B2B "excursion" in Ravenna

[luckybecky]

We are doing our first ever B2B on the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas. We would like to take advantage of our turnaround day in Ravenna, Italy and DIY a beach excursion.

 

It looks like we will be docked right next to to a long strip of beaches, including Corallo Beach immediately adjacent to the cruise port, and also a nearby nature reserve (which I think is a public beach) within easy walking distance. 

 

Can anyone give us tips on how this would work on a B2B? Can we leave the ship and do a sort of DIY excursion on turnaround day? And more specifically, how do we get to these nearby beaches? It looks very close and do-able in terms of looking at a map, but is there anything we need to know? What about customs or immigration or whatever? Any procedures we need to follow if we want to leave the ship for a few hours?

 

Thanks for any help!

[CruiserBruce]

Usually, in non-US ports, turnaround day is treated as a normal port day for people on B2B...you can come and go, on/off the ship as you please...there aren't any local restrictions. But you need to check on the RCI board to see if they do anything special or restrictive.

[MeHeartCruising]

At least pre-covid, when I did a Royal Caribbean B2B on Italian soil (Civitavecchia) there was no customs/immigration formality involved that I had to be aware of.  However, the ship personnel did have a procedure for processing the B2B passengers.  Each cruise line and even each ship has their own nuances to the procedure, but they are relatively consistent.  They usually gather the B2B passengers somewhere on the ship on the turnaround day.  Then they process you "off" the first cruise and "on" the second cruise.  This may be done where you are gathered, or they may take you down to the gangway and take you off the ship and then take you back on (if you want to go back on).  

 

When I did it, our ID cards for cruise 2 were given to us the night before.  But on the turnaround day, we went as a group to the gangway and security marked us off the ship with the old card and then back on the ship with the new card.  If we didn't want to go back on the ship, we were free to go ashore.  If we were going ashore, they gave us a "In Transit" pass that let us bypass the checkin process when you wanted to get back on.  I just showed it to people in the terminal and they let me go directly to the ship.

 

The only slight annoyance to this, was that they didn't process the B2B passengers in this manner until all debarking passengers were off the ship.  So we had to wait around while a few stragglers on the ship were taking their time getting off.  I don't think I got off the ship until at least 10:00am.

Edited May 20, 2022 by MeHeartCruising

[marazul]

There are sandy beaches with restaurants and concessions all along the shore.  Do consider going the see the amazing 5th century mosaics in the Basilica and Mausoleo first. 

[cruisemom42]

I will second what marazul says above. I have traveled all around the ancient world and the mosaics in Ravenna are the most astonishing I've seen anywhere. They date from the period when Ravenna served as the western capital of the Roman empire, after Rome had been sacked.

 

All of the best artists and craftsmen of the western empire would've been working there, and they were importing the latest designs and techniques from Constantinople. You cannot see such fine work in Istanbul due to the unfortunate later iconoclast era where most early religious mosaics and images were destroyed.

 

For me, they were comparable to but better than the mosaics in the Palatine chapel in Palermo, which were the closest thing I've seen. These are earlier. I was blown away by the vividness of the color and the perfection of the images. 

 

They're scattered around the town in several locations, most of which can be visited in a long half-day on foot (the old center of the town is not large). 

 

There is also the "original" cathedral of the port, built earlier, which is outside the town and is even closer to the port where the cruise ships now stop. (As well as the remains of the ancient Roman port.)

[bennybear]

We also loved Ravenna’s mosaics and wonderful local food.   @cruisemom42  have you been to st Petersburg?   The semiprecious mosaics there were incredible!  

[cruisemom42]

3 hours ago, bennybear said:

We also loved Ravenna’s mosaics and wonderful local food.   @cruisemom42  have you been to st Petersburg?   The semiprecious mosaics there were incredible!  

 

You mean such as those in the Church on Spilled Blood?  Yes -- they are amazing as well. If there was a continuum of outstanding religious mosaics it would be the most recent set of masterpieces.

 

But for some reason the modern never seems to  touch me as much as the old. I think what appeals to me about the mosaics in Ravenna is that you can still identify the ancient Roman themes and styles of mosaics but with a thin overly of Christian imagery -- it truly represents the turning point between the ancient, pagan civilization and the new Christian-based one.  Like how the ceiling of the Arian baptistery in Ravenna shows the disciples dressed as Roman senators and personifies the river Jordan as a typical Roman river god figure (the same way they'd represented the Tiber river or the Nile in the past).

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by cruisemom42

[marazul]

And for sheer exhuberance there are the mossaics of St Peter's basilica.  Every square inch of the enormous interior is covered in mossaics.  But nothing compares to the historical and artistic interest of Ravenna.

[bennybear]

@cruisemom42Yes I did mean the church of the spilled blood,  I was stunned.   I also loved Ravenna,  Istanbul,  Torcello and Monreale Cathedrale.  Sigh……. And of course  Santa Maria in Trastevere 

@marazul Ravenna is stunning and more so because I don’t think as many are aware of them like Istanbul.  
 

 

Edited May 23, 2022 by bennybear

[luckybecky]

Thanks everyone for the excellent suggestions and advice on how the B2B works. Things went a little crazy around here the day after I posted my question, and I'm just now getting back to this topic. You all have been very helpful.

 

We are spending one night in Ravenna before the cruise, arriving on the train from Bologna. I'm hoping to get an early start, so we should have several hours to explore the mosaics. I am looking forward to that and appreciate y'alls advice. 

 

We were thinking of doing the beach on turnaround day just so we can avoid needing to ride the bus (or hail a cab) back and forth, when thousands of other cruise passengers are doing the same. Does anyone know if the beach has free public access?

 

Thanks again.