This was one of the days we were looking forward to more than any other, on two counts. Firstly, the sail in to Venice is fantastic and meeting son Stewart, Manu and grandson Noah after a year, was also going to be precious.
Things didn’t quite go to plan!
We were awake before the 6:15am alarm and a quick peep out of the cabin and a step onto the balcony ascertained that it was wet! For once, the weather forecast seemed to be fairly accurate. It wasn’t too warm either, so I donned a sweat shirt for about the first time since Sydney, plus my rally jacket and we headed up on deck, via the HC for Paula, who grabbed a warming bowl of porridge and a drink of hot water and lemon whilst I tried to capture the cruise in. Pity there wasn’t much sun, or light, so not really conducive to good photographs, but a long, pleasant sail in anyway.
Afterwards, we returned to the HC and I grabbed a light snack, but was inwardly a bit too excited at meeting the family, so a cooked breakfast was out of the question. Fortunately, the rain faded and it was just overcast, the sun appearing later.
We knew Stewart and Manu were staying at the island of Lido – which we passed on the way in – on the port side. Right opposite our cabin, we could see the Lido car/passenger ferry dock, and I assumed that was where they would land. Wrong – oh so wrong… We were supposed to meet at 10:30am at Piazzale Roma, the vaporetto and bus station.
Bear in mind that last year, we were in Venice and caught our bus from the quay not far from the ship and where the Lido ferries arrive. I had originally suggested meeting at the monorail as a defined meeting point.
After a couple of ferries had come and gone and no phone call, we tried to text then call Manu’s mobile. No luck. By now it was about 11:15 so we decided we may as well head back to the ship and just as we started walking, we had a phone call to say they were at the monorail station! Yippee. They weren’t at the monorail station we were at… (There are only three.) Manu had managed to borrow a cell phone to make the call.
So, we paid our 1 Euro and boarded the monorail from Tronchetto which where we were, when the penny dropped. The mid station is the port and the other station (terminus) is Piazzale Roma…
So Paula hopped off at the port station and I said I’d carry on and meet her back there and hopefully we’d somehow catch up with the family at one or other station.
Fortunately, there they were at PR so a quick hug and new tickets and we reboarded the monorail and got off at the port. Yippee! All together at last. Apparently their vaporetto wasn’t the one that arrived where we were, but after a roundabout journey, they hadn’t arrived until 11am anyway.
For future cruisers, if you have your luggage with you, it is NOT a short walk to the terminal building.
Anyway, we made it to the terminal building and the officials made us wait 5 minutes or so, probably waiting for the scanner operator to return from tea break. Now of all the ports we have visited so far, I think this is probably only about the second time we needed to show our passports. Up to now, it was cruise card only. As this is part of the EU, plus we’d been in Italy earlier, I’m not sure why that was so.
Anyway, we managed to get through eventually, and of course, they had to ring up to see if our visitors were allowed through.
I need to explain here that it is NOT a Princess policy to allow visitors on board and I am not at liberty to say here how we managed to get permission. But we did – and we are so grateful to those who made it possible.
Once at the gangway, the visitors exchanged their passports for a visitor’s pass. Noah loved that!!! We took it off him and supplied him with a Dawn Nomad’s badge instead and then put the official pass aside for safe keeping.
First stop was the atrium for a welcome coffee and a warm greeting from bar supervisor Melldon and his great staff. Amazing. Carry a three year old around and everyone makes even more of a fuss than usual! Manu was a bit slower than I was with the coffee, so whilst she finished her coffee with Paula, I took Stewart for a mini ship’s tour, via deck 6 to the main deck, 7. We went up to the theatre at one end, right through to the Vista lounge at the other, then up to the cabin. We used the lift…
Paula and Manu joined us a few minutes later and Stewart handed over the goodies I’d requested, including a pack of dried peas (to make decent, genuine, authentic, real, mushy peas. I just hope neither Aussie nor NZ agriculture departments ban them. A risk we’ll just have to take), a copy of the Nottingham Post newspaper and some stuff requested by Jo and Ros. They also handed over a gift of their own that we’ll share with our table in a couple of days’ time. In return, I passed over my previous laptop, so weight for weight, I think I have a tiny bit of room left.
A visit to the Horizon Court was top of Stewart’s list (I really don’t know where he gets that from…) and Noah was also impressed – especially when he spied the cake selection. I wasn’t really too hungry (maintaining a tight control of my intake – much to Manu’s surprise) so it was just soup for me.
Suitable fed, we headed back to the cabin and it was time for Noah’s afternoon nap. Not so easy. The only way we could manage it was for Paula and Manu to sit out on the balcony, whilst two generations of Greens sandwiched generation three, feigning sleep, hoping he’d get the hint. He did - eventually, then Stewart and I sneaked out to the deck 15 sports court for a kick-about. Unfortunately, there were no footballs, just basket balls (they weigh too much to kick) and so after a few abortive potentially ankle wrecking kicks, we picked up the wooden paddles and whacked a tennis ball around instead.
It was at this point that I realised just how weak my wrists, arms and shoulders were, after the torn shoulder tendon of 2011 and the limited exercise since. When we return, I think I’ll have to get back to badminton, as my feet seemed somewhat reluctant to move too!
When Noah woke and with the sun shining, it was swim time for him and Stewart. After a few minutes and a dropping temperature, Paula crashed! There was no option other than bed rest. Whilst Stewart and Noah changed, I took Paula a bowl of soup, then the rest of us headed back to the Horizon Court for more fuel.
It goes without saying that they were suitably impressed and made the most of it – and Noah obviously likes cakes… I just had some pasta with a mix of tomato sauce and what was supposed to be a ‘vol au vent’ filling of chicken and mushroom in a cream sauce.
Rather reluctantly I escorted our visitors out about 8pm and made sure they had their passports. Noah’s parting words were I think, to the effect that he wanted to come to our house!
As soon as the family had gone, there was thunder, lightning and rain…
A mixed day obviously, but having missed out on Stewart growing up, I am very conscious that I am also now missing out on my grandson, so the joy of seeing the family for a few hours, was tinged with a lot of sadness when they left, that I can’t see them very often, hug them, help them with the house and be a major factor in Noah’s life. My own grandparents were all dead by the time I was 7 and going through all the family photographs (and there 1000’s), there are just a few of me with my paternal Grandmother, who died when I was 5, none of me with my maternal Grandmother who died when I was 4, and surprisingly, none with my paternal Grandfather, who died when I was 7. Thankfully, the digital age should at least capture a lot more of family life than had been possible before, especially as capturing it is now free and includes movies and sound.
Paula managed a jelly and we watched Tim Allen’s “Space Galaxy”, which was very light viewing and we crashed about 10:30pm.
An overnighter in Venice tonight, but with Paula needing to get well, we opted early to not go over to Lido to see the family before they returned to England, just in case we had problems and had no communications. Let’s see how things are tomorrow for Venice, day 2.
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