Our second day in Venice after a very welcome overnight stop. We have another tour booked this morning, which due to the 13:00 departure, the meeting time is 06:55, a tad early for Judi. So an early start for breakfast in Horizon Court, back to the cabin to pick up cameras and off to Princess Theatre for the tour. Yet again the organisation of the tour department was exceptional and after a bit of a wait in the comfort of the Theatre we headed down to the pontoon to join our boat. I’ll do a separate post to cover the tour, which was first rate.

Temperature: High 22C/72F, Low 20C/68F (forecast). Yet again not even close, with actual being high being about 30C

Wind/Weather: Lt Airs, clear and sunny

Sunrise/Sunset: 05:24/21:03

Clox: Z+2 (no change)

Navigation

Shortly after 13:00 and when the P&O Ship Oceana was secured, the Captain let go the lines and thrust Sea Princess off the berth and then backed into the Giudecca Canal. We retraced our steps of yesterday through the canal and lagoon, and once clear of the breakwater set SE’ly courses at a speed of about 20 kts towards our next port of Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Activities

Not a good start to the day for Judi, as we hit the buffet for a quick breaky at 06:00, followed by the Princess Theatre about 06:45 to join our tour. This morning we are visiting Murano Island for a glass blowing demonstration, followed by Burano for a hand made lace demonstration. I’ll complete a separate post for this excellent tour.

Just prior to our scheduled departure time the P& O ship Oceana berthed on the opposite pier. Oceana is one of the sister ships to Sea Princess, the others being Sun and Dawn. When I worked for P&O, the passengers ships had yellow funnels and cargo ships had blue funnels. As P&O Cruises officers we proudly served on yellow funnel ships and with the new livery they have changed the funnel colour to that of the old cargo ships. Originally a Brit and proud of the Union Jack, I just can’t agree with slathering it across the ship’s bow. Almost like they want to reduce P&O to the likes of Norwegian, with their graffiti emblazoned hulls.

As a traditionalist I much prefer the yellow funnel and clean white hull of a traditional P&O passenger vessel.

On return from the tour, we had a quick lunch and returned to the cabin for the Venice departure. Having a port side cabin, we sat on the balcony and enjoyed the final sights of Venice passing by. With a warm, sunny day, we also were shaded from the direct sun. If this wasn’t paradise, it was pretty darn close, sitting comfortably and leaning forward on the ship’s railing, sipping cold beer and watching the amazing city of Venice slide past with an ever changing view. This is definitely one of the highlights of the World Cruise, which will also face some steep competition tomorrow in Dubrovnik.

Once clear of the lagoon I spent the time, until getting ready for dinner, working on the photographs of day # 1 in Venice. I had over 300 photos, so it took most of the time until dinner just to name the ones I kept and delete the rest. This still leaves me a few blog posts behind, so fortunately we have a few hours before arrival tomorrow morning.

After dinner we attended the show with singer & comedian Al Brown. While most comedians so far were underwhelming, this chap was actually funny. Hailing from Ireland, he refers to himself as a Brit, which I find refreshing. Started off with a welcoming song and headed straight into the audience shaking hands with pax in the front few rows. The next 40 minutes he went through his repertoire, with a good portion having the audience in stitches. By far the best comedian, so far, on the World Cruise.

Thoroughly well entertained, we headed back to the cabin for some well earned rest considering the early start to the day.

As another day closes, we bid you farewell, till tomorrow and hope for fair skies and following seas.