Day 6 – Venice

Today we get on the ship…finally!   This is the day for which we have been planning for a year and a half. 

Breakfast at the hotel, finished packing and by 11 AM we were out the door.  First stop, pick up our the luggage we left at the Baggage DropOff Store.  Then right next door is the People Mover.  This is a monorail type train that takes you directly from the Piazzale Roma to the Port.  One euro each for a short three minute ride, but well worth it considering it costs upwards of 20 euro to take a cab or it’s a 30 minute walk.  When we got off the People Mover, Princess had a shuttle bus to take us right to baggage drop off and check in.  Check-in and embarkation/security check went very smooth. By 12:05 we were on the ship and in our cabin – Caribe 436 – 5 minutes later!  

The Ruby Princess is beautiful.  We spent about an hour wandering around the ship, just getting our bearings.  While most of the ship is familiar to us, some areas such as Crooners Piano Bar and the Wheelhouse Lounge have a very different look and are in a different location from previous Princess ships that we have been on.  

We headed off to lunch at the buffet and enjoyed some of Princess’ delicious food.  Then it was off the ship, dragging our small wheeled carryon to head back to the Piazzale Roma and the Coop supermarket to buy Diet Coke for Bill for his Bacardi & Coke  (yes we smuggled rum onto the ship…shhhhh) and wine for me.  We simply put the case of soda and the wine in the carryon and easily rolled it back to the ship.

When we returned to our cabin, our suitcases had been delivered.  We unpacked and settled in to our home for the next 19 days!!  Small, but comfortable, we will need to learn how to share the space to keep out of each other’s way!!

Of course, the next big decision was, “What should we do for dinner?”!!  Since it was our last night in Venice and we hadn’t been to Piazza San Marco in the evening, it was a no brainer.  We took the ship’s water taxi direct to St. Mark’s Square from the port which was a pleasure after the crowded vaporettos. 

The square, like the rest of Venice, is magical in the evening.  The crowds are gone, the bands are playing…it is a just beautiful!  We shared one last pizza with beer and wine just outside the square and enjoyed the ambiance of Venice.

Back on the ship, we checked the Princess Patter to see what entertainment was available.  Ahhh…the Venice Chamber Orchestra was playing at 10:15 pm.  That meant we had time to head to Crooners Martini Bar for a drink  (Time for my favorite…a Flamingo Martini…yum.)  The piano player/singer has a voice like Barry White and is very, very good.  We ran into our friends Lynne & Jim and shared a drink with them.

Off to the Princess Theater at 10:00 to see the show.  Wow…they were excellent!  Since we are in Venice they played 15 minutes of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.  The first chair violinist truly made the pieces come alive!  They also played some Mozart, some Strauss and then one or two other composers.  What a wonderful way to end our first evening on the ship!