Foamer

Okay, this is a little on the late side, but we got to take 3 1/2-day cruise in the Greek Islands (+Kusdasi, Turkey) on the new-to-Celestyal Discovery (formerly AIDAAura). Apparently, it was in drydock or at least some refurbishment from December 2023 through March 2024 - I believe we were told it had been sailing for about 3 weeks prior to our trip. 

What form that refurbishment took, I'm not sure, although some of it was changing out the signage of some of the clubs, and the theater. It definitely wasn't spent refurbishing our inside cabin, which had some distinctly odd color choices. 

Boarding was at Lavrio Port/Larium in southern Greece, where the now out-of-service Celestyal Crystal is also docked. Boarding was the usual drop your luggage and wait in line experience, but not terribly onerous. The hike out the ship (since the shuttle bus only took you about halfway) was another story...

Our first view of the Discovery, which I believe has a new paint job. They were touching it up at various ports. It was quite the walk out to where

she was docked.

Docked in Mykonos:

The color schemes in the rooms were decidedly odd: 

The bathroom:

And some of the signage betrayed the ship's AIDA heritage:

It almost became a game, spotting the untranslated German signage:

The elevator displays still were largely in German with the Aida names for the lounges and theater on them. I don't know if this was redone or not, but it was a stark contrast to the rest of the deck's style:

There were plenty of open areas on the ship - while I was told that we had nearly the full load of 1,200 passengers, it didn't feel like it at all. 

Board game area:

Muster was muster, although the life "jackets" were interesting. Getting them on was the first thing to figure out. They appear designed to do two things - keep you rotated front up in the water and keep your head above water. Admirable goals at least. 

There is a bar next to the casino (which was never open that I saw, but the schedule did have limited hours on it). There was a music lounge tucked away behind it to the left rear of the photo. The fitness room is directly to the left, but I didn't actually see how you entered it - that wood wall is slats you could see into it through. I think the board game area was directly to the right of this. I think... 

The Amphitheatre (I think that's how they spelled it) was reasonably comfy, but due to the timing of the ports, excursions, and dinner hours, we never did make it to any of the shows. We did see some of the acrobats practicing and that looked impressive. We were in here nearly every morning however, as this is where all the shore excursions gathered to get organized and disembark (order for dock ports, get in line for tender ports). 

This is the Disco-very lounge I think it was named. We didn't go back as it was kind of out of the way from where we were normally headed on the ship. 

The Star Bar, another music venue directly aft of the Amphitheatre, actually did have a star shaped bar. 

Coffee bar on the way to the Taverna buffet. The buffet was pretty decent, actually -

The Taverna buffet: 

The view off the back of Deck 11:

The pool on Deck 10 (hot tub/Jacuzzi's were also easily accessed from Deck 11). There were two waterfalls into the pool, and a "beach area" at the near end that had small water jets spraying into the pool. Few kids on this cruise, the hot tubs were busier than the pool, which was small and fairly shallow.

Both Decks 11 and 12 had a view over the bow. Deck 12 was accessed from one side of Deck 11. This is the Samos Strait. The Body and Soul Spa has a glassed in lounging area on Deck 11 directly ahead of me, I never saw anyone in it, but I didn't go up here that much either. 

Between Kusadasi and Patmos, some of the crew gathered for demonstrations on the pool deck (and the cruise director futilely attempted to get people to dance - not that type of crowd) In addition to the fruit carvers, jugglers, and the drink of the day; there were towel animals and napkin folding, which I saw a passenger participating in: 

The fruit and veggie sculptors appeared to be quite competent: 

Audience participation napkin folding: 

The Discovery at night in Mykonos - the MDR (Thalassa?) is the tall windows: 

I hope you enjoyed the tour - we had two port visits a day, except for the first day - from Laurium we traveled to Mykonos the first day, hit Kusadasi, Turkey (Ephesus) and Patmos (Apostle John of Revelations) the second, Crete and Santorini the third, returning to Laurium on the fourth.

Well, it appears that as part of a larger Mediterranean tour my wife and I will be on the Celestyal Discovery next month. Up to last November it was the Aida Aura.

I'll try to post something about traveling on this newly refurbished ship during the trip.

Thank you. Might have to make it there one of the nights. 

An Army NCO I once knew had a favorite saying - "Fluid isn't flexible enough, go for the vapor state." It goes well with the traditional Army joke, "Semper Gumby!" (Always Flexible in cracked Latin).

It sounds like you are having fun, even with the requirement to be flexible. My wife and I will be on the NA next January in the Caribbean, so I am very interested in your reports about the ship's condition, the staff, and the amenities - thank you for posting this. 

We'll be cruising on the Niew Amsterdam for the Country Music Cruise next January and I'm curious how well inside cabins are fitted for electricity? I use a CPAP, so I need an outlet (either 120 or 220) somewhere near the head of the bed, and like any other overequipped American I have devices that need to be charged as well (and likely a small laptop that I'll use to organize my photos and videos during the trip). And my wife has her phone and other stuff too. 

So I'm naturally curious about how many outlets (120/220/USB), and where in the room they are located, I might expect to find. 

We booked air through Viking, but are going over a week early to do some sightseeing in the area I lived in the first half of the 90s (Uncle Sam's Uniformed Travel Agency - You're going green!). I suspect (and have sent in an inquiry) that this will be treated the same as independent air and we'll just have to get a test in the city we are staying in prior to joining the cruise in Munich. 

I'll comment back if I find out any different. 

We're going in June/July on one of the Oberammergau cruises with Viking (our first river cruise) and since I was stationed for 5 years in Southern Germany, we're going over a week early to do some running around to places I visited while stationed there (long before I met my wife). 

So I've been researching a bit - in Germany at least, to go anywhere interesting it appears you need to be "fully vaccinated," which means 2 + booster, OR a negative PCR test within the previous 48 hours. I'm good, my wife will be good by then. Masks of a certain quality level are also required currently. 

Viking may simply be going with CDC guidance because it meets or exceeds that of the countries you'll be visiting and it's easier to use it with tourists from the US than try to mix and match all of Europe. And perhaps they expect a US citizen to respond better to "CDC" than "Bundesministerium für Gesundheit (BMG)" or "De Rijksoverheid."

As for flights - Viking is likely as frustrated as you are of that. The airlines seem to be juggling their schedules on a daily basis. I had a trip across the US at the end of January, where I'd reserved air tickets through Orbitz several months in advance. When I went to check in the day prior to flying, I discovered that American Airlines, without notifying me, or apparently even notifying Orbitz - which still had the original information - had changed my own itinerary, with my flight departing later, changing planes in DFW instead of ORD, and arriving way later. My return was also changed, moving everything up about 6 hours. Some of that has to be COVID related, but I wonder how much is also a result of the 737Max planes being grounded screwing up anticipated schedules? 

Twangster - loved the inset photo technique. If I may ask, what is the new video editing software you are using?

Well, I went to check out some of Monk's comments.

I personally didn't think the Horizon Court food was that bad, although we mostly used it for breakfast. My parents, who sailed on the Golden this time as well as to Hawaii 2 (3?) years ago said that they'd noticed some things had slipped, and that the quality of the food in the Horizon Court was one of them (although they thought it still fine for breakfast).

MDR's were generally fine, Sabatini's incredible, with the Maitre 'd Hotel stopping by to say hi and giving a respectful (and not condescending) answer to my 10 year old nephew on how they made the sauce for the chicken skewers. Very impressive. The Crab Shack was terrific for us - that's an amazing amount of seafood. For my parents it was less successful, as the night they went they had a 20 minute (my mom watched the clock) wait between getting their seafood and getting the melted butter, by which time the crab was very cold.

Muster. Yeah, it was a bit lengthy, but it was a heck of a lot more complete than what we'd had on the Norwegian Jewel, and I don't think it took any longer.

Sol Play wasn't _bad_ as long as they stuck to their own genre of music. Whenever anyone so much as waved the word "country" at them, it was a bit of a train wreck. "Country Sounds" did not contain one song that my wife or I, longtime country fans, could identify as country. Most were mid-80s pop hits. I wonder how Joan Jett would like being cast as "country?" The hoe-down was better, with the majority of the songs being played being country, although none were newer than 2000. Possibly not newer than '95. Princess (and Norwegian for that matter) seems to equate "country" and "line dancing" when it hasn't been just that for a long time. DJ Mikey up in the Skywalker a little later was excellent with a multi-decade country mix.

B.something, the band that seemed to live in the Wheelhouse Lounge... well, whenever we went past there and they were playing, we tended to wince and then keep going. 'nuff said.

I don't know if Monk took in Billy Reid in the Promenade Lounge between 9 and 11 each night, but if they didn't they missed out - he was a flat out excellent entertainer, combining on the spot comedy, audience interaction, and an excellent bit of piano playing and singing into a unique show every night. He even took the somewhat forward proposals of a somewhat inebriated South African female and turned it into a song on the spot - which was then blended into most of the other songs of his set (usually requests), to great acclaim, laughs, and singing along.

The only production number we saw was Stardust, and it was quite good. We got to British Invasion too late - it was packed out and there was no way we were going to get a seat. The sing-long with Frozen was well attended. :)

Polonius, a Polish String quartet, was quite entertaining in a quiet way, with a wide breadth of music that they covered.

The Piazza was usually a nice place to find a bit of peace and (gentle music included) quiet. The only times that it wasn't was on the first day out (first sea day) when, in my opinion, they sorta screwed up. The weather sucked most of the trip, and especially that day - we were not in the Inside Passage yet and the seas were pretty rough - they had the barf bags out in the restrooms, and two of my nephews needed them. So on this day when most of the passengers already feel like they've got a hangover thanks to the ships motion, they blast loud music in the Piazza as an intro for the Martini demonstration... it definitely screwed up my enjoyment. My wife and I had been trying to get as close to mid-ship "low" as we could, but that drove us straight out. Ah well.

The pools.... sigh. I actually only used one of the hot tubs, once, on the first night. The weather was already heading south. Now, this is a ship with 4 pools, 3 outside and 1 inside. The spa pool was drained and closed the entire cruise, although at least one of the hot tubs up there was open most of the time. But the one one all-weather pool in the place, the Calypso, spent most of the cruise closed or out of service (they actually drained and scrubbed it late the first day, making me wonder if someone had had an accident in it). The rest of the pools and hot tubs were at the mercy of the elements, and the elements generally weren't being very merciful. The hot tubs were closed randomly and without explanation - it seemed the maintenance fairies went around hanging netting on them randomly. It discouraged me from even wanting to use them, since I had no idea if they'd be open.

The odd: why does pulling into port in Ketchikan (and other places) involve 20 minutes of extended grinding noises from below the ship that vibrated us (and woke us up, it being about 6am) all the way up on Aloha Deck 12? It made me wonder if the Azipods were about the break off the bottom of the ship...

BTW, don't trust their channel listing on the TV's, apparently there are more channels on there than they mention. Or so my parents told me, after they found the Fox News channel.

I can say that in about 4 days I will enter the Horizon Court with trepidation. I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

And I've been in the Army. Still am, actually. Chow hall food can be... variable.

I've been to buffets in Vegas and a few other casinos here and there. Is it too much to hope that a cruise ship buffet might be comparable to them, without too much disfavor?

I wasn't all that much of a fan of the buffet on the Norwegian Jewel, but I always knew I could find fresh fruit and some baked goods that were good for breakfast.

Originally Posted by Foamer

Monk,

 

I'm afraid you aren't going to get much, if any, support here on the hand sanitizer issue. Norwalk is just too nasty and those ships are simply too self-contained not to employ this minor inconvenience in an attempt to prevent it. Norovirus is nasty, but the hand sanitizers are not effective against it.

I'm afraid that the CDC doesn't exactly agree with you:

http://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/preventing-infection.html

"Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can be used in addition to hand washing. But, they should not be used as a substitute for washing with soap and water."

Monk,

I'm afraid you aren't going to get much, if any, support here on the hand sanitizer issue. Norwalk is just too nasty and those ships are simply too self-contained not to employ this minor inconvenience in an attempt to prevent it.

Norwegian has "Handee-Washee" girls at entrances to it's buffet (at least on the Jewel, my only experience) and don't even try to get past them. I did - grips of steel, those girls have. They got a lot of applause when introduced at the cruise staff show near the end of the cruise.

Thanks for the word on the Crab Shack - I was already mostly convinced to do it one night, your review has locked that choice down for me. Sabatini's is also on my radar.

What was the price on the Cafe Selects card? I can easily see my father getting one.... and I might just grab some of the specialty drinks off it, since he doesn't go for the frou-frou coffee thing.

Do you happen to know what movies were playing at Movies Under the Stars?

As for embarkation, it can't be worse than the Ballantyne Pier (the secondary pier) in Vancouver, BC - those people (port employees) were utterly clueless. Not to mention overwhelmed. They barely knew where to have you take your luggage, forget getting any help with it.

...it's not going to be on the Golden Princess while we are on it. Soccer has bored me since I had an unhappy forced introduction to it in 3rd grade.

Thanks for the review - I'm feeling somewhat better about our upcoming cruise.

I guess the 5/14 cruise just had enough problems occur that it triggered the "I'm not having fun here" response in several people, who then wrote up reviews. I can sympathize.

The reviews from the 5/14 Alaska cruise seem pretty horrifying - lousy food, late departure/arrivals, very long muster drill, no-stop stop in Victoria, ship in poor shape - how was this cruise?

My entire family (6 adults, 1 teen, 1 tween, 1 child) will be sailing on the Golden Princess to Alaska next summer (it's a 50th anniversary thing) and as I've looked through the forums here it's raised a couple questions that I'm not sure I've seen a definitive answer on:

1. Is the Terrace Pool adults only? I've seen some references that it is, but nothing official.

2. The non-alcoholic beverage pass - sodas, virgin drinks, etc... exactly how much is that per person per day?

Thanks!