Nearly Live from Oosterdam Med Empires June 13th - 25th.

[terrydtx]

10 minutes ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

That’s what I recall it looking like on the koningsdam as well in March.  I don’t really care for room service but I did on that cruise because I had early shorex.  As I recall I did write  a thing or two in but  they were minimal.  At least you can order some hot food.  On Princess I think there is no hot food as I recall.

We have some very early shorex on our Oosterdam cruise and room service is a must for us for breakfast. From what Kazu posted above with pre covid menus there is a huge difference over the current one on this cruise.

[pschweig]

8 hours ago, cccole said:

VMax1700, THANK YOU for taking us along on your cruise and pre cruise adventures.  When something is not what it was pre-Covid you seem able to not worry about it.  Thank you for letting us join you,  Cherie 

I second what cccole said! For those of us with Oosterdam cruises coming up, we all appreciate both the information and your taking time to provide it. It is exactly for what I’ve been searching. 

[VMax1700]

8 hours ago, *Miss G* said:

 

Doesn’t that ruin the finish when you remove it?

I will post the after removal photo (if I remember to remove it before we leave!) 😁

Anyway, the fact that the fan velocity cannot be regulated is frustrating.  It is quite a strong cold air flow that hits the top of the head when in bed.

[VMax1700]

Good afternoon from Katakolo, Greece.

We woke up this morning, drew back the curtains and this wonderful view greeted us from our starboard side stateroom:

 

 

 

So imagine the shock to the system when we looked over the port side of the Lido deck and saw this moored in town too......

 

 

I have seen its sister ships sail on the PE webcams and thought they looked ugly, but in real life, they truly are ugly.  There was another Celebrity ship moored further away too.

 

 

[VMax1700]

Todays Where and When:

 

 

[VMax1700]

Today's menus for MDR and Lido dinner:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And today's lunch menu from Lido:

 

[VMax1700]

A piece of history was moored beside us in Katakolo today:

 

 

 

I suppose only those of a certain age will recognise the name.

[VMax1700]

Today I brought water onboard in plastic bottles (gasp, horror!)

I had noticed crew purchasing water in town, so I bought a small amount to see what would happen.  It only cost €5 for 6 bottles, so I was quite prepared to lose it if necessary.

And here is the proof, staff member returning with water!

 

When I re entered the ship, all the security staff had packs of water stored beside them 😁

[VMax1700]

On 6/14/2022 at 1:40 AM, pschweig said:

When you are in Katakolon, could you please confirm if there are buses at the end of the pier for which you can purchase round-trip tickets to Olympia?

There are multiple ways of getting to Olympia.  

Bus, which is just outside the port gates, across the road costs €15 per person.  30 minutes drive to the village, 2 hours free time and then 30 minutes back to katakolo.  The guy I was speaking to, told me that he was the guide and he had excellent english.

 

There were taxis available but I did not ask the price.

 

The train mentioned by @Heartgrove costs €10 return, but has only one  departure time! 8.40 am with the return at 1.10 pm.  It is running as I watched it depart this morning.

 

[VMax1700]

The official figure for this cruise is 1085 passengers.

[VMax1700]

Today's Bread Pudding 😊

 

[pschweig]

5 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

There are multiple ways of getting to Olympia.  

Bus, which is just outside the port gates, across the road costs €15 per person.  30 minutes drive to the village, 2 hours free time and then 30 minutes back to katakolo.  The guy I was speaking to, told me that he was the guide and he had excellent english.

 

There were taxis available but I did not ask the price.

 

The train mentioned by @Heartgrove costs €10 return, but has only one  departure time! 8.40 am with the return at 1.10 pm.  It is running as I watched it depart this morning.

 

Thank you for this information - especially about the train running (which Rick Steve’s says doesn’t always do so). 

[VMax1700]

Just now, pschweig said:

Thank you for this information - especially about the train running (which Rick Steve’s says doesn’t always do so). 

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.

[VMax1700]

On 6/13/2022 at 10:47 PM, VMax1700 said:

To Internet from Surf package to Premium page was shown on Navigator as $50 for 12 days.  I have stayed with the surf pack and see how it behaves,

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!

[jayhawk66]

15 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

I think that yesterday I mention how our aircon had stopped working.

Well during dinner last night maintenance looked at it and when we returned to our room after dinner it was working perfectly.  Actually it was working too perfectly!  One of the units is positioned over the bed and this causes a cold air blast over the head of the person on that side of the bed.  So, the duct tape that I bring with us came in handy to block the cold air.

We bring a kitchen towel and magnets and cover the vents with the towel to prevent that cold blast in the face.

[VMax1700]

The Katakolo pilot leaves the ship and waves to everyone

 

Edited June 15, 2022 by VMax1700

[VMax1700]

56 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

A piece of history was moored beside us in Katakolo today:

 

 

 

 

I suppose only those of a certain age will recognise the name.

 

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.

[terrydtx]

@VMax1700 thank for this thread and port pictures, we are getting so excited about our two August cruises to Italy and now Greece through your eyes. We actually visit Katakolo twice in August once on the Oosterdam and once on the Celebrity Reflection. This is the only port that the two cruises share. On top of the hill behind the seaside village there is a hilltop restaurant we will walk up to for one of the days we are there, the other we are going to Olympia. We have seen in other cruise line threads people raving about lunch at that hilltop restaurant and the spectacular view.

[Fred321]

Hilltop restaurant is connected to a small hotel and is definitely worth the walk even just for the view. On one of our stops here during a world cruise (can't remember the year) we came across the Captain and his family, who were aboard at that time, having a special lamb barbecue lunch on Greek Orthodox Easter. 

[LewiLewi]

16 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

The room service breakfast menu.  It certainly seems a lot more compact than I remember.....

We were on the NS this March and just wrote in whatever we wanted for breakfast and it was delivered. I don’t know whether our being in a Neptune Suite made a difference or not.

[*Miss G*]

3 hours ago, Florida_gal_50 said:

At least you can order some hot food.  On Princess I think there is no hot food as I recall.

 

Princess has one hot food item for breakfast.  It is their take on an Egg McMuffin and it is disgusting. 

[terrydtx]

3 minutes ago, LewiLewi said:

We were on the NS this March and just wrote in whatever we wanted for breakfast and it was delivered. I don’t know whether our being in a Neptune Suite made a difference or not.

I guess eggs benedict would be out of the question? I would like to see at least an omelet on the menu and extra sides like sausage and corn beef hash,  I guess it is what it is.

[terrydtx]

28 minutes ago, LewiLewi said:

We were on the NS this March and just wrote in whatever we wanted for breakfast and it was delivered. I don’t know whether our being in a Neptune Suite made a difference or not.

I am surprised that Neptune Suites do not have a special RS breakfast menu like some other cruise lines. The Neptune's have so much room and even  nice tables to enjoy breakfast in the cabin and on the balcony.

[*Miss G*]

4 minutes ago, terrydtx said:

I am surprised that Neptune Suites do not have a special RS breakfast menu like some other cruise lines. The Neptune's have so much room and even  nice tables to enjoy breakfast in the cabin and on the balcony.

 

They do.

[0106]

@kazuIs the room service menu you posted from a Neptune Suite?  I don't ever remember having that many hot breakfast item choices available for room service in my standard balcony cabin.