Embarkation & Dubrovnik

Friday, 09 Dec 2011 – We awoke for the first morning on the cruise ship but slept late.  At 10:15 we found the meeting place for a group of cruisers that had “met” on line (more or less).  There, we met a couple from Council Bluffs, Iowa.  After that, we ate a late breakfast at the buffet dining area.

In the afternoon was our excursion to Dubrovnik, Croatia.  This is an ancient city that has survived wars of long ago, the Black Plague, a terrible earthquake, and the revolution in 1991 (when the Serbs shelled the monasteries, etc.).  The setting on the rocky coast is beautiful and the sights were interesting, but we returned to the ship before the end of the excursion because we were still tired from jet lag and insufficient sleep.

We had a small snack after returning to the ship, and ate dinner at 6:00 PM.  (The other two guests are still no shows.)

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Thur., 08 Dec 2011 – We awoke again in our Venice hotel room, and ate a delicious breakfast again downstairs. After finishing at about 10:15, we investigated checkout time – and found that it was supposed to be 10:00 A.M. Although it was almost 11:00 by the time we reached the front desk, there was a line of people of waiting to check out, so it worked out O.K.

We stored our luggage at the hotel while we went out to “kill some time.”

If we had found a store open that sold Gelato, we would have bought some. However, it was a holiday (Feast of the Immaculate Conception) and some small businesses were closed. We did buy some “Prugna Liquore” at a small grocery store to take with us on the cruise.

By then, several others were also heading to the “People Mover,” the metro that takes people to the dock, so we had company along much of the way to the ship. However, first we had to maneuver our heavy suitcases up and down the stairs of the bridge over the canal; and then, after arriving at the dock, we had to pull our respective loads again to the cruise ship loading area. We were very glad to leave our luggage at the drop-off station for loading on the ship at 1:00!

We had expected a very long check-in line at the Star Princess cruise ship; however, by 1:30, we were in our cabin. Our cabin steward, Harold from the Philippines, introduced himself to us; and we soon went to the buffet dining area to begin our overeating.

At dinner we met the others who will be sharing our table for evening meals: a couple (Janice & Dave) from Atlanta; a woman (Roz); and Roz’ friend (Janet) from high school days. Dave has worked in software but is now retired; Janice retired from 40 years of teaching high school social studies; and they have taken about 20 cruises, all on Princess. Roz is retired military, originally from Montana, but has lived a lot of places. Janet now lives in northern Washington State.  The other two guests scheduled for our table did not arrive.

Soon after sitting down for dinner, the ship departed from Venice.  In the evening, we chose to rest instead attending social events.