budmeister

The only Diamond so get Elite perk we actually used was the free 30 item laundry bag a scoop of gelato. We packed less and came home with less dirty laundry. We really appreciated this benefit. We were able to get a few bottled waters and diet cokes in the theatre bar between 5 and 7, but the crew indicated that they were not supposed to. We never managed to be in a lounge at the right time. While I enjoyed my Celebrity cruise, and would go again, I missed having the Diamond lounge breakfasts and appetizers, getting my free diet coke and bottles of water easily every day, and a free day of internet. As indoor or balcony cruisers who do not do the drink package, we probably missed our Diamond benefits more than most. As a non- related point between the two- We always get the ultimate dining package on RC, but expected the dining room food to be better on Celebrity. It was not. The buffet was much better than RC, but I would still buy at least some specialty dining b4 you. go.

Hi, I am not religious, and I found this visit to be interesting and satisfying to see. We had a guide passionate about the history, Hanry from Ephesus tours, that did make a difference. I am not sure I would have been as pleased if I did not have the knowledge to understand what I was seeing. I really enjoyed the visit.

I thought the same, and it turned out to by the highlight of our trip. We did a private tour listed as for cruise people only and we really enjoyed it. We used Ephesus port tours with Hanry as our guide. We were picked up at the port with him having a sign with out name on it. It was a large luxurious min-van type of car, and a driver drove while our guide talked to us. He was passionate and knowledgeable and made the history come alive as I never could have expected. We visited Ephesus and Mary's house, and a carpet weaving school, with lunch next to the school. We had a choice, and chose to see the carpet making school. It was actually a highlight of our trip and the best meal of our whole vacation next to it. We watched the silk being rolled from the silk worm cocoons and a few ( like 3 ) students do the weaving. A person talked about the weaving and the materials. The product output part was awe inspiring in beauty and detail. These carpets could have been photographs. There was pressure to buy at all. We asked how much our favorites were, and they were 2000.00. So, it was like looking at a art gallery for us, not a shopping stop.

We did this and we really enjoyed it. We used Ephesus port tours with Hanry as our driver. It was listed on trip advise as for cruise guests only. We had a choice, and chose to see the carpet making school. It was actually a highlight of out trip and the best meal of our whole vacation next to it.

The tour guide was surprised, but it was not an issue. The tour included tickets for the cable car ride down, so I asked for them and she gave them to me.

Even if you actually used them? My excursion set it up. There is a company at the Athinois Port. Maybe you could google which one it is, or an image. I also used SAN... Tran... in Santorini. I think that would be fine as well. I got lucky- the Oia on your own was only 67 a person. I paid it because I really wanted to go on the sailing excusion I had, and there was no other way.

That is exactly what we did, but the tender was to Athinios port, not to Oia. The bus picks you up at Athinios port and drives you to Oia. You do not hit Fira on the way in. The original tour goes to Fira after some time in Oia, gives you a ride to Fira, and you do get a ticket for the cable car ride down from Fira. While I cannot be sure of your tour, I am positive about the Oia on your own tour from the Celebrity Infinity last week, as I was on it- as far as the tender, b4 getting on the bus to Oia. I originally had a tour scheduled for pickup at Oia , and cancelled it as I realized from these boards that the tendering to a different port and then bus ride from there to Oia did not give me a time table I was comfortable with. Even with a perfect timing of getting on the first tender, we watched the busses wait to be filled from multiple tenders and then start the drive to Oia, which previous board conversation has at possible 40 min- no guarantees on that. I likely would have missed my tour if I had booked pickup from Oia at 8:45.

Wow- I thought we were the only ones. We cruise exactly like you do, and experience exactly the same.

Hi, we did meet our tour guide at the Athinios port, b4 bussing to oia. If you are meeting yours in oia, you need to leave time for bussing over to oia. We did not get on the bus.

The trip home was a bit different. We bussed from our Greece airplane gate to the plane, and walked up steps to get in. The flight started 3 hours earlier, in the day, and the lights were dimmed, not totally off. Customs line took about an hour , maybe more, at ohare. Nothing when arriving in Greece.

Hi. We did this this week. We had to book an excursion to oia to get a tender to this port. We got off the tender and told tour guide we would not be getting on the bus, and got are tickets for the cable car ride down. Our excursion was set for 7:30, with A meeting time of 6:45 in the theater. We left at 7:15 on the first tender and got off at 7:50. I had booked my taxi for 9:20, not knowing how it would all go. I feel we got lucky. There is a nice Cafe for breakfast and coffee.

Next was Santorini. I booked the Oia on your own to get off the ship and avoid the cable car line up. The tour stated a start time of 7:30, but the tickets requested we meet in the theatre 6:45 am. We got there at 6:45. We were left about 7:15 and were on the first tender to Athinios port. We got off the tender at about 7:50. At this point we informed the tour guide that we would not be getting on the bus to Oia and asked for our cable car tickets for the ride down. We sat down at a Cafe at the port, enjoyed coffee and pastries, and called our pre- arranged taxi to let them know we were more than a hour early. I had booked for 9:15, not knowing how long it would take to get there. They were able to come sooner and took us to our catamaran boating excursion at the port that starts with a V with Vista Yachting, on the opposite end of the island than Oia. It was a 30 min drive. We enjoyed our sail and were greeted by our pre arranged driver to take us to Oia. It was a scenic and enjoyable hour long drive. Our driver was friends with the Vista Yachting people and a lot of fun to chat with. He waited an hour, with our backpacks and towels in his taxi. while we spent from 4-5 walking the main street in oia for views and art galleries and interesting shops. I wish we had time to eat at a restaurant with an awesome view, but we did not. Then he drove us to the spot near the cable cars. 30 ride. We had some Gelato and went to the cable cars. 5: 50 and no line.

Next was Rhodes. We booked an individual driving tour, trip advisor, Easy lazy Rhodes tour. The driver had a planned itinerary but when we said we had seen enough ruins at this point on our trip, he accommodated our desire to do beach tour. We toured the coast line, stopping at several beach and coastline views and several Beach breaks, each for 30 min - 2 hours , our choice. We walked along a unique to us beach, Faraki, at a spot away from the crowds, and walked the water/ beach shore line. It was a smooth stone , or pebble beach, where the shore line and first few feet into the water was smooth colored rocks. The sand appeared brown and if you looked closely you could see it was made of of sand of all the colored rocks. We also went to Kalifer Beach, trails, garden, and restaurant, and spent about 2 hours there. We finished with an hour stop at the Old City.

Next stop was Ephesus Turkey. We did a private tour from trip advisor sold by Ephesus Port tours with a guide named Hanry. I would say that this was the highlight of our cruise, but two others days were great too. For anyone nervous about Turkey, it is just like any other stop. People and vibes are the same as everywhere else we have been. In fact, this is the educational highlight of our tour. Both in Turkey and Greece, people were just the same and just as different as in any US state. Although many languages are spoken, we never felt as if we were foreigners ( tourists or visitors, definitely) or among foreigners. We were in an air-conditioned mini van with a driver and our guide. We toured the ruins of Ephesus and it was the most interesting and awe inspiring of all the trips ruins. We also visited what is thought to be the house of Virgin Mary and enjoyed it. We went to the government school of carpet making and loved it. We had the best lunch of our vacation and saw silk being rolled from real silk worms, that look like a cocoon, onto a roll and watched students tie strands into carpet one by one. It was amazing. We art of the carpets produced is also truly amazing. You can see finished pieces in art gallery form in rooms and we were given a personal viewing. I really cannot over state how amazing the art and beauty of finished products were to see. We said we were not buying anything, and there was no pressure.

Next was supposed to be Mykonos, at which I had booked a sail to a few beaches and a stop at Delos. Unfortunately winds were 55 mph and above, and waves 6 feet high. The port closed and we enjoyed a sea day. I was sad, but found our next 2 stops unexpectedly satisfying and got over it. I do love sea days and we were still pretty tired out after our Athens exclusions the day b4 boarding and Thessaloniki walk the day b4. .

Our first stop was in Thessaloniki. We booked an independent customized walking tour and walked around for a couple of hours. Easiest on and off ship possible. The most interesting thing to me was that multiplre ruins were intermixed with cafes and shops, like right next to or across the street. The city was built around surviving ruins. The ruins were much more I interesting with a guide to provide history than just seeing them alone would be. There are no subways because digging kept finding ruins.And marble was their form on concrete. Curbs were marble, as were construction blockades and small square distributes seats througout town area. There was a nice walk along the harbor and good fruit juice mixes in a Cafe we went to. We did not notice interesting shopping, except a chocolate shop displaying chocolate high heels next to a huge shoe store. We weren't looking in shops though ,and could have missed plenty.

Sorry about double content above and typos. I guess there is a time limit on editing. Also realize it is all about the ship and not Greece and probably should be moved. Well, to finish out the ship review... We never had trouble finding tables in the buffet and you do have to go to the tip in the back for some of the best food. It looks Iike you are going past where the buffet ends. There are European and American outlets, but only 2 of each. If you don't bring adapters, that limits charging your electronics over night when you have a cpap and white noise machine. The ship is longer than I expected. I usually book mid ship on a big ship, twice the passengers of this one, and was surprised that the walk from ship aft dining to a room almost the farthest forward room was such a walk.

Sadly, it is the last day of our cruise. I am happily sitting in the Constellation at deck 11 forward tip of the ship lounge with a cup of coffee, enjoying the view of Hydra. I love this lounge. It is huge, 3/4s around floor to seating windows, air conditioned and quiet most of day time. First, I will comment on a couple of board type topics. We had chocolates on our pillows, our room was cleaned twice if we left long enough at the right times, the dining room coffee was better than expected. Paper daily schedules were delivered each night.There was a sommelier listed for each table on tne plaque and one stopped by each of the 2 nights we were there. The shows we saw were excellent, the mentalist and magician awe- inspiring. Every crew member was exceptionally friendly and helpful, except the one that dropped it a notch because I really wanted something he could not give me. I loved the theater seating of rows of connected couches and little tables for your drinks. And there was room to let people by without standard up. The rooftop terrace was another wondetfull surprise. Couch like seating. Not crowded and split between shade and sun, and fairly quiet, even if a movie was showing. I wanted table that was reserved for 2 and not 3 inches from the one next to the next one. My only complaints of the ship are about the dining room.When the dining room was full and there were lines, I was not accommodated with a true 2 person table or a table for 4 which would have solved the problem, and the slim dining room menu, and service was slow and very understaffed. I am sure it was very frustrating for the crew to work so hard and have guests unhappy with the dining While I liked the dining room dinne food, hubby had the basic chicken the 2 nights we ate there. The menu was slim, with a fish, salmon, ordinary chicken, iffy beef every night. Daily differences included a vegetarian dish I liked and a second chicken or salmon. I love the French onion soup and the salads and appetizers, plus the vegetarian and pasta choices, so had it better. The Alfredo gnocchi was wondering as well as a fruit curd dessert. We ate in the buffet the rest of the cruise and really enjoyed our food. It exceeded our expectations, we cleared our plates instead of taking a bit or two of lots of stuff and not liking it.

Drive to port was 10 min instead of anticipated 30, no traffic on a sat . At 10:40 am. We were sat according to our time of 11:30, but they started boarding us at about 11:00. Easiest check in and boarding ever. Dropped carry on luggage at room and relaxing in Constellation longe looking out of front of ship full windows by 11:15 or so.

Day in Athens. Our hotel in Athens ( AD Athens) 10 min walk to Temple of Zeus, and maybe 15 to Acropolis, both very close. Had prebooked combo tickets, very little line to scan and get in. We were 1/2 block from Acropolis Museum, which we really enjoyed for about 90 min, then done. We were at museum on a Friday pm from about 6:30 to 8 pm, not crowded. Acropolis walk up was not bad and crowds were not bad until around 10:30am ish, even then annoying but nothing to worry about, not crazy. There was minimal bench seating at multiple places on the way up. Hotel has fancy and delicious Greek version of continental breakfast, with lots of new to us items and great coffee, all included . On to Celebrity Infinity tomorrow morning, welcome pickup up reserved for ride. Can't wait! .

Hotel location small street entrance, very nice, wonderful hostess - so much more than just a checkin staff. Room very nice. But the size of a postage stamp. Well done for size, but I booked least expensive room and wish I had booked a larger one. Half block from small grocery, street of kind of like a main street mixed with about 20 restaurants, chocolate place, art and souvenir, locally made jewelry. Heaven for me. And open at night, as if it was midday. Maybe lots of tourists sleep first day and wake up in evening. Weather was a nice 70s. Perfect for sitting outside along the street with food or drink, and waking in and out of shops. Plenty of people. Just like a pleasantly perfect mid day activity, except not over crowded or hot. Tip- if you think you don't need electrical plug adapters because the cruise ship is US plugs , don't forget your night or nights b4 and after cruise. Luckily, hotel has a draw of them to lend out.

So, we took an almost 11 flight from ohare to Athens. We have never done anything like that b4. We have only been out of the US once outside of carribean cruise. Seats with a few extra inches, aisle across from eachother, no issues, no noisy passengers or any snafus. Perfect flight. Tips - they turn out the lights and plane is really dark most of flight . No way to read non digital reading material or see to go through your bags for snacks, pills just stuff you might want in 11 hours. Could have turned on overhead light, but felt it would be rude to sleeping people all around me. Luckily, I planned on reading kindle for whole flight, and I did, so annoying but not a crisis. Watched one really good movie . Blue tooth headphones will not work wireless. Being a non technical person, I had a cord for my headphones. Met by welcome pickups, 1 hour drive to Ad Athens hotel , went to bed. Woke up 8 hours later and all is well.

Looks wonderful again! This time next week I will be on that ship. Can't wait!