stanatedj

...lol...as my wife always tells me - "You don't travel to Europe to be in America" - Embrace the foreign language passengers and enjoy them...Many will speak a broken English but you will love them if you are patient and willing to give it a shot.

So I have a group of about 10 of us that are possibly going to book the Poesia for next summer to do their Eastern Med tour. That said, I was wondering if anyone can shed some light on the drinks package for US citizens. We have been told that if we sign up for the "Fantasia" package we will get 12 drink coupons? Is this above and beyond coffee and water or must we use those for water and coffee as well? My group has no issue with buying a drink package if need be, but we are trying to figure out what those coupons do and don't cover and what is automatically 'given' in terms of drinks like coffee. Also, it appears that drinks are in the 7-12 Euro range and the all inclusive drink package is quite expensive and would amount to some 30 or so drinks while onboard...does that sound right? (Again no problem with it - just trying to do the math)

You will have people give you all kinds of advice on this one...Some are sold that the only way to visit Venice is to stay on one of the islands - I'm not particularly of that school as it can get very very pricey for a good bed and you also have to resolve yourself to possibly hauling your luggage through the alleys of venice and over bridges to get to some of the hotels. Lido is the exception as it is cheaper and if you fly to VCE airport you can catch a Aqualina transport from the airport to Lido and then use the water taxi to get over near the cruise terminals.

Personally, I'm a fan of two basically American hotels - One is the Crowne Plaza at Quarto D'Altino - It is near the airport and has a shuttle to the hotel - The Quarto D'Altino train station is immediately behind the hotel and so you grab that (it runs about every 30 minutes to Venice), go to Venice Santa Lucia , disembark and walk to the right about a quarter mile to Piazzale Roma and then grab the peoplemover over to the area of the terminals - From there you will walk as much as 1/3 of a mile to your terminal. Little bit of walking but reasonable value. I also like for a bit less money (some nights), the Best Western right at Mestre train station in Venice. You can walk across the street to the train station and same deal - train to Santa Lucia...walk to the right to Piazzale Roma - Peoplemover to area of Port terminals. The advantage to that Best Western is there are also busses that go directly to Piazzale Roma all day and night and they can tell you which one to take and when it leaves at the hotel. The train runs nearly all day until about midnight...If you do go in a day early, be sure to go to Venice after about 4 pm. It is best at night - Just magical almost. Get up the next day and make your way to the port. Getting to the BW from the airport, you can grab the shuttle that runs from the airport to the Mestre station - Relatively inexpensive. Of course a cab is possible in a pinch, but there actually isn't a great amount of value in doing that over the shuttle bus (That said, if you are really really tired which is possible, the taxi may seem more convenient)

Now...if budget is no consideration at all? Stay in the middle of everything, but be prepared to haul your suitcase around...As I said - Venice is magical at night and staying there would be a treat...I just never can justify the cost.