VMax1700

Tonight's Greek Dinner in the Lido was hugely successful. It was very busy on the port side (where the open stations are positioned). The stations on the starboard are closed each evening as they are used for Caneletto. But, there are always lots of empty tables available to those who are prepared to walk the few extra yards to the port side 🤫. After consuming mussels, snapper, and shrimp with a side of roasted lamb to satisfy the carnivore within me, I made a little cheese plate to enjoy with a glass of red. Who can spot the "non HAL item" on the plate 🙄🤣

Yes, they seem to be. I checked tonight and both deck 2 and deck 3 entrances were staffed. On deck 3 they were getting ready for the late sitting.

Hello to all Dailyites from the Oosterdam, currently docked in Piraeus, Greece. Today is June 16th, and it is celebrated (mostly in Dublin) as Bloomsday. It is the day that Leopold Bloom wandered Dublin in Ulysses, by James Joyce. So, from Ulysses here is today's menu: Breakfast: Pork kidneys, slightly burnt. (mutton kidneys would have been preferable but they were in short supply). Lunch: Gorgonzola sandwich (with mustard) and a glass of burgundy (N.B. this wine is not covered by Signature Beverage Pack.) Dinner: Fried Cod's Roes. Makes tonight's Lido dinner seem like a 2 star Michelin restaurant.

🤫You are not going to like this! It is only available in the Lido 'Sweet Spot' at lunchtime. It is kept at the back counter, away from poking fingers, and is served over the front partition by a Lido staff member.

Also there are porters offering an unofficial service. To/from hotels/train station/Pza Roma. I have no idea how much they charge but I am sure it is negotiable and good value.

We left our first bag of laundry on the bed last night when we went to dinner. It was returned at 8.15am this morning!

Today is Thursday so here is today's special Blooms Day edition of bread pudding 😁Luckily it is not a gorgonzola sandwich eaten in Davy Byrne's pub with my friend Leopold.

The port is very busy, with the usual ferry traffic. Also in port are Azamara Journey, Celebrity Constellation, Viking Sea, MSC Armonia and us!

We are dock at Terminal B 'Themistocles'. Just outside the terminal was a line of taxis awaiting customers. They where available most of the morning. There were 3 HOHO bus lines available, Blue, Red and Green. All with different routes. Also just outside the terminal was the X80 bus terminal. 24 hour ticket €4.10 Buses depart every 20/30 minutes.

Today's Lido lunch menu:

Todays MDR and Lido Dinner menus.

Greetings from Piraeus, Athens. Here is today's When & Where:

There are no Luggage storage facilities close to the port. Perhaps you could ask your tour organiser to suggest something? Maybe a local hotel - The Gibson is very close. Is someone in the group staying overnight and could 'hold' the luggage for you during the tour?

Tonight's moon over the south coast of greece

@LAFFNVEGAS The 'redfish' was definitely not halibut. I had it for dinner tonight and I believe it is the same fish as served in Andalucia as 'Rosada Plancha'. I understand it is not a local Spanish fish, but comes from the Southern coast of South Africa and is called 'Genypterus Capensis' or Kingklip. It certainly tasted the same as Rosada and had the same texture. It was really nice. When we go to Malaga (twice a year at least!) I always have some Rosada Plancha (grilled with garlic, olive oil and parsley) or Rosada Frita (deep fried in a tempura style batter).

Quarantine Cabins. This evening I took a walk around the decks to see if I could find which section of cabins were blocked off as quarantine cabins. Turns out that on deck 6 forward of the forward elevators are blocked off on both sides. Could be for crew quarantining as I believe I read on another thread that there were new staff on board.

We are really not MDR people and have only eaten there once so far, which was last night on first gala night. I forgot to check if both levels were open or not. Last night the queue was short and manageable when we arrived for our 7.30 reservation and only had a short wait. I did notice that even those with Club Orange were having to wait for a table. Dinner service itself was friendly and although slow to start, we were comfortably finished dessert within 90 minutes. We have absolutely no problem with taking up to 2 hours for dinner. It is an event and we enjoy eating and chatting as much as the actual food (and we do enjoy food!) But 90 minutes on a first Gala night is pretty good. Tomorrow night we are in Pinnacle, but I am sure we will venture in MDR again before we disembark. I will take a walk to MDR over the next few days and check if both levels are open or not.

Great info thank you! That gives me a second line of defence if ship security get upset tomorrow when I bring back some more. First line of defence will be the 'photographic evidence' of complicity within the crew and the second line of defence will be 'precedent' and I will show them your 'confession'. 😁

We are currently on Oosterdam in Europe, and only tonight we spoke with a couple of crew members about the shows. They said that they had great fun rehearsing and performing them and their hope was that they would be restarting soon.

I have just noticed that it is very hard to read the name of the ship. It is 'Christina O' Once owned by Artistotle Onasis.

The Katakolo pilot leaves the ship and waves to everyone

I will try to remember to update this info too. Day 1 Upgrade Surf to Premium Internet package was $50 for 12 days (1 device) Day 2 ..................................................................................$50 for 11 days (1 device) Day 3...................................................................................$50 for 10 days (1 device) Starting to look like it may pay to upgrade on day1!

You are very welcome. Yes, it is just a spur line and can be quite unreliable. There are also rental cars (and scooters and ATV) available just outside the port gate. It really is a lovely little town just to walk around as it only takes 10 minutes to walk from one end to the other.

Today's Bread Pudding 😊

The official figure for this cruise is 1085 passengers.