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Day 2: Kotor, Montenegro
Today was a day to sleep in a little bit after staying up so late last night. Everyone got ready and we headed to breakfast at WJ. All week we were impressed with the selection and quality of the breakfast, and we never left hungry. Last night the Cruise Compass said that tender tickets were going to be distributed starting at 9:30, but the cruise director announced 9:45 at the show. So I planned to get to the ticket distro early to try to get off the ship as soon as we could. I had arranged a private driver/guide for a tour of the local area, and wanted to get there as soon as possible. BUT, while eating breakfast, my wife asked me when the tickets were being handed out, and when I looked at my watch and saw 9:43, I immediately sprinted out of WJ for deck 6. Too late, as I got tender 14 tickets.
I must admit I knew nothing of Kotor, except for the pictures in @Traveler's blog. So at least we knew to be on deck to see the approach through the "Southern-most fjord in Europe." And it was worth it.

Scheduled first tender was 1:30, but it seemed like they started calling later than that. About the time they called the first tender, I turned on my phone, and already had a message from the driver asking where we were. Tenders tickets were sloooowly called, and I got more and more upset about not getting earlier tickets. At one point, I had to go for a cooling walk around the Promenade deck to gather myself. At 2:45, ticket 14 was finally called and we made our way ashore. After walking a little bit from the terminal, we met our driver and went out of our tour.
The first stop was Perast, home of the Our Lady of the Rocks church, in the middle of the bay. We opted not to go to the church, hoping to save a little time since the sun was going to set soon, and we wanted to see all that we could after losing an hour of time. Instead, we did a quick walk through the old town, which was so picturesque and cute. My wife found a little vender of pomegranate wine along the way, so we stopped to try it and buy a bottle.



From there, we drove back through Kotor and up the Serpentine Road above the city. The views from up there were absolutely breathtaking, and we stopped at two elevations for pictures and to admire the view. Our driver was very personable and talkative. He gave us a history of the former Yugoslav republics and an overview of Montenegro, which I knew little about. He also was more than willing to take all the pictures of us that we wanted, a bonus since we never seem to have pics of our whole family while we travel.
 
Rhapsody of the Seas and Riviera Princess in Kotor Bay

After taking several, several family pictures and various combinations of selfies and daughters, we headed back down the mountain to Kotor town. The sun had set by this time, and our driver dropped us off at the main gate into the Old Town. From there we were on our own. Kotor is a walled city, and is just a maze of small streets and alleyways. It was pretty all lit up at night, and the city walls extended up the hillside to a castle high about the town, which also was lit and looked a lot like torch light above us. We probably spent about an hour wandering the town, stopping into shops and churches, and just enjoying the evening.

With that, our stomachs told us it was time to head back to the ship and get dinner. We timed the return tender just right, and didn't have to wait at all to return. I'm too honest and surrendered our wine as we reboarded. We dropped our stuff at the room and went up to dinner. Our 7 year old wasn't feeling good, so my wife and I took turns staying in the room with her, while we dropped the younger two off at the kids club and my wife and oldest went to the Ballroom Fever show in the theater. When the girls got back from Adventure Ocean, they were so excited to show us their crafts and art work from the evening, and we started our collection of "treasures" that took up about 1/4 of a suitcase on the way home. All in all, it was a low key night, and we turned in around 10 or so.
Our impression of Kotor was pretty good. It was so pretty, and had so much natural beauty. I was (and still am) upset about my tender ticket miscue, so we missed out on about an hour of our tour due to that. Also, with the ship arriving in the afternoon, our touring time was shortened by the early sunset, too. I would have loved to walk the walls, but there was no way we were getting our girls up without complaining/leaving one up there.
Tonight was a time change +1 hour for Greek time, and tomorrow was Corfu.
 

Day 2: Kotor, Montenegro
Today was a day to sleep in a little bit after staying up so late last night. Everyone got ready and we headed to breakfast at WJ. All week we were impressed with the selection and quality of the breakfast, and we never left hungry. Last night the Cruise Compass said that tender tickets were going to be distributed starting at 9:30, but the cruise director announced 9:45 at the show. So I planned to get to the ticket distro early to try to get off the ship as soon as we could. I had arranged a private driver/guide for a tour of the local area, and wanted to get there as soon as possible. BUT, while eating breakfast, my wife asked me when the tickets were being handed out, and when I looked at my watch and saw 9:43, I immediately sprinted out of WJ for deck 6. Too late, as I got tender 14 tickets.
I must admit I knew nothing of Kotor, except for the pictures in @Traveler's blog. So at least we knew to be on deck to see the approach through the "Southern-most fjord in Europe." And it was worth it.

Scheduled first tender was 1:30, but it seemed like they started calling later than that. About the time they called the first tender, I turned on my phone, and already had a message from the driver asking where we were. Tenders tickets were sloooowly called, and I got more and more upset about not getting earlier tickets. At one point, I had to go for a cooling walk around the Promenade deck to gather myself. At 2:45, ticket 14 was finally called and we made our way ashore. After walking a little bit from the terminal, we met our driver and went out of our tour.
The first stop was Perast, home of the Our Lady of the Rocks church, in the middle of the bay. We opted not to go to the church, hoping to save a little time since the sun was going to set soon, and we wanted to see all that we could after losing an hour of time. Instead, we did a quick walk through the old town, which was so picturesque and cute. My wife found a little vender of pomegranate wine along the way, so we stopped to try it and buy a bottle.



From there, we drove back through Kotor and up the Serpentine Road above the city. The views from up there were absolutely breathtaking, and we stopped at two elevations for pictures and to admire the view. Our driver was very personable and talkative. He gave us a history of the former Yugoslav republics and an overview of Montenegro, which I knew little about. He also was more than willing to take all the pictures of us that we wanted, a bonus since we never seem to have pics of our whole family while we travel.
 
Rhapsody of the Seas and Riviera Princess in Kotor Bay

After taking several, several family pictures and various combinations of selfies and daughters, we headed back down the mountain to Kotor town. The sun had set by this time, and our driver dropped us off at the main gate into the Old Town. From there we were on our own. Kotor is a walled city, and is just a maze of small streets and alleyways. It was pretty all lit up at night, and the city walls extended up the hillside to a castle high about the town, which also was lit and looked a lot like torch light above us. We probably spent about an hour wandering the town, stopping into shops and churches, and just enjoying the evening.

With that, our stomachs told us it was time to head back to the ship and get dinner. We timed the return tender just right, and didn't have to wait at all to return. I'm too honest and surrendered our wine as we reboarded. We dropped our stuff at the room and went up to dinner. Our 7 year old wasn't feeling good, so my wife and I took turns staying in the room with her, while we dropped the younger two off at the kids club and my wife and oldest went to the Ballroom Fever show in the theater. When the girls got back from Adventure Ocean, they were so excited to show us their crafts and art work from the evening, and we started our collection of "treasures" that took up about 1/4 of a suitcase on the way home. All in all, it was a low key night, and we turned in around 10 or so.
Our impression of Kotor was pretty good. It was so pretty, and had so much natural beauty. I was (and still am) upset about my tender ticket miscue, so we missed out on about an hour of our tour due to that. Also, with the ship arriving in the afternoon, our touring time was shortened by the early sunset, too. I would have loved to walk the walls, but there was no way we were getting our girls up without complaining/leaving one up there.
Tonight was a time change +1 hour for Greek time, and tomorrow was Corfu.
 

Day 1: Embarkation Day
Once again, I was up early and excited. Since we had to have two, non-adjoining rooms at the hotel, my wife and I had to text each other to coordinate our morning plans and get the girls up and ready for breakfast. Breakfast was really good, one of the better we've found in a European hotel, and we all got filled up for the morning. By the time we got back to our rooms and re-packed our bags, the front desk called and said that our driver was waiting for us downstairs. We were in the van and on the road by 10:00. The drive was very quick to the port, and we were walking into the terminal at 10:20. 
There was no one in line, and even the photographers were still setting up. We got boarding group 7, and found seats to wait to be called. No sooner had the girls pulled out their iPads to pass the time did the boarding commence. It quickly advanced to group 7, and we went through security and on to the Rhapsody of the Seas by 10:40. I must say I was really impressed with how quickly everything went and how soon we were on board! And thanks to every one who advised getting to the port early!
We boarded and were immediately shepherded into the Centrum for the girls to get their wristbands with out muster station on them and we sat down to get our bearings and figure out a plan of attack- still 45 minutes until Windjammer opened! Meanwhile, my wife made friends with an older couple from Canada who were sitting nearby...apparently traveling with 4 girls draws attention- who knew?!? We then headed up to the pool deck and jogging track for a lap around the ship and see what we could see. Granted, I have only sailed out of Barcelona, but I can't imagine a better port to sail from than Venice.

Pictures and selfies taken, we headed down to WJ for lunch, and were quite happy with the selection and quality. Following lunch, we went down to the Promenade deck to kill more time before rooms were ready and we could register the girls for Adventure Ocean. I've become a bit of a cruise geek, and have been watching lots of documentaries about the behind the scenes of cruise ships. I also have indoctrinated my girls to watching them with me (so I have more firepower when talking to my wife about future cruises), so they were fascinated watching the loading of provisions and luggage. Right at 1:30, we went down to deck 2 to check out our staterooms, two connecting ocean view rooms on the port side. We met our cabin steward, Yerri from Indonesia, and got him to open up the door between the rooms and told him that we wanted the one room made up for the 4 girls to sleep and the other one just for my wife and I. Yerri was great and had already learned all of our names before we got there, which was a nice touch.
 
At 2:00, we headed up to Adventure Ocean to get the 3 younger girls registered. We had be preparing the girls that the kids club on this ship would be a lot different than on the Disney Magic and to try to temper their expectations, but spoiler- we shouldn't have worried about that. From there we went to the Roam the Rhapsody presentation in the theater, where I won one of the raffles: a soda package! In my opinion, that was the best giveaway of the presentation. Plus, I won on a raffle ticket that was left over from the previous talk that some guy handed me on the way out of the theater. After the presentation, we went back to our cabins to find our bags outside, so we quickly changed for dinner, and headed up to the top deck to watch the sail away from Venice. I said it before- leaving Venice at sunset was worth the price of the cruise.

Once we passed St Mark's Square, we hustled down to the MDR for dinner, only getting there about 5 minutes late. Dean, from the Philippines, was our server, and he was great all week. 
The rest of the evening was wandering the ship, letting the girls go to AO and the oldest to check out the teen club (turns out only she and 2 other teens showed up all week, from Australia of all places, but they became good friends), and watching the Welcome Aboard show. The show was fine, but after the elaborate Broadway-style productions on DCL, kind of a let down, and I thought the entertainment was a bit inconsistent across the week.
Since the show let out at 11:30, we were all ready for bed after that, fortunately, our first port call wasn't until 1:00 the next afternoon.

Day 1: Embarkation Day
Once again, I was up early and excited. Since we had to have two, non-adjoining rooms at the hotel, my wife and I had to text each other to coordinate our morning plans and get the girls up and ready for breakfast. Breakfast was really good, one of the better we've found in a European hotel, and we all got filled up for the morning. By the time we got back to our rooms and re-packed our bags, the front desk called and said that our driver was waiting for us downstairs. We were in the van and on the road by 10:00. The drive was very quick to the port, and we were walking into the terminal at 10:20. 
There was no one in line, and even the photographers were still setting up. We got boarding group 7, and found seats to wait to be called. No sooner had the girls pulled out their iPads to pass the time did the boarding commence. It quickly advanced to group 7, and we went through security and on to the Rhapsody of the Seas by 10:40. I must say I was really impressed with how quickly everything went and how soon we were on board! And thanks to every one who advised getting to the port early!
We boarded and were immediately shepherded into the Centrum for the girls to get their wristbands with out muster station on them and we sat down to get our bearings and figure out a plan of attack- still 45 minutes until Windjammer opened! Meanwhile, my wife made friends with an older couple from Canada who were sitting nearby...apparently traveling with 4 girls draws attention- who knew?!? We then headed up to the pool deck and jogging track for a lap around the ship and see what we could see. Granted, I have only sailed out of Barcelona, but I can't imagine a better port to sail from than Venice.

Pictures and selfies taken, we headed down to WJ for lunch, and were quite happy with the selection and quality. Following lunch, we went down to the Promenade deck to kill more time before rooms were ready and we could register the girls for Adventure Ocean. I've become a bit of a cruise geek, and have been watching lots of documentaries about the behind the scenes of cruise ships. I also have indoctrinated my girls to watching them with me (so I have more firepower when talking to my wife about future cruises), so they were fascinated watching the loading of provisions and luggage. Right at 1:30, we went down to deck 2 to check out our staterooms, two connecting ocean view rooms on the port side. We met our cabin steward, Yerri from Indonesia, and got him to open up the door between the rooms and told him that we wanted the one room made up for the 4 girls to sleep and the other one just for my wife and I. Yerri was great and had already learned all of our names before we got there, which was a nice touch.
 
At 2:00, we headed up to Adventure Ocean to get the 3 younger girls registered. We had be preparing the girls that the kids club on this ship would be a lot different than on the Disney Magic and to try to temper their expectations, but spoiler- we shouldn't have worried about that. From there we went to the Roam the Rhapsody presentation in the theater, where I won one of the raffles: a soda package! In my opinion, that was the best giveaway of the presentation. Plus, I won on a raffle ticket that was left over from the previous talk that some guy handed me on the way out of the theater. After the presentation, we went back to our cabins to find our bags outside, so we quickly changed for dinner, and headed up to the top deck to watch the sail away from Venice. I said it before- leaving Venice at sunset was worth the price of the cruise.

Once we passed St Mark's Square, we hustled down to the MDR for dinner, only getting there about 5 minutes late. Dean, from the Philippines, was our server, and he was great all week. 
The rest of the evening was wandering the ship, letting the girls go to AO and the oldest to check out the teen club (turns out only she and 2 other teens showed up all week, from Australia of all places, but they became good friends), and watching the Welcome Aboard show. The show was fine, but after the elaborate Broadway-style productions on DCL, kind of a let down, and I thought the entertainment was a bit inconsistent across the week.
Since the show let out at 11:30, we were all ready for bed after that, fortunately, our first port call wasn't until 1:00 the next afternoon.

Day 1: Embarkation Day
Once again, I was up early and excited. Since we had to have two, non-adjoining rooms at the hotel, my wife and I had to text each other to coordinate our morning plans and get the girls up and ready for breakfast. Breakfast was really good, one of the better we've found in a European hotel, and we all got filled up for the morning. By the time we got back to our rooms and re-packed our bags, the front desk called and said that our driver was waiting for us downstairs. We were in the van and on the road by 10:00. The drive was very quick to the port, and we were walking into the terminal at 10:20. 
There was no one in line, and even the photographers were still setting up. We got boarding group 7, and found seats to wait to be called. No sooner had the girls pulled out their iPads to pass the time did the boarding commence. It quickly advanced to group 7, and we went through security and on to the Rhapsody of the Seas by 10:40. I must say I was really impressed with how quickly everything went and how soon we were on board! And thanks to every one who advised getting to the port early!
We boarded and were immediately shepherded into the Centrum for the girls to get their wristbands with out muster station on them and we sat down to get our bearings and figure out a plan of attack- still 45 minutes until Windjammer opened! Meanwhile, my wife made friends with an older couple from Canada who were sitting nearby...apparently traveling with 4 girls draws attention- who knew?!? We then headed up to the pool deck and jogging track for a lap around the ship and see what we could see. Granted, I have only sailed out of Barcelona, but I can't imagine a better port to sail from than Venice.

Pictures and selfies taken, we headed down to WJ for lunch, and were quite happy with the selection and quality. Following lunch, we went down to the Promenade deck to kill more time before rooms were ready and we could register the girls for Adventure Ocean. I've become a bit of a cruise geek, and have been watching lots of documentaries about the behind the scenes of cruise ships. I also have indoctrinated my girls to watching them with me (so I have more firepower when talking to my wife about future cruises), so they were fascinated watching the loading of provisions and luggage. Right at 1:30, we went down to deck 2 to check out our staterooms, two connecting ocean view rooms on the port side. We met our cabin steward, Yerri from Indonesia, and got him to open up the door between the rooms and told him that we wanted the one room made up for the 4 girls to sleep and the other one just for my wife and I. Yerri was great and had already learned all of our names before we got there, which was a nice touch.
 
At 2:00, we headed up to Adventure Ocean to get the 3 younger girls registered. We had be preparing the girls that the kids club on this ship would be a lot different than on the Disney Magic and to try to temper their expectations, but spoiler- we shouldn't have worried about that. From there we went to the Roam the Rhapsody presentation in the theater, where I won one of the raffles: a soda package! In my opinion, that was the best giveaway of the presentation. Plus, I won on a raffle ticket that was left over from the previous talk that some guy handed me on the way out of the theater. After the presentation, we went back to our cabins to find our bags outside, so we quickly changed for dinner, and headed up to the top deck to watch the sail away from Venice. I said it before- leaving Venice at sunset was worth the price of the cruise.

Once we passed St Mark's Square, we hustled down to the MDR for dinner, only getting there about 5 minutes late. Dean, from the Philippines, was our server, and he was great all week. 
The rest of the evening was wandering the ship, letting the girls go to AO and the oldest to check out the teen club (turns out only she and 2 other teens showed up all week, from Australia of all places, but they became good friends), and watching the Welcome Aboard show. The show was fine, but after the elaborate Broadway-style productions on DCL, kind of a let down, and I thought the entertainment was a bit inconsistent across the week.
Since the show let out at 11:30, we were all ready for bed after that, fortunately, our first port call wasn't until 1:00 the next afternoon.

Day 1: Embarkation Day
Once again, I was up early and excited. Since we had to have two, non-adjoining rooms at the hotel, my wife and I had to text each other to coordinate our morning plans and get the girls up and ready for breakfast. Breakfast was really good, one of the better we've found in a European hotel, and we all got filled up for the morning. By the time we got back to our rooms and re-packed our bags, the front desk called and said that our driver was waiting for us downstairs. We were in the van and on the road by 10:00. The drive was very quick to the port, and we were walking into the terminal at 10:20. 
There was no one in line, and even the photographers were still setting up. We got boarding group 7, and found seats to wait to be called. No sooner had the girls pulled out their iPads to pass the time did the boarding commence. It quickly advanced to group 7, and we went through security and on to the Rhapsody of the Seas by 10:40. I must say I was really impressed with how quickly everything went and how soon we were on board! And thanks to every one who advised getting to the port early!
We boarded and were immediately shepherded into the Centrum for the girls to get their wristbands with out muster station on them and we sat down to get our bearings and figure out a plan of attack- still 45 minutes until Windjammer opened! Meanwhile, my wife made friends with an older couple from Canada who were sitting nearby...apparently traveling with 4 girls draws attention- who knew?!? We then headed up to the pool deck and jogging track for a lap around the ship and see what we could see. Granted, I have only sailed out of Barcelona, but I can't imagine a better port to sail from than Venice.

Pictures and selfies taken, we headed down to WJ for lunch, and were quite happy with the selection and quality. Following lunch, we went down to the Promenade deck to kill more time before rooms were ready and we could register the girls for Adventure Ocean. I've become a bit of a cruise geek, and have been watching lots of documentaries about the behind the scenes of cruise ships. I also have indoctrinated my girls to watching them with me (so I have more firepower when talking to my wife about future cruises), so they were fascinated watching the loading of provisions and luggage. Right at 1:30, we went down to deck 2 to check out our staterooms, two connecting ocean view rooms on the port side. We met our cabin steward, Yerri from Indonesia, and got him to open up the door between the rooms and told him that we wanted the one room made up for the 4 girls to sleep and the other one just for my wife and I. Yerri was great and had already learned all of our names before we got there, which was a nice touch.
 
At 2:00, we headed up to Adventure Ocean to get the 3 younger girls registered. We had be preparing the girls that the kids club on this ship would be a lot different than on the Disney Magic and to try to temper their expectations, but spoiler- we shouldn't have worried about that. From there we went to the Roam the Rhapsody presentation in the theater, where I won one of the raffles: a soda package! In my opinion, that was the best giveaway of the presentation. Plus, I won on a raffle ticket that was left over from the previous talk that some guy handed me on the way out of the theater. After the presentation, we went back to our cabins to find our bags outside, so we quickly changed for dinner, and headed up to the top deck to watch the sail away from Venice. I said it before- leaving Venice at sunset was worth the price of the cruise.

Once we passed St Mark's Square, we hustled down to the MDR for dinner, only getting there about 5 minutes late. Dean, from the Philippines, was our server, and he was great all week. 
The rest of the evening was wandering the ship, letting the girls go to AO and the oldest to check out the teen club (turns out only she and 2 other teens showed up all week, from Australia of all places, but they became good friends), and watching the Welcome Aboard show. The show was fine, but after the elaborate Broadway-style productions on DCL, kind of a let down, and I thought the entertainment was a bit inconsistent across the week.
Since the show let out at 11:30, we were all ready for bed after that, fortunately, our first port call wasn't until 1:00 the next afternoon.

Day 1: Embarkation Day
Once again, I was up early and excited. Since we had to have two, non-adjoining rooms at the hotel, my wife and I had to text each other to coordinate our morning plans and get the girls up and ready for breakfast. Breakfast was really good, one of the better we've found in a European hotel, and we all got filled up for the morning. By the time we got back to our rooms and re-packed our bags, the front desk called and said that our driver was waiting for us downstairs. We were in the van and on the road by 10:00. The drive was very quick to the port, and we were walking into the terminal at 10:20. 
There was no one in line, and even the photographers were still setting up. We got boarding group 7, and found seats to wait to be called. No sooner had the girls pulled out their iPads to pass the time did the boarding commence. It quickly advanced to group 7, and we went through security and on to the Rhapsody of the Seas by 10:40. I must say I was really impressed with how quickly everything went and how soon we were on board! And thanks to every one who advised getting to the port early!
We boarded and were immediately shepherded into the Centrum for the girls to get their wristbands with out muster station on them and we sat down to get our bearings and figure out a plan of attack- still 45 minutes until Windjammer opened! Meanwhile, my wife made friends with an older couple from Canada who were sitting nearby...apparently traveling with 4 girls draws attention- who knew?!? We then headed up to the pool deck and jogging track for a lap around the ship and see what we could see. Granted, I have only sailed out of Barcelona, but I can't imagine a better port to sail from than Venice.

Pictures and selfies taken, we headed down to WJ for lunch, and were quite happy with the selection and quality. Following lunch, we went down to the Promenade deck to kill more time before rooms were ready and we could register the girls for Adventure Ocean. I've become a bit of a cruise geek, and have been watching lots of documentaries about the behind the scenes of cruise ships. I also have indoctrinated my girls to watching them with me (so I have more firepower when talking to my wife about future cruises), so they were fascinated watching the loading of provisions and luggage. Right at 1:30, we went down to deck 2 to check out our staterooms, two connecting ocean view rooms on the port side. We met our cabin steward, Yerri from Indonesia, and got him to open up the door between the rooms and told him that we wanted the one room made up for the 4 girls to sleep and the other one just for my wife and I. Yerri was great and had already learned all of our names before we got there, which was a nice touch.
 
At 2:00, we headed up to Adventure Ocean to get the 3 younger girls registered. We had be preparing the girls that the kids club on this ship would be a lot different than on the Disney Magic and to try to temper their expectations, but spoiler- we shouldn't have worried about that. From there we went to the Roam the Rhapsody presentation in the theater, where I won one of the raffles: a soda package! In my opinion, that was the best giveaway of the presentation. Plus, I won on a raffle ticket that was left over from the previous talk that some guy handed me on the way out of the theater. After the presentation, we went back to our cabins to find our bags outside, so we quickly changed for dinner, and headed up to the top deck to watch the sail away from Venice. I said it before- leaving Venice at sunset was worth the price of the cruise.

Once we passed St Mark's Square, we hustled down to the MDR for dinner, only getting there about 5 minutes late. Dean, from the Philippines, was our server, and he was great all week. 
The rest of the evening was wandering the ship, letting the girls go to AO and the oldest to check out the teen club (turns out only she and 2 other teens showed up all week, from Australia of all places, but they became good friends), and watching the Welcome Aboard show. The show was fine, but after the elaborate Broadway-style productions on DCL, kind of a let down, and I thought the entertainment was a bit inconsistent across the week.
Since the show let out at 11:30, we were all ready for bed after that, fortunately, our first port call wasn't until 1:00 the next afternoon.

Day 1: Embarkation Day
Once again, I was up early and excited. Since we had to have two, non-adjoining rooms at the hotel, my wife and I had to text each other to coordinate our morning plans and get the girls up and ready for breakfast. Breakfast was really good, one of the better we've found in a European hotel, and we all got filled up for the morning. By the time we got back to our rooms and re-packed our bags, the front desk called and said that our driver was waiting for us downstairs. We were in the van and on the road by 10:00. The drive was very quick to the port, and we were walking into the terminal at 10:20. 
There was no one in line, and even the photographers were still setting up. We got boarding group 7, and found seats to wait to be called. No sooner had the girls pulled out their iPads to pass the time did the boarding commence. It quickly advanced to group 7, and we went through security and on to the Rhapsody of the Seas by 10:40. I must say I was really impressed with how quickly everything went and how soon we were on board! And thanks to every one who advised getting to the port early!
We boarded and were immediately shepherded into the Centrum for the girls to get their wristbands with out muster station on them and we sat down to get our bearings and figure out a plan of attack- still 45 minutes until Windjammer opened! Meanwhile, my wife made friends with an older couple from Canada who were sitting nearby...apparently traveling with 4 girls draws attention- who knew?!? We then headed up to the pool deck and jogging track for a lap around the ship and see what we could see. Granted, I have only sailed out of Barcelona, but I can't imagine a better port to sail from than Venice.

Pictures and selfies taken, we headed down to WJ for lunch, and were quite happy with the selection and quality. Following lunch, we went down to the Promenade deck to kill more time before rooms were ready and we could register the girls for Adventure Ocean. I've become a bit of a cruise geek, and have been watching lots of documentaries about the behind the scenes of cruise ships. I also have indoctrinated my girls to watching them with me (so I have more firepower when talking to my wife about future cruises), so they were fascinated watching the loading of provisions and luggage. Right at 1:30, we went down to deck 2 to check out our staterooms, two connecting ocean view rooms on the port side. We met our cabin steward, Yerri from Indonesia, and got him to open up the door between the rooms and told him that we wanted the one room made up for the 4 girls to sleep and the other one just for my wife and I. Yerri was great and had already learned all of our names before we got there, which was a nice touch.
 
At 2:00, we headed up to Adventure Ocean to get the 3 younger girls registered. We had be preparing the girls that the kids club on this ship would be a lot different than on the Disney Magic and to try to temper their expectations, but spoiler- we shouldn't have worried about that. From there we went to the Roam the Rhapsody presentation in the theater, where I won one of the raffles: a soda package! In my opinion, that was the best giveaway of the presentation. Plus, I won on a raffle ticket that was left over from the previous talk that some guy handed me on the way out of the theater. After the presentation, we went back to our cabins to find our bags outside, so we quickly changed for dinner, and headed up to the top deck to watch the sail away from Venice. I said it before- leaving Venice at sunset was worth the price of the cruise.

Once we passed St Mark's Square, we hustled down to the MDR for dinner, only getting there about 5 minutes late. Dean, from the Philippines, was our server, and he was great all week. 
The rest of the evening was wandering the ship, letting the girls go to AO and the oldest to check out the teen club (turns out only she and 2 other teens showed up all week, from Australia of all places, but they became good friends), and watching the Welcome Aboard show. The show was fine, but after the elaborate Broadway-style productions on DCL, kind of a let down, and I thought the entertainment was a bit inconsistent across the week.
Since the show let out at 11:30, we were all ready for bed after that, fortunately, our first port call wasn't until 1:00 the next afternoon.

Day 1: Embarkation Day
Once again, I was up early and excited. Since we had to have two, non-adjoining rooms at the hotel, my wife and I had to text each other to coordinate our morning plans and get the girls up and ready for breakfast. Breakfast was really good, one of the better we've found in a European hotel, and we all got filled up for the morning. By the time we got back to our rooms and re-packed our bags, the front desk called and said that our driver was waiting for us downstairs. We were in the van and on the road by 10:00. The drive was very quick to the port, and we were walking into the terminal at 10:20. 
There was no one in line, and even the photographers were still setting up. We got boarding group 7, and found seats to wait to be called. No sooner had the girls pulled out their iPads to pass the time did the boarding commence. It quickly advanced to group 7, and we went through security and on to the Rhapsody of the Seas by 10:40. I must say I was really impressed with how quickly everything went and how soon we were on board! And thanks to every one who advised getting to the port early!
We boarded and were immediately shepherded into the Centrum for the girls to get their wristbands with out muster station on them and we sat down to get our bearings and figure out a plan of attack- still 45 minutes until Windjammer opened! Meanwhile, my wife made friends with an older couple from Canada who were sitting nearby...apparently traveling with 4 girls draws attention- who knew?!? We then headed up to the pool deck and jogging track for a lap around the ship and see what we could see. Granted, I have only sailed out of Barcelona, but I can't imagine a better port to sail from than Venice.

Pictures and selfies taken, we headed down to WJ for lunch, and were quite happy with the selection and quality. Following lunch, we went down to the Promenade deck to kill more time before rooms were ready and we could register the girls for Adventure Ocean. I've become a bit of a cruise geek, and have been watching lots of documentaries about the behind the scenes of cruise ships. I also have indoctrinated my girls to watching them with me (so I have more firepower when talking to my wife about future cruises), so they were fascinated watching the loading of provisions and luggage. Right at 1:30, we went down to deck 2 to check out our staterooms, two connecting ocean view rooms on the port side. We met our cabin steward, Yerri from Indonesia, and got him to open up the door between the rooms and told him that we wanted the one room made up for the 4 girls to sleep and the other one just for my wife and I. Yerri was great and had already learned all of our names before we got there, which was a nice touch.
 
At 2:00, we headed up to Adventure Ocean to get the 3 younger girls registered. We had be preparing the girls that the kids club on this ship would be a lot different than on the Disney Magic and to try to temper their expectations, but spoiler- we shouldn't have worried about that. From there we went to the Roam the Rhapsody presentation in the theater, where I won one of the raffles: a soda package! In my opinion, that was the best giveaway of the presentation. Plus, I won on a raffle ticket that was left over from the previous talk that some guy handed me on the way out of the theater. After the presentation, we went back to our cabins to find our bags outside, so we quickly changed for dinner, and headed up to the top deck to watch the sail away from Venice. I said it before- leaving Venice at sunset was worth the price of the cruise.

Once we passed St Mark's Square, we hustled down to the MDR for dinner, only getting there about 5 minutes late. Dean, from the Philippines, was our server, and he was great all week. 
The rest of the evening was wandering the ship, letting the girls go to AO and the oldest to check out the teen club (turns out only she and 2 other teens showed up all week, from Australia of all places, but they became good friends), and watching the Welcome Aboard show. The show was fine, but after the elaborate Broadway-style productions on DCL, kind of a let down, and I thought the entertainment was a bit inconsistent across the week.
Since the show let out at 11:30, we were all ready for bed after that, fortunately, our first port call wasn't until 1:00 the next afternoon.

Day 0: Travel and Venice
I was up bright and early (actually dark and early in these parts) today, and finished the last minute packing and loading of the van for the drive up to the airport. It took a little over an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the airport, which is about the minimum time it takes to drive to Frankfurt from our place. We parked and then made the long hike from the parking garage to the check-in counter, hauling all of bags and corralling the 4 kids along the way. We were informed that the gate was the furthest away in the airport, and sure enough, it was at the extreme end of the terminal. We stopped for lunch and to let the younger girls play on a little playground in the terminal along the way. Boarding started about 10 minutes late, and it turned out that we were at a bus gate, so we had to go down the stairs and board a bus that then drove us the length of Terminal 1 and most of Terminal 2 (if you have ever been to Frankfurt, you know that this took almost 10 minutes) out to the plane. The flight was uneventful, and a perk of flying Lufthansa is beer and wine are included in the complimentary beverage selection, which both my wife and I took advantage of.
We collected our bags and made contact with the hotel to arrange a shuttle to get us there. We stayed at the Best Western Titian, which was about 5 minutes away from the airport. It was a very nice hotel, friendly staff, and pretty convenient for a place to stay the night before a cruise. After we checked in, we inquired at the front desk about the best way to get downtown Venice, and if it was still flooded. From there, we caught a bus just down the street from the hotel and rode it to the end of the line where we caught a water bus and headed down to Rialto Bridge. By this time, it was dark out, but cruising the Grand Canal is always special. We wandered around the bridge, and then went to our favorite hole-in-the-wall pizza place for dinner. It was excellent as always, and we went out in search of our favorite gelato. Bellies full, we continued our journey to St Mark's Square to take in the after dark ambiance and listen to the music from the various cafes around the square. Unfortunately, being there off-season, the bell tower and basilica were already closed by the time we got into the square, but St Mark's is one of the most magical places I have been in Europe, regardless of the time of day or year.
After taking the obligatory pictures of the Bridge of Sighs, we got back on the water bus (or vaporetto, if you prefer) and made our way back up the Grand Canal to the bus station and reversed our journey back to the hotel. We were in bed by 10, and at least I had a hard time sleeping with excitement for tomorrow's embarkation...

Day 0: Travel and Venice
I was up bright and early (actually dark and early in these parts) today, and finished the last minute packing and loading of the van for the drive up to the airport. It took a little over an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the airport, which is about the minimum time it takes to drive to Frankfurt from our place. We parked and then made the long hike from the parking garage to the check-in counter, hauling all of bags and corralling the 4 kids along the way. We were informed that the gate was the furthest away in the airport, and sure enough, it was at the extreme end of the terminal. We stopped for lunch and to let the younger girls play on a little playground in the terminal along the way. Boarding started about 10 minutes late, and it turned out that we were at a bus gate, so we had to go down the stairs and board a bus that then drove us the length of Terminal 1 and most of Terminal 2 (if you have ever been to Frankfurt, you know that this took almost 10 minutes) out to the plane. The flight was uneventful, and a perk of flying Lufthansa is beer and wine are included in the complimentary beverage selection, which both my wife and I took advantage of.
We collected our bags and made contact with the hotel to arrange a shuttle to get us there. We stayed at the Best Western Titian, which was about 5 minutes away from the airport. It was a very nice hotel, friendly staff, and pretty convenient for a place to stay the night before a cruise. After we checked in, we inquired at the front desk about the best way to get downtown Venice, and if it was still flooded. From there, we caught a bus just down the street from the hotel and rode it to the end of the line where we caught a water bus and headed down to Rialto Bridge. By this time, it was dark out, but cruising the Grand Canal is always special. We wandered around the bridge, and then went to our favorite hole-in-the-wall pizza place for dinner. It was excellent as always, and we went out in search of our favorite gelato. Bellies full, we continued our journey to St Mark's Square to take in the after dark ambiance and listen to the music from the various cafes around the square. Unfortunately, being there off-season, the bell tower and basilica were already closed by the time we got into the square, but St Mark's is one of the most magical places I have been in Europe, regardless of the time of day or year.
After taking the obligatory pictures of the Bridge of Sighs, we got back on the water bus (or vaporetto, if you prefer) and made our way back up the Grand Canal to the bus station and reversed our journey back to the hotel. We were in bed by 10, and at least I had a hard time sleeping with excitement for tomorrow's embarkation...

Day 0: Travel and Venice
I was up bright and early (actually dark and early in these parts) today, and finished the last minute packing and loading of the van for the drive up to the airport. It took a little over an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the airport, which is about the minimum time it takes to drive to Frankfurt from our place. We parked and then made the long hike from the parking garage to the check-in counter, hauling all of bags and corralling the 4 kids along the way. We were informed that the gate was the furthest away in the airport, and sure enough, it was at the extreme end of the terminal. We stopped for lunch and to let the younger girls play on a little playground in the terminal along the way. Boarding started about 10 minutes late, and it turned out that we were at a bus gate, so we had to go down the stairs and board a bus that then drove us the length of Terminal 1 and most of Terminal 2 (if you have ever been to Frankfurt, you know that this took almost 10 minutes) out to the plane. The flight was uneventful, and a perk of flying Lufthansa is beer and wine are included in the complimentary beverage selection, which both my wife and I took advantage of.
We collected our bags and made contact with the hotel to arrange a shuttle to get us there. We stayed at the Best Western Titian, which was about 5 minutes away from the airport. It was a very nice hotel, friendly staff, and pretty convenient for a place to stay the night before a cruise. After we checked in, we inquired at the front desk about the best way to get downtown Venice, and if it was still flooded. From there, we caught a bus just down the street from the hotel and rode it to the end of the line where we caught a water bus and headed down to Rialto Bridge. By this time, it was dark out, but cruising the Grand Canal is always special. We wandered around the bridge, and then went to our favorite hole-in-the-wall pizza place for dinner. It was excellent as always, and we went out in search of our favorite gelato. Bellies full, we continued our journey to St Mark's Square to take in the after dark ambiance and listen to the music from the various cafes around the square. Unfortunately, being there off-season, the bell tower and basilica were already closed by the time we got into the square, but St Mark's is one of the most magical places I have been in Europe, regardless of the time of day or year.
After taking the obligatory pictures of the Bridge of Sighs, we got back on the water bus (or vaporetto, if you prefer) and made our way back up the Grand Canal to the bus station and reversed our journey back to the hotel. We were in bed by 10, and at least I had a hard time sleeping with excitement for tomorrow's embarkation...

Sadly, sitting in the Venice airport now, full on in post-cruise depression. 
A few random thoughts as they are fresh in my head:
-Rhapsody is an older ship, but we loved her. The crew made all the difference. 
-The Kids’ Club was amazing! Two of the days, our girls opted to stay on the ship rather than go into port. The staff genuinely cared for the girls and made it a great time for them. 
-Ports ranked:
1) Athens 2) Argostoli 3) Kotor 4) Corfu 5) Mykonos
-Elvis, the cruise director was hilarious and so high energy. I think my favorite moment was the 70s Party when he dressed like the sailor from the Village People. 
-Chops was definitely worth the extra (booked on board and scored a 25% discount)
-I won a raffle at the Roam the Rhapsody presentation and walked away with a soda package- boom!
I’ll give a break down of the trip when I get home and download my pics. 

Sadly, sitting in the Venice airport now, full on in post-cruise depression. 
A few random thoughts as they are fresh in my head:
-Rhapsody is an older ship, but we loved her. The crew made all the difference. 
-The Kids’ Club was amazing! Two of the days, our girls opted to stay on the ship rather than go into port. The staff genuinely cared for the girls and made it a great time for them. 
-Ports ranked:
1) Athens 2) Argostoli 3) Kotor 4) Corfu 5) Mykonos
-Elvis, the cruise director was hilarious and so high energy. I think my favorite moment was the 70s Party when he dressed like the sailor from the Village People. 
-Chops was definitely worth the extra (booked on board and scored a 25% discount)
-I won a raffle at the Roam the Rhapsody presentation and walked away with a soda package- boom!
I’ll give a break down of the trip when I get home and download my pics. 

Sadly, sitting in the Venice airport now, full on in post-cruise depression. 
A few random thoughts as they are fresh in my head:
-Rhapsody is an older ship, but we loved her. The crew made all the difference. 
-The Kids’ Club was amazing! Two of the days, our girls opted to stay on the ship rather than go into port. The staff genuinely cared for the girls and made it a great time for them. 
-Ports ranked:
1) Athens 2) Argostoli 3) Kotor 4) Corfu 5) Mykonos
-Elvis, the cruise director was hilarious and so high energy. I think my favorite moment was the 70s Party when he dressed like the sailor from the Village People. 
-Chops was definitely worth the extra (booked on board and scored a 25% discount)
-I won a raffle at the Roam the Rhapsody presentation and walked away with a soda package- boom!
I’ll give a break down of the trip when I get home and download my pics. 

Quick update:
Uneventful flight to Venice and transfer to hotel. Made a game-time decision, on the advice of the front desk clerk to head into Venice, which was fully open for business. Had pizza and gelato and wandered around St Mark’s Square. 
Off to bed with embarkation day tomorrow!

Prelude:
I've enjoyed reading everyone's live blogs on here, so thought I'd add my $0.02 on our upcoming cruise on Rhapsody from Venice to the Greek Isles. As I am too cheap to spring for VOOM, this won't be live, unless I add something in port from my phone, but fully intend to give a recap when we get back. I am just getting really excited for the cruise (woke up at 4:45 this morning with cruise logistics rattling around in my head), so wanted to get the post started.
Background: My family consists of myself and my wife, as well as our 4 daughters, aged 13, 7, 5, and 3. We live in Germany, but are scheduled to move back to the States this coming summer, so we are cramming the most into the next several months to see all of Europe. This cruise was semi-YOLO book it as we were looking into Thanksgiving week travel ideas and realized that the girls wouldn't miss any more school if we went in the beginning of the month vs over Thanksgiving week (we call it No School November around here). This will be our second cruise ever (and second this year), with our first being a Western Mediterranean cruise on the Disney Magic this past May. We loved it so much that I was eagerly searching for ways to get on another cruise, so here we are, trying out RCL. I will also be celebrating (a week later) my 40th birthday on this cruise.
Itinerary:
Friday, 2 November- Fly from Frankfurt to Venice, which hopefully hasn't washed away by tomorrow
Saturday, 3 Nov: Sail away from Venice
Sunday, 4 Nov: Kotor, Montenegro; scheduled activity: Private 4 hour driving tour of Kotor and surrounding area. I know nothing about Kotor, other than the pictures are amazing, and it is like doing a fjord cruise getting to the port.
Monday, 5 Nov: Corfu; scheduled activity: either Hop-On/Hop-Off around town, or just hoof it around and check out the city
Tuesday, 6 Nov: Athens; scheduled activity: private "Mythology Tour of Acropolis and Ancient Agora" including transfers to and from port- super excited about this stop
Wednesday, 7 Nov: Mykonos; scheduled activity: none- will probably explore the port and maybe try to get out to a beach, weather dependent 
Thursday, 8 Nov: Argostoli; scheduled activity: RCL shore excursion to an underground lake and cave complex
Friday, 9 Nov: Sea Day
Saturday. 10 Nov: Disembark and fly back to Frankfurt
 
I'm excited to check out a new cruise line and see how things compare, and to cross Greece off the bucket list.

Quick update:
Uneventful flight to Venice and transfer to hotel. Made a game-time decision, on the advice of the front desk clerk to head into Venice, which was fully open for business. Had pizza and gelato and wandered around St Mark’s Square. 
Off to bed with embarkation day tomorrow!

I am happy to report that Venice is not flooded and we were able to get to pizza and gelato. Tomorrow is Embarkation Day!!

Quick update:
Uneventful flight to Venice and transfer to hotel. Made a game-time decision, on the advice of the front desk clerk to head into Venice, which was fully open for business. Had pizza and gelato and wandered around St Mark’s Square. 
Off to bed with embarkation day tomorrow!

Quick update:
Uneventful flight to Venice and transfer to hotel. Made a game-time decision, on the advice of the front desk clerk to head into Venice, which was fully open for business. Had pizza and gelato and wandered around St Mark’s Square. 
Off to bed with embarkation day tomorrow!

I am happy to report that Venice is not flooded and we were able to get to pizza and gelato. Tomorrow is Embarkation Day!!

I am happy to report that Venice is not flooded and we were able to get to pizza and gelato. Tomorrow is Embarkation Day!!

I am happy to report that Venice is not flooded and we were able to get to pizza and gelato. Tomorrow is Embarkation Day!!

Quick update:
Uneventful flight to Venice and transfer to hotel. Made a game-time decision, on the advice of the front desk clerk to head into Venice, which was fully open for business. Had pizza and gelato and wandered around St Mark’s Square. 
Off to bed with embarkation day tomorrow!