Splendour of the Seas cruise from Venice on 9 June 2012
Day 1 -
On board by lunchtime and decided to take a quick look at Venice before ship sailed.
On return to port, security would not allow us to pass without photo ID.
In rush to get into Venice had not read the cruise news which said to take passport.
Had to leave my wife with them and rush to cabin to get passports !
Late afternoon- my suitcase not delivered to cabin.
Check with Reception who say maybe label is missing and go to deck 2 where unidentified bags are held.
Get there and find that my bag along with others have been held because prohibited items
have shown up when bags were scanned - in my case a pair of scissors !
These were held and returned to me at end of cruise.
Day 4 - Santorini
Arrive on shore by tender and take cable car to Fira (Thira)
After wonderful time looking around join queue in blazing sun to get cable car back down
only to be told after some minutes that it has broken down !
Concerned about getting back to the ship, people start leaving queue and say they are walking down so (big mistake !) decide to follow them.
After walking down 600 steps in the blazing sun over shiny cobbles past donkeys hurtling past in both directions and avoiding the donkey 'do'
eventually arrive back at the bottom to get tender back to ship.
One to add to the list of travel experiences -
BTW - as we were walking down we saw the cable car was working again !
Day 8 - return to Venice and the hell that is the departures hall of Marco Polo Airport.
Were told the airport was very busy so were left in a pleasant outdoor area and told to go to departures 2 hours before takeoff.
When we did we entered a mass of people with queues winding in all directions.
On reaching check-in were told there were no seats left together so my wife and I were in different rows.
Lessons learnt -
Read the information first
Carry photo ID
Think before acting on impulse
and maybe next time take a no-fly cruise from the UK !
BTW - loved the ship and the cruise !
