Random Ship Spotting - Part 2

The second in the series taking a closer look at ships we have seen whilst not actually travelling on them.

25 August 2008. We sailed into the port of Ajaccio, Corsica and found ourselves overlooking Thomson Destiny. We would take a cruise on her ourselves three years later. She was built in Helsinki, Finland in 1982 as Song of America for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

From 1999-2005 she sailed as MS Sunbird for Sun Cruises before coming under the ownership of Louis Cruise Lines who chartered her to Thomson Cruises by whom she was renamed Thomson Destiny. She is remembered with great affection by many passengers from this period.

She returned to Louis Cruise Lines in April 2012 and became Louis Olympia. In 2014 she acted as a floating hotel for the Winter Olympics in Russia. With Louis Cruise Lines re-branding to Celestial Cruise Lines she now operates as the Celestyal Olympia.

The tall ship Signora del Vento, a three-masted schooner seen here in the Italian port of Civitavecchia was built in Poland in 1962. She has been a training vessel since the 1990s and was bought in 2006 by the Italian Society of Navigation. Apart from her training vessel duties, as part of which she partakes in many rallies of tall ships around the world, she can be hired for private and corporate events, offering meeting space and fine dining.

"What big eyes you have, Grandma..." Every decent sailing ship should have a figurehead carving gracing the bowsprit and the Signora del Vento's figurehead was carved by Birgit and Claus Hartmann.

The Aida Cara in Palma, Majorca, 30 August 2008. The paintwork of the Aida ships make for a real fun sight. When seen head on, there's a full set of lips and two seductive eyes approaching you. But you really do not want to be on the receiving end of a kiss... She was built in 1996 in Turku, Finland for Deutsche Seetouristik/Arkona Reisen as a "club ship" (think Club 18-30 afloat...). In 1999 Arkona Reisen came under control of P&O Cruises who acquired a 51% stake in the company. Originally named Aida, the ship had been successful enough for the new Aida Cruises to build two sister ships. The original was renamed Aida Cara with the two new ships being Aida Aura and Aida Vita.

We joined a cruise on Ocean Village II at Heraklion in Crete at the end of April 2009 and found ourselves moored for the day next to the Festos Palace, part of the fleet of Minoan Ferries. She is named after the ancient Palace of Phaistos, her sister ship being Knossos Palace.

She was built at Sestri Ponente shipyards in Genoa, Italy, in 2001. Carrying up to 2,500 passengers and 700 cars it has an impressive power plant of four diesel engines that can throw it over the sea at over 31 knots. In 2013 she whacked the dock at Heraklion rather harder than expected when trying to dock in high winds and waves.

Another ship from the Sestri Ponente shipyards in Genoa was Costa Serena, seen here approaching Dubrovnik, Croatia on 2 May 2009. We have seen her several times on different cruises but on this particular one we seemed to be following her around the Adriatic. She was built in 2006 and came into service the following year with Costa Crociere. She featured in a six-part documentary for the National Geographic Channel. She has three sister ships: Costa Pacifica, Costa Favolosa and Costa Fascinosa. Since 2015 she has been catering for the Chinese cruising market visiting Japanese and South Korean ports.

Ships and Boats Index

Preparations to Sail

Sunday, 3 May 2009, The Port of Venice. We have returned to the ship and spent an hour or so waiting for sailing time up on the top deck. The sun is setting and it promises to be a beautiful sunset.

Whilst there was still a while before sailing time I looked over the side of the ship towards Venice and took this photo. The buildings to the right look like a railway station and the straight strip of land, though bare of lines, suggest that it may well have been once.

The sun is starting to slide down the sky, though thankfully without any of the sound you get when fingernails slide down a blackboard...

We missed all the sights as we sailed into Venice, so we crossed to the other side of the ship - the port side would face Venice as we sailed out, so we wanted to "bag" a good spot! Parked against the opposite wharf was Costa Serena, seen above. Behind us was MSC Musica. MSC Musica was the first to move, being pulled by tugs out into the channel and turning to sail majestically away from us.

We shared a wave with a few people lining the decks of Costa Serena. This started Fran going. She waved at everything that moved on the water to make people wave back. Liners, ferries, shuttle boats, tugs, ducks... everything! As time came near to our leaving others joined us at the rail and they all started to wave as well. It was catching...

Two Filipino girls from the crew came up to take photos of each other. The first stood near me with her arms outstretched. It was too tempting. I took hold of her hand and smiled at the camera. They thought this hilarious! The second came straight in for the cuddle and they were squealing with delight at the resulting photo! "Oh, thank you, sir, thank you!" she beamed. A bit bemused I said, "No problem... I'll be here tomorrow..." By heck, wife at hand and thinking I was too bloody old to stand a chance with young girls and now it gets easy?!? I must have had my posh aftershave on... And where was Fran's camera? These things don't happen every day - I need a reminder!

Hey up! A little panel on the side of Costa Serena has dropped down and there is a perfect little platform for the Captain to come out to supervise the reversing out of the dock! Blimey, we brought my mother on a cruise last year and I couldn't get permission to bring a plank for her to walk and now, when it's too late, I find that modern liners have a built-in one ready to pop out at the push of a button!

So now we are all on our own in the dock and after a while we cast off and start to move. As Costa Serena pulls out she reveals Costa Luminosa in the next berth. The long-awaited look at Venice in the sunset is about to start.

The dock looks quite empty after we are towed out to the channel and have the room to swing around to point in the right direction. Reversing out through Venice would be so embarrassing...! We are looking forward to this and in my excitement I forget to keep an eye out for any more girl crew members coming for a photo! Settle down, you sad old fogey, it's not going to happen again!

Return to Gateways and Gondolas Cruise Index

A Trip to Venice

Sunday, 3 May 2009. Ocean Village Two crawls almost imperceptably into the lagoon at Venice. We were up at the ship's rail on Deck 14, as the crew had all said that we shouldn't miss the entry into Venice.

The ship would sail right past St Mark's Square and the Doges Palace. And it may well have done but we were booked into the Spa for a massage at 10 o'clock. We did have time to see these beautiful sunrays hitting the waters of the Adriatic before we entered the Lagoon.

The first little bit of Venice comes and we round the corner to keep to its shoreline, heading up towards the heart of the city.

There's a hint of early morning mist hanging about, muting the colours of buildings and green spaces. Then, tanalisingly, just as the best bits came in sight we had to leave the rail to the amazement of all the crowds pressed behind us and leg it!

The massage was very relaxing and afterwards we got a couple of tickets for the shuttle boat that was ferrying passengers from the ship's berth to the waterfront in Venice.

It was cruise ship reunited day. MSC Musica was moored behind us, looking huge as we pass round it on the single-deck water bus. Costa Serena at our side against the opposite quay.

Just round the corner was P&O's Regatta, seen here being passed by one of Venice's many tugboats. Also on this stretch of canal was one of the most beautiful motor yachts I've ever seen. More of that in a later entry, because the shuttle boat has already moved on and we're approaching bits of Venice I recognise.

The church of S. Maria del Rosario, built in 1726-1736 by the Dominican order of friars.

The smaller church to the left of the photo to the right is the Church of S. Maria della Visitazione which belonged to the Jesuit order.

There is, of course, a large number of churches in Venice and the most famous of them is coming into sight as we pass the entrance to the Grand Canal and sail onwards towards the Londra Palace Hotel opposite which we will disembark.

First though is a sail past the most famous sights in Venice. The Doges Palace (Doge is Italian for Duke) held the courts where prisoners were tried. If found guilty they were transferred to the gaol next door by way of an enclosed bridge over the canal. Lord Byron imagined that they would take a last look at the Lagoon from its barred windows...and sigh for their lost freedom. The bridge became known as the Bridge of Sighs.

In that inevitable way that you know in any major city, something is going to be hidden by scaffolding... Yup! It's the turn of the Bridge of Sighs... Gondolas do a roaring trade at around £75 (2009 prices) for a half-hour trip along the canals. It's the price for the gondola regardless of how many people are in it. Hence only lovers can afford (or are desperate enough) to go only two to a boat...

The last time we went in one, on a previous visit, we had the most grumpy gondolier imaginable. Fran was convinced he was going to swamp us and he spent the entire time steering with one hand whilst having an argument on his phone... I asked him if he sang and thought for a moment he was going to actually shout at me!

In the next entry we'll have a closer look at the most famous square in Venice - the only square in Venice, but I'll tell you why in the next article!

Return to Gateways and Gondolas Cruise Index

We Almost Visit Dubrovnik again...

Saturday, 2 May 2009. The coach leaves Cavtat and we climb the hillside for another set of spectacular views on the way back towards Gruz and the Ocean Village Two cruise ship.

In the distance a Costa cruise line ship is making for the port of Dubrovnik.

As we get closer we can see that it is Costa Serena now moored amongst the smaller islands towards Dubrovnik. Her tender boats are already in the water and ferrying people to shore. In fact the entire week we seemed to be almost in a convoy of three with Ocean Village Two, MSC Musica and Costa Serena. Not as funny a name as her stable mate, Costa Fortuna, but there you go...

Dubrovnik comes into sight and we are told that we will skirt the wall in order that we can drop off any passengers who want a quick look round the city at Pile Square (pronounced "peel"). Typical of my luck, just as I take the photograph, the coach overtakes a woman on a scooter with no helmet but bright red hair! By the time we are past her, we are also past the viewpoint.

We drive around part of the city wall which towers above the roadway, looking as formidably unscalable as it was originally designed to be. I snap a couple of photos through the coach window.

Pile Square and Pile Gate is an ancient part of Dubrovnik and has been the main landward entrance to the city for a good few hundred years. Entrance through the gate was guarded by a still impressive gatehouse, overlooked by towers on the walls and no doubt by a drawbridge over the moat, though from the coach I couldn't see whether the modern stone bridge still incorporated a drawbridge portion.

Pile Square itself is bustling with people. Most of them, in fact the queue that you can see to the right of the photo and which 5 minutes later extended right round to behind the tree and the statue, were waiting for the shuttle buses to take them back to the ship and, having dropped off a few of our passengers, we took on some of them. Not until the courier had asked our permission, I have to say, which was a nice touch.

The statue, by the way, was a touch strange as it featured a naked woman berating a naked man who seemed reluctant to hand over a strangely attractive sheep... Best not to enquire too deeply, I thought... The passengers who got on were not particularly effusive in their praise of the organisation of traffic. The place was obviously a well used bus terminal as buses filled the road - three abreast, and all stopped to let off and pick up passengers. There were no pedestrian bits, those getting off one bus alighted in the middle of the road and in a fog of exhaust fumes, had to dodge other buses that were trying to squeeze through the gaps. Buses left the square as soon as they could worm their way through from the back of the collection of buses to the front.

But anyway they were now safe and sound on the coach. It only took a few minutes to get from Dubrovnik back to the port, once we had got from the back of the queue of buses to the front in a series of stops and starts as the driver alternately gunned it, then slammed on anchors, as another queue of people got off another bus straight into the road in front of us.

We got back to the ship and had something to eat, then I went up on deck to lean on the ship's rail and do this sketch of the hillside at Gruz. Not a photographically accurate one as there were some high-rise flats in the middle distance and I left those out with an uncharacteristic shudder of artistic licence.

With one cruise ship moored and another two ships having to anchor and tender their passengers into the port, the local authorities are busy extending the dock to cope with more ships. Hey up! We're moving! Time to have a last look at this part of Croatia as we thread our way through the small islands offshore and look forward to our day tomorrow which will be in Venice.

Return to Gateways and Gondolas Cruise Index