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Monday, April 17, 2017

Slow Motion Venice Arrival

Our plane landed and then had to wait for a remote parking spot. The funny First Officer told us he asked ground control "Don't you know who I Am?" And they answered immediately "No."

We were easily 40 minutes in the immigration line after deplaning.

After clearing immigration we found our way to the water taxi (vaporetto) docks, making use of the moving sidewalks installed since our last VCE landing some years ago.




We lined up to exchange for tickets the round trip voucher we'd purchased online on Alilaguna, one of the two water taxi services. The 90-minute round trip cost us €25 each.

Fortunately we didn't have to wait too long to board. We were in line behind another American couple. He was complaining that this was the "only place in the world" that wouldn't let them use the   "Expedited" line with their brand new shiny Global Entry cards. We tried to explain that Global Entry cards are generally only used for re-entering the US (Australia does kindly allow expedited immigration queues with them) but we don't think he understood the concept.

His wife said they had obtained them just for this Mediterranean cruise. 

The ticket taker asked this same world traveler which stop he wanted and he replied "Downtown Venice." Hope he made it.





We enjoyed some scenery along the way. By the time we got to the Hilton Giudecca stop, about 2 1/2 hours after landing at VCE, we were the only passengers left aboard.



There's something about Venice.

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