Somewhere Beyond the Sea...
Bon Voyage! We have set sail from Venice and our en route to Dubrovnik, Croatia, but I will catch you up on the happenings of the past 50 hours or so...
Packing the night before a month long cruise is one of the worst ideas possible. Packing the day of the flight is possibly worse.
Brooke and I woke up around 9am Wednesday morning and started shoving our clothes, shoes, and unnessecary things into our bags, believing them to be under the 50 pound weight limit. A few errands and very disgruntled US Bank employees later, we were on our way to the airport. We arrived to CVG one hour before our departure time, believing that to be enough time to get through what I thought was a small-ish airport. We could not have been more wrong. After being rushed through check-in, believing our plane was about to take off, we had to weigh our bags. Brooke weighed in at 56 pounds, and mine, The Hercules (a very fitting name), weighed in at 63 pounds! The man was not happy with me and said I must make it 50 pounds or pay $150 of my precious cruise money to get The Herc there. We both started grabbing and stuffing everything from formal dresses to plastic bags of underwear into any nook and/or cranny of our carry ons. Which reminds me that I must write to Vera Bradley and thank them for making such durable and flexible bags, so for all of you who criticize my addiction to them, they are very practical for situations like this and I refuse to give up on them now! :) Anyways, so we get to the security gate and are trying to force our Veras to zip, and its not happening. They somehow fit into the x-ray machine, but we have to stop every few minutes to gather the Disney Princess socks and teddy bears that have fallen out. We made it to our gate in the nick of time, but not in enough time to claim one of the coveted large overhead bins, so the Veras took up all of our leg room. Brooke and I got to sit next to each other after a nice young gent who was next to me agreed to switch with Brooke. We were finally able to relax and stop sweating, hence vaction mode had begun. Brooke and I experienced complimentary, juice box wine and attemped to sleep, but failed miserably.
After the longest 7 and a half hours of my life, we arrived in Paris. And vacation mode was not actually in place yet. We had an hour to get from one side of the airport to the other, to go through customs, and security again. The man at security thought I spoke French because of my near perfect pronunciation of "bonjour," but when he asked if I had a laptop or camera in my bag and I couldn't understand, he just looked at me like the dumb American I am. Anyways, we got to the gate as they were boarding...again...and this time we got overhead storage so we could stretch our legs a bit. I sat next to and chatted with some honeymooning newlyweds from DC - Danielle and Todd - and it turns out they were on our cruise too, but only until we got to Rome. We found out that we somehow booked a double cruise or something like that and most of the people would be getting off after 12 days.
We landed in Venice a short hour later and claimed our bags and walked out into the fresh Italian air. It felt so nice to be back home, and it felt as if I had never left. The air had such a familiar warmth to it and the language actually didn't seem so foreign any more. We got a taxi and I discovered how much I did not miss their insane driving. We swerved in and out of semis and other crazy Italian cars and Vespas, but made it to the port safely. They took our bags right out of the taxi and right on to the ship and we went to explore the bustling, beautiful city of Venice...on foot...for 6 hours. My feet have never hurt so much, but it was nice to see everything when it was sunny and warm and nice, and when I didn't need a sweatshirt and a winter coat on. We wandered through the maze of sidewalks and colorful street vendors shouting anything to get our attention. We ate lunch on the Grand Canal, right by the Rialto and had caprese and quattro formaggi pizza. I forgot how much I love Italian pizza. I swear I will never eat another kind ever again. We dragged our poor feet and sunburnt lobster faces back to the dock and boarded the Crown Princess. We had a few hours before Jessica was supposed to meet us, and since we hadn't slept in over 24 hours and our feet felt as if someone had beaten them with a baseball bat as Brooke put it, we found our room on the Plaza Deck 5 and passed out. We were suddenly awoken four hours later by our hall staff member, a nice Italian man whose name I cannot remember at the moment, when he knocked on our door to check if we were eating and if Jessica had arrived. It turns out she had, but had been wandering aimlessly around the ship trying to find our room. After we got her settled in, it was time for dinner. We sat with an elderly couple from England who had been married for so long the woman forgot how many years they had been married and another newlywed coupld from Montreal. Each couples' story of how they met nearly had all three of us girls in tears, both of laughter (the Canadian man had been asking the woman out for over 5 years before she agreed to go on a date with him) and of happiness, I guess is the word, for the couples. It was just too cute. And the dessert was to die for - flourless chocolate cake. Yummmm.... :)
We tried exploring the ship a bit, but we were so worn out physically and mentally, we ended up in our room, not able to sleep until 3am. To help pass the time, Brooke and I unpacked and organized our combined 119 pounds of, for lack of a better word, crap in our room. We counted outfits, just to see how many weighed so much, and in this competition Brooke came out the winner with 45 outfits, not including formal wear. I had 25 outfits, so needless to say, we will not be repeating outfits this entire month! Oops... ;)
Our alarm went off far too early at 7am, but we showered and ate breakfast and prepared to show Jessica the sights, smells and sounds of Venice in only two hours. We were wise today and used a water taxi shuttle to Piazza San Marco so we wouldn't waste much time. And we wore much more comfortable shoes. After hitting the major sites and walking through the food market, we got back on the taxi and back to the ship for embarkation.
We sat next to a window for lunch and watched Venice go by and then explored the ship. Brooke and Jessica are currently passed out, and we have a champagne waterfall and formal night tonight, so it should be exciting. I'll write some more about the ship tomorrow and post more pictures, but for now, this will have to do! Arrivederci amici! :)
Packing the night before a month long cruise is one of the worst ideas possible. Packing the day of the flight is possibly worse.
Brooke and I woke up around 9am Wednesday morning and started shoving our clothes, shoes, and unnessecary things into our bags, believing them to be under the 50 pound weight limit. A few errands and very disgruntled US Bank employees later, we were on our way to the airport. We arrived to CVG one hour before our departure time, believing that to be enough time to get through what I thought was a small-ish airport. We could not have been more wrong. After being rushed through check-in, believing our plane was about to take off, we had to weigh our bags. Brooke weighed in at 56 pounds, and mine, The Hercules (a very fitting name), weighed in at 63 pounds! The man was not happy with me and said I must make it 50 pounds or pay $150 of my precious cruise money to get The Herc there. We both started grabbing and stuffing everything from formal dresses to plastic bags of underwear into any nook and/or cranny of our carry ons. Which reminds me that I must write to Vera Bradley and thank them for making such durable and flexible bags, so for all of you who criticize my addiction to them, they are very practical for situations like this and I refuse to give up on them now! :) Anyways, so we get to the security gate and are trying to force our Veras to zip, and its not happening. They somehow fit into the x-ray machine, but we have to stop every few minutes to gather the Disney Princess socks and teddy bears that have fallen out. We made it to our gate in the nick of time, but not in enough time to claim one of the coveted large overhead bins, so the Veras took up all of our leg room. Brooke and I got to sit next to each other after a nice young gent who was next to me agreed to switch with Brooke. We were finally able to relax and stop sweating, hence vaction mode had begun. Brooke and I experienced complimentary, juice box wine and attemped to sleep, but failed miserably.
After the longest 7 and a half hours of my life, we arrived in Paris. And vacation mode was not actually in place yet. We had an hour to get from one side of the airport to the other, to go through customs, and security again. The man at security thought I spoke French because of my near perfect pronunciation of "bonjour," but when he asked if I had a laptop or camera in my bag and I couldn't understand, he just looked at me like the dumb American I am. Anyways, we got to the gate as they were boarding...again...and this time we got overhead storage so we could stretch our legs a bit. I sat next to and chatted with some honeymooning newlyweds from DC - Danielle and Todd - and it turns out they were on our cruise too, but only until we got to Rome. We found out that we somehow booked a double cruise or something like that and most of the people would be getting off after 12 days.
We landed in Venice a short hour later and claimed our bags and walked out into the fresh Italian air. It felt so nice to be back home, and it felt as if I had never left. The air had such a familiar warmth to it and the language actually didn't seem so foreign any more. We got a taxi and I discovered how much I did not miss their insane driving. We swerved in and out of semis and other crazy Italian cars and Vespas, but made it to the port safely. They took our bags right out of the taxi and right on to the ship and we went to explore the bustling, beautiful city of Venice...on foot...for 6 hours. My feet have never hurt so much, but it was nice to see everything when it was sunny and warm and nice, and when I didn't need a sweatshirt and a winter coat on. We wandered through the maze of sidewalks and colorful street vendors shouting anything to get our attention. We ate lunch on the Grand Canal, right by the Rialto and had caprese and quattro formaggi pizza. I forgot how much I love Italian pizza. I swear I will never eat another kind ever again. We dragged our poor feet and sunburnt lobster faces back to the dock and boarded the Crown Princess. We had a few hours before Jessica was supposed to meet us, and since we hadn't slept in over 24 hours and our feet felt as if someone had beaten them with a baseball bat as Brooke put it, we found our room on the Plaza Deck 5 and passed out. We were suddenly awoken four hours later by our hall staff member, a nice Italian man whose name I cannot remember at the moment, when he knocked on our door to check if we were eating and if Jessica had arrived. It turns out she had, but had been wandering aimlessly around the ship trying to find our room. After we got her settled in, it was time for dinner. We sat with an elderly couple from England who had been married for so long the woman forgot how many years they had been married and another newlywed coupld from Montreal. Each couples' story of how they met nearly had all three of us girls in tears, both of laughter (the Canadian man had been asking the woman out for over 5 years before she agreed to go on a date with him) and of happiness, I guess is the word, for the couples. It was just too cute. And the dessert was to die for - flourless chocolate cake. Yummmm.... :)
We tried exploring the ship a bit, but we were so worn out physically and mentally, we ended up in our room, not able to sleep until 3am. To help pass the time, Brooke and I unpacked and organized our combined 119 pounds of, for lack of a better word, crap in our room. We counted outfits, just to see how many weighed so much, and in this competition Brooke came out the winner with 45 outfits, not including formal wear. I had 25 outfits, so needless to say, we will not be repeating outfits this entire month! Oops... ;)
Our alarm went off far too early at 7am, but we showered and ate breakfast and prepared to show Jessica the sights, smells and sounds of Venice in only two hours. We were wise today and used a water taxi shuttle to Piazza San Marco so we wouldn't waste much time. And we wore much more comfortable shoes. After hitting the major sites and walking through the food market, we got back on the taxi and back to the ship for embarkation.
We sat next to a window for lunch and watched Venice go by and then explored the ship. Brooke and Jessica are currently passed out, and we have a champagne waterfall and formal night tonight, so it should be exciting. I'll write some more about the ship tomorrow and post more pictures, but for now, this will have to do! Arrivederci amici! :)
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