MAGIC - Our Photo Review of the Inaugural Sailing of the Magic

[cruisinskier]

Thanks for the review and pictures. I have a request - if you can stop by the kids camp - our dear friend Abby is working there (Ive known her since she was an infant) - and what a way to brighten her day then to say hello via a fellow cruiser Thanks -Alyssa (Rob & Gillian)

 

I would have loved to do that for you however we were off the Magic as of May 10 and finished the trip with 3 great days in Barcelona. We have had a long day of travelling today but are home safe and I will start to get all my info in order to continue with the review.

[cruisinskier]

Hi all. We are safely back home, somewhat unpacked, and ready to crash but before I do , I wanted to get a little more of this review done. So without hesitation here we go....

 

Once we disembarked from the Vaporetto, the sights were exactly what you envision Venice to be. We saw our first gondolas, St Mark's Bell Tower, Doge's palace, and people. Lots and lots of people.....you can see how pickpockets can make a good living here although if you use common sense and are aware of your surroundings you will be fine. We never felt in any danger any where we went in any city on this trip....and we walked lots of back alleyways :)

 

Doge's palace and the Bell Tower

 

Venice

 

 

Gondolas

 

 

We set out in search of San Zaccaria church. This is one of those sites that is easy to find if you know where you are going but you would not just stumble upon. The churches in Venice (and in most of our ports) were amazing to see....the architecture, the paintings, the history.....we were in awe numerous times on this trip.....and not necessarily with the most famous of the churches.

 

San Zaccaria church

 

Next on our list, we headed past the Bridge of Sighs and towards Doge’s Palace where we wanted to do the tour. We had not pre-purchased tickets so we had a wait of approx 20 minutes for tickets (14 Euros pp with access to all St Mark’s attractions). Once inside we were wowed by the artist work of Doge’s Palace. To me this is a must do in Venice.

[cruisinskier]

 

 

The inner courtyard

 

Atlas & Hercules

 

An example of the art work on the ceilings...

 

[cruisinskier]

Here is a picture looking at the Bridge of Sighs (not a fan of the advertising around it but they say that helps pay for the refurb work)....

 

 

And here is one looking out while standing on the Bridge of Sighs looking back to where I took the above picture....

 

 

They say the Bridge of Sighs got it's name as prisoners were marched from the Palace to the prison and had to cross this bridge. It was the sighs of the prisoners as they saw their last piece of Venice before being locked up.

[cruisinskier]

The Square

 

St Mark's Basillica

 

The Clock Tower (with some refurb work under way)

 

[cruisinskier]

After touring Doge’s palace and wandering through St Mark’s Square, we headed down various streets and alleyways. We were hungry now and found a cafe where we had lunch. Two pizzas, a water and a local beer were 22 euros and they happened to be showing highlights of the Royal Wedding on the TV. Next we found our way through the streets and headed for the Rialto Bridge. Tourist traffic was very heavy in the bridge area, which has tourist shops located right on the bridge. The market area was just across the bridge however with it now being afternoon there was limited activity in the market. We then caught the Vaporetto up the Grand Canal to Piazzale Roma (the main transportation area) and then caught the Vaporetto back down the Grand Canal back to St Mark’s Square. Using the Vaporetto to go the length of the canal is a great way to see it at a reasonable price. I will post some Grand Canal pictures as part of the next day’s review as we did this trip on a Vaporetto a few times!

Next we decided to check out the Correr Museum which our previously purchased tickets to Doge’s Palace included. I am not really an artsy type but really enjoyed the Met a few years ago in NYC....not so much this place although I have to say the rooms are art to themselves and I found myself looking more at the artwork on the roof of the rooms than at the paintings or sculptures on the walls.

Once out of the museum, we had our first (of many) gelato in Italy. Throughout the trip we had great weather and a cold gelato was exactly what we needed. We had been having some cell phone issues however we got those resolved.....turns out it was user error as we had been using the wrong country code. For anyone calling Canada from oversees, it is 001 + the phone number (I believe this is the same code for the U.S.). And now it was time to meet up with some of the members from our very active roll call. Dave (Smooth Sailing) had set up a wine crawl with 3 different bars in Venice (thanks again for doing this Dave). We set with maps in hand to meet up with those we only knew from talking on the roll call.....

[cruisinskier]

Cafe where we had lunch

 

 

I did not take any food pictures but there will be occasional beer porn!

 

 

Rialto Bridge

 

 

Shops on the Bridge

 

 

View of the Canal from the Bridge

[cruisinskier]

The wine crawl started at 4:00pm however given our other activities of the day we missed the first location so headed for the 2nd wine bar by the Rialto Bridge for the 5:30 time. We had a few issues as the bar had changed names but saw this big crowd of folks introducing themselves and knew we were in the right spot. We had a drink or 2 here and met many of the posters from CC that we had been trading info with for the past several months (Hi all :D). After a while, we all headed to location #3.....which was to become a quest!! We asked 4 or 5 different local Venetians directions to this hidden gem and ended up wandering around numerous alleyways and somehow ended up back where we had originally asked directions. By then we were parched and there just happened to be a bar there....so about 16 of us sat and had a drink but this was not the planned location. As we were enjoying our drinks, somebody (sorry not sure who) indicated they had found the right bar....and there were other CC folks there....so we finished up and headed over for much cheaper drinks!! Thanks again Dave for organizing this event and hi to all the new friends we met!!!

[cruisinskier]

Checking the maps in search of bar #3

 

 

Asking directions (again)

 

 

Still not there.....

 

 

We heard it was just down this alleyway....

[cruisinskier]

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

We then headed to get to the Vaporetto station to get the water bus back to Murano. We wanted to have dinner at the restaurant managed by Cesare’s son (which it turns out was one I had found on Tripadvisor and wanted to try out) as we knew it was open late tonight (it was closed the night before). We arrived about 8:30 at B Restaurant alla Vecchia Pescheria and the place was mostly full. However as far as tourist go, it was us and one other table (who were also staying at Murano Palace), otherwise it was full of locals. And the food did not disappoint. We had appetizers, pastas, wine and split a crème brule for a total of 39.50 euros. My DW indicated it was the best crème brule she had ever had and I had to agree......2 great dinners in 2 nights on Murano.

After a great long day it was time for sleep.

[cruisinskier]

B Restaurant....the outdoor area

 

 

And inside....

[cruisinskier]

We were up around 6:00am, mostly adjusted to time change now. The rest of our group arrived today. We wandered around Murano a little again as breakfast at Murano Palace is not until 8:00am. Here are a few more shots of Murano:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

After breakfast we wandered down to the pier as two of our group were arriving this morning. As we waiting, what do we see way off in the distance as we look across the island of venice but.....the Carnival whale tail!!! The Magic had arrived in Venice. It was hard to beleive that after weeks of planning we would be boarding the ship tomorrow :D:D

 

Look just left of the tower.....

 

 

Now centre of the photo....

 

 

And where it was docked...

[cruisinskier]

Once the two members of our group arrived that morning, they got settled in the hotel while we did a little shopping in Cesare's glass shop. I have to say that he is a true craftsman and did show us around some of his glass making facilities (however given it was a Saturday they were not working). Once we had made our purchases, we were off back to Venice. We walked some but ended up getting back on the Vaporetto as this truly is the best way to see the Grand Canal. Here are some shots from our various trips along the canal (as you can see we had another great day of weather...so much for the 3 days of rain that had been forecast before we left home...not that we are complaining!)....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

 

 

This looked like a neat way to see the Venice canals!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

Church of San Giorgio Maggiore

 

 

Santa Maria Della Salute

 

 

 

 

Back to Doge's Palace

[Acadie]

So enjoying your review, thank you for putting the time in posting!

[imatexan]

Slowly adding the over 3K pics we took ... lots of great shots of the Magic :)

 

https://picasaweb.google.com/luren280

[cruisinskier]

I just want to take a minute to say it was easy to find your way around Venice. Once you have a rough idea of where you want to go, there are signs posted on numerous buildings that will help guide you through the maze as to which way to go. For example we had to find our way back to the Nuovo Vaporatto station numeorus times and could easily get there by following these....

 

 

 

 

There were similar signs to get to the Rialto bridge, St mark's Square, etc. Occasionally you would get to a spot where there was not a sign so we guessed and almostly always found something neat and then another sign pointing us on our way. Part of the fun of Venice truly is getting lost.

 

Also, at the Vaporetto stations (at least the major ones), they had route maps and sign boards showing when the next trains would arrive and which route they would be taking. We never waiting more than 5-10 minutes, even later at night when we had to find our way back to Murano.

 

 

 

[cruisinskier]

OK, back to the trip report. At this point we headed back to Murano as the balance of our group was due in that afternoon. While we waited to meet their Alilaguna, we sat out on a patio by the port and enjoyed a cold drink or two.....

 

 

 

 

We also saw some lucky folks heading out on MSC today which made us look forward even more to doing the same on the Magic tomorrow....

 

[cruisinskier]

After a short while, the balance of our group arrived. We got them settled at Murano Palace and then of course they wanted to go explore Venice. Given that we had been able to explore for a few days, we went back along and acted as tour guides to get the most of their time. I do not know how many miles we walked that day but I think we went shore to shore across Venice 4 times that day. I won't bore you with more Venice pics but here are just a couple at night.

 

 

Gelato

 

 

The Grand Canal at night

 

 

 

 

St Mark's Square as it floods at high tide

 

 

After touring around for a few hours, we walked back to Nuovo station and took the Vaporetto back to Murano. We had to rest up as tomorrow morning we would find our way to the Magic and get onboard :D

[Tigers Cruiser]

Oustanding shots. Feel like we're there with you.

Glad you had a great trip.

 

Cheers!:D

[cruisinskier]

The day was finally here.....we had been waiting for months to sail on the Magic and it was going to happen today. After a final breakfast at Murano Palace, the now gang of 8 of us who stayed there assembled our of our luggage and headed for the pier. Once again Cesare was a wealth of knowledge advising that there was an "express" boat that left Murano and stopped only at the train station and at Piazzale Roma. Given that we had arranged to meet the other 4 members of our group at the People Mover, this worked great for us. So we were off....

 

One final Murano Pic

 

 

Our luggage pile....how are we going to get this all on the Vaporetto

 

 

On the Vaporetto with our luggage

 

Our first sighting of the Magic from the Vaporetto

[cruisinskier]

We exited the Vaporetto at Piazzale Roma and followed the signs to the People Mover. We met up with the other 4 members of our group at 10:30 a.m. and all 12 of us went in and purchased our tickets for 1 euro pp.

 

 

We then headed upstairs via either elevator or escalator to board the People Mover.

 

 

 

It is only one stop to the cruise port.

 

 

Once we exited the Vaporetto, it was an easy walk (less than 10 minutes) to the pier.

 

 

And not much later we had arrived at the port

 

 

 

This part Carnival could have done much better. I realize that this was a one time repositioning of the boat from Venice however a couple of staff and a few signs outside would have made a huge difference. Instead there were no signs as to where you drop your luggage (turns out it is not in terminal 107 but rather across the road). And then everyone was going into the closest end of the terminal 107 building however turns out that is the exit so we had to go back out and around the side of the building which is where we saw the first Canival sign.

 

 

From that point on it moved great but lots of people were complaining about the lack of instructions as to where to go to drop luggage and how to enter the terminal. There were Costa signs since they sail from here but no Carnival signs until we were about to enter the terminal.