We had one more full day in Venice.  And by “full day” I mean we spent 4 hours going back and forth to the airport…again!  This time…TaDa!!! They had my suitcase!! But wait, we are missing 2 suitcases, mine and TJ’s…Searching, searching, searching…Nope…no second suitcase.  Now the only option is to see if they get it before we get on the ship tomorrow.  They will deliver it to the ship if they do, however, given how things had gone so far, I don’t have very high hopes!  So we spent our last full day in Venice trying to find enough clothes for my 14 year old son to wear on an 11 night cruise through the Mediterranean.  It’s not like we can run to Walmart or Old Navy…we are in Venice, there are no cars here.  I am pretty sure that Amazon doesn’t have same day deliver here (although TBH I didn’t check).  To the rescue??? H&M!!! Yep, in Venice and open on Sunday!  So we spent several hours shopping for a kid who honestly would just as soon stay in PJ’s for days on end…but whatever!   At least he had clothes!

We grabbed some food at a restaurant that promised they had A/C (they may have, but we couldn’t tell).  This meal was probably our only disappointing meal in Venice.  And we shoulda known…it was exactly the kind of place our tour guide had said to avoid…and like the child that touches the stove after the parents warn that its hot, we didn’t listen and had to find out for ourselves…lesson learned.  But back to the apartment to rearrange suitcases with the new clothes, and then a relaxing time on our balcony with a bottle of wine to end the evening…The view over Venice from our balcony is priceless…

And as the big cruise ships sailed in and out we could see the tops of the ships!  As we were boarding a big cruise ship the very next day, it was very cool to watch them sail past.

The next morning, we cleaned and packed up the apartment and headed to the port.  It was only about 10:00 in the morning, and I was anticipating not being able to check in, but we walked right in, handed over our luggage and walked right up to the check in desk.  Having only cruised from US ports before, I was also anticipating a delay between check-in and boarding, but nope.  Once we were checked in with our magic Set Sail cards in hand, we walked through the security gate and right on board.  We were actually on board right around 11am…before the Windjammer even opened!!  And that was even accounting for the fact that we had to stop once on board and hand over our passports (typical when the itinerary includes a Turkish port).  Speaking of itinerary, here is ours:

25 July – Venice
26 July – At Sea
27 July – Katakolon, Greece
28 July – Chania, Crete
29 July – Athens, Greece
30 July – Thessaloniki, Greece
31 July – Kusadasi, Turkey
01 August – Santorini, Greece
02 August – At Sea
03 August – Dubrovnik, Croatia
04 August – Venice, Italy
05 August – Venice, Italy
06 August – Flight home

So you see…a total Bucket List cruise!  Venice, Athens and Santorini have been on my bucket list forever so I was super excited about those three.  Dubrovnik I had added to my list more recently…I mean, who doesn’t want to go to Kings Landing!! And the rest were kind of just icing for me.  That is not exactly how they ended up!

First up, a day at sea.  How do I usually spend my sea days? Well, since the casino pays for a bunch of my cruises, I do spend some time there, but most of the day looks something like this:

Yep! Drink in hand, watching the ocean.  BTW – That is the famous Aperol Spritz.  Don’t you love that orange color?  I do!!  This is obviously early in the cruise…they ran out of Aperol about midway thorough, totally NOT my fault (ok, maybe my fault).

Next up – Katakolon!  We have a tour scheduled to Olympia – the birthplace of the Olympic Games.

This weekend is my AWESOME brother-in-law’s birthday.  Guess what I’m bringing over?? APEROL!!! See you next week!!!