My DH & I arrived in Venice 2 nights prior to our departure on April 25, 2009.  As first-time cruisers, we were interested in visiting Venice and still allowing sufficient time to check in on the Splendour.  We flew via Lufthansa from Denver, Colorado to Frankfurt, Germany and connected onto Venice, arriving at 5:15 pm.  Lufthansa service in Business Class was excellent!  We followed the lead of some seasoned Venice visitors, and opted to take the Blue Line Alilaguna boat from Marco Polo Airport over to St. Marks Square.  Cost was 13 E per person, as compared to the Gold (Express) Line that was 26 E.  Enjoyed the lovely views along the water during the 45 minute ride over.  We booked 2 nights at the Locanda Correr, a small guest house about 5 minutes from St. Marks, based on recommendations from Rick Steves and TripAdvisor.  Our room, #101, was the cheapest, at 135E/night, due to the hazardous spiral staircase connecting the bathroom level to the sleeping loft.  But, quite comfortable and clean, and located in a great neighborhood with lots of restaurants and shops.  We were going to buy a multi-day water bus pass, but decided that walking was much more interesting.Saturday morning, we took the "slow boat" water bus line #1 up the Grand Canal to the Bus Station stop (Plz. Roma).  We had read in previous reviews that the free shuttle bus to the cruise dock was hard to find, but asked directions using "travel Italian" from a street vendor and found them at the southern end of the bus depot, at the end of the sidewalk.  There were several busses there, with one having a small "Splendour of the Seas" card in the front window, and we hopped on.  Within 10 minutes, we were on our way.  At no time did anyone announce that this was the bus to the cruise port, which I found a bit strange, but when in Venice...  We arrived at the dock at 12:30, hauled our luggage to the loading area, and followed the crowd through the terminal.  We by-passed several lines until we came to a short line for "Set Sail" pass holders.  Within 5 minutes we had our ID cards in hand and passed through security to board the ship.  Totally painless!  Only one stop for the boarding photo and no delays at all.We had lunch at the Windjammer buffet and set out to explore the ship.  This being our first cruise, we started at the top and worked our way downward.  Were quite impressed with everything we saw.  We learned from other reviewers that the "Welcome Aboard" cocktails were NOT complimentary!  Found our cabin on Deck 6, and were pleasantly surprised with our ocean-view room.  It was immaculate and had plenty of storage space for our needs.   Our travel agent was able to get us a complimentary upgrade from Deck 2 to Deck 6.  Sail away was promptly at 5:00 pm and was lovely, cruising through the lagoon past Venice's landmarks.We had the early dinner seating at 6:30 in the King & I restaurant and were seated with 2 other couples.  We were soon fast friends.  Service was excellent, as was the food.  Our waiters were Turkish and were happy to teach me some Turkish words for use in Kusadasi.  A simple "Merhaba" (Hello) or "Techekur edirem" (Thank you very much), goes a long way when communicating with the locals.  The show that evening was a pantomime performer which was very entertaining.We quickly learned the routine on-board ship.  Breakfast most mornings at the Windjammer, by-passing the fresh-squeezed orange juice (yes, they charge for it!), lunch most days in port, and dinner in the dining room.  We usually hit the snack bar at the Solarium for crepes and had our soft-serve ice cream by the pool for afternoon snacks.  We turned down the soda package, water package, and had nary a cocktail or beer during our voyage.  We did bring some travel packets of Crystal Light if we wanted something different from iced tea or lemonade.  If I had to complain about something, it might be that the lemonade was pretty weak-tasting.  The pool-side BBQ lunch during our sea day was great.  And, my husband entered the "Men's Sexy Leg Contest".  Although he had the best legs, other "young pups" had more of the moves that the lady judges were using to cast their votes.  However, Jerry was recognized in several places in Italy as the "guy with the best legs" by some of our ship-mates, post-cruise!We opted to skip some of the evening shows, but the ones we did see, a 50's Motown performing group, and a dancing & singing production, were very good.  We fell for the Bingo jackpot game during our last sea day, and of course, didn't win!  We played shuffleboard, hung out by the pool, and found the best sunbathing was at the back of the spa on Deck 9, nice and quiet, and not too crowded most days.  On our one rainy day, the Viking Crown Lounge was a nice place to read.Since we're the adventurous types, we opted to do our own thing at all the ports, rather than take the ship's excursions.  More on this below in the port section.  I'd definitely say this is the way to go if you don't like crowds, and less expensive too.On our departure day back in Venice, we chose the Express Check Out and reviewed our bill ($220 US, not too bad, considering, for some shuttle tickets, tips, one photo, and Bingo games).   We were off the ship by 7:10, and walked to the bus station with our luggage, about 15 minutes away.  Just followed the striped walkways to the bridge into Venice past the Police Station.  Stashed our luggage at the "Held Luggage" office at the San Lucia train station so we could go exploring before our train departed at 10:50.  The "Held Luggage" office is just past the bathrooms, and cost 8E for 2 bags left 3 hours.  They make a copy of your passport to secure your bags.  We didn't realize that it was a holiday in Venice (St. Mark's Day AND the long May Day weekend), and when we returned to pick up our bags at 10:30, there was a huge long line of folks waiting to store their luggage.  Before my husband had a meltdown, I walked into the Exit door and politely handed over our claim tickets and money and retrieved the bags.  Not sure if that was the proper protocol, but heck, it worked!We extended our vacation with 2 nights in the Cinque Terre region of Italy along the Med. Coast.  We booked 1st class train tickets in advance before the cruise departed, and that was a good idea, because we didn't know we'd be travelling during a holiday weekend.  The Cinque Terre was awesome!  We hiked between the 5 hill towns all in one day, and still had time for a leisurely lunch, the obligatory gelato in each town, and some beach time.  Sore at day's end, but definitely worth it.  We can highly recommend our lodging in Vernazza at Camere Guiliano, a small guest house perched above the train tracks.  In fact, the train tunnels right below the property!  Cost was 75E/night.We trained back to Venice via Pisa (flagged a taxi driver to take us to the leaning tower, wait for 5 minutes for some photos, and take us back to the station, all in 20 minutes) and Florence, and had one more night in Venice before flying back to the states.  We took the City bus from the Pze. Roma station to the airport for a few Euros, and it only took 20 minutes.  The trip was perfect with the one glitch that my husband left our camera with the full 4-GB chip with over 600 photos on the plane back to Denver.   So far it hasn't been recovered, but we are hopeful that karma will circle back around for us.  We had a reward sticker on the camera with our phone numbers, so maybe someone will return it one day.To summarize, we loved our first cruise, and would recommend this itinerary to anyone who is adventuresome.  Cruising was a convenient way to travel, and while I would have prefered some more time in each port, the advantages outweighed that part.  The Splendour of the Seas will be "retired" soon, with most of the crew transferring over to the Oasis of the Seas, but we thoroughly enjoyed the trip.