Taking the Ferry From Bari to Dubrovnik

The moment came when we had to bid Italy farewell. Sniff sniff but...onward.

We headed north from Lecce to Bari in the late afternoon, making an unremarkable drive the two or so hours along the coast. We were booked on the overnight ferry to Dubrovnik.
I had scoured the internet for tips and tricks on taking the ferry because I did not want us messing this up! There were a few moving parts because Chris was dropping Otis and I off at the ferry terminal with our luggage, returning the rental car to Bari's airport, then taking a taxi back to meet us.
I am very glad that I didn't indulge in our occasional casual attitude. The internet is littered with complaints and concerns of frustrated travelers who had made the same trip.

The tricky bits are mainly the following points:

1. One's reservation is not one's ticket. I think many of us are now fairly used to being able to wave an online reservation and be allowed access to our train/bus/plane/concert. Not so when you're sailing the Adriatic with Jadrolinija. You need to go to the ferry office (which is one among many) to get an actual ticket to board the ferry. The office is not well marked from the road, although it is obvious once you pull in.

2. The people handing tickets out at the Jadrolinija office do not automatically tell you where to go to get the proper ferry. You wait in a long long long long line to get your ticket but you are not told that the place where you are *which very much looks like a place you would catch a ferry because there are people there waiting to catch a ferry* is not where you need to go. You need to go about 2 kilometers down the main port road, drive through a checkpoint and go to another waiting area. This could have led to some major complications if Chris had left us in the wrong spot with all of our baggage!

Ticket Pickup Area. Don't be fooled by all the cars waiting to board a ferry. It isn't your ferry.

Not your ferry waiting spot. Move along.

All of this information is pretty widely available online but we add our voice to the cries: leave plenty of time, and double-check where you may be going!

Chris returned the car without incident and met us back at the terminal's waiting area where we were reading.

Waiting to board, yay Kindles

Once onboard, we were shown into our small room (with sink, but shared WC) in the very deep bottom of the ferry. You had better believe that I was looking all over for multiple exits. We went up and saw the twinkly lights of Bari recede in the distance. It seemed hard to believe that our month in Italy was over.

We walked around the ferry, observed the folks who were sleeping on the decks with just sleeping pads ("Can you do that?" Chris asked. Indeed you can!), had some family drama over cake and life and the unfairness of it all, then it was lights out in our tiny bunk beds.

Ciao Italia

In the morning, I went up above deck to catch a first glance of Dubrovnik. It was so pretty to see it in the distance, under the bright blue sky that I almost forgot how tired I was. The ferry leaves Bari at 10 or so if you aren't boarding it on the late side (don't ask) and has a scheduled arrival of 8 am. I didn't sleep especially well and had a headache from the family drama and hitting my head on the bunk above me. However, I was excited! I had a good feeling about this place as we approached.

Rolling off of the ferry

Crankytimes

We docked uneventfully and disembarked, heading through a quick passport control. I texted our Airbnb landlady who had generously offered us a lift from the port to our apartment. We settled in under the Port of Dubrovnik sign and waited for her. We were on to our next chapter! Dobrodošli!