Roger and Susan's trip with Road Scholar
On board the MV Aegean Odyssey, June 11 --25, 2013
A cruise on the Aegean Odyssey with Road Scholar formerly known as Elderhostel, sounded very appealing, and educational. With a little pushing, Roger agreed to put down the money and take a REAL vacation! The Aegean Odyssey is a small ship which can hold up to 350 passengers, not one of those gigantic cruisers with 4000 or more passengers. We signed up, ordered a couple of recommended books, and started packing.
06 11 2013 Tues Days 1 & 2 Delta to Amsterdam
06 12 2013 Wed to Venice MV Aegean Odyssey,
Tuesday, June 11th arrived, and we took a limo to the airport with Ahid as our driver. Yes, a limo costs less than a taxi occasionally, and we had a good driver, who was willing to pick us up on our return as well. We exchange emails and phone numbers.
The first leg of the flight, on Delta, Atlanta to Amsterdam, took 8.5 hours. A couple of cat naps, and. Two or three movies later, we arrived at Schiphol Airport 5:30 am local time. Sunrise over Amsterdam. Then on to Venice Marco Polo Airport on KLM, another 3.5 hours. We were greeted by a Road Scholar transportation agent and hustled off to a hotel for some R&R, and lunch. We are in Venice, Italy, but it is not time to board the ship.
We meet the rest of the Road Scholar group, eighteen in all, and Antonis, our guide for the next two weeks, and a native of Athens. Antonis has been a tour group leader for the past 35 years, and has a wealth of knowledge about the history, wars and cultures of the the various civilizations of Italy, Croatia, Greece, and the Mediterranean . He is soft spoken, articulate,courteous, and a scholar of the Greek language.
A few of us head out on a very short outing to check out the nearby stores, but everything is closed. It is lunch and siesta time, and it is hot! We wait for a couple of hours in the lobby of the Antony Palace Hotel, till the ship is ready for a new batch of passengers. Some sleep, some talk, and some like me, are restless! Here we are in Venice, Italy, sitting around on sofas instead of seeing the sights!
We are driven by bus to the lovely, elegant white ship docked in the Venetian port, and are checked in and welcomed on board. At this point we are given our Aegean Odyssey ID cards which will let us on and off the ship and is also the card key to our room. And we are instructed that there will be a drill within the next hour which we are required to attend. It will be held in the Ambassador lounge on the sixth floor, or the Promenade deck. Roger and I are on the fourth floor, Columbus deck, "outside stateroom" and we have a porthole. The room is small with a single bed on each wall. We are grateful for our porthole and glad we don't have to share our bathroom! We unpack and wait for the announcement to come to the Ambassador lounge with life jackets in hand for the drill, seven sharp whistles. A necessary procedure, since one never knows when or if we will need to be called to our stations and instructed to get into lifeboats! We take this all very seriously of course, and are very attentive to all the instructions given!
There are two places for meals, and we enjoy our meals either in the more formal dining room, the Marco Polo where one has to wear a jacket, ( bah humbug!) or the Terrace Restaurant, which is much less formal, and is located on the sixth floor where one can be seated inside or on the deck. Roger did not bring a jacket, but we tested the system, and it worked. He was allowed to eat in the Marco Polo as long as he was not wearing shorts.
Next an informal meeting with the Road scholar group and our group leader Antonis, who instructs us on upcoming events for the next day. We introduce ourselves, and chat. Some have been on previous Road Scholar trips from two to 37 times! Guess that speaks well of the Company. It is then time for the general meeting for the whole ship. We learn there are 240 passengers on board. The average age is 67, and nine countries are represented.
USA. 121 passengers, Australia and the UK each with 47 passengers,
Canada 21, and New Zealand 4.
We are each placed in a color group, and Road Scholar is Blue. This is to expedite the on and off boarding process each day, as we will be doing excursions with our groups on a daily basis. We are instructed the previous evening as to which color group will be disembarking at which time, usually 10 minutes apart. The RED group is usually first, since they are on the higher decks and have presumably paid more for their cabins! We are not totally happy with that, since BLUE is often one of the last ones off and we therefore lose 20-30 minutes each day for our time ashore. So be it, but one of us lets the desk know in a couple of days that we feel discriminated against, and the next day we are first!! Yes, the squeaky wheel gets greased!
Dinner is served, several courses, all delicious, and elegantly served. No wonder they want us to dress up! Roger discovers he did not bring any shorts. He has a million of them at home. At the first opportunity, we plan to purchase this very necessary item. It is quite hot! Thankfully the ship is air conditioned. It will be somewhere in Croatia before we get a chance. We dine with our new friends, Nate and Wendy for NY. Their winter escape is in Florida .
Off to bed after listening to the lovely vocalist Sarah, and her accompanist Alberto in the Charleston lounge.
We will be going on a half day tour to the heart of Venice, Doge's Palace , and the Piazza San Marco the following morning on Thursday, June 13.
Sweet dreams! We are in Italy!
06 13 2013 Venice, Doge's Palace , and the Piazza San Marco
To be continued.