A restful day in Tessera, VE (Very Exhausting!)

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After the show it was back to the cabin to pack. A knock came at our cabin door. It was Rahman, the cabin steward. He had come to check then lock the mini bar'. The prices from the mini bar are exactly the same as any of the lounges on board, including the service charge!! So how does that work then? I have to pay MSC 15%!f(MISSING)or walking over to the fridge, opening it and taking a beer? I suppose the 20%!d(MISSING)iscount of MSC Club members goes some way to compensating.

Rahman proceeded to ‘ransack' the fridge by emptying the contents and put them in to a plastic sack.

"What are you doing?' Roisin asked

‘The Russians are coming!' Rahman answered

‘A wise decision to hide all the booze', I said. ‘But didn't the Cold War finish over 40 years ago?'

‘I only do as I am told', snapped our steward who must have realised by now he wasn't getting a tip!! He then took 2 litres of still ‘aqua minerale' from the tabletop and put it in the fridge. He then took the MSC welcome book and also put that in the fridge before locking it.

‘Why doesn't he put the towels and ashtrays in there as well and have done with it?' whispered Roisin just loud enough so Rahman could hear. He chose not to.

It turns out that the Russians had chartered the MSC Magnifica so it looked like all the existing guests onboard would be disembarking tomorrow. We are still not sure how this worked for those passengers that embarked at Bari or Istanbul. It wasn't made clear if by ‘the Russians' it is meant that an Oligarch had chartered the ship or just a travel agent. We shall be keeping a close eye on the ships movements in the week to come!!

We continued with our packing. It was at this point Roisin asked me where my coat was.

“I put it in my case, out the wa – Oh! Bugger! Where is it? I must have left it in the hotel in Venice. I remember hanging it in the wardrobe."

Luckily we were booked in to the Hotel Venice Resort tomorrow for 1 night so hopefully it will still be there.

The disembarkation process is something of a military operation. The ship has to disembark 3500 passengers together with at least that many pieces of luggage. To do this efficiently, you are asked to provide your status as a traveller at the beginning of the cruise. For example Roisin and I are classed as independent travellers. Others may have booked as part of a package. The day before disembarkation, you receive a colour coded luggage label. This dictates the time of disembarkation and the location of the meeting point. We received a luggage label ‘Grey 3'. On checking the disembarkation information, ‘Grey 3' was ‘Mondial Medica Group' and ‘Equestre Group'.

‘Why??' I asked.

‘Don't know', said Roisin ‘but they are 4^th on the list to leave the ship out of 28 categories. If it means getting off handy and not having to hang around, I'm game!!'

When we returned to our cabin later the evening, the first thing I noticed were more labels on our bed. This time they were ‘Yellow 2'. I reached for the disembarkation info.

‘5, 6, 7…….bloody hell! We've been relegated to 25^th…out of 28!!!!' I exclaimed. ‘What do you want to do? They have obviously realised their error but shall we keep the Grey luggage labels.'

‘The only problem with that', started Roisin as she screwed on her Wurzel Gummage ‘Voice of Reason' head, ‘is that our luggage may be taken directly to a waiting coach with the rest of the ‘Mondial Medica or ‘Equestre' Group!

‘Good point', I said. ‘What's another couple of hours wait? We're in no hurry. We're still on holiday!'!

The ship tied up at 8am and at just before 9, the announcement for the first group of passengers were made; ‘Light Blue – Guests with transfer to Venice airport'.

Although Yellow 2 were instructed to meet at La Grotta Azzura lounge on deck 13, we found quiet corner near the Sports Bar where we could hear all the announcements. We were also told that due to the noise pollution laws in Venice, these announcements would be restricted to indoors and not be made around the outdoor deck areas.

Noise Pollution?? The Venetian local Authority should think about getting the drains sorted. Now that's pollution. Have you ever walked around some of those back streets in the height of summer? They don't seem to be doing much about that. The definition of pollution is: ‘the process of damaging the air, water, or land with chemicals or other substances'. You probably can't even hear the announcements outside of the dock area. I was in the bogs the other day and I couldn't even hear the announcement from there!!! That's 1-0 to the stinky drains, me thinks!!

We finally disembarked at 11am. Immediately identified our cases and headed for the shuttle bus. Now the disadvantage of disembarking 25 out of 28 is that about 3,000 have disembarked before you. That makes for a very long line!! We decided to walk.

It took us only 15 minutes to get to the people mover. Within the hour we were once again checking in to the Hotel Venice Resort.

After the paper work was completed I asked after my jacket. The desk clerk dialled an extension, said a few words of Italian, hung up the receiver then looked up at me and said, ‘Si. He come!'

Minutes later I was reunited with my jacket. It was handed to me in a laundry bag. I thanked the lady and said, ‘Aw! You didn't have to dry clean it for me as well!!' Without any sign of emotion other than a slight smile she just said ‘Prego' and then went about her duties.

The plan for this afternoon was to head to Murano, the island in the Venetian Laguna where the glass is made. It was touching 80C outside. Did we really want to head back in to Venice? The madding crowd?? We grabbed a bit of dinner and then spent our last afternoon getting more acquainted with that big orange ball thing in the sky!! We don't see each other that often back home so we're not on familiar terms yet!!!

It is so expensive to eat in Venice. We had our final meal where we ate all our previous meals, in ‘al Quadrante' in Tessera. We both chose a pizza the size of a small country, a ½ litre of red wine, a bottle of water and 2 pieces of tiramisu that looked like they had used a house brick as a mould!!! This came to the reasonable price of just under €30. If you're ever in the area, check out Trip Advisor. Roisin has written a very favourable review.

I had a very good nights sleep probably due to most of the ½ litre of red wine and my earplugs. For the other half of Chris-Roisin it was another story!! Whilst I was dreaming of deaf carpet sellers in Istanbul, the wind was howling through the hotel and the rain was battering against the sky light of our room. There were thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightning me, Gallileo (topical!!), Figaro (Opera - Italian – also topical!) Magnifico-o-o (almost the name of the ship we've just spent the last week on!!)

The trip home was pretty uneventful. We met someone at the check in who had spent a week in Venice exploring the periphery. They recommended a trip to Burano, an island in the Venezia Laguna famous for its lace. Duly noted and logged by Mrs H for our next visit to Venice in September 2013!

So how did this differ from previous cruises? We opted for early sitting for dinner at 6pm. We had previously gone for the late sitting at 8:30. The early dining allows much more flexibility as once you've finished eating; you have the whole evening ahead of you. If we had chosen late dining it is unlikely we would have met ‘Bendy girl' aka Xiu Xin and the rest of the ‘Incredibles'!!!

We have seen the change in clientele. Many more fringe nations are joining the MSC family. Turkish is now a additional language for the bingo. The MC has to repeat himself in so many languages (Including Czech, Japanese and Hebrew) by the time he's finishes saying ‘Good evening', its nearly breakfast time!!!

The daily programme is now reproduced in Japanese. Which reminds me, after seeing all the national flags being displayed. The laziest person in the world must be the one who designed the Japanese flag!!

Our best bit? It was all good as expected. We will definitely revisit Istanbul. Dubrovnik lived up to expectations.

There is a web site that lets you track a cruise ship (www.seascanner.com). For old times sake, we have just accessed the page for the MSC Magnifica. The webcam still showed the pool deck where a few days earlier we were occupying two of their sun beds. Underneath this image, were the words: ‘MSC Magnifica – location unknown!!' The Russians charter the ship and now this. Hmmm – the plot thickens!!

For our next cruise we will be switching back to Princess for a trip through another great engineering wonder…the artery that connects the Pacific to the Atlantic…the majestic Panama Canal… September 2012!

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Beelzebub has a Devil put aside for someone...Thanks for a headbanging blog C & R!AJH