Traveler

Voom is working ok , many tome it can slow but I can still upload photos, read my emails, connect to the work VPN and even participate in some conference calls via Skype for business. I will run some speed tests later although I know some ISP cheat with this test

Until now I tried periscoping using the Voom , as you can see the quality was quite low. Now I finally got normal cell data and it's much better . Will try to give Voom another chaance (and yes I got the surf and stream pakage). For now here is a nice view from the golden fox restaurant at Corfu https://www.pscp.tv/w/blOt8jF4TlFhYWthZUdhUWJ8MVprS3pOVnZxWUxLdiKFVZYUfunB40h0W0huBpKdKPuD035fUA1GScMhHhjR?t=1s

Long port day I will have the Kotor report later on today, currently at the Island Corfu. Can you see the heart ?

If you take the Greek Island cruise make sure Kotor is one of the stop and bring extra battery for your cammera. Although this route is missing Santorini

Can you recognize the ship ? 

Kotor Bay / fyord

Day 1 – Venice After waking up too early as it always happens on embarkation day we finish packing and I did not found my driver license which was quite stressing as one of my plans to the post cruise was to rent a car (which might be challenging without the driver license). After some nerve breaking minutes and almost giving up I found it stuck in the master electricity switch (the one you need to push a card so the lights will be enabled) , I guess I pushed it in when we just arrived instead of the room keys. We went down to eat at the hotel buffet (as practicing ourselves for the WJ) and went to complete the checkout. As I wrote before , we had a problem with the shuttle (it was just not there) but the hotel gave us a free ride to the port due as compensation and that’s why I booked the 9:30 shuttle and not the 10:30 , it proved itself. The port is not something special it contains several old terminals, there were 3 or 4 other ships beside the Rhapsody. Inside the terminal there are 3 lines , suites and pinnacles, Platinum up to diamond plus and all the rest. There were no lines when we arrived, and we got boarding ticket number 2, interesting no health form were required to be filed (which was good as my spouse is recovering from cold and we do not like to lie on the forms). Not like in many other ports the security is after you are being called to board. We set for about 10 minutes when they call our number at 10:45. Boarding was very quick and again no lines. Once again the main important @matt tip (well after using a TA) proved itself , always come early to start the cruise as soon as possible. We were boarding at the centrum and went directly to the internet “office” to get our WIFI code which we did not got while checking in. We conduct a quick tour at the ship and went to the solarium to rest until the WJ will open. The WJ opened around 11:15 , it was the usual first day food but no decorations or welcome cake, word of warning for the addicted people , no honey sting chicken. After lunch we went to the SPA tour to add ourselves to the raffle and to pass the time until the rooms will be opened. The rooms opened at 1:15 , on the way to the rooms we located our luggage which was nice. Quick unpacking , for two people there is enough space to store everything, the only thing I was missing were the open shelfs inside the cabinet. We successfully pushed one of the suitcases under the bad but the second one was just too big (although in other ships we could pushed it also) but there was enough space in the main cabinet to store it. Many hidden places to store stuff and the room is well organized. We also got a bottle of sparkling wine and some fruits to our room which was nice surprise As we were tired we decided to take a power nap before the muster drill, another benefits of being on a small ship, no many attractions you feel you should run and do on the first day to beat the crowds , so you can sleep ? The muster drill was one of the worse I was ever participate , they really packed us very tied, it was not that comfortable, I like at least to get to know someone before, have a coffee, go out to dinner or something before being so intimate with them … After the muster ended we went to try our luck in the SPA raffle , strange , but we did not won. The ship started to move so we went to deck 10 for the sale away, the ship is going around Venice and the sites are amazing. There were many people on the deck so I had to clime one of the chairs to periscope and take pictures. Few minutes after it started to rain so I went to the WJ and took some pictures out of the windows. Quickly it was the time to go to the main MDR were we seated at a table with 8 other people from different countries, one of them won the SPA raffle, it was very interesting chatting and time passed very quickly , food was very good, better than I remembered. As we were the only veteran cruisers ,I handed many tips (love to do it) like the fact you can choose to change your dish or even ask for several of them (people use it when we got the dessert). Post dinner we went to one of the game shows at the Centrum it was “finish that lyric”, fun to watch and try to see how many songs we know. Later we visit the Casino, sorry @JLMoran no crap tables but they enter some new machines ,very tied machines. I play some 3 card poker and for sure , once I lower my bet I got a strait flush, the dealer was more annoyed than me for the fact that one hand before I had more money, but I was happy for winning. As always for the first day we were very tired so went to sleep , after all we still have 6 more full days ahead of us.

Dinner time The food was excellent , we were in a table of 10 people from stound the world (South Africa, US, UK and us) , very interesting discussion and the service was fast and very good

For sure it's the nicest place I have sell away from .

Sailing out of Venice , my first periscope attempt so do not judge me ? https://www.pscp.tv/w/blFytjF4TlFhYWthZUdhUWJ8MU93eFdXTU52dk14UUczzw6DWO9jbY0Hz_TWvMcJLn_VB5Z1HZA0_ar6CzDo?t=1s

Succsfuly mark off two first day traditions ?

Thanks , you will enjoy it , just to learn avoiding the crowds and tourist trap Here some tips page we got from the tour guide

We are here

Cruise emergency pakage to take on board

Quick question, as it my first time attempting to periscope , how do I give the video a title ?

The day started with some issues , we booked a shuttle to 9:30 to go to the port. At 9:30 we found no shuttle , around 9:45 I asked the front desk were is the shuttle, the call the driver which apparently is a new one , he decided to leave as at 9:20 with one passenger . The front desk organized that we will be able to take the shuttle at 10 am ., For the inconvenience they gave us back the shuttle fee so it was a free ride , very nice of them We arrived to the port at 10:25 , boarded 10:45

The hotel we Stayed was the four point Mestre ,it as a very near by bus station to Venice and its about 10 minutes walk to a big mall , supermarket and train station. The hotel is quite new and has a modern look to it. We are glad we choose this hotel as the pre cruise hotel and not one of the hotel inside Venice as they are very expensive , hard to get to and many of them are quite old.

Some more Venice pictures I would not want to try and park my car at that street

Oh , if you have the Time mobile SIM some good news, it is working perfectly in Venice bother data and voice. Last cruise I had some problems with the data in Italy but now it's just working great.

It's 5 am at the morning and I can not sleep anymore , I can blame the sound of the rain and thunders , I can blame the one hour jet leg and I can blame many other things but we all know it's embarkation day. I scheduled the shuttle bus from the hotel (around 15 $ per person) to 9.30 am , it should bring us around 10 to the port. I sure hope the rain will stop as Venice port is one of nicer ports to sail from (the port locate very very close to the city). For this cruise we will have an ocean view stateroom. No drinking package as it's a very intensive port cruise so we will use the two bottles of wine we just bought at the supermarket some free drinks from the Casino, port drinks and pay as you go drinks. For dining it will be mainly WJ and the MDR with one reservation for the Chefs table. This is also going to be first time I will try to periscope , will publish the address if it will work. Well I will try to catch some more sleep (we all know how it will end)

The only reason we felt one day is enough because both my spouse and me wants to be on the ship already ? But yes for tasting one day is enough , maybe we will come again for more days now when we know were its good to stay and how to go around here.

No , although I spent many days in Montreal (love this city) I am not a Canadian (your really know Canadian with so many spelling and grammar errors ?) , it was not me to create the flag , if I would try to create my flag it would be more complicate ?

Day - 1 Venice , What I can say , one day in Venice is not enough ,specially if you want to avoid all the crowds. We started the day around 8 am , with a nice breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast was served as a buffet and contained lots of things to choose from. We went to the nearest supermarket to buy some wine for the ship and water. The supermarket is located near the train station and inside a huge mall with a small food court. We went back to the hotel to leave the wine and water at the room before heading down to catch the bus to Venice (the buss station is just outside the hotel and takes around 15 - 20 minutes until it bring you to Venice). Now , this one is for @Lovetocruise2002 ? , a typical tourist will make all the effort to maximize his time in Venice , so much to see show much to do , but not a Canadian tourist , he first need to take his time and show how he loves and adores Canada, so he use this huge pin board at the hotel , invest about an hour so everyone will know it : So we arrived to Venice main bus station (tickets are 3.5 $ both way) and bought a day pass to the water bus , the best way to sea around Venice is the water cancel and the ticket allows you to hop in hope out for a full 25 hours at the price of 25 $. Here are some pictures from the water bus. The famous bridge : We went out at ST Marco Square and walked around the street without any special direction How can we be in Venice without some Gondolas pictures : Later on we went to one of the squares to meet the tour we booked via the internet , its one of this free walking tour which you Tip as you wish at the end of the tour . the tour guide was very informative and shared allot of stories about the city and its people, the tour itself took place at the north part of Venice and was in a less touristic route which I liked.During the tour we went into this lovely church , not one of the famous of the cities but very butterball and impressive. At the end of the tour it was starting to rain and we had to catch the last bus back to the hotel , the tour guide told us its around 7 minutes to walk to the bus station and we had 20 minutes to do it so we were happy , gave her money (if it is a good tour I try to pay as I would pay to a regular tour) and went to the bus , after 25 minutes we saw we have 10 minute more to walk , well I guess it was 7 Italian minutes ? . We missed the bus so we had a good excuse to try the train which came on time , cost around 1.5 $ and brought us back to the mall area in 15 minutes. We took something to eat at the food court and came back to the hotel very tired but happy. Tomorrow embarkation day !

He cheats , he use the one that open by turning the cap :-)