KeithJenner

Forgot to post the dailies earlier.

Weather was much nicer today. Not too hot with a nice breeze. Tendering was painless, although we did leave after the initial rush and came back an hour before last tender. Mykonos town itself was busier than I have seen it before. There is a Royal Caribbean ship docked and another smaller ship tendering. My wife seems happy with her shopping. 🙂

The speed that they were getting through the tender groups slowed down as time progressed. I expect that lots of people who had lower numbers weren’t actually ready when they were called so more people were arriving later. The first group was called at 7am. Our group (26) was about 9am and they finished all the groups at 9.30. We didn’t request tickets until quite late yesterday so if you want to get in the first hour then I think it will have been very easy to get tickets for that time. Last tender back is at 2pm so I expect there will be quite a queue near that time.

The wifi is good. I would say noticeably better than other ships.

Tendering at Mykonos seems to be going well. 40 minutes in and they have just called group 18.

Pick up from Oia was at 4.45 so it must have been soon after 5pm. Our tour start time was 1.45 in case yours is different. You basically get about an hour and a half in Oia, which is just right to take some pictures and do some shopping or grab a drink,

It depends. We were on the waterfront port side and had a great view of the island. The sunset would have been the other side. However, the staff said that the previous few times the ship had been the other way round. I suppose it depends on the anchoring location.

As stated above, the plus package doesn’t now include Veuve. We have had rose champagne in restaurants and it is very good. Other than the items specified in the menus, drinks are included in the p+ package. No extra charge:

My phone just started buzzing and I got his warning. It says to limit unnecessary movement and I’m at the bar, so I guess if better stay here. 🙂

When we were there on the Jade last year there was one other ship in port (mid sized, from memory). There were no problems.

The weather brightened up for a while earlier, but it’s taken a turn for the worse again now. Storms all around us again. I was going to do the ropes course this afternoon but I’m assuming that it is closed. The view from the bar is slightly different to yesterday. All aboard is in 30 minutes. I bet there are some wet people coming onboard now. IMG_2984.mov

The brunch at Moderno/Cagneys is open to everyone. Last time we were on the Breakaway (2019) they had breakfast in Moderno every day but they seem to have stopped that. The food is fairly standard buffet food. It is just a nicer experience there.

You asked one of the least reliable sources of NCL information and they lived up to their reputation. My current bar bill (zero) is a more reliable source than whoever told you that.

No, we just did the Oia one. I think the vineyard one is basically the same tour with that visit added. Sorry, I don’t know which vineyard they go to.

Todays freestyle daily confirms that we are tendering tomorrow. We aren’t going to be in a rush to get off as we arrive at 7am, but I just reserved tickets and are in group 26. In theory we shouldn’t need a group anyway due to latitudes but I’d imagine they will probably be near enough at our group by the time we want to go ashore anyway.

One thing I forgot to mention from Santorini. They had a brunch buffet at Cagneys/Moderno. We were a bit late getting up on Tuesday after a late night at Howl and losing an hour as we got to Greece, so brunch was ideal. It was fairly quiet and a much nicer place to eat than the buffet. I’d recommend it if they offer it.

Day 4 dailies. We are in Athens today and the weather is terrible. There are severe thunderstorm and rain warnings today. We are staying on the ship, as we have been to Athens a few times and had a weekend there last year. We were planning on getting off the ship and wandering around Piraeus, but the weather has put us off. The forecast is better for the remainder of the cruise.

There were no exclusions on bar service yesterday as far as I could tell. No signs on any bars that we saw and there were sales made (upcharges on drinks over $15 and people without the beverage package.

Another cable car report. Apparently it was about a 90 minute wait this morning for the cable car. I’ve had that time quoted to me by two separate people. I haven’t yet met anyone who took the cable car back. Best estimate of the wait time in the evening is 2 hours. Apparently the queue got up to about half a mile. Everyone I have spoken to walked down the path. My advice. Check what ships are in port. It was nothing like this bad last year when we were here on the Jade. There was one other ship in port and I didn’t hear of any problems. Next advice. Take a Tour if there are ships in port, especially if you had free at sea and even more so if you have free at sea plus. Our tours cost about $25 each (free at sea plus). Take into account the cable car cost and they were only a few dollars, a tour gets you ashore quick. The next advice is more of a compromise. Get back onboard early. I know the sunset is a real attraction, but honestly the ship is a great place to be when everyone else is queueing or dodging donkeys. I love the views of Santorini from the ship. I have just sat at Shakers on the waterfront for a few hours watching people walk through the door and see that view. I’ve enjoyed the view all evening. if the sunset from Santorini is important to you then view it from near the cable car and be prepared to queue or dodge the donkeys. I don’t know if anyone missed the ship. We sailed away on time and if anyone did get left behind then I’m quite sure they weren’t near the cable car (ie they messed up).

There are thunderstorms all around us as we sail away. Lightning all over the place.

The last tender arrived at the ship at about 9.20. They have just put a call out for about a dozen people who I assume are not onboard yet.

Just spoke to some people who came back onboard later than us. Sounds like the queue was very long. The two separate groups that I spoke to both walked down rather than queue.

View from the bar is very nice tonight.

Weather has been mixed. Quite cloudy today and not too hot. We are forecast rain tomorrow in Athens.

32 minutes from joining the queue to reaching the bottom. Not too bad at all.