Splendor - Greeek Isles & Turkey Cruise - Review with lots of pictures

[PCWalton1]

We then jumped on another vaporetto to get back to Piazzale Rome and our hotel. We had plans to meet as a group for dinner that evening. I found a restaurant just north of the Rialto Bridge that seemed to have a lot of good reviews online. The name of it was Al Nono Risorto. Before leaving Seattle I made a Google map giving directions from Rialto Bridge to the restaurant. So we hopped the Number 2 vaporetto down to Rialto and then made our way to the restaurant. The directions were sketchy at times but it actually worked and we found the place. A new couple we met here on CC, Didee and De Lisle met us there. They quickly become another happy addition to our growing family of travelers. The staff pushed some table together for us and we enjoyed a dinner of seafood, pasta and pizza. Also plenty of wine, Marie and I shared a delightful bottle of Pinot Grigio to go with Marie’s seafood combo (shrimp, scallops, calamari, sardines, etc.) and my sea bass. The sea bass seemed a bit on the small side, looked more like a trout but tasty none the less. After several hours of eating and partying we actually managed to make our way back to the vaporetto stop by Rialto and then back to the hotel with a quick stop for gelato. Thus ended another great day in beautiful Venice.

 

 

 

 

 

[Baseball fan]

Love your pictures! Cannot wait for the rest. We are back to Venice later this year to board the splendour. Thanks for taking the time to post your review.

[zales]

Great pics, Great review, and you haven't even got to the cruise portion yet, can't wait:)

[vivavegas]

OMG! Great Review and your photos are beautiful! Can't wait to read more.:)

[PCWalton1]

Great pics, Great review, and you haven't even got to the cruise portion yet, can't wait:)

 

Thanks for the support. I will post more tonight. Got a lot of work to get caught up on. :eek:

Bill

 

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[PCWalton1]

Love your pictures! Cannot wait for the rest. We are back to Venice later this year to board the splendour. Thanks for taking the time to post your review.

 

Splendour was great, they did a great job on the remodel. But embarrassed to say it took very few pictures of the ship. :o

I will check my wife's camera to see if she took any. Pretty sure she has some of the cabin.

Bill

 

 

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[AuzzieCruiser]

Amazing review and and stunning pics!!:)

Looking forward to more! :D

[Cat54]

Fabulous pictures...looking forward to the rest of your review!!:D

[Iluvcruising2]

Fantastic pictures!

 

Thanks for the review!

[ksmdcruisin]

I am really enjoying your review and all of your photos! I´ve always wanted to go to Venice and your pictures make me want to go even more!

 

Sounds like your group worked hard in getting your vacation organised and that the efforts were worth it.

 

Looking forward to reading and seeing more.

[lanikeekee]

Fantastic review...only problem is now I so want to go back to Europe:(:p:D

[Rala]

Bill....Great review! I almost feel like I was there with you guys.......ALMOST !!!!

Keep it coming.

 

Laura

[Mia_One]

Great review and fantastic pictures thank you

 

We will be there in September - also on the Splendour - this is keeping us going until then.

[Propsmom]

PcWalton1,

 

Thanks so much for your review so far!!

 

We are booked on the 6/30 sailing of the Splendour.

 

Your pictures are really getting me so excited for this cruise.

 

Some of the reviews of the the ship have been average at best, curious what are your thoughts?

[sirmurphy]

Bill,

 

Fantastic review and pictures. I'm interested in what low-light lens you got for your Nikon. Your photos inside the church and evening shots are great. We are going to the Baltics this summer and am thinking I should get a new lens for low light occasions.

 

Thanks so much.

[PCWalton1]

Bill,

 

Fantastic review and pictures. I'm interested in what low-light lens you got for your Nikon. Your photos inside the church and evening shots are great. We are going to the Baltics this summer and am thinking I should get a new lens for low light occasions.

 

Thanks so much.

 

It is nothing fancy as I didn't have a lot of cash to throw that way right now. It is a Nikon AF-S DX Nikkoe 35mm f/1.8G. Originally got it to take pictures of the grandkids basketball games as the lighting in the gym is bad and can't use flash. I have a Nikon D3000 and I found using the lens and putting the camera on the sports setting not only worked for the basketball shot, it works well for the indoor pictures. Keeps it at a quick shutter (1/40) and fairly wide aperture (f2/0).

[Prairie_Gal]

This is getting me even more excited for our Med. cruise in less than two weeks. We start from Venice too! :D How long did it take you to get over to Murano? I am trying to figure out if we have time to do it as we only have 1 1/2 days there before our cruise.

[sirmurphy]

It is nothing fancy as I didn't have a lot of cash to throw that way right now. It is a Nikon AF-S DX Nikkoe 35mm f/1.8G. Originally got it to take pictures of the grandkids basketball games as the lighting in the gym is bad and can't use flash. I have a Nikon D3000 and I found using the lens and putting the camera on the sports setting not only worked for the basketball shot, it works well for the indoor pictures. Keeps it at a quick shutter (1/40) and fairly wide aperture (f2/0).

 

Thank you! I also have the D3000 and I was looking at the Nikon AF-S 35mm f/1.8G. It gets great reviews for the price and clearly the results are wonderful. I think my decision just got a little easier.

 

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your review.

[PCWalton1]

This is getting me even more excited for our Med. cruise in less than two weeks. We start from Venice too! :D How long did it take you to get over to Murano? I am trying to figure out if we have time to do it as we only have 1 1/2 days there before our cruise.

We had 1 1/2 days before and 1 day after to explore Venice. Depending on where you leave from, it can take 10 minutes to an hour to get there. You really have to focus on how long you want to spend on the islands though. We had set aside 5 hours for Murano/Burano as we wanted to explore and eat lunch. That worked well for us.

[jakesmom04]

Awesome photos.....love the glass works. Now just need to talk DH into this type of cruising!!! Can't wait for more.

[houseofmouse]

Enjoying your review so far. Loving the pics of venice, will have to add that to my list of places to visit now! Although, it is a bit closer for us, not such a long flight!

[Puffinater]

Great pictures. Thanks for taking the time to share them.

[PCWalton1]

Day three and it is time to embark on Splendour of the Seas. After breakfast at the hotel we packed up, checked out and headed to the ship. A few notes on the Hotel Olimpia which is where we stayed. As I mentioned earlier the location was great for us as it is close to both the train station and the People Mover which gets you to the cruise terminal. Of course it means you are farther from all the rest of Venice but the vaporettos make it easy to move around so that was not a problem for us.

 

The staff at the hotel was very friendly and helpful. They assisted us in getting our restaurant reservation for our group dinner on the second evening. It has a beautiful garden courtyard in the middle and an outstanding breakfast which was included in the cost. Coffee, tea, rolls, cereals, meats, cheeses, scrambled eggs, bacon, juice, pretty much anything you need to make a decent breakfast. We booked about 10 months prior so the price was “reasonable”. We paid 331 euros for the two nights which in Venice prices actually is a good priced. Just hard to swallow for a smaller, quaint room but that is Venice.

 

 

So seven of us headed out across Piazzale Roma to the People Mover. The transport system started operating on April 19, 2010. The two vehicles of the system are pulled by a cable similar to a funicular. The whole 853 m (2,799 ft.) long journey takes 3 minutes (I looked that up). It cost one euro and made the trip to the cruise terminal a breeze, but there was still a hefty walk to the ship. About a quarter mile lugging our bags.

Check in to the ship was easy and quick, there was even a priority line for some of us lowly gold members which speeded the process a bit. As non-EU citizens we were required to surrender our passport before boarding the ship. This had to do with our stop in Turkey where they would need to be stamped. They assured us we would get them back the day before returning to Venice and also gave us receipts. Still was a bit scary giving them up. For backup we always carry copies (in case of loss/theft) so we were not empty handed.

 

The whole check in process was about 10-15 minutes and we were on board. As we entered the centrum area they greeted us with music and free drinks, some blue with rum. After a few of those we were getting into the cruising mood. Cabins were not open yet so we headed to Windjammer to get our first meal of the cruise. It was not yet crowded as it was still early. We like getting to the ship as early as possible on the first day as we are paying for that day so might as well get as much as we can for our money. So by noon we had already had drinks and lunch onboard, great way to start a cruise.

 

After one the cabins were open so Marie and I headed to ours. This is when I got to spring a surprise on her. We had originally booked an inside cabin for the cruise, but a couple weeks ago the cost of a balcony guarantee dropped to almost what we paid for the inside. I threw a couple hundred in to upgrade and they gave us a D2 cabin (7124) on the aft port side. So she was definitely surprised to see daylight when I opened the cabin door.

 

A few words on the cabin, the overhaul that was done this past winter showed throughout the cabin. The couch cushions look new, the bathroom also looked new, new flat screen TV, and as I would find out later the Wi-Fi worked great in the cabin (most of the time).

 

We spent much of the afternoon unpacking and exploring the ship as we were new to a Vision class ship. We had only been on Voyager class before so the lack of a promenade was disappointing for Marie. I was surprised to see Starbucks at Café Latte-tudes on deck six as I thought it was just on the Oasis class ships. Having worked for Starbucks over the past 15 years it was nice to see our parent brand onboard along with our Seattle’s Best brand in the MDR.

 

[PCWalton1]

Sail away began at 5pm and we headed up to deck 10 portside to get a good view as we sailed down the canal passed St. Marks. Getting into the mood we bought the drink of the evening, as Venetian something or other. Was disappointed it was just the drink straight up. On our last cruise to the Mexican Riviera the waiter carried a bottle of rum to “freshen” up our drink which he did two or three or four time. Marie did keep the glass that we hauled back so we have these bilious blue and orange glasses that I am not sure will every again see the light of day.

The sail away was a very memorable experience. Watching this beautiful city pass by was something you would not want to miss. It was also great to see the enthusiasm of the locals as you pass, many of them waving and yelling. Probably yelling “thanks for the euros”, but that’s to be expected as tourism is their life’s blood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PCWalton1]