We decided to fly to Venice a day before our flight because we had heard that Marco Polo airport is sometimes fogged in and we did not want to miss embarkation of the Costa Fascinosa. The following day we did the usual trips around the canals on the Vaporettos or water taxis before heading to the cruise port with our cases to check in.
Embarkation
It had been foggy that morning but was clearing up when we arrived at the port. What we did notice was that there was no sign of the ship which is unusual because they are so big it is hard to miss them.
CabinWe had originally booked an outside cabin for two but our daughter was able to join us so we called Costa to add her in our room. As this was a two berth cabin they told us we had to be moved to a cabin for three. Much to our delight this new cabin turned out to be a balcony cabin on deck eight. A decent size cabin with enough space for clothing, and space under the bed for the cases,a safe and a good sized bathroom with shower, no bath. There was a fridge, but this was locked so could not be used for drinks brought back to the cabin from the bars. There were no tea or coffee making facilities in the room which would have been useful given the limitations on drinks stations in the buffet mentioned elsewhere.The cabin was very conveniently placed between the fore and mid ships lifts and one floor below the buffet on deck 9. We did get some noise in the mornings from people moving chairs about on the deck above but this was not really too much of a problem.The third bed was made up on the settee so it was not necessary for one of us to have to clamber up on to a pull down pullman type bed as is often the case in three or four berth cabins on some cruise ships. The TV set had multi language channels including BBC world service so we were able to keep up with daily events at home and abroad.