Norwaylady goes b2b in the Mediterranean on Infinity 24.5-10.6.23 LIVE

[Norwaylady]

Instructions for our departure tour Ravenna: 

 

as we all know, Ravenna 🤯😰🥵🤬🥴

for starting or ending a cruise. 
To call it Venice/Ravenna is stretching the line loooiooong. (Rant finished) 

 

Ravenna as a port of call is good. The mosaic is beautiful and it’s a okay stop. (We had a stop by Connie a few years ago) But for start/end of a cruise, it’s a 😵😵😵. 
There are no infrastructure and it’s awfully expensive to get transportation. The cab/driver company’s is charging wild price and it’s a long distance. 

 

We have a late flight home to Norway. 
So the usual airport transfer was early and we would be at the airport for extra hours deluxe….

 

So we did bite the bullet of hefty price and booked the tour to Padua+VCE airport. 

 

You need to have a flight in late afternoon/evening. 

If you don’t plan to visiting Venice. Book airfare to Bologna airport. It’s only a good 1h away. 
It saves transportation time and less expensive. 
 

I will give you all the details on how this work🫡

[Norwaylady]

Good Morning Split

 

 

 

The ladies have eaten breakfast in MDR. 
greek yoghurt and berries, grapefruit and coffee🙃

[upwarduk]

Is Split still a tender port?
I remember in 2010 it taking us 3 hours to get off the ship.

When I complained, I was told I should have gone on an organised ship’s excursion, as they get priority.

[Norwaylady]

3 hours ago, upwarduk said:

Is Split still a tender port?
I remember in 2010 it taking us 3 hours to get off the ship.

When I complained, I was told I should have gone on an organised ship’s excursion, as they get priority.

Split is docked. 10-15.minutes away from the city centre on foot. 
Several tour vendors on the pier if you want something last minute and a sightseeing train 

[Norwaylady]

So, we left for our tour 08.30. 

It’s a small group “small” only 17 guests😜

 

Our guide was okay, friendly and knowledgeable. 

We went straight to Trogir. 

 

We walked to the church and had a guided visit. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a small teaser of dalmantian song on the town square.

 

Usually it’s 9 male singers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had around 1h of free time before we went onward to the mountains. You have a beautiful view over island and cities down by the coast. 

 

 

We drove up to Primorski Dolac. 

You visit an old local family farm.

 

 

They served Grappa and fresh fig’s as aperitif, they sing and play Croatia folklore music and tell about the farm traditions. 

 

For a snack, they served local ham, cheese and olives. It’s local bread and olive oil. 

For dessert, it’s sweet pastries.

 

After this, it was time for departure back to the ship. We arrived on the pier 14.40. 

All-onboard is 15.30. 

 

The Queen had a great time❤️

It was not too many steps or walking around on uneven ground. 

Perfect for those that like bus tours, some walking city tour and local food. 

(For me? Not my cup of tea🤪😝 but for the Queens request, yes my lady🫡😂) 

[Norwaylady]

After returning to the ship, it was Al Bacio time☕️☕️☕️

The Queen needed coffee and I hoped for a lemon 🍋 tart🙂

Yes, they had them🍋🍋🍋 and today it was good 👍🏻 

 

Then it was time to start packing…..

 

The last round of canapés has arrived

[hcat]

Glad you are enjoying the last moments of the cruise.

Not sure if you keep all the great photos but here's another favorite!

[LizikinsLivesToCruise]

I have enjoyed this trip report as it let me relive past visits to the same ports. Thank you @Norwaylady for sharing your vacation with your Queen with us. Have a safe trip home.

[Barwick Cruiser]

Glad you and your Mom are enjoying the final days of your holiday together. I realize your choice of tour in Split was decided by your Mom and wasn’t your cup of tea but when you consider all the choices your Mom made to make you happy when you were small that weren’t her cup of tea, it seems today was a bit of payback 🤣🤣🥰. The views were definitely beautiful and always great to experience some local culture and food! 
 

Very sad to see that you are nearing the end of this voyage, have been enjoying your daily postings and am very relieved that the MDR hasn’t been a total let down after a leg in Blu. Safe travels home! 

[rzyjzq]

Have really enjoyed your review and beautiful pictures.  Thanks for taking us along!

Susan

[Norwaylady]

Bags are packed😩 You all know that feeling😜

 

Tonight’s show is iBroadway production show. So we are skipping it😝 Since we saw it last week. 

 

We went down to Al Bacio for some coffee and a glass of wine. The Queen wanted more coffee😜( you know she didn’t receive coffee on our tour😂😂) 

 

After some coffee and a glass of rose (you know the real deal French dry🤩) we moved down to grand foyer. 

 

It was a pop-up from Phillipa Healey.

Again, a fun show and hits from west end and light mix of hits. 

 

Then we walked by Blu to say goodbye to Irwin before we went to dinner in mdr. 

Today’s dinner menu is good in starters but real blah for mains in my opinion. There’s no fish, just the everyday salmon. 

 

And there are 2 pasta dishes, that’s one too much. 

The chicken is excellent if made properly, but I can’t eat it🥴😝 it’s pineapple 🍍 

 

 

So we went for shrimp Louis as a starter

and then the Queen wanted light grilled green beans in oil, garlic and pepper. Same side she has every night. 

But just the beans for main. 

I had the every day salmon. 

 

The fish was perfectly cooked. But the sides are boring. They had a bad day making sauce. The hollandaise sauce had crumbled/split. It’s overheating. 

And they had try all the tricks in the book to save it…. The cold water, some drops of lemon and last option vinegar. You could really taste it.

So it was a good dinner in the fish and green beans👍🏻

(Remember, mdr makes Dinner for around 1500 persons every night plated….🤪🫡🙃 so at some point, not everyone can be happy happy🤩 today it was our turn in the lottery of okey, but not perfect) 

For dessert we hade some ice cream. 
 

Then it was straight to bed😴😴

[Norwaylady]

Rise & Shine! 

 

The ladies had breakfast in mdr. Greek yoghurt, grapefruit, porch egg and salmon. 

All tasted good and everyone was a happy camper for the last time🥰

 

We have checked in on our airport/sightseeing tour in Padua. 

We are a group of 6 guests today. 

[upwarduk]

I can’t believe where that 2 weeks have gone.

Thank you for taking time out of your holiday to take us along with you.👍

[Redking]

Thank you Alexandra, always love following your adventures. Next stop the Edge to Singapore?

[barneyboy]

Thanks for a great live review. Thanks to this we have now booked a cruise on Infinity in November. First time in Aqua so really looking forward to it. 

[chemmo]

Thank you for taking us on your cruise. Having done live posts myself I understand the time commitment necessary.
 

So good of you to give future Infinity cruisers (myself included) such a detailed picture of life on board. I liked the way you posted the ‘Today’ sheets. For those wondering about the activities and the entertainment it does give a good overview.

 

Sincere thanks and best wishes.

[JintyGirl]

Thank you for your review and wishing you both a safe journey home 😊

[Norwaylady]

We were dropped off at the airport 14.30.

 

So back to start🔙

 

Our transfer to VCE and Padua tour is a X shore excursion. 

It’s the only option for a tour+airport drop-off they offer. 

 

Booking a private individual tour or transfer from Ravenna to VCE is painfully expensive💸💸💸 

 

Train station in Ravenna is not in walking distance and train service in Ravenna is limited. So you must change trains to be able to go to Venice. 

So Ravenna is really not a good start or stopping point of a cruise. 

Prepare to pay big 💵💵💵 to get there. 

 

Due to flights, we would not be able to make the direct flight in the morning docking in Ravenna. 

So we need to book the afternoon/evening flight via something in Europe. So we are flying Swiss via Zurich home. 

Flight leaves VCE 19.05. 

So plenty of time….. 

 

What is very important to know in VCE is that they don’t accept baggage until 3h before your flight. 

This means that we are not allowed to drop off bags until 16.05. 

 

So we had many hours to “kill” before we really wanted to be at the airport. 

And since we have luggage, you need to plan…. 

 

The tour was only 6 guests today, the majority of the ship was on transfer to VCE or BOL (Bologna) airport. 

 

So we had 07.30 meeting time in Rendezvous lounge. 

At 07.45 we were escorted downstairs to the gangway and pinged off for the last time……💙⚓️

You need to proceed to the tent to collect your luggage and walk it outside due to customs regulations. 

 

Our car today was a MB Vito (the typical private tour cars on shore excursion) 

All 6 suitcases and carry on was stuffed inside the trunk. So same space inside the car as a usual tour day in Italy/France. 

 

We were ready for departure from the port 08.10. 

Our guide was rechecking departure flights, so no one was leaving to early. 

 

We arrived in Padua 10.30. 

Then a local guide meet us for a walking tour in the city centre and basilica Saint Antony of Padua. 

The tour lastet for 2h. 

 

 

 

 

We went into the church during service, so we were not allowed to take pictures from the service area. But the rest of the church was okay 👌🏻 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After visiting the basilica, the tour continued to the city centre on foot. It’s a large market area and Padua university. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ended the guided tour in the Jewish quarter of Padua. The synagogue is still located here. 

 

After the guided tour, we had 1.h free time for lunch or walking around. 

We had a little snack and a aperitif🥂

 

 

The travel time from Padua city centre to VCE airport is around 30.min. 

They dropped us of at departure and pointed out direction for each of our airlines areas. 

 

All in all a good tour and a nice way to kill some hours before a flight home in the afternoon. 

If your option is shuttle to VCE and arrive at the airport 8-9h before departure, don’t do it. You will have a hard time to find seat at the airport and you are not allowed to deliver/check in bags before 3h before departure. 

 

X should offer an option of mosaic in Ravenna+VCE/BOL transfer also. 

So you have an opportunity to pick your type of adventure. (I have docked in Ravenna as a port of call before and the mosaic is worth a visit) 

 

Until the shuttle service/prices are getting better, I will think twice before I will use Ravenna as a port of start or ending point of a cruise. 

This is not X fault only. 

Italian travel/tourist destinations should understand that when they terminated Venice as a cruise port, they need to have infrastructure to make the change to Ravenna more travel friendly and easy to reach the airport in either Bologna or Venice. 

 

I will answer out questions and give my verdict of Infinity tomorrow. 

 

Now it’s time to drop off the bag’s😌

[DaKahuna]

Alexandra thank you so much for doing this review.  I thoroughly enjoyed following along on your adventures with your mom.  Have a safe trip home to Mr and your felines. 

 

[southsidepride]

Thank you so much for sharing your adventure - and for checking out the GoPro for me! Your posts have made me even more excited to be on the infinity in August! Safe travels home!

[Silkroad]

Thanks so much for taking us along with you on your mother/daughter adventure! Wishing you safe travels home.

[bjahil47]

Thank you for your wonderful cruise review!  I loved the photos and commentary!

 

safe travels home Alexandra and Jarle aka The Queen!

 

[NBliving]

Thank you so much for posting your live blog.  I really enjoyed your "Queen inspired adventures" 🙂 We are on a cruise with a lot of Croatian ports next year so especially enjoyed that information.  I know Mr. and the cats will be happy to see you 💘 

[henry1005]

Thank you for sharing your trip with us. Your pictures are beautiful and it was nice to see you travel with your mom.

Safe travels home!

[nikel]

Thank you so much for this travelogue.  Your pictures and comments are so uplifting, especially to be revisiting places I have been in the past. I really enjoy following all your adventures, especially having the luxury of traveling with "the Queen"  Can't wait for your next one !! 

Have a safe trip home.....