Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Splendour Day 2: Split, Croatia


Our first full day on board included a fairly short stop in Split, Croatia.  We would also not be docking, but tendering (meaning, dropping anchor in the harbor and taking small boats into shore).  Often times there is a large line of people waiting to get off during the first couple of hours in a tender port, especially when there is a relatively early return time of three o’clock as we had on this particular Sunday.

We used to be very gung ho on vacation. I used to arrive with lots of plans, from what to wear to dinner each night to exactly what to see in port, and the port days used to be pretty packed.  These days, we travel often enough, and have the nice feeling that most places we visit are places we can always go back to if we want.  The result is that we now tend to have much more relaxed port days.  We don’t have a check list of things to see.  We tend to get off and wander, soak in local atmosphere and see what we stumble upon. 
Thus, we decided to sleep in, have a slow breakfast, and then head down to the tenders after the crowds had thinned out. 

  We were awake, but lolly gagging and debating actually getting up, when the door opened and the light turned on at about 8:30!  The mini bar person was there to check if we had used anything, and did not bother to knock.  We both thought we had put the room lock on, but apparently not.  Good thing we were in bed and not stepping out of the shower LOL

After breakfast, we headed down to the tenders.  There was still a short wait, but it wasn’t long.  They were using the ship’s lifeboats as tenders, which was kind of fun; I’d never ridden in a lifeboat before.  The seas were a bit rough though, some people were a little green as we crossed in the little boats.  Luckily, Dave’s recent ear surgery has alleviated his seasickness as well as his pain when flying. 

The tenders dropped us off right downtown.  We lucked out and the Split Children’s Choir was performing right on the waterfront.  The kids were adorable, and we stayed and enjoyed a few songs.  (this is where we learned that a malfunctioning cable had DRAINED my camera battery rather than charged it; so please forgive the fewer photos for this port--all taken on Dave's phone.  Yay for Dave and his phone).


Afterwards we wandered the town on foot. It is like a little labyrinth with a maze of side streets, some very narrow, and around every turn was a new delightful view.  We loved how the old and the new were totally intermingled.  The older parts of the city were not set apart as mere tourist attractions, they  were still essentially in use.  We overhead a guide explaining that the reason everything is so well preserved is that the city was never abandoned.  When people live somewhere, they take care of it, and this is not ruins, it is and always has been home.  I loved that, and thought it made lots of sense. It was also really interesting to see such a mix of more classically Greek?Roman architecture with more classically Egyptian themes.  You could really tell this area was a crossroads between the cultures.








We chose not to climb into the bell tower, or enter the church (after services: it was closed to the public until afternoon), as the lines were quite long and we felt they would not be all that enjoyable in a crowd.  I doubt you will be surprised to learn that we found a nice café to have a drink and people watch instead.  The café owner was very nice and spoke excellent English.  We were able to pay with Euros (they asked for only bills, not coins), and got a decent exchange rate.  Change was in ?????? but that was okay.  We did not get too much change, and put what we did get aside to use next month when our cruise stops in Dubrovnik.  Dave had an excellent (so he says) and I had, you guessed it) a Coke.  Mmmmm.  It was a pleasant and relaxing place to while away thirty minutes or so (and they had clean restrooms too!  They also had free wifi).
After our drinks, we wandered about a bit more, 





then headed back to the ship for a late lunch.  Now might be a good time to say that we were very impressed with the food on the Splendour.  It was the highest quality we have had on RCI and some of the best we have had at all on a cruise.  Even the buffet (not normally something we care for) had excellent food, that did not taste over cooked, or stale, every time we stopped by.  We also really enjoyed this small section they had at lunch, with regional dishes from their home countries that some of the sous chefs prepared.  It was nice to have the items labeled, and a little bit of information about the country to read as well. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out by the solarium pool and chatting with various people whom we met in the hot tub, or loungers.  There were so many nice people onboard, and it is really a lot of fun to get to know them.  This might be a good place to make some shout outs.  Hi to the very nie lady for England, whose 20 year old was fending for herself that week (I am not sure we ever got a name)!  And hi to the Newlyweds from Ireland/Newfoundland!  And to the newlyweds from Florida, Dan (I think, eep!) and Melodie!  And the super nice couple from NJ, Jess and Mike!  (funny, we seemed to meet Germans OUT of the pools and Brits and Americans in the pools.)


It was formal night.  We realized that when Dave set out his clothes for me to pack, not only did he forget to set out his tux, I totally failed to notice that appalling lack!  So, we were not as formal as Dave usually is.  However. I still think we looked nice enough (and none of the men at our table had tuxes on anyway; one wore jeans).  


We went to the captain’s reception for our free champagne, 

The band played during the start of the reception.  This was one of two house bands; we were not at all impressed with either.  This lead singer always looked and sounded totally bored.

three performers drop down on the chandelier and they make a big production of pouring champagne from you while seated there.  We just took ours from a tray--no need to wait in line for the photo op.
The orchestra came out and played in the latter half.  THEY were very good and we enjoyed their music throughout the cruise.

Then we headed into dinner.  The particularly unfriendly couple did not come back (then, or ever) and the mother and son at the end eventually moved over to fill in the gap and started to thaw out and be talkative.  After another day we had an all around friendly table.  What a nice result after a bit of a cold shoulder start.


The second seating show was set for after dinner, at 11:00 pm.  It was a comedian, Neil Austin.  We made the very bad mistake of sitting near the front of the theatre, making it hard to sneak out midway.  So, we felt we were stuck and suffered through over 45 minutes of the worst act we have seen at sea (okay, there was one equally bad one on Disney once, but that one we were in the back and could leave).  The guy was not funny at all.  Neither one of us enjoyed his humor.  We also felt he was a bad choice for an international ship (there were over 500 Germans on board, that alone was 25 to 30% of the passengers).  His act was heavily language dependent, he spoke extremely fast ,and had a thick accent.  I think we spoke to at least a dozen Germans in the following day who asked us if we thought he was funny.  They all thought maybe they missed something in translation, because they also did not find him appealing at all.  Nope.  It was just that bad.  Sorry. 
After the show, we took a walk around the ship and then turned in for the night. Back in our cabin, this little guy was waiting for us:




--Hadley

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