After two long days of travel, with a lot of it spent retrieving luggage and moving it to 

the next flight and then sitting for 9 hours in the British Air lounge in London, we arrived 

in Venice and took the long (900m) cab ride to the Titian Inn near the Marco Polo Airport. 

The hotel was surprisingly nice (booking something a world away on the Internet is always 

an “iffy” proposition!) and new. After a good European breakfast spread the next morning, 

we arranged for a cab to the ship (which cost less than the 900m ride the previous night) 

and were immediately allowed to board. Unlike the normal cruise where they disembark one 

load of passengers, clean all the staterooms and then embark another full load of 1250 

passengers, being on an inaugural cruise means that everything is ready and has never been 

used, except on the short trip from Barcelona where the ship was christened the previous 

Friday. The ship's “godmother” is Cat Cora, the Food Network chef, because of the strong 

ties with Bon Appetit. Her picture is in a place of honor in the main lobby and she has set 

up a large menu of dishes for the cruise.

After the short boarding process we headed to our cabin and unpacked our carry-on luggage, 

then went to the Terraces for a lunch buffet. It takes a while for the large bags to reach 

the cabins, so everyone is directed to eat and sit in the common areas in order to allow 

the crew to get everything on board. We headed back to our cabin, which is the exact replica

 of the one we had last year on the Marina, except for some revisions. Most of the men 

complained about the configuration and size of the shower in the master bathroom, so they 

revamped it and made it larger. They changed the set-up in the bar area and replaced the 

modernistic sofa in the media room with a more traditional and comfortable one. Our bags 

arrived about 3:30 p.m., along with our butler, Sandeep, who ran through the use of the 

media system which allows you to select from over 500 movies and a music selection which 

includes full albums by Sinatra, Bennett, Eric Clapton, etc. We also set up our account for 

the Internet so we could check our mail on the PC provided in the cabin. 

At 5 p.m. we went 

up 2 levels to the Horizons Bar and had a few drinks with the two couples we originally met 

on the Panama Canal cruise, then saw again on the Caribbean cruise the following Spring and 

who were the reason we signed up for the Inaugural Cruise on the Riviera. They live in 

Illinois and Iowa and cruise more than we do as they like to go South during the winter. 

They had taken the Inaugural Cruise for the Marina and thought it would be fun for all of 

us to do the same on the Riviera so we started using the same travel agent and ….here we are.

 They had used the cruise line's free airfare deal and had been booked from Chicago to 

Zurich to Venice and except for storm delays at O'Hare had a less eventful trip but had 

just arrived around 2 p.m.

The weather on Wednesday in Venice was cold, dark and rainy, but we woke up to sun on 

Thursday morning and after some breakfast in the cabin headed down to the Lounge to get our 

group assignment for the walking tour of “Hidden Secrets” of Venice. We took a water taxi 

through very crowded water traffic to a spot a ways from the most touristy areas of the city.

 It is amazing to see how everything moves by boat, from food deliveries to trash collection.

 The boat crew can and do back up as well as they move forward and squeeze into small spots. 

Sometimes they tie up to a boat already moored and you have to walk off yours and through 

the other one to get to the shore. We headed for the School of San Rocco and met a guide who 

got us all hooked up with headsets so we could hear him wherever we were, since we walked a 

lot through narrow “streets” and “alleys” where you must go single file in order to let 

normal traffic flow around and past you. 

We spent some time at a wonderful church near 

our meeting place, where there was a fantastic painting by Titian of the Virgin Mary 

ascending into the clouds to be with the Heavenly Father. The guide explained that Venice 

is comprised of more than 150 islands so when you cross a canal you are moving from one 

island to another. Each island had a “campo” or central space, generally with a cistern 

and well-head in its center where residents obtained their water, which was rainwater, 

caught through a series of drains and then filtered through the sand and clay that had 

been dug into the existing silt-like soil. In the end the water was held in the cistern 

and residents took theirs from the well-head in buckets. Now they have a pipeline from 

the mainland. The canals are all seawater and very polluted. As we walked and when we 

toured the church, the guide showed us the various styles of architecture – Gothic, 

Renaissance, etc. There is no new construction in Venice, although there is restoration 

and repair. Only boats on the canals and foot traffic on the land are allowed. It is 

illegal to ride a bicycle, although children may have small tricycles, etc. in the campos. 

Everyone is in a rush to get through the tiny alleys and on their way to work, so they must

 find groups of tourists one of the obstacles to overcome. Venice has only 58,000 residents 

and they see 20 million tourists a year. Our tour guide took us to various points of 

interest and over the Rialto Bridge, a covered stone bridge with jewelry stores, etc. 

built on it. We eventually reached St Mark's Square, the only “plaza” in Venice, where he 

showed us the various architectural styles of the buildings surrounding the Square. There 

were thousands of tourists thronging the Square and lined up to see the Basilica (Byzantine 

style), the Doge's Palace, etc. The group then split up for an hour of free time, which 

allowed you to backtrack to look at something we had passed or browse the shops. We wanted 

to go up the tower and get a view of the city from above, but the elevator was out of order,

 so they had closed the tower. We headed for the Bridge of Sighs and ran into our friends 

who had just taken a water taxi over. Cheri, one of the wives, has MS and cannot do a lot 

of walking so they often just do something themselves instead of taking an excursion. 

We continued our walk along the waterfront and came upon the America's Cup youth crew on their 

Red Bull catamaran. They sailed from their spot along the canal and did an exhibition sail 

along the Grand Canal. Then a cruise ship, much larger than ours, appeared and motored 

right along in front of us and through the mass of water taxis and other water craft. 

Eventually we headed to the meeting spot and the group found the right transport and went 

back to our ship. All passengers participated in the mandatory safety drill (no Costa 

Concordia for us, thank you!) prior to the sail away at 4 p.m. As we did the sail away, the 

Cruise Director gave us a commentary about everything we were passing and we did what we 

had seen in the morning, motored right past St Mark's and essentially “through” Venice. 

As we got further along we could see the America's Cup sailboats finishing their qualifying

 sails out on the Adriatic and saw a number of them returning to their docking area, with 

their sails furled and under tow by power boats. We saw Larry Ellison's Oracle boat (you 

can see it in one of the photos we took from our balcony.)

We had our second dinner of the cruise at Red Ginger (Chez Jacques for escargots, duck a 

l'orange, foie gas, etc. the first night) and enjoyed the dishes we remembered from our 

Marina trip – lobster Pad Thai for Daryl, duck and watermelon salad and clay pot caramelized

chicken for Rob.

Tomorrow is Dubrovnik, Croatia, where we will be taking a 3 + hour walking tour of the Old 

City.

.