The Brilliant MSC Splendida or Cruise from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic and back. Part 1
Time is running out, I am reviewing my story about this trip and, taking into account the new decisions of Turpravda, I decided that this story needs to be edited and its photo illustrated in the text. And then cutlets separately, flies separately. So!
The time has passed so quickly since the wonderful cruise on MSC “Shlendida” , and still I haven't started writing the report. Deeds, deeds! Reading the reports, I realized that there are two options for writing them - a descriptive one with a personal attitude to the cruise and an option - a lot of photos and little text (it's better to look than write). I will do a symbiosis, if it will be included in fiction, stop it. I apologize in advance for maybe not quite high-quality photos, my Kanon camera “changed the owner” before leaving for a cruise on a sortie, and I had to take my wife’s old Sony camera on the road. Some photos will have to be borrowed.
1. Preparing for the cruise and carnival in Venice
After a cruise in May-June 2011 on the Adriatic on ”Voyager of the Seas” we got sick of cruises and started thinking about how to relax at the beginning of 2012. Previously, the issue was resolved very simply - it was the Red Sea with its underwater world, Sharm or Hurghada. But now, due to the instability of the political situation in the Arab world, I didn’t really want to fly there. The idea arose about the Persian Gulf, especially since there is a beautiful “Brilliant” from Royal, but the Arab countries are already fed up with my wife and we turned our eyes to the west.
The first condition is to leave the winter and bask in the sun, swim in sea water. For some reason, the Canaries came to mind. The Canary Islands are the dream of the "new" Russians and not only. We looked - there are options. Both "Norwegians" and MSC on "Fantasy". Even asked a question on the forum, who will help to compare. At the same time, I was looking for flights, I found a promotion from Wizz Air - Kyiv to Venice (95 euros for two round trip). It remains to be decided - MSC from Genoa, moving through Milan by train, at the same time you can set aside a day for the Venice Carnival. While I received confirmation for the reservation from Wizz-Air, I blew the budget cabins on the Fantasia (there was a promotion, and all the cabins were crushed like delicious pancakes). But her sister "Splendida" is going on a shorter cruise to Morocco (Casablanca), where it is warm, the Atlantic Ocean and all the Western Mediterranean, where we have not been.
MSC "Splendida"
That was decided. We booked an inner cabin on the 8th deck at the stern. From a little experience, we decided that a cabin with a balcony in February, although it is the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic, is not necessary, because. it will be chilly to rest on the balcony, which was confirmed by fellow travelers, and only spend the night in the cabin. Yes, I almost forgot. Considering that the Canary Islands left us, and I had time left, we decided to compensate for this with a 3-day stay in Rome. Further worries about visas, booking hotels along the route, fees. My wife was especially concerned - after all, we left for Italy from 20-degree frosts, where it is warm and, again, the ship with its requirements for clothing in restaurants and at receptions (eternal women's problems! ). The result is a heavy suitcase + travel bag. My threats to slowly lay out more than half and leave, as in a joke, one jersey, did not bring results. In summer, after all, suitcases are lighter!
So -19.02. 12 - departure from Zaporozhye.
20.02. 12 - departure Kyiv a/p Zhuliany - Venice a/p Treviso by Wizzair
20.02. 12 transfer to Mestre to the hotel “Defino” Corso del Poppolo, 211
20.02. 12 – 21.02. 12 we are at the carnival in Venice
21.02. 12 – train ride to Rome
21.02. 12 – 24.02. 12 in Rome, hotel “Rimini”, via Marghera, 17 near the Termini station, Self-guided tours in Rome – 3 days.
24.02. 12 – transfer by train to Genoa, hotel “Standard Hotel Genova”, overnight, tour in the center of Genoa in the morning.
25.02. 12 – 03.03. 12 – Cruise to the Atlantic (Genoa-Barcelona-Casablanca-Gibraltar-Valencia-Marseille-Genoa)
03.03. 12 - Train transfer from Genoa to Mestre via Milan.
03.03. 12-04.03. 12 overnight at the hotel “Ambasiatori” Corso del Poppolo, 221.
04.03/12 - transfer Mestre - Treviso, flight to Kyiv by Wizzair airline, then home in Zaporozhye.
In the night from Zaporizhia, we go by train to Kyiv. Unobtrusive service in Ukrainian: heated in the evening, in the compartment - like in a bathhouse, you need a blanket in the morning; tea was included in the tickets without my request. In the morning, the conductor, after my reminders and checking my tickets three times, came down and brought it. By the way, whoever did not notice this when buying a ticket is a net profit for the conductor.
We are in Kyiv! Nothing has changed regarding the transfer to the Zhuliany airport over the past six months, there are no minibuses to Zhuliany. Exit - either station taxi drivers (minimum 100 hryvnia), or order by mobile phone. I order - the answer is "Wait at the bus stop, the car will come there. " In Kyiv, the frost is -12 degrees, we are in light jackets, because. we're going south! After 15 minutes of standing, a new call from the dispatcher - “There are no free cars, the call is canceled. ” Thanks for the hardening! We walk proudly past the station taxi drivers, who shout after us “We’ll throw off ten”, in the direction of Povitryannoflotsky Prospekt. After about 50 meters, the leftist stops, seeing us with a suitcase and for 50 hryvnia and 15 minutes we are in Zhuliany. Interesting - a man was driving, apparently up to 70 years old, and in a conversation he proudly introduced himself that he was 83 years old and he sat down at the steering wheel already in 1944. Unique, there are Cossacks in Ukraine! It's not interesting - that at this age he has to be left-handed!
For your information - a taxi from the South Station is 35 hryvnia, from the Central Station -45 hryvnia, if you are light - from Povitryanoflotsky Prospekt, city minibuses - 2 UAH 50 kopecks.
Further check-in, baggage check-in, customs and passport checks without problems and at 10-25 we are in the air. The A-320 aircraft is new, the smell of leather in the cabin, friendly flight attendants, already European prices for buying something in the cabin, because for low-cost airlines, all services on board are paid, except for the toilet, of course. Exhausted by the "comforts" in the train compartment, we had a great sleep before landing in Treviso. The formalities quickly went through and, having received the luggage, we went to the bus stop to Venice. There are many buses, payment can be made both through automatic cash desks and at the controller before boarding the bus (7 euros / person). We are in Mestre, the Delfino hotel. Hotels were selected along the entire route near the railway. stations, as we continue to travel by Italian railways. From the Mestre bus station to our hotel on foot no more than 10 minutes (the route was worked out using Google maps - it’s better to sit at home over the maps than to mess with your suitcases).
Hotel "Delfino", further hotel "Ambasyatori", bus stop nearby
The hotel is in a convenient location on one of the central streets of Mestre, the bus stop to Venice No. 4.4L is right in front of the hotel (15-20 minutes to Piazzale Poma). A modern building, there are a lot of cafes nearby, right on the first floor there is a market where you can take groceries for dinner if you want to eat in your room with wine. By the way, nearby is the Gastronom store, who missed Russian cuisine. I recommend this hotel to those who need to stay for a short time. Leaving our luggage, we, having already rested on the plane, went by bus to Venice for the carnival. We had a carnival program, routes were laid along the canals and squares of Venice, where there are carnival events. For convenience, we took ASTV passes for a day, they are valid for all vaporetto routes and buses in Mestre and Lido. The weather did not please us, about 2-5 degrees, but very damp and cold wind from the lagoon. Is this the reason, or because it was already about 4 pm, everything was already winding down; so the “Music and Chocolate” event at Campo San Giacomo - no music, no chocolate, at Campo San Polo, where there should be a theater of light, there were only illuminations on the trees and a few tents where you could drink wine and have something to eat.
Therefore, we moved across the Rialto Bridge to Piazzo San Marco, where the main carnival performances take place. The closer to San Marco, the more the city becomes the carnival that we imagined. More and more masks and carnival costumes.
A wife with dressed up Germans
Wife with Italian
Such an Italian family
The Fountain of Wine is in the center of attention, where jets of wine merge, but no one scoops up anything for free, they decorously stand in line for warmed wine or grog. We, chilled, also stood in a short queue. This is a pleasure 3.5 euros - a plastic cup, a bottle of good wine in the supermarket is the same. But at the carnival? and from the fountain!
Fountain of wine, no one drinks from it now
They drink hot wine here
After having a photo shoot, huddled in a mass of people, we decided not to wait for the fireworks and return to vaporetto No. 1 along the Canal Grande in Piazzale Roma and to the hotel. Here, as I remember from the previous voyage to Venice, do not mix up the direction and do not sail to the Lido (read the direction on the boat and find the right berth).
Night in Venice
It's all right, we're in Mestre. Our hotel, shop downstairs, bought mozzarella, tomatoes, Parma ham (prosciutto), wine (a wonderful dinner in the room). The room is very good, all the amenities, a huge bed, who needs this service.
In a hotel room
In the morning we were delighted by the bright sun, not a cloud in the sky, everything was in a completely different light. It was gloomy, now it's a real holiday. We decided that we would leave Venice after 13-00 and we were again at the carnival. Both the gondoliers and the gondolas were transformed, and Venice itself was transformed in the rays of the bright sun and sparkled with the colors of the carnival.
San Marco on a bright February day
A parade of carnival costumes will take place
Gondolas are tired
Grand Canal in winter
The time flew by until 12-00 and we, walking leisurely, but with suitcases, head to Ferrostazione Mestre, where there is a line at the box office for those leaving the carnival (the last day). I went to the information kiosk to clarify the time of the trip (after all, the plans have changed a bit), and in response to me - “You need a ticket, I’ll make it for you now. ” With internal doubts that it would suddenly hurt, I agree. And he, looking through something in his, I don’t know what to call it, “hand computer” (I later saw them at the controllers on trains) says:
-“you pay 152 euros for two, how do you pay - by card or in cash. ”
In short, I received tickets in the form of a piece of paper, as we give tickets on buses, a little larger. The wagon and seats are written by hand. True, the price is exactly like at the box office. I ask what else is needed. "Nothing. Go, the train is coming. " And we get into car number 5 of the Venice-Rome Express. Our places are free, no one claims them. A train is an airplane on wheels, and this one turned out to be from last year, everything was new and the most modern. The controller came up, shrinking internally, I show our paper, he returns it to me, thanks and goes on, without even punching it.
If you're interested, from my observations I understood and saw 4 ways to pay off
a) tickets from the box office, like ours, but the paper is denser. The date is punched in yellow machines and composted by controllers;
b) printouts from the Internet, based on them, controllers issue the same ribbons as I had;
c) by showing mobile phones that are connected to the Internet, the booking number, people received the same pieces of paper from the controller;
d) my version, I don’t know how common it is.
And after slipping through the tunnels through the Apennine mountains - the mountains were still covered in snow, there were more than 15 tunnels (I lost count), the places are very beautiful (those that we saw between the tunnels) - the train arrived at the station of Rome - Termini, where new impressions of the eternal city of Rome awaited us.
