After leaving Genoa P&O Oceana had called at Livorno, Naples, transited the Messina Straits and had called at Dubrovnik. The round Italy cruise then sailed into Venice through the lagoon past the city before docking.
Oceana had sailed an estimated 1,379 nautical miles from Genoa to Venice.
Day 7 Tuesday 11th October Venice
The day was much colder than expected. After a late breakfast in the restaurant I watched the sea as Oceana sailed up the Adriatic passing oil platforms which was an unexpected sight.
Out on deck I positioned myself on the starboard side rather than our port side balcony in preparation for sailing into Venice. The ship then slowed down and began its spectacular sail into Venice.
These were our views of the new flood defences.
Sailing into Venice
Then our first views of Venice itself.
We then passed St Marks Square …
… and the Grand Canal …
… and up the lagoon
The ship then turned right out off the canal into the Stazzionne Marittima to dock. then it was time to go for a quick lunch in the restaurant. Today it was cod and chips with a smoked meat salad to start.
From our balcony we could now see a large Norweigian Cruise Lines ship that had berthed on the quayside while we had had lunch.
We had had conflicting advice on the easiest way to get into Venice from the port and only decided to book the P&O motor launch service as we walked away from the ship. The tickets had been on sale for several days prior to our arrival and we were pleasantly surprised to be able to buy tickets at the pier. Here#s the view while we were queuing for the launch.
First visit to Venice
The queue to catch the motor launches was very long but once they started to arrive back from the city we boarded after a 30 minute or so wait. Leaving the port we encountered another large cruise ship just entering get the port area.
The launch then took us down the lagoon towards St Marks Square
The launch dropped us four bridges down from St.Marks Square along the Canal di San Marco at the Carnoldi Pier. We walked through the crowds past the Bridge of Sighs.
We walked through the city to the Rialto Bridge and I called at the Hard Rock store there and was directed back to the HR restaurant off St Marks Square for the Hard Rock T-shirts for Venice. We stopped at a small cafe and ordered two beers that came in very fancy glasses
The beers worked out at 12 Euros but having free wi-fi made up for their cost. I took the opportunity to send electronic postcards using the PostSnap app on my iPhone. The crowds had grown alongside the lagoon as we made our way back to the pier to catch the luanch back to the ship.
The queue for the motor launch back to the ship was mercifully short. On this launch I was able to sit outside and watch Venice pass by.
Boarding the ship meant queuing at in the terminal at immigration and having our Uk passports as well as our ship’s cruise cards carefully inspected before going through airport style security checks.
Our port side balcony overlooked the channel through which all the motor launches were passing as well as facing two other cruise ships.
Before dinner I tried Monty’s Masquerade gluten free bitter and it tasted very good.
This was the sunset from our balcony.
Dinner was sautéed lamb kidney turbigo followed by steak and then strawberry romanoff mille-feuille. To my surprise there were no mushrooms available and instead I had extra portions of string beans (which so far has been the only vegetable served most nights ) and of course more broccoli.
After dinner we went to watch Mark Shortland perform in the Starlights venue. His show was excellent and best of all he made the magic tricks he performed fun.
The cruise ships opposite our cabin were not hooked up to a local electrical supply and were running their diesel generators – we were not sure just how quiet our overnight stay was going to be.
By then the passengers leaving the ship the next day had placed their suitcases in the corridors for collection overnight.