Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #76 Share Posted July 28, 2014 What a lovely review and great photos :) very nice to read and see. Very good warm up for our upcoming cruise in YC on the sister ship Divina. It seems like you really enjoyed the YC. Isn't it a great way of cruising? My guess is that you are hooked:D looking forward to see more of your review. We are sooooooooo glad we booked onto the Yacht Club. I think it would have impacted on the enjoyment of our cruise significantly without that as neither of us are crowd/party people. Having sailed on a mega ship during peak season we now know that if we aren't sailing Yacht Club then we need to sail off peak and on a smaller ship. We loved loved loved it. We shamelessly adored the extra attention and we valued the extra space. We paid roughly double to what we would have paid for the balcony we originally booked, and it was worth every cent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Beamafar Posted July 28, 2014 #77 Share Posted July 28, 2014 On embarkation day, whilst we were waiting for our cabin to be ready, the maître d was at the Concergerie making note of dining time preferences. The Yacht Club was sailing full so I giving they were just wanting to get an indication of peak dining times. They did ask us to specify what time we wanted to dine, which surprised me. And it wasn't a choice between two dining times but just "What time would you like to dine?" But we didn't stick to that time. We followed it the first couple of days then after that we asked the concierge in the afternoon to call ahead if we were going to be more than about 30 mins different from that time. One night we dined quite late and another we joined friends at a larger table. They took all this in their stride and we had no difficulty essentially eating when we wanted. I think the key was just being aware that if they are traveling full then it is considerate and makes their job a little easier if they are aware roughly of what your dining plans are likely to be. Thanks for the quick response, Kat. I didn't want to interrupt the flow - looking forward to reading it end to end ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #78 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Thanks for the quick response, Kat. I didn't want to interrupt the flow - looking forward to reading it end to end ;) It's going to take a while! I'm trying to write up one day in the evenings when the kids have gone to bed so I can attach the photos and post it whilst they are at school - between loads of laundry and dishes and vacuuming and all the countless myriad of tasks necessary to maintain order in a family of six boys, a husband and a dog. I miss MSC's team of butlers and waiters! Do you think if I asked nicely they would send me some? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Beamafar Posted July 28, 2014 #79 Share Posted July 28, 2014 It's going to take a while! I'm trying to write up one day in the evenings when the kids have gone to bed so I can attach the photos and post it whilst they are at school - between loads of laundry and dishes and vacuuming and all the countless myriad of tasks necessary to maintain order in a family of six boys, a husband and a dog. I miss MSC's team of butlers and waiters! Do you think if I asked nicely they would send me some? HaHaHa - wouldn't it be wonderful. I think, though, that busy life of yours is what's keeping you so fit & healthy-looking. If your photos are anything to go by you're certainly thriving on it - not a scintilla of a trace of jetlag on that visage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elmartellama Posted July 28, 2014 #80 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Nice pictures, thank you. To us, it was MSC Strawberry daiquiris that were the best! I found quite funny the comment about how fast the sun set into the ocean, I always though the sunset time was longer in summer! The best time of the day to swim in the Mediterranean sea, if you are not afraid of the sea creatures in low light conditions of course :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #81 Share Posted July 28, 2014 HaHaHa - wouldn't it be wonderful. I think, though, that busy life of yours is what's keeping you so fit & healthy-looking. If your photos are anything to go by you're certainly thriving on it - not a scintilla of a trace of jetlag on that visage! I must admit that I really enjoy our large family of boys. Its busy and chaotic and very demanding but I do thrive on it. And I especially like that I get paid for my care of three of them (they are overseas students who live with us Feb-Dec whilst they attend a local private high school) so now we can afford to feed our newly acquired cruise addiction! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Beamafar Posted July 28, 2014 #82 Share Posted July 28, 2014 I must admit that I really enjoy our large family of boys. Its busy and chaotic and very demanding but I do thrive on it. And I especially like that I get paid for my care of three of them (they are overseas students who live with us Feb-Dec whilst they attend a local private high school) so now we can afford to feed our newly acquired cruise addiction! :D Having had three boys of my own I would agree that it can be demanding though rewarding. Boys are so much easier than girls because basically they're simpler creatures in their ways - I wonder is that due to their mothers instinctively rearing them thus for the future wives/partners to deal with?!!!!!:D:D Anyway, enough! I'm keeping you from the next instalment LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #83 Share Posted July 28, 2014 I'm just finishing up my spreadsheet for the next cruise and will be phoning my agent with my credit card number for the deposit in the next five minutes. Then I will post up Day 3 - Katakolon. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #84 Share Posted July 28, 2014 The second full day of the cruise was the port of Katakolon (8am till 1pm) - from which its a 30-40 min drive to Olympia (or closer to an hour if you aren’t reading the road signs correctly and you miss the turn off). This morning I woke up early again and got to watch the sun rise over the Aegean sea - magic! Speaking of magic, I also noticed that we were being followed by a very elegant looking ship that had been in port the day we left Venice. Disney Magic was due to dock at Katakolon an hour after us and I was fascinated to see it. I had glanced at it when I was planning our cruise - the timing and the departure port worked well for us - but there is no way I could have looked my three sons in the eye and told them that I went on a Disney cruise without them! We decided to have breakfast in the One Lounge. They put on a very nice continental buffet of breads, pastries, cereals, fruits, yogurt, cheeses and meats. It was very adequate for our needs and quite delicious and fresh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #85 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Some more gratuitous pics of the Disney Magic - just because I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #86 Share Posted July 28, 2014 After this we returned to our cabin to get ready for our first proper port day and to enjoy watching the ship dock at Katakolon. From our cabin I could see the officers on the bridge and was able to watch the ship being manoeuvred into position. It was fascinating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riclop Posted July 28, 2014 #87 Share Posted July 28, 2014 I'm just finishing up my spreadsheet for the next cruise and will be phoning my agent with my credit card number for the deposit in the next five minutes. Then I will post up Day 3 - Katakolon. :D Now that were spoiled in the yacht club where is your next cruise? yacht Club maybe??:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #88 Share Posted July 28, 2014 As an aside, I read on the forums that the beaches at Katakolon are not suitable for swimming as they are full of jelly fish. I made a mental note and moved on. Here in NZ we occasionally get jellyfish wash up onto our beaches too but its not a big deal and it doesn’t stop the swimmers. There no point in being precious about it. Well let me tell you, the water in Katakolon is freaking FULL of jellyfish! Oh my goodness! I was flabbergasted!!! No swimming for me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #89 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Getting off the ship was a bit surreal. We enjoyed being led through the throngs by a butler and were off the ship very quickly. This was our first proper look at it from up close and on the outside and IT IS HUGE!!!! Standing on the dock with this behemoth looming high above us really made us realise what a HUGE ship it is! I felt entirely dwarfed which is unusual for me as I am only 5ft so I have a very very thick skin when it comes to feel dwarved! But we didn’t have time to stop and admire it. We had booked a car with Avis and were on a mission to pick up the car and get on the road before the buses. In retrospect this had its good points and its bad points. The good point was that we got to Katakolon before the crowds. The bad point was that we could have followed a bus and not got temporarily mislaid. Whoops! Anyway, it wasn’t too hard finding a place to park the car and we were soon traipsing down the longish roadway to the ancient site of Olympia. Buying our tickets was easy and we got them for the museum as well as the grounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #90 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Many people said to me before the trip that Olympia is nice but Ephesus is much better. Having now been to both I can agree with that, but still there was something magical about being there. I did a Bachelor of Classical Studies many long long years ago and this site kept cropping up in the many papers I did - in literature, art, architecture, music and history. Not that I remember a lot of it now, of course! It was also really interesting to see people working at further excavations in a roped off section near the entrance. I wonder what more fascinating things there are to discover. One disappointment, however, was that many of the informational boards/signs had been removed for maintenance so a lot of the time we were looking at a jumbled pile of ruins with no real insight on what it was or how it would have looked. Perhaps from that perspective it would have been better to have joined a ship excursion or tour group. But all the tour groups we saw were big and most of the people on them looked deathly bored and like they were wishing they had stayed in bed or relaxed by the pool with a cocktail instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #91 Share Posted July 28, 2014 ERMAHGERD!!!!! I'm in Greece!!!! Entrance to the Olympic Stadium Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #92 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #93 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #94 Share Posted July 28, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #95 Share Posted July 28, 2014 The sense of history at both the archaeological site and the museum was incredible and we are so glad we decided to go ahead and do this and not just stay on the ship or in the port of Katakolon. I absolutely adored these griffins! They wouldn't have looked at all out of place on a 16th century Paris cathedral! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #96 Share Posted July 28, 2014 After this we took a saunter down the main street and perused the wares. There were a LOT of shops and most of them had the same kind of stuff. I picked up a cute bracelet for me plus a little leather kitty pouch for my niece. We also got a tshirt for my eldest and a really nice set of olive wood salad tongs. We were very limited for suitcase space and weight so that stopped me from going wild! Meanwhile my husband was clock-watching like a fiend and trying to hurry me along. He was concerned about finding our way back and returning the car in time. Again, from that perspective maybe a tour that included time for shopping would have been a lower stress option. Anyway, we got back to the car and my husband positioned our car behind a departing bus and we followed it back to Katakolon. We had one slightly hairy moment when the bus went through as a set of traffic lights turned red and my husband stopped and we lost sight of the bus! It took us a wee while it find it again and we were both a bit anxious till we found ourselves passing familiar landmarks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #97 Share Posted July 28, 2014 The drive to and from Olympia was interesting. All around us were signs of an economy in nosedive. I lost count of the number of multistoried buildings that were incomplete shells. And many many house had fallen into disrepair and been abandoned to the weeds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 28, 2014 Author #98 Share Posted July 28, 2014 With one eye on the clock and the other on the road ahead, we finally made it back to Katakolon 30 mins before all aboard time. It was such a relief to see this again! There were a few anxious moments where I wasn't sure whether we had set off in the right direction or not! We didn’t have time to look at the multitude of colourful shops along the main street but went straight to return the car. After doing this we joined the pilgrimage back towards the port, stopping to admire the incredibly beautiful Disney Magic. Looking at its graceful lines and classic design, I think I fell in love a little. Since returning home I have learned that the Disney Magic was recently ‘reimagineered’ in a massive overhaul to update and maintain it. It certainly was a beautiful looking ship! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 29, 2014 Author #99 Share Posted July 29, 2014 Our ship was parked furtherest away from the port entrance - probably 5-8 mins walk. I can’t say exactly because although we were getting perilously close to all aboard time, we could resist stopping to take a multitude of photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katgoesonholiday Posted July 29, 2014 Author #100 Share Posted July 29, 2014 After returning to the ship we showered, changed and sauntered along the deck to La Palmeraie for lunch - stopping for strategical photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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