Semi-Live Voyager for 33 nights beginning May 1, 2024

[little britain]

Not wanting to kick you off but…Could you please share the Ravenna shuttle options and prices please? Looking for the cost/times to Bologna centre/ train station 🚉 if they offer it this year! 
thanks x

Edited June 3 by little britain

[RocCruisers]

4 hours ago, little britain said:

Not wanting to kick you off but…Could you please share the Ravenna shuttle options and prices please? Looking for the cost/times to Bologna centre/ train station 🚉 if they offer it this year! 
thanks x

We got off Explorer on May 25 in Ravenna.  We pre-purchased the transfer to Bologna train station for $30us pp. That day, there were three different departure tag numbers that went there at 7:15, 8:15 or 9:30.  

[dani negreanu]

24 minutes ago, RocCruisers said:

We got off Explorer on May 25 in Ravenna.  We pre-purchased the transfer to Bologna train station for $30us pp. That day, there were three different departure tag numbers that went there at 7:15, 8:15 or 9:30.  

 

Thank you!!! Your quick and detailed reply is much appreciated. The 9:30 departure will be ideal for us 😎

[little britain]

2 hours ago, RocCruisers said:

We got off Explorer on May 25 in Ravenna.  We pre-purchased the transfer to Bologna train station for $30us pp. That day, there were three different departure tag numbers that went there at 7:15, 8:15 or 9:30.  

Perfect - thanks !

[xpcdoojk]

I am glad that RocCruisers replied, because this is the first time I have logged into CC for a few days.  You know how it is on a port intensive cruise where you are in port the last 3 days in a row, and you have to figure out how to pack everything up after 34 nights (1 pre cruise).  For those wondering how close Ravenna is to Venice it is not close.  I, personally would not do a flight from Venice much before 3 or 4 PM we chose 7PM which is probably a bit too risk adverse.  If we weren't so burnt out, they have really improved that airport since we were last there in 2004.  Lots of shops a bit light on restaurant options, but not bad.  

 

jc

[Ocean Boy]

Seems like the time went by pretty fast. When do you get home? I'm glad the bang to your head never became an issue.

[xpcdoojk]

Kotor, Montenegro is a lovely little walled city in the old town.  I believe most of this area is medieval of Venetian design.  

 

Sailing in (and out) as I mentioned looks like you are in a fjord.  It is not, but visually very hard to tell the difference.  We booked a tour thru RCI pre-cruise, and we visited the Lady of the Rocks Church in Perast (about 15-20 minute bus ride) after a short boat ride.  It is an interesting church located on an island several hundred yards from the dock in Perast. After we had free time in town, which doesn't have a lot of shops or that much to see, we spent most of our time having a lunch at a small restaurant on the street front with a couple of decent local wines. After we got back on the bus to go back to the pier, the tour included a walking tour of the old town (which is where the ship is docked).  It had rained while we were having lunch (good timing) and it started trying to rain some more in Kotor, so we quickly handed in our radios to the tour guide and went off on our own.  Krystal had bought some VOPE jewelry on our last cruise to Aruba, so we went off looking for a Dameo Jewelry store, that supposedly carried that line.  We found two stores in the wandering narrow streets and neither store had heard of it.  😆  Yay!  Money saved! China Ching!

 

At this point we have seen so much of the same tourist stuff that we are completely uninterested in most of it.  So, after about 90 minutes we headed back to the ship.  

 

On another point Kotor is full of cats including a large courtyard in the old city with dozens if not over a 100 cats with boxes and food bowls everywhere.  Krystal misses her cat and takes lots of cat pictures.  

 

Since, I am home I can somewhat easily add some photos.  

 

Kotor old walls 

 

 

 

[xpcdoojk]

Perast, Montenegro

 

[xpcdoojk]

Kotor 

[xpcdoojk]

Sailing out of Kotor Bay heading to next port of Split Croatia.

 

 

[xpcdoojk]

5 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Seems like the time went by pretty fast. When do you get home?

landed here yesterday at 2:20PM.  Went to the grocery store and Sam's while the lovely and hard working Krystal did laundry.  Got to Sam's her car was about out of gas, and they had all pumps closed, parked to go into Sam's realized my wallet was downsized during the cruise and all of the regular life cards were still at home.  So, after parking went back home to get said cards.  😜  

 

Bought a rotisserie chicken and lots of stuff to hopefully eat healthier for a while, ate dinner at 5PM watched, an episode of Survivor, fell asleep on the sofa, before it ended.  Krystal went to the neighbors to give them some Garrett's popcorn we bought at O'Hare for picking up our mail and to get the mail, but I had no clue.  (I need to sort thru that mess).  I went to bed and slept like a dead person until 1:47AM... woke up, tried to go back to sleep and came downstairs, to do bill paying online, load the last of photos on my Mac, made coffee, and now posting to you all.  

 

jc

[xpcdoojk]

Split Croatia, is a really well preserved Roman town (old town).  The city is pretty much intact from those times (it is better preserved than almost anything in Rome).  We again did a RCI tour, which started with a drive of about 45 minutes to go up the Cetine River in the town of Omis.  We then had about 45 minutes in the old town (since it was Sunday morning, other than a few small shops and restaurants everything was closed.  Another nice walled city, again, I believe Venetian.  We wandered the streets and then back to the meeting point.  Got on a small wooden boat and took a 45 minute ride up the lovely river.  We passed a bunch of little fishing houses and platforms on the side of the river.  I could see trout in the river when we got to shallower water up river a bit.  We passed under a bridge with tunnels on both side, saw people rock climbing, and doing a zip line on the ride.  Eventually, we arrived at a restaurant on the side of the river where they served us a light red and white wine, sparkling water, bread, cheese and prosciutto.  Took advantage of the bathroom before heading back to Split in the bus.  

 

Split, as I mentioned is an amazingly well preserved Roman city. By far the best I have seen.  It was built starting in 283AD by a Roman emperor (not going to butcher his name but it started with a D who built his ruling city in Split).  We did the 45 minute walking tour with the very enthusiastic guide (who clearly loves his city).  After we had a lovely gelato and Krystal bought a dress in a little shop.  Then walked back to the ship for about a 10-15 minute walk.  

 

Pictures of Omis and the Cetine River and our enthusiastic guide with the hat with the black band.  Krystal wished we had done the zip line. 

 

Edited June 5 by xpcdoojk

[xpcdoojk]

Split old town.  See what I mean?

 

 

[xpcdoojk]

Last day of the cruise, was Tuesday morning, we had to meet for a 7:15 tour called Padua with airport drop off. I bought it pre cruise after booking our flights home about 330 days ago.  The tour I think was slightly discounted, and cost $170 pp.  I knew nothing of Padua just knew it would drop us at the airport after the cruise.  

 

So, off to the star lounge to wait for the cruise after the final WJ breakfast.  Got the call to go claim luggage about 7:30AM.  Our group was pretty small about 25 people, and our luggage tag 45 was all together so very easy to collect.  We had a bus guide, and it started me thinking why did most of the other 20 some people book this tour?  The bus tour guide was offering to call hotels and make arrangements for people who were taking this tour to drop them off at Marco Polo airport, but they were not flying home immediately, they were going to spend time in Venice.  Surely, there were options that would take you to at least the train station in Venice or the bus parking lot?  He went thru the bus on the 90 plus minute ride talking to everyone on the bus to help them confirm or make lodging or transportation decisions.  At this point, I concluded people are insane and I am on a bus of them.😜  

 

The drive was about an hour in, when one passenger told the bus guide that he needed the bathroom, we stopped at a bus parking area with small shops, bar, and a toilet with a line 3 buses long.  We wandered, and I took pictures of a lovely vineyard next door.  

[xpcdoojk]

Back on the bus, and within a few miles the bus came to a halt, and traffic stopped whizzing by.  The bus guide finally tells us that there is an accident further up the road.  We didn't move an inch for about 30 minutes.  While we were stopped an older lady on a practical bicycle passed us.   we passed her about 5 times after we started moving slowly for the next 30 minutes.  The bus guide was telling us it was a good thing we stopped at the bathroom.  I was thinking if we hadn't spent 20 minutes there we might have missed the accident stoppage, or at least have been closer to it with less time working around it.  😆

 

We reached Padua and apparently there were two buses of insane people who booked this tour, so we were given the option (it was lunch time now) of doing the full tour with no break for free time or a shorter tour with 50 minutes of free time.  4 of the insane people on our bus chose the full tour.  I was very impressed with Padua and in particular the cathedral dedicated to St. Anthony.  We are not Catholic, but nobody does cathedrals better.  This particular one was about as spectacular that we have visited.  Our tour guide (not bus guide) was, again very proud of her city (a general trend, I think all the guides are related to Donald Trump as every place is the best, largest or most spectacular of all🤣.  We walked by the tomb of St. Anthony, and the faithful touched the tomb (he is renowned for healing), then we visited the relics chapel, which was pretty spectacular.  Apparently, about 30 years after his sainthood in the 13th century a bishop opened his tomb and found his tongue, larynx, and jaw completely intact without any sign of decomposition.  This was supposedly proof that St. Anthony was a miracle.  The skeptic in me (and boy am I😆) wonders if the bishop actually found this or just displayed it.  What I mean is did they do genetic and other testing to verify it was St. Anthony's parts or that the items were 30 years deceased. (sorry don't mean to offend, that is the problem with miracles for skeptics) Regardless, of a miracle or not, they have enshrined these items inside glass inside a massive display.  Which regardless of the miracle it is amazing to look at an over 700 year old anatomical item.  The church is very beautiful, and I highly recommend a visit.  

 

The city is home to a major university of 70,000 plus students (per tour guide).  The list of former professors is amazing including Galileo.  The tour ended we searched for a bakery, or restaurant to get a takeaway lunch. We struggled to find anything simple, but we did find a coffee shop that would rival anything in Vienna (my standard for coffee shops) with prices to match.  We finally found a small shop and had a couple of sandwiches and a coke.  These were probably the worst food we found on the whole trip doing these kind of lunches while on tour.  Not horrible, but we would not order these again.  

 

Got back to the meeting point and rejoined the bus.  About 30 minutes later we were dropped at the airport.  One problem was we arrived around 3PM, but couldn't check in until 4:30PM so we found a bar and had a couple of Aperol Spritz.  Check in was a bit of a mess, as the young ticket agent, completely stripped the backs off the tags so the tags stuck to the handles, and required me to cut them off later.  Then we had to explain what my bag with my FlowRider board was.  She then declared it was oversized, and instead of having someone from the airline pick it up, she directed me to the opposite end of the large terminal to drop the bag after she attached the tags.  So, another long walk.  Our 7:30 PM flight was about an hour in the air and we arrived in Frankfurt at 9PM.  

 

We made the mistake of taking the train where or hotel the Hyatt Place was located at the first stop.  It was on track one and while I could find an elevator that took us down to tracks 2 and 3, after a long search I couldn't find one.  The tickets were reasonable 2.25 euro each way pp.  I finally just bit the bullet and lugged luggage down the stairs (not good).  Checked in and we were offered the regular breakfast at 30euro pp for 15 euro pp, if we booked now.  We declined as we were planning on being out of the hotel by 6AM (when breakfast started).  We were given two vouchers for beer, wine or soft drinks at the bar.  We went to the room, dumped the luggage and then took the elevator down and got two wines that we finished in the room. The alarm hit hard at 4:45AM.  

 

Dressed and showered, I booked an Uber for 18euro (since I have the Amex platinum card I get $15 a month of Uber free).  So, we are standing inside the hotel lobby with our luggage with multiple taxi's parked in front.  One came in and offered to take us, and I said we already had an Uber booked, he insisted for a while.  I found this a bit uncomfortable, and I am surprised a hotel like Hyatt allows this.  Anyway the driver arrived in a few minutes and off to the airport. 

 

At the airport we checked in and deposited the luggage, went off to do the tax refund process which is a complete scam as they make it very challenging to actually get your VAT back.  The customs office before security was closed, when it opened at 7AM they directed us to the customs on the other side of security.  Why have both?  Stupid, brilliantly evil system invented by government.  After security we found the next customs office after a short wait we finally got the stamps and deposited the envelops in the box next door.  Who knows if I will get a $50-60 refund on my credit card.  I, honestly, look at reclaiming VAT as a waste of time and effort with only a marginal chance of getting your money back.  

 

Thru security, then a breakfast of a cherry pastry and a water.  We really will be cutting bread off the menu here at home for a bit.  The food in economy plus on United was pretty good as the omelet, potatoes, spinach and muffin served an hour into our flight was one of the best tasting meals we had for breakfast on the whole trip.  Which says something about my general toleration of food in the WJ.  

 

jc

Edited June 5 by xpcdoojk

[xpcdoojk]

Padua and cathedral pix.

 

[xpcdoojk]

Ponta Delgado, Azores Portugal pictures.

 

 

[xpcdoojk]

Malaga Spain

 

 

[xpcdoojk]

Sorry for the delayed pictures, but it is just so much more tolerable for me to do it from home with super fast internet.  The internet in our cabin at the aft 9390, had virtually no internet in the cabin, but you could surf on the balcony.  Our second cabin 1878 had internet better but not awesome in the cabin, and none on the deck.  Which is nuts.  

 

Here are pix from Valencia, Spain specifically La Pepica paella restaurant. Plus a view of our future transportation choice.   

 

 

[xpcdoojk]

Barcelona, Spain the day of an insane amount of steps.  Sagrada Familia is so beautiful and unique amongst Baroque cathedrals.

 

 

[xpcdoojk]

Villefranche and Nice, France, pix.

 

The Tour de France, finishes in the checkerboard square in Nice this year due to the Olympics in Paris (which seems appropriate).  F1 Merch shops.  Pictures of me surfing compliments to Dale for taking them.  🤣

[xpcdoojk]

Rome, Italy pix another insane walking day.  The last time 2004 we were at the Trevi fountain, I took a picture of Krystal and Sue throwing coins over their shoulders into the fountain with like 2 other people in the photo.  This trip we couldn't get close to the fountain without effort we were not willing to put out!🤣

 

 

Edited June 5 by xpcdoojk

[xpcdoojk]

Naples, Sorrento, Salerno and Amalfi Italy pictures. The pictures of a house and a cave with a building inside are of the villa we rented in 2004 and the monastery on the cliff above.  Great memories to see it from the motor launch.  

[xpcdoojk]

The box O mail. About 6 inches left after grabbing a small stack of actual important mail🤣jk

Edited June 5 by xpcdoojk

[xpcdoojk]

Surfing past Stromboli, Straits of Messina, the door to our cabin on May 20. We were eating lunch in the MDR when we entered the straights of Messina, and boy could you fell the ship turn.  Seemed like as much of a turn as I can ever remember at relative high speed.