Sailing Away

Saturday, July 5th. Today is the day we set sail from Venice.

Our time to leave for the ship was 11:00am so we had the morning to ensure that everything was packed and ready to go.

Not hard to do when you only have a few bags.

Venice is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by 177 canals in a shallow lagoon, connected by 409 bridges. I  know this because I counted all of the islands, canals and bridges. I also took photos of all of the bridges — okay, not all, but a few. Here is a sample of a few of those bridges. Click on any photo for a larger image and slideshow.

We took a water taxi ride to the main transportation hub in Venice. The photo above was taken on board the water taxi. A short drive to the terminal and we were ready to board the Disney Magic.

The boarding protocol was much better organized this year. Last year at the port of Barcelona, it was a bit of a horror story. We were given the boarding call number 35 in Barcelona. At the time, I did not understand the significance of boarding call number 35. But, as we gathered in a huge, featureless room, it became clear that 35 was not a good number. We arrived to the Barcelona terminal waiting area at about 11:30am and, after half an hour of Disney calling boarding numbers, we were only at call number 4. Why on earth would Disney transport us from the hotel at 11:00am only to make us wait 2 hours or longer to board?

This year, we had the boarding number 12. And we were on the ship within 30 minutes.

Same stateroom as last year: 7092.

We left the port of Venice in the early afternoon which provided us some excellent views of the city from the ship. We did not have to join the crowds on deck as our verandah faced the city.

After an afternoon and evening getting reacquainted with the Disney Magic, we retired for the evening. And the first of many towel creations lay waiting in our stateroom. First day at sea ahead.