Serenade of the Seas picture heavy fun review–12 day Med cruise incl DIY port trips!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

The boys were fine about it all, weren't they? They look after me well :D

 

Carol

 

Hi Carol,

 

:(Oh I felt so bad for you! But your boys really were heroic:cool:. You have wonderful, loving and caring kids:)! I think knowing that is worth more than any tour ever! I'm almost done writing the secret itinerary post...just a little left to go...I'll post it soon:o!

 

Stef

[Bobal]

Hi Bobal,

 

whoohoo -- a follower from the last review! welcome back! Glad you found it!

I'll try to keep up the pace once the pictures are ready --- but I can't promise to finish it all in time for your cruise....but I'll try!

 

Stef

 

 

Steff, I couldn't help quoting the above. I posted as soon as you started this review one month ago today and when you responded I thought - Oh, I'm sure she'll have finished by the time we go.;)

 

Well, here we are, all packed up and ready to head off to Barcelona tomorrow morning for our Serenade cruise...... and you're still in Venice :eek:

 

Thanks for everything so far. I guess I'll have to find out all about the rest of your cruise when I get back - have really enjoyed coming along for the ride with you and can't wait to do it all for myself for the next few weeks :D

[oregand]

Steff, I couldn't help quoting the above. I posted as soon as you started this review one month ago today and when you responded I thought - Oh, I'm sure she'll have finished by the time we go.;)

 

Well, here we are, all packed up and ready to head off to Barcelona tomorrow morning for our Serenade cruise...... and you're still in Venice :eek:

 

Thanks for everything so far. I guess I'll have to find out all about the rest of your cruise when I get back - have really enjoyed coming along for the ride with you and can't wait to do it all for myself for the next few weeks :D

 

Looks like we will just have to experience it for ourselves on Wednesday!!!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Venice (part twelve of thirteen)

 

Secret itineraries tour

 

Please bear in mind, that I was once again simultaneously translating bits and pieces for Tarik during this tour…so I might not have understood everything the guide told us correctly. But I’ll just try to give you an overview of what you will see and tell you roughly about Casanova’s escape.

 

The tour starts in the courtyard next to the restrooms. Our guide – and I cannot remember her name, showed us from the outside, where we would be roughly headed. Secret rooms, squeezed in between the official stories. Loong windows, which actually lit up not one, but two stories of rooms…and little round glass ornaments, which actually lit up other secret rooms as well. We’d begin down low with the prison cells and work our way up to the attic.

 

When we first entered the building, we were led to a tiny prison cell. The entrances to all of the cells we would see are so low, that you almost have to bend over in a 90 degree angle to pass through. We learned, that the prisoners down here were screwed. They were all pretty much just awaiting their execution date. Once outside the cell we started to move along some really narrow hallway.

 

Last picture I was able to take, before we were told that photos would be forbidden from there on.

We went to see the chancellors office. I don’t like offices in real life, so I really didn’t care too much for this one either. But it was interesting to hear, that actually it was the chancellor – not the doge, who had all the power, since he was elected for life and had massive knowledge of all matters concerning the structure of the palace, the conspiracies of it’s people and delicate information about Venetian friends and foes. The doge was always a very rich, very old man, who basically brought all his life’s money into his time of reign at the palace. A chancellor would usually see many doges come and go.

 

The next room did impress me!

 

Foreign picture:

This is the secret archive. This place was packed with accountants during the day. They were only allowed to work during the daylight, because everything was made out of wood (or paper – it was an archive after all) and everybody was afraid of a fire. So no candles allowed. When the light faded in the afternoon or evening, the last accountant to leave this room would lock it up until the next day. It was however never “uninhabited”. Since they were as afraid of mice, eating away their important papers, they held several cats in this room, who lived here permanently. On the cabinets on each side there are all the chancellors code of arms...very impressive. When we were in here they had only one big massive desk in there at the back…Tanja is an accountant and she absentmindedly touched that old wooden desk. I think she was in love!

 

Next we went into the interrogation room. Scary stuff.

 

Foreign picture:

This was actually a torture room. They made the person to be interrogated stand up on that step and attached the rope to the tied hands behind his back. Then the poor fellow was lifted up hanging like this up in the air. In the picture you see a little barred window up in the right corner. They had prison cells left and right to this rope, so the inmates had to watch the poor soul and hear him scream. Psychological torture for them, while physical torture for the guy on the rope --- cruel, but very efficient.

 

Next to that we visited Casanova’s (first) cell:

 

Foreign picture:

 

 

Casanova was arrested in 1755 for being a freemason (which was true). He was a rich man however and managed to bribe his guard to some extra luxury. This cell, like all cells, was very low and Casanova was a tall man. He was claustrophobic and had a lung problem, when not getting enough air.

 

He bribed the guard to cut a hole into the ceiling to the cell above him. So now he could stand upright and stick his head through the hole in the ceiling. In the upper compartment he found a piece of metal. He hid it under the bed and started to work on his escape. Another luxury he enjoyed was his own furniture which was being brought into this cell from his regular home.

 

He was almost done with his escape hole in the ground, when he was surprisingly transferred to a better cell with better air circulation. Of course the guard found the almost finished hole in the ground when the moved the furniture to the next cell. But Casanova was able to shut him up with threatening him to tell everybody, that this was only possible, since he helped him before. Casanova did manage to bring his metal piece along with him into the new cell. But the guard was suspicious from now on and checked this cell regularly for any escape tunnels. So digging here was not an option anymore. Well, Casanova had a fellow inmate---(was it a priest? or a monk? I forgot…something religious anyway) in a cell along the hall.

 

Foreign picture:

This is the monks cell.

 

Now Casanova was able to talk to him…they couldn’t see each other though. One day Casanova found a way of trading secret messages back and forth through exchanging books. The guard was friendly (astounding after being threatened) and brought the books back and forth. Now Casanova had a new plan. He told the monk, since he himself was under too much supervision, it would have to be him to cut a hole into his ceiling, walk to Casanova’s cell and cut a whole into that ceiling as well from above. Above them was the unused attic.

 

Well,the monk didn’t have any tools to do this with. Casanova asked him for the biggest book he had…it was a bible. He tried to stick in his piece of metal…it didn’t fit. On both sides there was a piece of it peeking out. Mhhh, what to do?

 

The wealthy prisoners (only up here, not the doomed ones downstairs) got good food on national holidays. Being in Italy, this normally was some kind of pasta. So on the next holiday, Casanova took his huge plate of macaroni, put the bible on top of it and hid the metal ends underneath the pasta. He asked the guard to bring this to the monk, who didn’t get such privileges.

 

And it actually worked…The guy took the whole plate -- noodles, bible and escape device over to the monk’s cell without noticing anything. Now Casanova’s plan was put into action. The monk really managed to cut holes into his AND Casanova’s cell. Casanova was excellent at calculating the distance and direction between the two holes. But now they were stuck on the attic.

 

Foreign picture:

 

 

More to come!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Oregand and Bobal,

 

I'm really sorry I didn't finish in time...actually the way this is going I probably won't be finished before you return either...Have a wonderful cruise!

 

Stef

[louthebowler]

I have been following for weeks but haven't thanked you for the great review before now as I have only been popping on to the forum when I have had few minutes to spare ( work and visiting poorly sister in hospital for last few months keeping me away from my favourite reading matter!)

You are a good raconteur, and I feel like I am on the trip with you and your family, I wish!

[kirian]

Yay!!!! You're back! I was trying so hard not to be selfish over the weekend and to realize that you have a life outside of Cruise Critic and this review, but it was touch a go there for a while :eek: I'm so glad you're back... I think I was starting to experience withdrawl symptoms :D

 

Melissa

 

(PS - only 50 days until my cruise leaves.... getting so many great DIY excursion ideas from you... thank you, thank you, thank you!!!)

[windjamming]

Eeeek - what a cliffhanger! What happened to Casanova and the monk?!!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

I have been following for weeks but haven't thanked you for the great review before now as I have only been popping on to the forum when I have had few minutes to spare ( work and visiting poorly sister in hospital for last few months keeping me away from my favourite reading matter!)

You are a good raconteur, and I feel like I am on the trip with you and your family, I wish!

 

Hi louthebowler,

 

Thanks for stepping out of lurkdom! I hope your sister is getting better! I'm happy if I can distract you from your worries at least for a little while. Hang in there!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Yay!!!! You're back! I was trying so hard not to be selfish over the weekend and to realize that you have a life outside of Cruise Critic and this review, but it was touch a go there for a while :eek: I'm so glad you're back... I think I was starting to experience withdrawl symptoms :D

 

Melissa

 

(PS - only 50 days until my cruise leaves.... getting so many great DIY excursion ideas from you... thank you, thank you, thank you!!!)

 

Hi Melissa,

 

:)LOL-- you're so cute!

 

:DI'll get right back to writing the next post. Promise! Right away!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Eeeek - what a cliffhanger! What happened to Casanova and the monk?!!

 

Hi Windjamming,

 

Hehee, I can be mean like that!

 

...conclusion coming up in about half an hour.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Venice (last part)

 

Secret itineraries continued

 

Now let’s continue with the escape. Somehow the monk and Casanova ended up in the locked secret archive. Did they cut a hole in the ceiling and jump down into it? I don’t know—I was translating like crazy the escape before that part. So if anybody knows – please post.

 

Anyway. They where stuck in the archive now. What did they do? They waited. When the first unlucky accountant came in the morning to unlock the room, they beat him unconscious and fled down the hall. They were dressed in their regular clothes. So they didn’t look like prisoners. They just strolled down the main staircase and leasurely walked out the front door! Of course they would notice the escape that day. The guard was sentenced to death. The monk was caught sometime later and died after being beaten up badly by his cell mate. But Casanova survived…of course he left Venice right away….and where did he go? To Germany! whoohoo! So that was the story of Casanova’s escape…I hope you enjoyed this little historic diversion.

 

But now we still have stuff left to see during the secret itineraries tour. The attic hosted a display of many weapons and armory.

 

foreign picture:

 

 

One more part which blew Tarik away was when we suddenly entered a room after walking through yet another narrow corridor. Our guide told us to look behind us, and now we saw, that we had actually entered this room by a secret entrance through one of these cabinets.

 

foreign picture:

 

Some rooms had optical illusions in the tiles on the floor

 

foreign picture:

 

As well as on the ceilings. They had grey statues painted on the ceiling, that looked like they were real statues…Amazing! (couldn’t find a pic though).

 

We saw the courtroom, where the sentences were told…and the room next to it where the sentences were “discussed”. If you were wealthy or powerful, you could greatly lessen your punishment here when offering substantial amounts of your savings. Official bribing, so to speak.

 

So that was pretty much all I remember from the secret itineraries tour. I loved it! Our guide led us through another door and we were released into the main flood of visitors. No clue, where exactly we were dropped off, but we just stumbled along with the flow. Our heads were spinning from all the info we heard and sights we saw. And yet it wasn’t over, because the non secret part of the Palazzo Ducale is mindblowingly beautiful! I definitely want to come back here to spend a whole day…Preferably with an audioguide to tell me about all the paintings.

 

 

foreign picture:

Isn’t this spectacular? Supposedly the largest oill on canvas painting in the world! Again -- Tintoretto!

 

 

 

foreign picture:

They had a large collection of old weapons and all kind of different gadgets as well. For instance they had a nasty looking chastity belt, brrrrrr.

 

...and last but not least you get to walk through the famous bridge of sighs. This is the view from it:

 

by now Tanja’s legs were screaming for a break. But beware…to get to the exit it’s quite a walk. We were led through vast prisons, a smaller courtyard, lots and lots of gorgeous rooms until we finally got back to the big inner courtyard again. We didn’t really see any walkways, which would have made it possible to shortcut.

 

After spending at least 3 and a half hours in the Doges palace, we were pooped. All we wanted was to get back to the ship, eat at the park café and be finished with Venice. So one more time we hopped on a Vaporetto (after at least half an hour wait in the sizzling heat on a wobbling bus stop with hordes and hordes of tourists) and off we were to our heavenly cruise ship retreat.

 

Venice? The one word we all agreed on was strenuous. We saw some really great things and we’d love to return – but no way again in the summer. Maybe we’ll check out the Venetian Carnival in February some day…and of course visit the Doges palace again and ride around on the open Laguna back and forth…finally see Burano then as well…but for now we were really happy to leave this place. We didn’t even feel the wish to look at it one more time during departure. We didn’t dislike it , not at all – but it wore us out.

 

 

 

Things I learned in Venice:

 

There are mystical places on this earth – and Venice is one of them – just not in the touristy zones.

 

I need to learn more about the Tintoretto paintings

 

Vaporetti on the Canale Grande suck!

 

I shouldn’t wear orange.

 

 

More to come!

Edited September 3, 2013 by Kreuzfahrtneuling

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Intermezzo Venice – Ravenna

 

After returning to the ship in the afternoon we enjoyed an almost deserted ship. We laid low for the rest of the day and tried to reload our strength for the next day. It felt somewhat arrogant to NOT stay every possible minute exploring Venice, but we felt very revolutionary in ignoring it anyway. When we stood on the ship in the evening, gazing down at the late people who returned to the ship, we saw our dreaded family again, who looked completely beat! Suddenly we felt smart to have left when we felt it was enough for the day.

 

This evening Tanja and I flunked a beatles quiz in the pub (and had loads of fun while miserably failing) and went to see a show. Tonight’s show was Gary Lovini – a Violinist. It was very nice. I LOVE the sounds of a violin, so maybe I’m a little biased. But I really enjoyed it. Tanja thought it was okay. We stayed till the end. Tarik popped in during the show (we always sat on the balcony in the back so it didn’t bother anybody if there was some fluctuation), but he just grimaced and left again right away. So all three of us experienced this event differently – go see for yourselves.

 

Here are the pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later on we enjoyed our dinner in the MDR while floating out of Venice. It was pure luxury!

 

 

Next up: Ravenna

[christi1805]

Hallo Stef, ich hatte dir vor ein paar Tagen eine Nachricht auf FB geschickt.

Wie ich sehe schaust du nicht so oft in dein Profil.

Wenn du magst, schau mal rein :) !

 

Meine Nachricht findest du unter "Postfach, Sonstiges"

 

Grüße aus NRW

 

Christiane

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Christiane,

 

Welcome to the review. Mhhh, I'm a facebook idiot. I couldn't see any new messages. Sorry. I pretty much only use it to stay in touch with friends from the US.

 

Stef

 

PS: oops, never mind -- NOW I found it! Thank you so much!

Edited September 3, 2013 by Kreuzfahrtneuling
learned to tackle facebook messages :-)

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Ravenna

First of all the cruise compasses:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Ravenna (part one of two)

 

Ravenna was the one port that made me pull my hair before the cruise. I just had no clue as what to do there. We didn’t care for the mosaics, nor Dante’s tomb. I do like pine forests (the smell is just so yummy), but Tanja and Tarik didn’t feel like hiking or bicycling through it. Florence was too far away…so what to do? I finally set my mind on Bologna. But before you get excited – we didn’t end up doing it! We wanted to take the bus to Ravenna and from there the train to Bologna. Of course I had all timetables and routes figured and printed out. In Bologna we wanted to see the ancient anatomy room in the university, climb the leaning tower (yes, they not only have them in Pisa) and see the world’s longest arch covered walkway up to the church outside of town (already forgot the name). We also would taste Spaghetti Bolognese at the heart of it’s creation. We sooo had a plan by the time we finished the planning process.

 

Well – what happened?

 

We got up in the morning and went to our beloved spot outside WJ, starboard side to enjoy our gruesome, but still beloved coffee.

 

Oh, look – a beach!

 

By the time all three of us sat here for breakfast, we all decided we didn’t want to ride in any bus, train or whatever else today. We would throw all planning aside and just relax at the beach ALL DAY LONG! The weird thing is that all three of us were absolutely thrilled with this change of plans. So we decided to hunt down a supermarket to get some supplies -- water, softdrinks, wine and munchies. I was eager to purchase an air mattress, since I wanted to float around on the water. Once again we borrowed the towels from our cabin and took our snorkelling gear and water ball with us. Since we wanted to go shopping for our major picnic day, all three of us took a backpack today.

When your port says Ravenna – you are by no means in Ravenna. You dock at Porto Corsini, a small beach community half an hour by bus away from Ravenna. For any DIY trip you walk off the ship and start walking towards land.

 

Here you get some nice views of the ship

 

Before you leave the port area on a nice and easy pedestrian path, you can’t help to walk by a little info hut. When we were there, no other tourist was there and the nice lady in the hut gave us two excellent maps of Porto Corsini with all the info we would need. She described the path to the supermarket and to the store where we could actually buy an air mattress. Whoohoo --- Adria watch out – I’m almost there! She even had all bus timetables to Ravenna as copies there…I wouldn’t have needed to bother to print them out at home. We felt very welcomed by this nice lady and trotted on in a fabulous mood.

 

 

Once you reach the first traffic junction, you make a right (if you want to go to the bus or to the ferry you keep walking straight). One block further you see this:

 

 

To the stores turn left here, to the beach turn right…no clue where the straight path ahead would lead you to.

 

We turned left and after about 2 more blocks we found the store with all kinds of stuff (yay –air mattresses) and the supermarket right behind it. There was even a little fisher’s supply shop, where Tanja could buy some water shoes (she’s a little sissy that way). So now we headed back towards the beach.

When you get there after about a 10 - 15 minute walk (straight from the ship, without the supermarket stop, it would have been more like 20 minutes), you see tons of orange sunbeds and umbrellas. I don’t know about you – but for us it was the most natural thing to walk up all the way to the waterfront first to check if there were some free sunbeds close to the water. And what a surprise – THE most perfect spot RIGHT in front of the beach still unoccupied.

 

???

 

Strange, since sunbeds further down were already taken…mhhh, well let’s just not think about it and settle down here. Right?

 

Wrong!

 

About 10 minutes after we got all cozy and I was bravely attemting to blow up that air mattress by sheer lung volume (remind me to never do that again!) a guy came over and told us we’d have to leave right away, since all the empty sunbeds and open umbrellas were reserved. We could however purchase two sunbeds and an umbrella about 8 rows up the beach, which were closed yet, but he would open them up for us and bring our sunbeds once we paid for them at a hut in the middle of the orange field. Sigh – we didn’t mind paying for the sunbeds and the umbrella---we expected nothing else – but to get together all the just unpacked picnic gear, just to move to another spot was a hassle. So people, if you want to enjoy a day at the beach here---go to the hut, pay for the umbrella and your sunbeds and then choose a CLOSED umbrella as your spot for the day. Then show the guy your receipt and he’ll set you all up.

Guess how expensive two sunbeds and one umbrella are for one day?

 

 

€ 15.00!

 

Wow!

 

This really is only worth it, if you plan to stay all day. Well, we planned to do just that, so we bought one.

 

 

Look – our piece of heaven for today: all our munchies and drinks stacked on the table, clothes hung up, snorkelling gear on the side and see that I finally finished to blow up that air mattress? (it took FOREVER)

 

And what’s the first thing you do when you go to the beach?

 

Of course! Jump into the water! See Tarik actually walking into the sea?

 

And he liked it! YES!!!!

 

Here there were no big waves, no slimy stones, the water was warm and he could just wade in forever because of the shallow decline. Lol – Tanja tried out her new water shoes. Can you see her? Lol – at least you should be able to see her new shoes!

 

 

Her and Tarik had loads of fun with that waterball (which Tanja had to blow up, since I was still working on finishing that air mattress).

 

 

More to come!

[Bobal]

Haha this is great. In our hotel in Barcelona eagerly looking forward to boarding the ship tomorrow & thought I would check if you've updated and what do I find but excellent instructions on how to get to the beach we were planning on visiting in Ravenna. Thanks again :)

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Haha this is great. In our hotel in Barcelona eagerly looking forward to boarding the ship tomorrow & thought I would check if you've updated and what do I find but excellent instructions on how to get to the beach we were planning on visiting in Ravenna. Thanks again :)

 

Hi Bobal,

 

You're welcome! I feel honored, that you actually check these posts in Barcelona before your cruise --- wow! Thank you!

 

Enjoy the beach! ...and try a pizza at the "Waikiki Beach" (the joint at the top of the beach)...you won't regret it!

 

Stef

[windjamming]

Stef, I loved that you did an impromptu beach day!! And you got to do it under those orange umbrellas that looked so tantalizing from the ship. Did you get to walk on that really long pier that jutted way out into the water?

 

I also loved that "wine" was grouped under supplies. Absolutely critical. : )

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Did you get to walk on that really long pier that jutted way out into the water?

 

Nope! Just beach all day long!

 

I also loved that "wine" was grouped under supplies. Absolutely critical. : )

 

Lol -- You bet! ... but it almost got us into trouble ... wait and see.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Ravenna (last part)

 

Although we brought all kinds of munchies from the supermarket, around lunch time we wanted “real” food. So we just grabbed our wallets and cameras and just abandoned our little beach spot for about an hour to head up this trail:

 

 

At the end you’ll find a beach bar/café/restaurant. Nothing fancy, they have chairs on their patio and when you need to use the restrooms, you need to circle around the house to find a separate hut. There are toilet seats though and once again you activate the water in the sink by a foot pedal. We LOVED this place! The second best pizza we ever had (the very best was in Malta)! It was just a nice laid back atmosphere. After our fantastic pizzas we decided to round up the experience with a local beer:

 

Dream on kiddo! You’ll stick with your coke!

…and icecream, of course!

 

After being happily fed and thirst squenched, we returned to our beach routine. Tanja and I went snorkelling – not really a great place to do this. There’s so much sand wirled up – I couldn’t even see Tanja’l legs until I almost bumped into her. There were some fish and a lot of little crabs scuttling around…But basically – uneventful. I loved to float around on the air mattress and Tarik discovered his hunter and gatherer genes while looking for shells (enthusiastically – for hours!)

 

Here are some of his found treasures. During that time Tanja and I had some quality time relaxing and sipping our supermarket carton wine. (I know – totally trashy! But we didn’t bring a corkscrew and that was the only wine we found with a screwtop. It tasted amazingly nice though!)

 

Ahhhh – what a life!

 

 

The ship was so close all day long…

 

...you could actually hear the announcements all the way to the beach – true, they sounded a little blurred, but you still felt as if you’re on the ship.

 

It was sheer paradise …

and suddenly we checked the time…

Ahhhhh!!!!!

We have to be onboard in 20 minutes!!!!!

 

 

We just were so relaxed – or maybe it was the wine—we completely forgot about the time! The air mattress still had to be deflated, all our stuff packed into the backpacks and we were still in our bathing gear….PANIC!

 

Believe me – you’ve NEVER seen anybody pack together as fast as us in that moment. Has anybody ever tried to deflate an air mattress in record time? It took me at least an hour to Inflate this baby…no way it would be possible to get all the air out in a minute. I deflated some – squeezing as much as I could, but then had to just stuff it in my trecking backpack and just let it stick out the top. I think I looked like quite some weirdo. Anway, off we were – we had exactly 17 minutes left for a 20 minute walk. We picked up the pace and headed towards the ship. The closer we got to the port we realized – oh my god, we’re even later than the usual runners. Taxis were speeding past us to drop off the last passengers who were on shore. We entered the gate 3 minutes before the all aboard time. Phew, close call! But this absolutely fantastic beach day was way worth the little stress at the end….I wouldn’t have wanted to miss one precious minute of it.

 

More to come!

[penguin233]

I'm loving your thread, especially as i'm doing this cruise soon. However i havent been able to see your photos since post 181 :(. Am i doing something wrong all of a sudden? x

[penguin233]

Ahhhh sorry ... now i now why. Eagerly awaiting photobucket's release x

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

I'm loving your thread, especially as i'm doing this cruise soon. However i havent been able to see your photos since post 181 :(. Am i doing something wrong all of a sudden? x

 

Hi penguin233,

 

Welcome to the review! No, you're not doing anything wrong...sorry about the inconvenience. Check out post #320 on page 16 for an explanation. After that page you should be able to at least see the newer pics.

 

Stef