We started the auto trek to Port Canaveral just a few minutes later than planned – about 8:45am – and arrived at the parking lot exactly on time at noon. We packed well except that we once again forgot the sign that we use to mark our cabin. It was in the bag with the birthday card and present that Marlene had for me. Guess I will have to open those when I return.
There was a bit of a wait at the TSA checkpoint, but we got through without my pocket knife being confiscated as it was on the previous cruise. We arrived on the ship just in time to hear the announcement that the rooms were ready. Pretty good timing overall.
We unpacked and went up to the Lido deck to grab a bite to eat. We thought we had plenty of time to get to the muster station to check in. We headed there around 3pm but had difficulty finding it. We have never before had difficulty finding a muster station. You would think the location would be well marked. You would also think that the crew would know where it was located. But if you were on the Venezia you would be wrong. We asked 6 crew members where Muster Station D3 was located and none could give us a clear answer. We finally found it but it was NOT on Deck 3 as I expected – it was on Deck 4. This lack of signage and training didn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling about how an evacuation would proceed in an emergency.
Then, to top it off, the muster station was closed – we arrived too late. The crew told us we would have to go to Guest Services to register for the muster. Wrong again. We stood in the long line (it is always long on embarkation day) only to be told that Guest Services did not have anything to do with the muster. Again, a lack of training on display. The punishment for missing the muster? We would receive a harshly-worded letter and would be denied the privilege of drinking alcohol for an hour. One whole hour.
I will describe the ship in detail later but I can tell you that this is NOT a sister of the Luminosa. The Venezia is considerably larger (4,200 passengers) and newer than the Luminosa. It is also more beautiful. Our first impressions were quite positive.
Except for the “smart” elevators. On this ship you have to tell the elevator where you are going before it arrives – you pick the floor on a video screen as you wait. You can’t just board any car and get to the floor of your choice – it assigns you to a car designated by a letter. This actually works pretty well when there isn’t a horde of people waiting – but there is always a horde on embarkation day. I picked my floor and was assigned to Car X. But after waiting for 10 minutes I was informed by one of the crew that Car X was “empty” which sounded like a good thing to me. But apparently “empty” meant “unavailable.” The crew had to override the “smart” elevators to actually get people to where they wanted to go. A big fail for automation.
Lunch was very good and so was dinner. I had short ribs for my dinner entree – my favorite dish on a cruise. We got our first view of the gondola in the dining room – a feature that Marlene found fascinating. I thought it was pretty cool too.
Then we went to the casino. We get free drinks there while we play, which is a great deal so long as we don’t lose at slots. Marlene did lose, but not much. I was up $170 before going on a losing streak but still ended the night up $50.
Our interior cabin was quite large – another pleasant surprise. A very nice cabin with a very comfortable bed on a very beautiful ship.
Should be a good week.