said we could have 45 minutes to walk around and take our photos. Since it was still very early, it wasn’t crowded yet, but there were a few other tourists walking around. I really wanted to take the typical photo of holding up the Leaning Tower, but I was surprised to find out that it is really hard to get the right angle for the photo! We kept walking around to different sides of the tower, and after about 30 minutes, I finally figured out a good place to stand to get the right angle for the photo haha

Miracle Square

Rafa went to college in Pisa, so he drove us around the town and pointed out some other sites besides Miracle Square, including the other leaning tower in Pisa at a church (although unfortunately, the angle is wrong to see it’s lean in this photo):

After that, Rafa drove us an hour and a half into Florence. Most of the drive was on the highway, but we had a few moments with a view of the Tuscan countryside. Our first stop in Florence was Piazzale Michelangelo, with an amazing view over all of Florence. Rafa pointed out each of the major buildings, so it was great to get an overview of everything we would be seeing for the rest of the day.

Il Duomo

Ponte Vecchio

Once we were finished taking our photos, we drove down into the city of Florence.

Our next stop was the Church of Santa Croce. Rafa dropped us off right next to the plaza, and we had 20 minutes to walk around the square. It was much more crowded here, with many large tour groups to dodge.

We got back in the van and drove through the city, and suddenly Rafa pulled up right in front of the plaza of Il Duomo! It was noon, and he said to meet him back at that spot at 1:45pm. He recommended a great little restaurant for lunch with pizza and paninis…

We spent the rest of our time walking around the plaza and shopping at the leather market. I found a leather purse that I really liked, and I was able to bargain the price down to half of what the vendor was originally asking, so I was happy with that. I also bought a leather bracelet and a few other things.

Does anyone have any idea what this sign means? haha

We pre-purchased tickets to the Academia to see the David at 2pm. Rafa helped us exchange our vouchers for real tickets, escorted us into the museum, and told us to meet him back at the van in 45 minutes. We wandered through the museum and spent a few minutes admiring the David. I thought it was well worth the price of admission to see the David statue in person. It stands 33ft tall and is truly huge and breathtaking. You are not permitted to take any photos in the museum, but some people were able to subtly sneak a photo of the David (wink, wink!) After seeing the David, we went into the room with hundreds of plaster casts. This room was a pleasant surprise, and I found it very interesting to admire so many sculptures.

We left the museum and met up with Rafa, and he drove us to an area of the straw market. He told us to find the boar at the far side of the market and that legend says rubbing its head will make you return to Florence. He also told us where to find the duplicate David status in the Piazza Vecchio so we could take legal photos. This straw market sold the same purses for the same prices as the other leather market that was closer to Il Duomo, so I was glad I did my shopping earlier when we had more time.

I think this was also when we were supposed to see the Ponte Vecchio, but Rafa only gave us 30 minutes, so there wasn’t enough time to go there. We did drive by it several times during the day and I was able to take several photos from the van, but it would have been nice to take 15 minutes to get to walk through it and see some of the shops (although I have heard they are very overpriced, so it isn’t likely I would have bought anything anyway!)

Our last stop of the day was at a local gelato shop on the other side of the river. They had about 30 flavors to choose from, and they were very inexpensive at 1.50 Euros for 2 large scoops in a cup. It was a delicious way to end the day before our hour-long drive back to Livorno.

We arrived back at the pier around 5pm for the 5:30 all aboard time. We quickly got changed and went straight to dinner.

My all-time favorite appetizer: Escargots!!

Seafood platter

Chateaubriand

Dessert menu

Apple and nuts baked in phyllo pouch

Double Roasted Pineapple

We sailed away 40 minutes late (they had paged 5 names on the overhead to call guest services, so we assumed they must have contacted the ship and the captain waited for them, although we will never know for sure), and when we did, it was very rocky. At 8pm, Noonan came on the overhead speaker to announce that the Latin Nights show had to be cancelled due to the rough seas because it was not safe for the dancers to perform. He rescheduled Latin Nights for tomorrow night, and instead, one of the dancers did a one-man show. He was fantastic!! He is very funny and we noticed he was the lead singer all week. You could tell he was improvising, as it looked like his wardrobe was one of the girl’s skirts from the Motown show, but he had 6 or 7 shows that he sang while dancing all over the theater and interacting with the audience. We all agreed that his performance was likely better than Latin Nights would have been! haha

After the show, we very carefully walked back to the cabin. I think everyone looked a bit drunk while they were walking, but it was probably just because of the ship rocking back and forth… or was it 😉 We decided to spend some time packing so we could enjoy our last night on the ship tomorrow night.

Up next: France!

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 11: Rome, Italy

September 18, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 17th – Rome, Italy

The day had finally arrived! After months of planning and anticipation, I was finally going to Rome!!! This was obviously one of the ports I was most looking forward to when planning this trip. As soon as I knew my cruise would be going to Rome, I knew I wanted to see as much as I could in 1 day since I had never been there before. The problem was, my mom spent 4 days in Rome less than a year ago and she had no desire to repeat everything she just saw. It didn’t take much time for us to realize that we should split up for this port day and each do our own thing. She ended up organizing her own tour with Rome in Limo, geared towards people who have been to Rome before (Jany even let her use the 50 Euro discount for booking multiple tours, even though I was also benefiting from that discount for my tour!)

I booked the Rome Highlights tour and found 7 people from the roll call to join me. Like usual, I woke up at 6:15am, ate breakfast on Lido, and met my group at 7:45am in the lobby. We met our driver Enrico just outside the port area at 8am. Enrico told us a tidbit that made me even happier I booked all these tours with Rome in Limo… he said that he and all the other Rome in Limo drivers arrive at the port 1 hour before our tour is scheduled to start! He had been in the port area since 7am even though we weren’t supposed to meet him until 8am! He said that way, the drivers can discuss any traffic issues they know of, and if someone has problems with their van, they have time to get a new van before the tourists get off the ship.

We drove for 1 hour and 20 minutes from the port area in Civitavecchia into the city of Rome. Our first stop was the Pantheon. Enrico left us right next to it and gave us 20 minutes to explore. I listened to the Rick Steves audio guide as I walked around and took lots of photos. Sadly, it was an overcast day, and the light streaming in from the oculus didn’t create the direct beam of light effect which I have heard sometimes happens. The room seemed brightly lit, and lacked the spiritual effect that I was hoping to experience.

Next, we drove to the Trevi Fountain, and Enrico left us a 5 minute walk away, pointed us in the right direction, and told us to meet him back at the van in 20 minutes. When we arrived, there were a few people there, but it wasn’t very crowded. Of course, we all threw coins over our shoulder in hopes the legend would come true and we could all return to Rome someday!

After we got back in the van, Enrico drove us past a few other famous landmarks. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to walk/sit on the Spanish Steps and that we couldn’t take 5 minutes to hop out of the van to take a decent photo of these iconic Rome sites, but I guess there were just too many other things we had to get to…

The Spanish Steps

The Victor Emmanuel Monument

We got back out of the van when we reached Circus Maximus and the Palatine Hill. Enrico explained a bit of the history, and even showed us a book with pictures of how it likely looked when there was actual a stadium there…

Up next, we drove to the Roman Forum, and we had about 20 minutes to take photos and walk through the museums on Capitol Hill to meet Enrico at the bottom of the stairs.

Incredibly, we had done all of that and it was still before 11am! Our next stop was the Coliseum. Enrico dropped us off and said to meet him at the Arch of Constantine in a few minutes while he parked the car.

Unfortunately, the Arch of Constantine was half covered in scaffolding…

When I was planning this trip, my goal was to pre-purchase tickets to as many attractions as possible. My mission was accomplished with one exception: The Coliseum! For some reason, they never updated their website to sell tickets for any dates in September. I literally checked it multiple times every day, but for whatever reason, they never had tickets available for our date. I had emailed Jany a few times about the problem, and she said she was aware of it, that everyone was having the same problem, and not to worry about it. We told Enrico about it when we first met him at the port that morning, and he was able to purchase our tickets magically so that we had our skip-the-line passes by the time we arrived at the Coliseum later that morning!

After he parked the car, Enrico escorted us directly to the entrance. We literally had no wait at all, but there was a HUGE line waiting to get in (Enrico said they had at least a 2 hour wait! The skip-the-line passes were well worth the minimal extra charge!!) Enrico said to meet him at the van in 30 minutes, so I listened to the Rick Steves audio guide as I quickly walked around the first and second levels and took tons of photos. It was a bit rushed, but in the end, I don’t think I missed anything by not staying longer.

For our last stop before lunch, Enrico drove us to the top of a hill with several embassies. He told us to look through the keyhole in the doors of one of the buildings, and we had a perfect view of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica! Sadly, the Basilica isn’t visible in my photos, but you can just imagine how cool it was to see it through that little key hole!

Enrico gave us two options for lunch. We could get some take away food in a market or go to a sit down restaurant. Enrico said we had the time to sit down, so we chose the restaurant option. We went to a place called L’Insalata Ricca.

They offered very reasonable prices and a huge menu with many options for appetizers, salads, pizzas, pastas, and entrees. They also allowed us to do separate checks.

I ordered the brushetta with garlic and olive oil:

They brought out each dish from the kitchen as it was ready, but mine was last to arrive and came 15 minutes after the last person before me, so everyone was almost done eating by the time my dish arrived. The waiter said it was because we did separate checks, but that did not make sense and I think they probably just forgot about my dish.

I ate very quickly, and we paid and left to drive to the Vatican. We arrived at the back entrance to the Vatican at 2pm to meet our guide Marco. He has not given many Vatican tours before, but he was a great guide. He warned us that we would have to walk/run fast to see everything in just 2 hours. We had pre-purchased tickets online, so we went through the metal detectors and exchanged our vouchers for real tickets.

Marco took us through several rooms and halls, and stopped along the way to explain the history and art. It was very crowded inside, but Marco moved fast and dodged between people so we had to rush to keep up with him! It was worth it though because we got to see a lot.

I was amazed by the ceilings throughout the Vatican… I think I gave myself a neck ache by the end of the day because I spent so much time looking up!!

Marco explained each of the paintings inside the Sistine Chapel before we entered because you cannot talk inside. Unfortunately, no photos are allowed but it was incredible to view in person, especially considering Michelangelo had no prior experience painting before he did this project!

Once we left the Sistine Chapel, we made our way back outside and ended up in St. Peter’s Square.

Marco lead us into St. Peter’s Basilica. I was not prepared for how grand it is inside this building! The ceilings go so high and looking down the hall, it looks so majestic.

Marco showed us the tomb of Pope John the XXIII. I was very weirded out by it because his body is so well preserved despite him passing 50 years ago.

Marco then lead us out to the exit at 4pm, which was timed perfectly to see the changing of the guards!

Here are a few photos from standing in St. Peter’s Square…

We met Enrico with the van on a side street right next to the Square. Our last stop was a bit of a surprise, as it was not scheduled on our original itinerary! Enrico took us to see Piazza Navona and to get some gelato. Marco gave us 20 minutes to see the square, take photos of the fountain featured in the drowning scene from Angels and Demons, and to buy gelato. It was delicious and the perfect way to end a fabulous day in Rome!

On the 1 hour drive back to the port, I read some of the information in the Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports book to try to take in all that I had seen and learned all day. It is a jam-packed itinerary, but it was fabulous and well worth the extra expense over doing it yourself on public transit. We really saw all of Rome in 1 day!

We got back to the ship at 6pm and said goodbye to Enrico before boarding the ship to get ready for dinner.

My mom got back from her tour at 6:30pm, and neither of us was hungry at all, so she called Irena in the MDR. Irena said it would be okay if we came to the late seating in the MDR. She sat us with our usual wait staff because one of the tables was empty as they ate at the Italian specialty restaurant. It was kind of funny to have a table for 8 all to ourselves, but we were grateful that she accommodated us and we could avoid eating from the buffet.

Mediterranean Seafood Chowder

Hawaiian Fruit Plate

Duck a l’orange

Dessert menu

Pistachio and Almond Clafoutis

We finished dinner at 9:30pm and we were completely exhausted! We were very happy we didn’t have the late seating for dinner every night haha We went back to the cabin and were asleep by 11pm.

Up Next: “Under the Tuscan Sun” in Pisa and Florence!

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 10: Naples, Italy

September 17, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 16th – Amalfi Coast (Naples, Sorrento, Positano, Pompeii), Italy

Another port day, another 6:15am wake up time, and another excellent burrito for breakfast! Yummmmy! I wish I could have one right now haha The port area offered beautiful views of the sunrise over Mt. Vesuvius:

Today was the first of 3 days when I organized private tours with people from our roll call. For all 3 Italy ports, we used a company called Rome In Limo. They received excellent reviews on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor, and it was a breeze to organize tours with their company. They have a great website which outlines the many different itineraries that they offer, and they answered all of my questions within a few hours via email (sometimes I could swear that Jany, the lady who I coordinated with, never slept because she replied at literally every hour of the day!) As a special perk for booking 3 tours with their company, Jany gave us a 50 Euro discount on each of the tours. They charged 600 Euros for the 8-person van (but we only had to pay 550 Euros with our discount), and they even offer a tour sharing website to help you fill your vans if you are not able to do so via your roll call. They might charge a little more money than some other companies, but they were fabulous to deal with, and all of our tours were great, so I thought it was worth the extra expense.

Ok, back to Naples… Our group met down in the lobby at 7:45am so we could all walk off the ship together, but we were surprised to see that today, we exited from deck 3 instead of deck 0, so we actually exited right next to where we were meeting anyway! We met our guide, Diego, right outside the port terminal. Diego was very enthusiastic and spoke near-perfect English, although sometimes we thought he offered a bit too much information and wouldn’t stop talking! haha

We all got in our 8-person van and drove 20 minutes to Pompeii. As we were approaching Pompeii, we noticed some dark clouds in the distance. Diego promised us that it would not rain today, and told us to leave our umbrellas in the van. He said that the tour would be free if it did rain. I’m sure you can guess how that turned out… it rained for about 20 minutes, but sadly, the tour was not free haha

As I have already mentioned, we requested to have a private guide in Pompeii for an extra 100 Euros total (which we paid her directly at the end of our tour). Our guide’s name was Libby and she spent 2 hours walking us through Pompeii. Libby was fantastic and worth every penny as she really made the ruins come to life.

Pompeii was empty at first, as we arrived right when it opened at 8:30am. Even though it did grow more crowded as the morning went on, Libby knew where to go to avoid the crowds.

One of the highlights of the day was visiting the brothel. It was incredible to see how well preserved it was! This engraving in the street paving stones pointed the direction towards the brothel:

This projection outside the building was how they knew which door to enter for the brothel:

The beds inside the brothel didn’t look very comfy… guess the ladies didn’t want the men to stay too long!

These frescos were featured above the doors of each room. I was shocked at how graphic they were!

Men would etch ratings for each girl on the walls of her room to tell other men if she was good or not (and if she had any diseases!)

I knew people had said it was interesting to see the brothel, but really had no idea what to expect. Libby’s commentary to point out all of the details inside really made it come alive and it was an experience I will remember for years to come.

We also visited the bath houses, gymnasium, several homes and stores/restaurants/bakeries, and the amphitheater.

Entrance to the bath houses

Inside the bath houses

A restaurant

The Amphitheater

The gymnasium- notice the mosaic on the floor of the front entrance:

After 2 hours, we paid Libby, used the rest rooms, then got back in the van to continue our day. We drove for 30 minutes along the Amalfi Coast, with a brief stop to take some photos along the way.

Our next stop was Sorrento. Diego dropped us off and said we could have 2 hours to shop and eat lunch, and he pointed us in the direction of the stores. Tons of shops and restaurants lined the pedestrian street, selling every type of lemon product you can imagine- soaps, lemoncello, candy, candles, clothes, etc.

I bought several souvenirs as we walked around the town, and I also bought a prosciutto and provolone sandwich for lunch.

There were also several gelato shops, but Diego told us to go to one called Gelato Primavera because it was famous for it’s over 70 flavors!

I ordered straciatella and mint chip

Diego met us at the arranged time, and we drove along the Almafi Coast to Positano. The drive was beautiful, and we stopped at another view point on top of the hill to see the coast before descending into the town.

Diego dropped us off in town and said we could have 1 hour to walk around. I walked all the way down the hill and down 85 stairs (yes, I counted!) to the black sand beach. The views were amazing, and it was worth the work out.

This is one of my favorite photos from the entire trip. He was painting the church up on the hill:

Now it was time to head back up the stairs…

The lemons are HUGE… just for reference, these are my sunglasses!

Diego was always aware of the time and knew that all aboard was at 6:30pm, so he said we had to leave Positano by 3:45 in case there was traffic. We got back to Naples at 5pm, so Diego drove us around Naples briefly and let us walk around the town square for 10 minutes.

When we got back to his van, Diego had bought us a little snack- he said it was Naples’ version of a canoli. It was a pastry with an orange cream filling. It was okay, but I didn’t think it was worth the calories haha Diego then drove us back to the port, and he gave us a bottle of lemoncello to share on the ship. Overall, this was one of my favorite days of the entire trip, and I hope to someday have the opportunity to return to the Almafi Coast and spend more time exploring!

We took very fast showers and arrived at dinner a little late at 6:15pm, but it was fine. We got to watch the sail away at 7pm as we ate dinner.

Udon noodles with seafood and chicken as a starter

Escargots

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Dessert menu

Amaretto cake

Sunset as we left the port of Naples

No one knew any details about the show for tonight except that it was called “Man of Steal.” It turns out, the performer was a master pick-pocket and he was the best solo performer of the cruise! He was very funny and a unique entertainer. After the show, we went back to the cabin to rest up for Rome and my favorite towel animal was waiting to greet us!

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 9: Messina, Sicily

September 16, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 15 – Messina, Sicily

Today marked the first of 6 straight days with a 6:15am wake up time. Boooo! On the bright side, it was beautiful to watch us sail into Messina while I ate breakfast on Lido.

We arranged a private tour with 8 of our friends from Cruise Critic, and we all met down in the lobby at 7:45 to walk off the ship together. Our guide, Antonio, was waiting outside the port area with our 8-person van (2 people sat up front with Antonio, and there were two 3-person rows behind that). Antonio gave us small bits of information during the drive, but he was not nearly as informative as our guides had been in Athens and Turkey.

We drove for about an hour down the coast to a scenic view point on the water. I think Antonio said this was where the Greeks first settled when they came to Italy.

Notice the black rocks from the volcanic ash…

Our next stop was a park called Gole Alcantara to see the views and waterfalls.

On the same grounds, they set up a little store which offered free samples of olive oil, spreads, wines, and liquors. It was fun to taste all the different flavors, and of course you could also purchase the products if you wished.

Next, we visited an old abandoned church on the countryside.

Behind the church, Antonio lead us on a short walk out to the river and to see another waterfall.

Out in the distance, we saw a little surprise wagging his tail!

We decided to walk a little further to see the cow up close…

On the walk back, we sampled some of the figs and grapes growing on the trees…

Next, we drove to the quaint old town of Castiglione. It was a Sunday morning, so the town was mostly deserted except for a group of about 10 men sitting together outside (Antonio said their wives were all inside cooking!). We walked around the town for a little while, and then headed up the hill to explore an old castle.

The pacing of the day seemed a bit weird to me because that was all we did by 11:30am, but we still had a lot to do on our itinerary. It almost seemed like Antonio was stretching out our stops so we would arrive at the right time for lunch.

We drove up a steep, curvy mountainside road to our next stop, the Gambino Winery.

The winery was very pretty and offered beautiful views. Apparently, they recently renovated their tasting room and just opened it one week before we arrived!

For 20 Euros each, they had a wine tasting with 1 white wine and 3 red wines, and lunch including breads, cheeses, salami, olives, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, and sausage. The food was served on large platters and they continuously refilled as we needed more. Everything was incredibly delicious and fresh!

Here was the wine list and shipping prices in case anyone wanted to purchase a bottle:

The food and wine were all very tasty, and we stayed at the winery for an hour and a half. Remember how I mentioned my mom’s food allergies? Well they did something very nice to take care of her… When we first arrived, my mom spoke to them about her allergies and they said that they would prepare a separate platter for her with things that were safe for her to eat. They brought her a few types of cheese, salami, and her own plate of sausage, so she basically ate the same thing as everyone else, but it was plattered separately to avoid cross-contamination from the items that she was allergic to. When she went to pay, they told her they were not charging for her meal because “She didn’t eat anything” That was far from true, as they gave her many options and she definitely ate her share of food, but they refused to let her pay! She ended up leaving her 20 Euros as a tip because they took such good care of her haha

After lunch, we piled back in the van and drove to Taormina. Antonio gave us 1 hour to shop, and suggested 2 good canoli shops (since canolis were invented in Sicily, so of course we all wanted to try one!) When I researched Taormina prior to the cruise, I had read about a Greek amphitheater which was supposed to be beautiful and worth a visit. I never ended up finding it (oh well!), but other on my tour said that it was crowded and cost 8 Euros to enter, so I guess I didn’t miss much. I spent my time enjoying the ambiance of the town, looking at the lava rock and Godfather souvenirs, and eating a delicious canoli.

Godfather stuff everywhere!

Lots of souvenirs made from volcanic rock:

We got back to the pier by 4pm for our 4:30pm all aboard time, and got showered and ready for dinner.

My cold was now hitting me with full force, so it was convenient that the MDR offered chicken soup on tonight’s menu!

I also shared Oysters Rockerfeller with my mom:

Petite Fillet Mignon and Braised Short Ribs

One of the couples at our table were going to celebrate their anniversary on Tuesday. That was the day we were going to Rome, and none of us knew if we’d get back to the ship in time for dinner (the one night when the 6pm dinnertime wouldn’t mix well with our 8pm all aboard time!), so we ordered them a cake for tonight to celebrate. They were very surprised!

They cut up the cake for everyone to have a piece

But I also wanted a dessert from the menu… Diet Apple Pie!

Tonight’s entertainment was Niels Dunger, Comedy Juggler. He was okay, but I’ve seen better on previous cruises. He dropped things a few times, and he wasn’t very funny. After that, I went to bed early again to try and fight off my cold and rest up for tomorrow in Naples!

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Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 3: Sail Away!

September 9, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 9, 2013

Doge’s Palace in Venice, then Sailing Away on the Carnival Sunshine!

My alarm went off at 6:15am, and I quickly got dressed and headed up to Lido for breakfast.

I had left a lot of time for breakfast because I didn’t know how long the lines would be and I wanted to make sure I was finished eating on time. Since there were very few people eating breakfast that early, I was finished in plenty of time so I walked around taking a few photos of the ship…

Looking down from Lido into the atrium:

Lido deck:

Pour Your Own Beer station in the Lido Buffet area:

Serenity waterfall (they removed the net from the pool a few minutes after I took this photo):

Serenity deck:

I love when the outside decks are totally empty this early in the morning:

Waterslides area on deck 10:

I rode the yellow water slide later in the week… it was fun, but not as fast as I expected:

Sports Deck:

Hot dog stand- I never saw it open, but then again, I doubt I would have eaten a hot dog if it were open at 7:30am haha:

Havana Bar seating area during breakfast (very aft of Lido deck):

I read many positive reviews of the Doge’s Palace Secret Itineraries tour, so I knew I wanted to do that during our time in Venice. Unfortunately, the times of the English speaking tours were all in the mornings so we couldn’t go on Saturday (since our flight didn’t land until 11am) or Sunday (because we boarded the ship that morning). That left us with Monday morning as our only option, but we were a bit nervous about making it back to the ship from St. Mark’s Square before the 1:30pm all aboard time for sail away. The tour was only supposed to be one hour and 15 minutes long, so we booked the 9:55am tour, hoping it would end by 11:30am at the latest. Once the tour ended, we planned to go straight back to the vaporetto and hopefully we would have better timing and be able to make it back to the ship in 2 hours.

The Secret Itineraries tour costs 20.50 Euros, which I thought was a great deal considering it costs 16 Euros just to enter the Doge’s Palace, so the tour only cost an extra 5 Euros. If you want to take the tour, I recommend buying your tickets online in advance because the tours only have 25 people on them, and they do sell out.

We left the ship at 8am and took a free coach bus shuttle to the People Mover to save some energy and time. We rode the People Mover to Piazza Roma, and took the vaporetto route #5.1 around the outside of Venice (as opposed to the #2 route which went through the middle of Venice along the Grand Canal). Route #5.1 was a great option as it only took 20 minutes to reach St. Mark’s Square (3 stops), and it offered beautiful views of Venice and St. Mark’s Square (ironically, we saw the same views from a higher view point later that afternoon during sail away haha)

We arrived at Doge’s Palace at 9:20am for our 9:55am tour. I exchanged our online vouchers for real tickets, and we spent some time exploring the courtyard area. Unfortunately, we did not have much time to view the public areas of Doge’s Palace because they assume people will stick around after the tour to see those rooms, but we did not have time for that because we had to rush back to the ship. Oh well- I guess that’s a good excuse to come back to Venice some other time!

Our tour had about 25 people, and Cynthia was our guide. She offered lots of interesting information, but it was a bit hard to understand her with her accent. We started in the basement of the prison and walked up several flights of stairs, stopping to see a few prison cells on the way, until we reached the palace library. She took us to see Casanova’s cell and explained the story of his time in the prison and how he escaped. We were only permitted to take photos at the very beginning of the tour, but once we reached Casanova’s cell, we had to put our cameras away.

a prison cell:

Not a bad view looking out from one of the prison cells!:

The view looking out from the palace library

I really enjoyed the tour and thought it was worth the extra cost. It was great to be in such a small group and away from the crowds, and I learned a lot of interesting tidbits that I wouldn’t have known without the tour. The tour ended at 11:30am and we walked down the Golden Staircase to exit the palace.

We went back to the vaporetto stop for the last time and took route #5.2 back to Piazza Roma. We arrived at 12:10pm, took the People Mover back to the cruise port, and rode the Carnival free shuttle bus back to the ship. It took nearly one hour to board the ship due to the long lines, and they only had one metal detector opened on the ship which everyone had to pass through. That was very poor planning on Carnival’s part, but I guess they just didn’t have the space in the atrium bar area for more than one metal detector like they do when you board the ship on deck zero. We finally got back on the ship at 1:15pm. All aboard was supposed to be at 1:30pm, but there were still thousands of people on line behind us, and Noonan came on the overhead to announce that muster and sail away would be delayed until everyone was on board.

I went up to Lido for a quick lunch before the muster drill. I really wanted to try the wok at JiJi’s, but the line was super long and I didn’t think I would have time, so I opted for the pasta bar instead. It was okay, nothing great (especially compared to the fantastic al dente pasta I had the night before at the restaurant in Venice!). I ordered my lunch by filling out a paper menu, and it took them nearly half an hour to prepare my food. I brought my lunch back to the cabin to eat with mom- she had ordered a sandwich from room service since her food allergies prevent her from eating at both JiJis and the pasta bar. Here is my lunch:

Muster was held one hour late at 2:30pm. It was a necessary evil, but fairly uneventful. Sail away was originally scheduled for 2pm, but it was delayed until 4pm. Unfortunately, no one passed along that important bit of information to the passengers on the ship, so we all stood around outside for an hour anxiously awaiting sail away!

Finally, at 4pm, we felt the ship start to move! We stood port side on deck 10 and had great views (even though we had seen the same view many times from the vaporettos haha) I must have taken over 100 photos as we sailed around Venice, but I’ll just narrow it down to a few photos to share with you…

Notice the Whale Tail shadow on the water?

We passed St. Mark’s Square within an hour of sailing away, so I went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. As I mentioned earlier, we chose the early fixed dining time at 6pm because we wanted to have the same wait staff every night because of my mom’s food allergies. We also liked the idea of eating dinner with the same people every night and getting to know them over the course of the cruise. I briefly considered eating at the 8:15pm late seating, but decided against it because I knew we had to wake up early every morning for all of our tours in port, so I thought we would be tired and want to go to bed fairly early at night. By eating dinner early at 6pm, that left us a few hours to enjoy the shows and other activities on the ship before going to bed around 10-11pm each night.

We were seated at a table for 9 in the back of the mid-ship MDR. It felt somewhat strange to eat dinner in a single-story MDR, since I was used to larger two-story MDRs on my previous cruises, but this didn’t really impact our experience. We always had a good view when the waiters did their dance numbers, and we could also see the maitre’d Ken as he sang a song each night before dessert.

Here is the every day menu which is offered every night in the dining room:

And here is tonight’s menu and what I ordered for dinner:

Mom ordered the chilled peach cream soup for her appetizer. I love how they pour it into the bowl right in front of you!

Smoked Duck

Fried Shrimp

Seafood Newburg

Dessert Menu

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake (my favorite! of course I had to order it on our first dinner in the MDR!!) and the Bitter and Blanc:

After dinner, we went to the casino for a few minutes, then played 3 games of trivia in the comedy club lounge. The first game was Rock and Roll trivia, then movie quotes trivia, and the last game was the most fun… they used the video screen to show two celebrity faces combined into one picture, and we had to guess which two celebrities it was. Here is one that everyone knew immediately:

A lot of the pictures were hard to decipher, so we only got about half the questions correct. Oh well! After that, we walked around the ship a little more, then headed back to the cabin to get ready for bed.

When we got back, this little guy was waiting to say good night!

Up next: Dubrovnik, Croatia!

Cruise

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 2: Venice

September 8, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 8, 2013

Sunday, September 8th – Embarkation Day!!!

After months of planning, embarkation day finally arrived!!! We started the day with a great breakfast at the hotel. They set up a buffet with meats, cheeses, eggs (which were too runny), thick cut bacon, sausage, and lots of breads.

The hotel concierge said that there was a supermarket just up the street which opened at 8:30am, so we walked the two blocks there in search of soda and wine to bring on the ship. Sadly, when we arrived, they were closed! Apparently they sometimes decide to stay closed on Sundays, and this was one of those days.

We continued further up the street to get euros from the ATM, then returned to the hotel to pack up our bags and check out. We pre-booked a car from Venice Transfers to pick us up at 10am. Sun Transfers only provides transfers to and from the airport, so we couldn’t use them to get to the cruise port, but that turned out to be a good thing because I was much more impressed with Venice Transfers. Our driver arrived 15 minutes early and came into the hotel lobby to find us. He dropped us off right in front of the cruise port by 10:15am. We handed our big suitcases to the porters, and proceeded up the escalators into the cruise terminal.

There were only a handful of people there this early, and we were given a card for zone 4. Check in started a few minutes later, and our zone was called to check in at 10:45am. Next, we put our bags through the x-ray machines and walked up the ramps onto the ship. They took our photos for the Sign and Sail cards, and we were in the deck 3 lobby by 11am! The whole process was totally painless and moved very quickly. Since we were right there and there was no line, we stopped at Guest Services to request a mini-fridge for the cabin and to ask a few other questions. Then we went up to our cabin, but it was not ready yet. We found our steward Yalena and she said it would be okay if we left our carry on bags in the closets and put a few things in the safe until she was finished cleaning the room. We went up to Lido for lunch and ate our only Guy’s burgers for the entire cruise. One of the few downsides to such a port-intensive itinerary was that we only had 2 chances to eat lunch on the ship, so I knew I wanted to try a Guy’s burger this day. It was very good and really lived up to the hype.

We left the ship around 1pm and walked to the People Mover in 10 minutes. A word of caution- do not try to cut through this parking lot:

There is a fence around the parking lot which blocks you from getting to the People Mover entrance. You can see the raised track and station behind the parking lot in that photo. For those of you who don’t know, there is a water canal separating the cruise port from the main part of Venice, so you need to ride the People Mover to get into Venice (or you can walk a very round about path which takes a really long time… no thanks!!). It costs 1 Euro per ride, and runs very frequently. There are only 3 stops, with Piazza Roma on one end, the cruise port in the middle, and Tronchetto on the other end, and the ride is literally 2 minutes long. Since it was still very early, there weren’t many people on the People Mover with us…

We exited the People Mover at Piazza Roma and walked across the street to the vaporetto stop. Vaporetto routes #1 and #2 both run the length of the Grand Canal… #1 makes all local stops and takes a long time, but #2 makes limited stops at the major touristy areas. We took route #2 to the Rialto Bridge stop. While we were onboard, a lady came around to make sure we validated our tickets, so make sure you remember to do that or they might charge a fine.

It was very crowded near the Rialto Bridge, so we took a few photos and continued on our way.

With all of my research, I kept reading that one of the best things to do in Venice is to get lost in the back streets and canals. I knew we wanted to walk from the Rialto Bridge to St. Mark’s Square, but was not exactly sure how to get there aside from a vague idea of the direction we needed to go. We found a back road with tons of small shops and restaurants, and kept following the signs pointing the way “Per Marco”

We kept walking until we saw this…

We found St. Mark’s Square!!

We walked around the square for a few minutes, and stared in amazement as we watched a man lay face first on the ground in a sea of pigeons! Some things, I will never understand!!

We had an hour and a half until our scheduled time to enter the Basilica, so we decided to have a drink at Harry’s Bar. Harry’s Bar is located on the water, just a block or two off from St. Mark’s Square. To get there, we walked along a street with stores for every high end fancy designer we could think of! We did a little window shopping as we walked down the street, and eventually found this:

It is a tiny bar, but there were a few open tables, so we sat down and ordered prosecco and bellinis.

Once we finished our drinks, we walked back along the water until we reached the Bridge of Sighs. This is the bridge where you stand to have a good view of the Bridge of Sighs:

Before leaving for Venice, we booked a skip the line ticket to St. Mark’s Basilica for an entrance time between 4:05 and 4:15pm. It was a good thing we did this because the line to enter was HUGE! The skip the line tickets cost 1.50 Euro (it is free to enter if you wait in the long line without tickets), but it was definitely worth the small fee to not waste our time standing in line.

Mom was carrying a small backpack, and they forced her to check it at their bag check location around the corner from the Basilica. We were allowed to bring in our purses and cameras (no flash allowed). They also enforced the dress code to keep our shoulders and knees covered. I knew it would be hot for most of our port cities, so I did not want to have to wear capris or pants all day just to meet the dress code at the handful of churches we wanted to visit. To solve this problem, I bought a lightweight tea-length black skirt and folded it up into a small pouch which I kept in my purse for the entire trip. Whenever we got to a church which required my knees to be covered, I slipped the skirt on over my shorts and instantly met the dress code (and I folded the skirt back into its pouch as soon as we left the churches so I wouldn’t get too overheated hehe)

Rick Steves was a huge help in planning this vacation. I bought the Mediterranean Cruise Ports book and cut it apart to make mini booklets to carry in each port city. We also both downloaded his iPhone app because he has a bunch of audio walking tours which I find to be more convenient than reading the information in his tour books. There was an audio guide for St. Mark’s Basilica, so we listened to Rick as we walked through the church. We actually found the guide to provide too much information, so we stopped listening halfway though. It was extremely hot inside the church, and we were both very sweaty, so I think that also contributed to our decreased interest. We opted not to pay the extra fee to see the treasury room, but if I went again, I would probably see that room as we saw photos that our friends took and it looks beautiful in there! Here are a few pictures from St. Mark’s Square/Basilica:

After we left the Basilica, mom picked up her backpack from the baggage storage room, and we walked back to the San Zaccaria vaporetto stop to take the #2 route to San Giorgio island.

The vaporetto stop is right outside the huge church, so we walked right in and headed to the back to buy our tickets to go up in the tower. The tickets cost 6 Euro each and they were well worth it for the amazing panoramic views! I considered going up in the Campanile in St. Mark’s Square, but decided this would be a far better option because there were no crowds, and you can’t see a view of the Square if you are IN the Square haha

Notice the Whale Tail popping up in the far left side of the horizon?…

The church itself was quite beautiful as well, so we spent about an hour exploring the church and enjoying the views from on top of the tower.

I loved the mosaic tiles on the floors all over Europe!

We took the same vaporetto back to St. Mark’s Square and walked around looking for somewhere to eat dinner.

One of the best parts of doing an overnight on the ship in Venice is that it allowed us to eat a local dinner, and to see the city at night! We found a great little restaurant towards the back of the Basilica and they offered a price fixe dinner for 18 Euros.

Spaghetti with mussels, zucchini, and shrimp:

Mixed Fried Fish:

Apple Pie (I don’t like tiramisu, so they let me order something else haha):

By the time we finished dinner, the sun had set and all the lights were lit around St. Mark’s Square.

I also wanted to see the Grand Canal at night, so we took vaporetto #2 back to Piazza Roma and enjoyed the peaceful nighttime views.

Once we reach Piazza Roma, we walked back to the People Mover and rode that back to the cruise port, and then made the 10 minute walk back to the ship. We were back on board by 9:30pm, and spent the rest of the night unpacking and getting settled in the cabin. We finally got to bed at around midnight after a long but exciting day in Venice.

Cruise

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 1: Fly to Venice

September 7, 2013 deladane Leave a comment

September 6, 2013

Ok, folks… Sit back, relax, and enjoy the overly detailed and photo-filled review of 17 amazing days in Europe!

The journey began on Friday, September 6. Mom and I finished our packing and went for manicures that afternoon, then my dad drove us to the Delta International Terminal at JFK airport. We used curbside check in to drop off our big suitcases (whew! we were barely under the 50lbs per bag limit!), and made our way through the short line at security. Mom bought passes to the first class lounge, so we spent about an hour and a half in there enjoying some cocktails and snacks.

We got to our gate at the time they told us boarding should be starting, only to find out that our plane had not yet arrived. We were disappointed that we could have spent more time enjoying the first class lounge, but the plane arrived eventually. We couldn’t afford first class seats with the fancy chairs that fold down flat like a bed, so we settled for upgrading to the “economy comfort” seats which gave us a few extra inches of leg room, priority boarding, and power outlets. The individual TVs were great as they allowed you to select whatever movie you wanted to watch. I had a bit of an Anne Hathaway marathon as I watched Les Miserables and the Devil Wears Prada. They gave us pillows and blankets, and they served complimentary wine and beer along with the standard beverage service. They also served 2 meals during the flight- dinner options were pasta, chicken, or a salad, and the breakfast was a veggie egg McMuffin.

Dinner:

Breakfast:

The flight was fairly uneventful. Even though we took off an hour late, we still landed on time. We even had a great view of flying over the Alps!!

Flight Map:

Once we got to Venice, we had the best view of all… If you look very closely at the far end of the Grand Canal in this photo, you can see the Carnival Sunshine as she sailed into port on Saturday morning (as the previous cruise docked in Venice overnight on Saturday prior to us boarding on Sunday). It was amazing timing that our flight landed as our ship came into the port! I realize it is hard to tell from this photo, but as she sailed closer into view, I was so mesmerized and excited that I forgot to keep taking photos!

Once we got off the plane, went through customs, and retrieved our suitcases, it was time to search for our car driver. We pre-booked with Sun Transfers based on their good recommendations on Cruise Critic. Unfortunately, it took us 45 minutes of frantic searching through all the signs to finally find our driver holding up a sign with our name on it! Had we not prepaid with our credit card, we probably would have given up and just taken as taxi haha When we got to his car, he told us that our bags were too big and we should have ordered a bigger car. This was very confusing to us, as we told them in our reservations that we each had one checked bag and one carry on bag (plus a backpack which went in our laps). He managed to fit the two big bags and one carry on into his trunk, and the other carry on bag sat in the front seat for the 15 minute drive into Mestre.

We used credit card points to book a room at the Hotel Plaza in Mestre. We decided that since we were only staying in the hotel for one night before the cruise, it was much more convenient to stay in Mestre so we could take a car from the airport to the hotel, and then another car from the hotel to the cruise port on Sunday morning. The idea of lugging two wheeled suitcases over all the bridges and on and off the boats in Venice was less than ideal! Hotel Plaza had many positive reviews both on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor, and it lived up to those reviews in every way. The hotel was clean and modern, and conveniently located directly across the street from the train station to get into Venice. The one downside was that our AC did not work very well, but they promptly sent up a maintenance man to fix the problem. Here are a few photos of the hotel room:

After we unpacked and freshened up a bit (and I changed into shorts, as evidenced by my jeans laying on the bed in that photo haha), we set out to explore Murano and Burano. We knew it was important to do some sightseeing that afternoon so we wouldn’t give in to the jetlag and throw off our sleep schedule, but we didn’t want to do something as hectic as walking around St. Mark’s Square. A nice long vaporetto ride across the lagoon and a leisurely stroll through Murano and Burano was just what we needed.

We bought our tickets for the train from the vendor on the platform (1.20 Euros per person, each way). The trains run every 10-15 minutes from 5:15am until 11:45pm, and the ride takes about 10 minutes to get from Mestre to Venice. Before boarding the train, be sure to validate your ticket in one of the yellow stamping machines in the station. Listen for a “thunk” and check to see that your ticket was stamped. Here is a photo from inside the train… notice how we were basically the only people on the train!

We were beyond starving by this point since it was nearly 2pm and we barely ate anything all day, so we bought prosciutto and cheese sandwiches from the store in the train station, and ate as we walked to the vaporetto stop. I pre-purchased 48-hour unlimited ride vaporetto tickets online for 30 Euro each, so I used the vending machine to type in my confirmation number and retrieve the actual tickets. We had to validate the cards each time we used the vaporetto by scanning them at the little machines outside each vaporetto stop. I am pretty sure the pass paid for itself in just our first afternoon as we rode it several times that day, and each ride is 7 Euro if you pay for the rides individually.

The vaporetto stops can be somewhat confusing. There are multiple floating docks at the stop location, and two or three vaporetto routes stop at each dock so you need to look for the numbers on top of the waiting area shelter to see which routes stop there. We intended to take the route that goes directly to Murano express with very few stops, but somehow ended up on the local route instead. No worries though- it got us to Murano eventually! Unfortunately, I never took a good photo of the vaporetto stops, but here is a photo I took while standing on the dock…

We got off the vaporetto at the Museo stop, and wondered along the canals back to the Faro stop. There are lots of cute little shops along the canals, and it was a lot of fun to look in all the window displays at the glass figurines.

One of the souvenirs I most wanted was some glass candy from Murano, so I bought a glass bowl and some glass candy to put in it. I collect postcards from everywhere I go, so I bought a postcard here too. We found our way back to the Faro vaporetto stop and waited for the #12 route to Burano. You can easily find the Faro stop because this tall tower is visible all over Murano:

This is the view looking back towards Murano as we floated away…

It took surprisingly long to get to Burano, maybe 45 minutes or so. Notice how the clock tower in the distance is leaning?

We got off the vaporetto at the Mazzorbo stop. The man operating the vaporetto said we should go towards the left to walk to the bridge to Burano. Along the way, we passed a small park small garden park which had a public bathroom. We continued along the path along the water until we saw the bridge, and we ended up near the Burano vaporetto stop. We crossed the bridge into Burano and walked through the narrow streets behind the houses until we found the water canal leading to the clock tower and the shops in town. Burano was very quaint, and I thought it was worth the trip. All the houses are painted in different bright colors and they reflected beautifully off the water.

We ate dinner at one of the restaurants in the main square near the clock tower. I had my first of many pizzas in Italy- this time with mushrooms, artichokes, and prosciutto on top! Mom had the fried calamari, and both dishes were great.

After dinner, we walked back to the Burano vaporetto stop and barely missed the boat. We had to wait 30 minutes for the next boat to arrive, and it took us 2.5 hours to get from Burano all the way back to our hotel in Mestre. At least we had a beautiful view of the sunset during our ride!

It was a long day and we were exhausted by the time we got back. We went to sleep with excited anticipation for boarding the Carnival Sunshine the following morning!

Dana's Destination Diary

Tag Archives: Italy

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 12: Pisa and Florence, Italy

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 11: Rome, Italy

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 10: Naples, Italy

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 9: Messina, Sicily

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 3: Sail Away!

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 2: Venice

Carnival Sunshine ~ Day 1: Fly to Venice

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