Long Review: 9/9/13 - Reflection 11 Day Eastern Med plus Rome

[Mel&Ken]

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel&Ken]

We tire of seeing the same shops everywhere and as we still have 15 minutes before our bus leaves we decide to sit and enjoy a beer/wine and the magic of Oia. We sit at a gyro stand and it’s so tempting to order one but we resist. Finally its time to meet our bus so we head down and what….our bus is gone??? It can’t be gone!! We start to panic – what do we do?? There are other buses and two drivers say they will take us to Fira with them. One leaves in 30 minutes and the other 45. We opt instead to walk back up to the gyro place as we saw a taxi stand and a car there only minutes ago. We hop in the taxi and he takes us to Fira for 15 euros. We had no idea where to get dropped off so he just left us at a busy intersection and we started to walk.

 

I am not worried anymore– we’re in Fira, our ship is near by, they handed us our tickets to the funicular on the bus so all we’re missing is the end of the tour which I believe is at the cathedral. We stop to ask directions to the funicular at a store that sells Olive Tree Wood Products and I go a little crazy shopping here – salt pots, olive forks, honey spoons, bread boards….I am in love with the wood of the olive tree! We get our directions and next thing you know I see Dorothy from our bus. It turns out we had our time wrong and we missed the bus – now I have to assure Dorothy that I really am responsible and I promise I won’t be late or miss our private tour in Naples that she organized. Jeez!!!

 

Fira is similar to Oia as far as shops go and we see the same thing over and over. We do buy a beautiful leather and crystal bracelet for our daughter but that’s about it for shopping.

 

 

 

 

I researched that the sun would set at 7:20 this evening so I made a reservation for 6:30pm at a restaurant called Argo and requested a table on the third terrace with a view. Emailing for this was easy and I received an immediate response saying I would have the best table. The menu is also online which is a bonus for me.

 

At 6pm we decided to go to dinner early as frankly we were tired of walking around shops. The best table was right – we were on the top terrace seated right at the railing – perfect!

 

Service was great – the server made suggestions and I had also read what some of their specialties were. Dorothy and family were right next to us so it was nice to chat with them a bit. I found out later she was trying to leave us to a romantic dinner but we really didn’t mind.

 

[Mel&Ken]

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel&Ken]

 

 

 

[Mel&Ken]

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ordered a carafe of house red and two appetizers to start; grilled eggplant stuffed with feta and topped with tomatoes and pistachios and a phyllo dough stuffed with cheese and drizzled with honey and sesame seeds – yummy! Then I had moussaka which was by far the best I have ever tasted (mouth waters even writing this) and Ken had a seafood medley which he really enjoyed. We split a greek salad which the server advised was too much but its my first stop in Greece and I am having my favourite salad whether I can finish it or not! All of this came to a total of 60 euros. The sunset was worth about 10 times that! The meal was paced nice and slow and we watched the sun set, took tons of pictures and had almost the perfect evening. The only downside was a table of 4 that sat next to Dorothy’s table. They were loud, obnoxious and I believe drunk and the two women made it their mission to ensure everyone on the terrace heard every word of their conversation. Sadly they were on our ship and we would run into them many more times in the next week – even in Rome after the cruise. What can you do?!

 

We left the restaurant and made our way to the funicular – or should I say the massive line that snaked back and forth as it worked its way to the funicular. It moved along pretty steadily but still I would guess it took at least 30-40 minutes just to get on a car. Put it this way – people would walk the line while their loved ones shopped or went to get snacks with no worry of missing the cable car.

 

During this time I had to listen to the people in front of me (I’m not nosey I swear) as they talked about their seminar with the Abraham Hicks group. A side bar here…..we had a group of 1000-1200 people on board from this group who came from all over the world. It’s supposed to be a positive thinking, positive energy, “the secret” kind of thing I have heard. There was some drama on our roll call about it as people called them a cult and got really closed minded about it all. Aside from them wearing their name badges all the time, you wouldn’t know someone was a part of this group. And for the 11 days I had only two experiences with them. The first was in line tonight. I got hear how Abraham’s wife gave this speech and it was him speaking through her – it had to be him as she couldn’t have come up with stuff that fast…blah, blah, blah – really over the top preachy kind of stuff. And I really don’t care what you believe but I am always amazed at how quickly people share their beliefs with total strangers who haven’t asked for your opinion. I even heard a woman tell the person behind her in the theatre that she didn’t go in the blue mosque in Istanbul because she doesn’t support a religion that orders its people to kill Americans. Huh??? Do you even have a clue what you’re talking about right now???

 

Anyway, where was I? We finally made our way to our cable car and on to the ship where we passed all our bags through security and went up to our room. Dorothy and I had brought books for each other to use and I grabbed ours and headed to meet her and check out her cabin. It had been a long day and I was tired, hot and now had hat head. I agreed to go to the MB to pick up a drink and enjoy it on our balcony for the sail away and some how we ended up staying until midnight when it closed – hat head and all! Did I mention we love this bar?

 

To sum it up….we LOVE, LOVE, LOVED Santorini. This was truly a highlight of our entire trip. It was perfect in every way; the scenery, the food, the people and the overall experience. If we were to take another cruise in this area I would ensure Santorini was on the itinerary. A must see for sure!

[Mel&Ken]

Today we're at sea and on the way to Istanbul. It's our last day at sea before we have 6 ports in a row so we are happy to do nothing at all. We slept in, ate breakfast at the buffet and really just had a lazy day. I believe there may have even been a nap involved.

 

As you're figuring out by now we don't really take advantage of all the ship has to offer. I am not a big fan of the sun so I will rarely sit out by the pool. I always mean to play trivia or take part in some classes but never do. We happily just wonder around and stop for a bite here or a drink there and as you can also tell we do enjoy the casino.

 

We ate in the MDR and juding by my pics we had a tomato and mozzarella salad, french onion soup, a roasted beet salad, lamb shank and rib eye followed by creme brulee and I believe tiramisu. I may forget but of course I have pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel&Ken]

Then following dinner we watched the Alice in Wonderland type performance on the stairs in the main area which was entertaining. Remember our loud neighbours at Argo last night? We I ran into the woman again tonight - literally. Actually she ran into me and spilled her martini all over my shoes. She sure makes an impression!

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we wake up in Istanbul - the port that we chose this itinerary for. I likely won't get to it before we leave for Vegas because there are a lot of pictures to sort through.

 

Everyone have a great weekend!

[lovestx]

What a nice review and a great way to relive some wonderful family memories we have! We did this same itinerary in '12 on Equinox and, like you, LOVED Santorini. We sailed in June so the sunset was much later and we were not able to stay on the island to enjoy it. Glad you could.

 

Have a great time in Vegas :)

[parisbully]

Not too personal at all! I didn't record prices this time as I did our last trip but I would say on average we left about 120 Euros each time. That would have included bottled water, 30-40 for a bottle of wine, two appetizers, 2 pastas and 2 entrees - we almost never order dessert. I think some of the restaurants even have their prices online if that helps.

 

Our last trip we saved money by drinking tap water, ordering house wine, splitting entrees and sometimes appetizers. Of the meals I have mentioned so far I think Ad Hoc was the most but I think we also splurged on wine here.

 

Thank you so much. Looking forward to Paris and Rome again next year. Not cruising this time though

[travellover39]

Can't wait until next week for more "good writing and pics" Thanks so much for sharing your cruise with us. Loving the food porn pictures. The moussaka I will try and think of you. :)

[youngreflection]

loving your review, we are going on this exact cruise next year! So excited:)

 

May I ask something re Celebrity's Santorini Shore Excursion? So after tendering, the bus went straight to the winery before Oia? Do you know if this was the standard itinerary for the other Celebrity Santorini bus (am assuming Celebrity was able to fill up more than 1 bus for this excursion)?

 

Because from what I read (and understand) on Celebrity's website on shore excursions, the winery is the 2nd stop? Oia-Winery-Fira. Thinking to take Celebrity's Excursion for early tendering or not. Thank you so much!

[Waihekean]

I have done two if the Santorini excursions. Last year winery was the first stop and this year the winery was the stop (2nd) after Oia.

So, it depends how many excursions they have. It is a popular one.

[Diane Rose]

Great review and pictures! We are doing this cruise next June and your review is extremely helpful to me in my planning process.

 

Diane

[gfkcruiser]

We sailed a Greek Islands cruise in Nov, 2008 for our 30th Anniversary. It was our first trip to Europe and on Celebrity. Not knowing which cruise to choose we did this for the time and cost. It turned out to be the best. It is hard to get a bad photo on Santorini. We figure we are in Greece let's get Greek food however it seemed Crepes were very popular at that time. We did find a good Greek place in Fira.

 

Mykonos and Rhodes were also wonderful.

 

Gail

(Michigan)

[youngreflection]

I have done two if the Santorini excursions. Last year winery was the first stop and this year the winery was the stop (2nd) after Oia.

So, it depends how many excursions they have. It is a popular one.

 

Thank you Waihekean for the info. I guess maybe I can make an onboard request for Celebrity to put us on the shore excursion bus that stops at the winery first before Oia because we plan to stay longer at Oia and go back to Fira (and cable car) on our own, but would still appreciate a look-see at a winery:)

[Mulege]

Thank you Waihekean for the info. I guess maybe I can make an onboard request for Celebrity to put us on the shore excursion bus that stops at the winery first before Oia because we plan to stay longer at Oia and go back to Fira (and cable car) on our own, but would still appreciate a look-see at a winery:)

 

 

The ship tour was way over priced. Go on your own. The winery is nothing new, seen one seen them all. When you get off the tender, on your left towards the cable cars will be a huge sign offering a short boat ride to Oia and bus transportation back to Fira for 20 euros or less. We just did this three weeks ago. You will save a bundle plus the line was over an hour just to get on the cable cars. The line was long coming down so we walked it in 20 minutes.

Edited November 11, 2013 by Mulege

[parisbully]

OP. Please come back. I miss you

[Deb0702]

Me too. I miss the OP

[Mel&Ken]

The ship tour was way over priced. Go on your own. The winery is nothing new, seen one seen them all. When you get off the tender, on your left towards the cable cars will be a huge sign offering a short boat ride to Oia and bus transportation back to Fira for 20 euros or less. We just did this three weeks ago. You will save a bundle plus the line was over an hour just to get on the cable cars. The line was long coming down so we walked it in 20 minutes.

 

I think everyone has their own idea of what something is worth. We didn't think the ship's tour was over priced. We liked the idea of getting off first, of being driven to Oia and Fira and then left on our to make our way down the cable car.

 

As for the winery being nothing new - for us it was. As I mentioned they grow grapes very differently here and having toured wineries all over North America we found it interesting to see. I guess it's just about what YOU are in to. Some people think all cathedrals are alike too!

 

Best advice I can give - do what is best for you and your family and what feels right. Don't feel guilty if you want to take a ship tour and not DIY every city. We did a bit of both and were mostly happy we did. Either way has it's pros and cons.

[Mel&Ken]

Feeling the love from Oregon.......thanks! ;)

 

Vegas took more recovery time than expected. I am way too old to take a red eye home and then go straight to work. Now that I feel myself again let's go to Istanbul!!!! :p

[Mel&Ken]

Istanbul was the main reason we chose this cruise. It’s always been on my list of places to see and I loved that we had an overnight stay included. With this I think it gives us a good idea of whether we want to come back for a more in depth visit.

 

Earlier I mentioned our tours with Katie in Rome. Well back in 2011 when we first met her she was dating someone who lived in Istanbul and had fallen in love with the city. As a result she now has a wide circle of friends in the city, a food app for the city and travels there quite often. So as soon as we booked I reached out to Katie to see who we should contact for a private tour and she recommended her friend Claire.

 

Claire is from the Washington DC area, graduated from University of Michigan and has lived in Istanbul for close to 20 years now. She teaches at the University there and has written a book on the Topaki Palace. We contacted Claire and arranged to spend the full day with her when we arrived.

 

Claire met us at 9am right at the customs house and we walked to the tram stop which was 2-3 minutes away. We paid 3 lira to take the tram to the ancient area of the city and it was pretty much like every other tram or metro we’ve seen in other cities – very straight forward and easy to navigate.

 

As we exited the tram, Claire suggested a quick visit to the Archeology Museum as we would be walking right past it. I don’t think this is on many people’s radar but it really was impressive and we only spent about 30-40 minutes here as she showed some key items. This museum contains – actually was built to house – Alexander’s Tomb, some ancient tablets with the earliest form of writing and lots of fascinating items. As you stand here looking at artifacts from Egypt, Greece and Roman times it really puts in to perspective how critical this city has been in history. I believe the entrance fee was 10 Lira and it was about this time I really wished I had read more about the history of Istanbul so I could understand even better what exactly I was seeing today.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel&Ken]

Next stop was Topaki Palace. We really debated this site as I knew it would be a big chunk of our day and there was so much to see and do. But when you’re spending the day with a woman who literally wrote a book on it, how can you pass it by? Claire said we’d do the highlights so we’re confident we saw the main parts. She was great at skipping the rooms with long lines and steering us more towards the ones with key items to see. It's beautiful and we were very glad we spent some time here.

 

I should add that there were long lines everywhere!! Tour guides however, just go to the front of the line. We had brought 300 lira with us so all day we just handed her our money and she’d buy our tickets and we would walk in past all the lines. The only place this doesn’t help is a mosque as they are public buildings and everyone waits in line! So if you’re on the fence of a tour or not factor in how long you’ll wait in lines all day vs. bypassing them. It may be worth it to you to spend the extra money.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel&Ken]

 

 

 

 

[Mel&Ken]

After the palace we headed over to Aya Sophia, a former church, turned mosque and now a museum. It was stunning and the mosaics were striking. Seeing the transformation between religions was fascinating and we took a lot of pictures here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mel&Ken]