day 1:

we woke up extremely early, got ready, ate breakfast, and left. we’d packed the night before, so all we had to do was drag everything down. the train station we needed, according to the map, wasn’t all that far away, and initially i’d mentioned we could walk. that morning, though, i arranged for a cab. i just didn’t feel like doing the walking, and neither did nicole. turns out i was wise. yes, the train station is relatively close, but it’s up on the mountain, above the level of the hotel. we would’ve had to walk up a steep incline. screw that. we were severely overpacked for travelling through italy. we’d been fine with it up till now, we had the car. our luggage crammed the trunk and the back seat of the car, but it fit. for the rest of our trip, we were to drag everything everywhere, and we would learn a powerful lesson in travelling through europe: pack lighter than this. we each had two bags in our hands, most of which were considerably heavy, plus whatever we carried on our shoulders (a backpack full of electronics for me). we saw no one with the amount of luggage we carried. european trains weren’t designed to stow the amount of luggage we were carrying without invading everyone else’s space.

we boarded the train from como to milan and sat in second class. we just didn’t feel like dragging everything up to the car where our assigned seat was in first class. after a half an hour, we switched trains in milan for the venice train, which left a half an hour after we arrived. we had first class for venice too, which meant we were in a small compartment with six seats (there were other passengers in the compartment), enclosed by a sliding glass door. our luggage almost entirely filled up the narrow overhead racks. good thing everyone else packed light, or they might’ve been denied room to stow their luggage.

the train from milano to venezia (venice) took about 3 hours. it was an uneventful trip, other than watching the mountains disappear and the italian countryside looking more like the american midwest (corn for miles). we dozed off, tired from being up so early after being up so late the night before.

when the train arrived in venice, we waited till the car was empty before unloading our luggage. we dragged it off the platform and into the san lucia station. we stopped at a large eatery in the station to dine on some interesting pizza (mine had hot dogs on it, which was cool). we walked out of the station and onto the piazza overlooking the canal. there were people everywhere. there was a vaporetti station in front of us (their local public transportation; they’re water buses). there were also water taxis to the side. i approached one, who told me it’d be 80 euros to the pier (which wasn’t far away). screw that. so i walked over to the vaporetti station and asked how to get to the pier. i was told to cross the bridge and take the vaporetti on the other side two stops. i returned to nicki and told her the scoop.

“i’m not crossing that bridge,” she said.

“not with all this stuff,” she added.

“80 euro water taxi?” i asked.

“that’s fine, i’m not walking up and down those stairs.”

so i approached another water taxi guy. he offered 60 euros to take us to the pier.

“done,” i said, and he helped load us and our luggage onboard his boat. we sat in the back and enjoyed the ride.

within ten minutes we arrived at the pier. there were royal caribbean agents at the pier to take our luggage (nicki initially panicked, thinking someone else was taking our luggage to another boat). i paid our taxi driver and he left. with our luggage safely in the hands on the RC cart, we strolled along the pier with our carryon bags towards the giant dock containing our cruise ship.

we entered an enormous building and stood in line to check in. the process was smooth, and relatively quick. we learned, however, that our request to have our own table was denied. i would later only see old people at two-seat tables, which probably meant that we were bumped for the repeat-cruisers. nicole was upset that we’d been assigned to a table of ten. ultimately, she decided she’d complain if the people weren’t cool. as things turned out, we’re glad things happened the way they did.

we were wondering if the wine we’d bought in tuscany was going to make it on board. we knew from our last cruise that they take your alcohol you buy when you’re at a port, and return it to you on your last day.

before long, we were on board. this is the sister ship to the legend of the seas, the ship we cruised on almost two years ago. it took us a short amount of time to orient ourselves to the boat. we already knew where everything was. we arrived in our stateroom, 7576. we were delighted to be here, knowing that we could unpack our suitcases and keep them unpacked for an entire week! no more hopping around until we returned to venice! woohoo!

our room was decidedly larger this time, and had a balcony. we also noticed that our aunt maritza, who had booked our honeymoon, had left us a wine and cheese tray. gracias, tia maritza!

first thing was first, we had to visit the muster station for the obligatory emergency drill.

nicki was less than thrilled.

i just made the best of the goofy orange thing on my chest.

it seemed like it took forever, but we were back in our room with plenty of time to unpack and to enjoy maritza’s gift as the ship left port.

it was right about this point, as i was snapping these pictures of venice, that nicole mentioned that i should be using the video camera to capture our departure. what a great idea, i thought, standing up. by that time, i’d grown fond of using it, and had begun to discern through trial and error what made interesting video and what didn’t. in tuscany, i’d primarily used the still camera, but only out of force of habit. i soon realized that i was being drawn to the video camera at times when i only had the still camera on me, so i deliberately began focusing on the video camera. unfortunately, nothing particularly interesting was happening as i was experimenting. i was still learning how to use it during our road trip to/from florence, so i have some footage of us on the road. by the time we reached como, we were filming ourselves more and more. i was narrating what we were doing (going up the funicolare to brunate). again, i didn’t really capture anything interesting, per se. i left the camera recording at times in the hopes that something would happen, but nothing really did. mostly i was failing to resist the urge to hit zoom all the time. looking at the footage now, bits and pieces of what i had was useful. the footage in the car and on the funicular showed our constant sense of movement that first week. the footage of como from brunate was interesting. by the end of our stay in como, i knew that i could snip as much as i wanted of what i had on the computer later, provided that better footage would follow on the cruise. i decided as i went to bed that night that i’d use the video camera at every port on the cruise. and so imagine my shock and horror when the video camera was not in the one place it should’ve been. it was not in my backpack. i hadn’t opened the bag at all since closing it in the hotel room in como.

my heart sank. not only had i possibly lost the video camera without the ability to call the hotel, which was a very expensive gift from her parents, i also lost the opportunity to do all the filming i was craving to do. i could’ve sworn i’d packed it, because i had been charging it before going to bed, but obviously i didn’t.

we eventually contacted her parents to help out. long story short; they communicated with the hotel via fax (to save money all around), and the housekeepers found the camera. i’d left it in the room. they shipped back to our place in chicago. it was there when we arrived, safe and sound.

we thought the calls to her parents cost $7.95 per call, and we both read the fine print. we discovered later, again to our horror, that the call cost $7.95 per minute. the two phone calls with her mother cost us almost $100. it was also almost another $100 to ship the camera home (which we currently owe her parents for). it’s over, and everything turned out the best it could have given the circumstances, but i’m still upset. i feel like a fool for wasting our money, and that our honeymoon video footage is not what it could have been. oh well. future trips will feature lots of video, and i’ll be sure not to leave it behind!

i’ve already begun to slap together and edit the footage i do have, adding soundtracks and stuff. i’ve whittled down the video camera footage to about eleven minutes in length. it’s still too long, but i think it serves its purpose. lower quality videos will also be tacked on, taken from the still camera, from the cruise. it turns out that i missed a hell of an opportunity on board, since nicole would end up giving multiple musical performances. the awful picture quality of the still camera videos do not do the performances justice. but more on that in another post. once i’m done with the movie, i’ll let you know.

after all that, there was nothing left to do but let it all go and enjoy the cruise. i captured a beautiful sunset that evening.

we were full steam ahead and on our way to our first port.

next: day 2, our lesson in croatian economics, and day 3, our first ‘at-sea-day’.