Mediterranean Iconic Shores Ocean Cruise

Day 19: Monday, November 17, 2025 - Venice, Italy

The day's statistics:
-  Weather: mid 50s, overcast
-  Steps: Linda: 6,372; Steve: 10,442

This was our second day in Venice, but overnight, the ship moved from one port to a different one (no, we don't know why). The biggest difference was that from this port, to get to the city, it was a bus ride not a boat ride.
Today was our mid-cruise day as we were now half way through our Fanstaic Voyage.
Today also ended our second week on the ship, so our morning shipboard routine was becoming regular: awake, shower, breakfast at the World Café (yes, we had breakfast in The Restaurant once).
More times than not we returned to the cabin, brushed, and collected our items for our excursion. Or we killed some time because the excursion was a little later in the morning.
Yesterday we visited guest services in order to cancel today's excursion. The excurstion was supposed to be "Venice On Your Own", so it wasn't even a guided thing - we were just free to Rome (get it?!!?) around Venice for however long we wanted, dependent on the bus shuttle schedule.
The number of excursions that were available this day were extremely limited. But that was because today was another transfer day - that meant that about three-quarters of the ship was departing and being replaced by a whole new set of passengers. This was the second such occasion on our trip, the first happening when we were in Athens. But the first time that happened, we were on an excursion and when we came back, most of the passengers were different.
We would be witness to the transfer as we weren't leaving the ship. Rather today we were going to spend our morning doing laundry. The ship has a laundry room for passengers to use free (OK, technically it was included in the cruise fare) - it is four washing machines and four dryers (on each main passenger floor).
We packed accordingly as well - knowing we'd be doing laundry at some point - and this day was the best day. So we pretty much washed everything we wore - so it was as if we just started our vacation.
We used three of the four avaialble washing machines - whites, lights, and darks. We started the machines, set a timer, and headed back to the cabin. There is even a retractable clothes line in the shower so some of the items that shouldn't be dried in a machine could be hung up - like dress shirts, and slacks.
Doing laundry - going back and forth, and folding - took up the entire morning. While we were going back and forth we saw large quantities of luggage appear near the freight elevators, and then shortly thereafter, disappear. I spoke to Sumi about how many cabins were not vacating, and she said in her section, it was only five.
It was still a fairly active morning for us and we were able to keep busy. Until lunch time.

We headed to the World Café for lunch and enjoyed some buffet food.
The view from our table.

The afternoon would be occupied with cards in the Explorer's Lounge.
About 2:30 we headed to the Living Room and got some coffee with our traveling companion.

Off to the right on the first floor near the Living Room bar is the entrance to Manfredi's Italian Restaurant.
It doesn't matter if these two were trying to make or cancel a reservation, but at least this guys socks match his fanny pack...

After coffee we returned to the Lounge for more cards.
The afternoon passed and it was soon time for dinner already.

Diiner. The Restaurant, Table 53.

Linda had Roasted Tomato Soup, [always available] Roast Chicken (that someone couldn't finish because it was way too much chicken for a three course meal so their travel companion finished it so it wouldn't go to waist waste), and Mango Tango.



I had a double order of Tiger Prawns, Chicken Kiev, and Chocolate Crème Brûlée.

At one point I was standing in the hallway, holding two glasses of wine, waiting for Linda, and struck up a conversatiion with a Brit named John, who was waiting for his wife Chris.
Eventually the two ladies joined us and we continued chatting for about ten minutes before parting ways.

We returned to our cabin to retreive the Dominion cards before heading to the Lounge.
Chris and John stopped by our table to inquire about the game that we were playing. I explained it to them, and they joined in on the fun. And as it turns out, though he claimed he didn't fully understand what he was doing, John won the game we played.

After cards, we returned to the cabin, washed up, and went to bed.

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