Venice - Sailing down the Grand Canal

Booking a cruise that starts in Venice was one of the best decisions I've ever made. After having spent 1.5 days wandering the streets and canals of Venice, being able to sail out of Venice down the Grand Canal to begin my cruise was an amazing experience. Other than perhaps sailing through the Stockholm Archipelago (which I loved for different reasons), sailing down the Grand Canal was one of the best cruising experiences I've ever had.

After having spent the morning wandering through Venice only to return to the ship tired, hot and hungry, our sailaway was the elixir we needed.

Ruby Princess began pulling up her lines at about 1:00 pm, and shortly thereafter we began to pull away from the pier. The Captain slowly guided us out of the port area and to the entrance of the Grand Canal.

The best piece of advice I could ever give to anyone is to be out on an open deck well in advance of sailing through the Grand Canal. I made the mistake of not going up to the pool decks on Decks 15 and 16 untle we had already started sailing. By the time I reached the pool deck, every square inch of space from bow to stern was packed 2 or 3 deep with passengers eager to watch our sailaway through the Grand Canal.

This was a perfect day for a sailaway in Venice, the sun was shining brightly, the crowds on the island were thick, and albeit the temperatures were a little warmer than most of us would have liked, that was all quickly forgotten as everyone gazed with wonder at the beauty of Venice.

Seeing Venice from this prospective, from the top deck of this mega cruise ship, puts the city in a whole new light. As we slowly sailed past small little canals that run through the city, we could look straight down through the canal into the heart of the city. We could see gondoliers plying their gondolas along side the ship, vaporettos were ahead of us, beside us, behind us, there were multi-million dollar luxury yachts moored up at the docks, and there were people in their personal speedboats and sailboats out for an afternoon sail on the water.

And then there were the people. There were people walking all along side the shores of the Grand Canal, but their numbers began to grow in size as we approached St. Mark's Square. Off in the distance we could see the square with the Campanile standing tall in the middle and the distinctive domed roof of St. Mark's Basilica. From our perspective the people on the island looked more like a huddle of ants scurrying about along the shore line. When we finally reached St. Mark's Square, it looked like a swarm of ants. The crowds that stood in the square, along the banks, everywhere as far as the eye could see, were enormous. And I know that the one thought that was on my mind was, "I'm glad I'm on the ship and not on the ground...."

Before I came to Venice, I never imagined that I would like. Now, not only do I like it, I think I fell in love with it. With its charm, it's beauty, and its very unique character. How can it get any better than sailing down the Grand Canal with Andrea Bocelli's "Time to Say Goodbye" playing over the loudspeaker system. Magic.