Aboard Riviera

As we lazed around on our balcony, we couldn't help but notice a couple of the truly huge adjacent cruise ships as they backed out and headed up the Giudecca Canal past the Hilton Molino Stucky for a final view of Venice before departing.

MSC Divina in particular is hard to overlook. It is as new as Riviera, entering service in May 2012. It is just over 1000 feet long and has a capacity of about 4000 passengers.

In comparison, or should we say contrast, Riviera is 750 feet long and holds 1250 passengers with double occupancy, although our cruise apparently carried about 1270 passengers due to an unusually large number of family groups.

It would be our turn to sail the next day, but now was the time to relax, unpack, and iron our clothes.