This is a summary of our first vacation on a cruiseship. We booked a one week Mediterranean Cruise on the MSC Magnifica. Ironically enough our cruise started on the day exactly 100 years after the Titanic went down in the Atlantic Ocean. First thing we did on board of our ship was the compulsory drill in case of an emergency.
If you want to know more about the ship, go check it out using this link:
But before we boarded our ship we did have a few hours of time to spend in Venice, like all the other few thousands of tourists that would start their cruise that same day. So the city was overloaded with people walking around in the small alleys of the city, the San Marco Place was crowded, and I was so glad it was just a cool day and not hot as it can be in summertime. I will go back one day, but preferably not on a weekend ond most certainly not in summer. Dru said (out of experience) January was a great time, so who knows, I might go back in winter!
As we were walking through Venice, we literally walked into our travel companions that were already traveling Italy the week before the cruise:
As Italy is well known for its fabulous icecream, we had to make a stop at an icecream parlor. Yummy!
The above picture is from a very old map of Venice that I found in a local window shop. So pretty!
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| 180° view towards San Marco Place |
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| Venice Gondola's |
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| San Marco Place |
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| Realto Bridge |
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| View from Realto Bridge |
After our visit to the old city of Venice, it was time to go back to our ship for the check in procedure. Next to the MSC Magnifica was the Queen Victoria, an amazing cruise ship that was just about to leave Venice.
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| Queen Victoria |
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| far left MSC Magnifica, right Queen Victoria |
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| tug boat with Queen Victoria |
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| Queen Victoria departure manouvre with tug boats |
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| Bye bye Queen Victoria |
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| 180° view from our ship towards Venice |
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| Compulsory drill before we left the harbour of Venice |
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| our travel mates |
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| enjoying the spectacular view |
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| Zattere promenade, Venice (don't know name of church) |
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| activists giving us a not so friendly and very noisy farewell |
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| well, I think they are right....... |
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| another spectacular view from deck 13 |
We ended our day with a lovely dinner in one of the restaurants. Meanwhile our cabin was transformed in to a bedroom for 4 people. After exploring the ship from top to bottom we went back to our cabin for our first night on the MSC Magnifica. Naomi in the bunk bed, Nelson on the sofa bed, Hans & I in the queen sized. Sleeping while floating to our next stop, Bari.
