Regent Seven Seas Explorer Athens to Istanbul Full Travelogue

[BellaOnline]

 

Day 0 / Friday August 19th / Departure

 

Welcome to the start of my day-by-day travelogue! This is for my recent 10-day cruise on the Regent Seven Seas Explorer through Greece and Turkey! Note that I am AT HOME now and am writing this from home :). Every day I'll post the next step of the journey. Feel free to ask me more details about what I did or saw!

My wonderful mother Ann took me along with her on this cruise. She had always wanted to see Istanbul. The cruise went from Athens, Greece to Istanbul, Turkey. My mom lives in Sarasota while I live in Massachusetts. I was thrilled to be spending time with her! 

 

I quadruple-checked my packing list, which I kept as light as possible. I'd heard many news reports about travel nightmares over the past month. Apparently COVID-penned-up summer travel demand, paired with a very low level of travel employees, was causing luggage to be lost in droves. I wanted to pack as little as possible so if I lost the bag I only had to replace a few things. I only packed 4 days of clothes and planned to run laundry on the ship a few times, which was free. Note that this still meant 8 sets of clothes, because I packed tunic tops and pants for the long hot daily adventures and then dresses for evening meals. 

 

My main suitcase was 35 pounds. I also brought a small carry-on for my laptop and headphones to keep with me. Often in the past I’d take, in addition, both a digital camera and a film camera. However, I wasn’t risking either with the luggage-getting-lost situation. My cellphone would do fine.

 

At about 1:30pm Bob and I drove in to Logan. We knew that traffic out of Boston would be fairly heavy, and Bob had a gig Friday evening, so we wanted to make sure we left him enough time to be prepared. The drive in was fairly smooth. Soon I was dropped off at the Iberian gate. Barely any passengers were wearing masks.

 

My flight was in two stages - Boston to Madrid, Spain and then Madrid to Athens, Greece.

 

My mother had kindly set us up with business class flights. Check-in was a breeze. The desk person checked both my passport and my COVID vaccine card. She let me know my ticket gave me access to the business lounge area. 

 

There was a separate security line for business class. That went quickly. Fairly soon I was in the terminal area. There was a lounge sign to go for “Air France” and as I didn’t see any other lounge signs, I followed the Air France one. It took me to an elevator, which made me concerned – I like to be near the actual gate area in case of changes or announcements. Still, I went to the different floor.

 

Down an unmarked alley, and there was the lounge with a line. Out of the four groups ahead of me, two were turned away. They let me through. The lounge area had small tables with straight chairs and then a collection of softer chairs. Nearly every single chair was full. There was a small buffet with a few small sandwich options, a few trays with meatballs or pasta, and then an open bar. There were nut mixes. 

 

A screaming baby. A dense crowd. No masks anywhere.

 

The lounge didn’t seem very ‘relaxing’ to me but apparently quite a number of people were trying to get in who weren’t really allowed to, maybe because of the free food and alcohol. It was all you could eat or drink.

 

I luckily found an open small table and had two small turkey-and-swiss rolls. I foolishly had a Diet Coke, when my plan had been to sleep on the flight. Finally the crowdedness, the screaming baby, and the sense of being away from my gate got to me and I headed back up.

 

The gate area was quite full, and I finally found a spot on a stool by a bench with a charger. I texted Bob to give him updates. The overhead announcements made clear we DID need masks for the flights and could buy them at the shops. Not too long later they began boarding prep. 

 

Business class went on first. 

 

Each passenger had a ‘pod’ in a seat with lumbar controls. The seat could recline fully. We each had a TV, headset, and controller. Normally when I fly I listen to soothing music on my Bose noise-cancelling headphones. These headphones are so old they are still wired. Unfortunately, on my phone I somehow confused YouTube Music with YouTube Premium and in the lounge I'd activated YouTube Music. This meant, once I went into airplane mode, I didn’t have access to my ‘soothing music’ mixes. Ooops. You’d think by now I’d have moved all my iTunes music onto my actual phone, but I never did it when I switched phones and keep forgetting.  

 

In business class, you’d think dinner would be a key part of this experience. However, by the time they got to me they were out of the salmon and chicken so the only option was cabbage. That seems an odd thing to feed people on a long flight, but it was tasty enough.

 

Then we all stretched out and they turned down the lights. I did sleep a bit, but I probably would have slept more if I’d not drunk that Diet Coke!

At last we landed in Madrid. It was now Saturday morning and the sun was just coming up.

 

Step count: 2071 Steps
 

[papaflamingo]

Looking forward to your travelogue.  We are doing Athens to Rome in 2023 and looking forward to your take on similar ports.  

[BellaOnline]

Thank you PapaFlamingo! Let me know if you have any questions as I go. My mother adores Rome and has been there many, many times.

[BellaOnline]

Day 1 / Saturday August 20th / Regent Cruise Athens Greece

 

August 20th was 27th Anniversary with Bob! I made sure black-and-white cookies had arrived for him so we could virtually celebrate even though we were on separate continents :).

 

I was now at my connection spot in Madrid, Spain, and the sun was just rising over the horizon as I landed.

 

I was fortunate that Madrid was my only connection to make. My mom had three connections. When I got off the plane in Madrid, it was quite a long, involved walk down featureless hallways, with no signs or indicators, with twists and turns, before I reached a first ‘stopping point’ of a destination board. My next flight to Athens was listed, but it was the only flight in the next 3 hours without a terminal or gate or anything by its flight number. So I had no idea of where to go.

 

Everyone else around me started out in various directions. I tracked down an information booth to ask where to go. They pointed me in the direction of a passport check. By the time I got into the passport line it was quite long. Still, it shuffled along. About half of the people were still wearing masks from our mask-requiring flight.

 

The actual passport check was very quick. They asked what I was doing in Greece and then asked which countries the ship would be stopping in. That was it. Then I was out the other side.

 

I still had no idea what terminal / gate I was going to. Another boarding display up ahead showed my flight but not any destination info. It was stressful, but I lemming-like followed the main group which went down to a subway system. I had no idea if leaving my current terminal area was a good idea, but it seemed everyone else was, so I had to trust this was where most of the flights were going to leave from. I got onto the subway. 

 

The signs on the subway walls said we should be wearing masks, but by this point most people weren’t. Off we went.

 

We arrived at another terminal area. We went up to a main junction with a row of monitors. Again my flight was on the board but had no terminal or gate information listed. At this juncture, half the people went left, half right. I didn't even know who to follow any more.

 

I went to an info desk to ask. The woman was very dismissive and said my flight was about 2 hours out and the board would be updated with info by the hour mark. I went back to look at the board. This was a smallish area with turnstiles to the left and the right. There weren’t any chairs or benches or anything to sit on here. 

 

I finally went back to the info desk, to a new woman, and asked if I was really supposed to stand in this smallish area for an hour until the board updated. She looked at my ticket and said I should take the right-hand fork and there would be benches there so I could wait for further updates.

 

Off I went through the right-hand turnstiles.

 

The space opened up. I was now in a very long terminal area split into the letters J-K-L. There were shops and benches, but all the benches were stuffed full of people. I had to walk quite a long way to find an open bench. I had just finally sat down when I got an email alert from Iberia that my gate was at one end of the terminal, far from me. I got up and started walking. I checked the displays along the way and they all said ‘contact company’ for the gate info, which wasn’t reassuring. 

 

Eventually I got to the gate, which had people at it. That was encouraging. The sign over the check-in desk was completely blank. Less encouraging. I sat down. Waited. Occasionally I got up to check the departure displays, but while they steadily counted down, my flight was still only listed as 'contact company'.

 

About 15 minutes before boarding I got another email, saying we were going to board from the far opposite end of the terminal. I got up and started walking. Again the departure boards I passed just said ‘contact company’ for my flight’s gate, even though every other flight had its info. I wonder how people without phones were supposed to know what to do?

 

Finally I got to the gate just in time. They had lines for section 2, 3, and 4, but no line for business class. There were two random lines by the main entryway. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just milled around the desk area.

 

They called people with small children and people who needed assistance. I waited. Then they called groups 1 and 2 together. Apparently people who had been in group 1 (business class) had already gone in with the ‘people who need assistance’ group. So I headed onto the plane.

 

Business class on this leg was not really much different than non-business-class. It was simply the first three rows of close-packed seats. I was in row 3. Behind me was a curtain and the next rows of close-packed seats. I sat in my window seat. The woman behind me with painted toenails decided my seat rests were perfect for stretching her bare feet on. She put one foot on each arm. She kept poking me with her bare toes by accident. So it was an interesting flight. No TV monitors. 

 

I tried to sleep.

 

Finally, we landed in Athens. I got off and headed toward baggage claim. The baggage process took quite a while, and my luggage was near the very end, but I did get my luggage. So that is a good thing. I later heard that other people on the ship had luggage go missing. 

 

Luggage in tow, I followed the signs out to the exit. There were no security checks or anything. I nearly instantly found the woman holding the Regent Cruises sign. Apparently they were waiting just for me and my mom. More than that, they had a minivan just for me and another minivan for her, so we wouldn’t have to wait for each other. 

 

I wanted to ride with my mom. After all, the entire purpose of this trip was to spend time with her, and apparently she was landing shortly! I wanted to wait here for her. However, they seemed to want me to go into my minivan, so, exhausted, I gave in. It was just me and my driver on the 45-minute drive to the ship. It seemed fairly wasteful of gas and resources to do it this way, but I was, as mentioned, exhausted, and not up for pressing the point.

 

My driver and I arrived at the docks. Attendants took my larger bag, and I wheeled my smaller one into a big building. This building was clearly set up for large groups, with banks of chairs, but I was the only one there in ‘line’. I showed my proof of recent PCR covid test. They put a wristband on me indicating I was OK with my test and sent me along. There were two or three people sitting in chairs in the massive area apparently waiting for their test results.

 

I walked over to the security building. It was in essence the same setup – a very big building set up for long lines, but just me there. I went to a desk to get my key card handed to me. Then I went through a metal detector, and I was out of the building, down the stairs, and at the short walk to the ship.

 

The gangplank was fairly long with lots of shallow steps, so sort of tedious to walk up. Then I was on the ship and checking in with my key card. A group of crew members were waiting in the entry lobby area. I was the only passenger in sight. One of the crew members gave me a glass of bubbly. Another then escorted me the short distance to the theater to tell me this was where I would muster in case of emergency. They no longer make you sit through a muster drill – they have you watch an in-cabin video. Then I was released to go to my cabin, number 814.

 

I went up the elevator and down the hall to my cabin. I did not see a single passenger this entire time. I got to the room. It was quite lovely. There were two twin beds, a desk area, a couch area with table, and a balcony with two chairs There was a walk-in closet. The bath area has a bathtub, separate shower, and vanity with two sinks. There was a bottle of sparkling wine and a fruit basket waiting.

 

A steward soon showed up to explain that the room lights turn on when you put your key card in a slot by the door. That way it conserves electricity when you leave. You can’t have things plugged in while you’re not in the room, for safety reasons. She said the passengers are required to watch the safety video on the TV all the way through before the TV acts normally.

 

I'll note that nearly all plugs in the room were European-style plugs. I'd brought converters, but Mom had to unplug a lamp to get to a US-style plug.

 

I headed back down to the gangway again and sat underneath the tent there. It was maybe a half hour later when my mom arrived. Hurrah! I went with her as she was shown her muster station, and then we went to the cabin. Our luggage arrived soon after. We were all set! Exhausted but on the boat!

 

I showered and the floor area of the shower ended up fairly swamped – and there was water out in the toilet area, too. I mopped it up with towels and figured I’d had the shower on too strong and that it got past the sliding glass door. I would do better tomorrow to have the shower on a lower pressure.

We had a welcome reception in the lounge with the group my Mom booked this tour with. We talked with them a while.

 

Normally my mom loves listening to the classical string quartets – but oddly there weren’t any listed on the schedule. Just a pianist. We decided to go to the main dining room for dinner. We were nearly the only ones in there. We were given a table by the window. Dinner was delicious and artfully arranged. We’d recently cruised on Oceania and I’d commented that their presentation was just not what one would think for fine dining. Regent really showed what a nice dining experience could be. It still was odd, though, how few people we had seen on the ship so far.

 

Dinner done, we were beyond exhausted. We headed back to the room and climbed into our beds.

 

Ask with any questions!

 

Step count: 7398 steps

[MM9U]

Thank you for taking the time to post, and thank you again for posting menus.  For those of us who cannot be traveling right now, it helps to remind us of why we do.

 

I hope your trip went well.

 

Mark

[1982CruzStart]

looking forward to see how your trip progressed. thanks for posting. Pictures are lovely. 

[FengShui@Sea]

I am really enjoying the detailed description of your travels.  Were your flights arranged by Regent?  I live three hours by plane from Miami and when cruising from there I fly in two days before embarkation day.  I can’t imagine arriving the same day when boarding a ship half way around the world.  I would be a nervous wreck, worried that I would miss the ship!

 

[Cruiseswithfamilyornot]

We are on the Explorer in January and am very interested on your thoughts on the ship itself, the different areas.    How full was the ship that it seemed so empty? Your comment about the lack of a string classical quartet I agree is surprising.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Cruiseswithfamilyornot

[Brownie54]

I don’t ever recall a classical string quartet on Regent and we have 270 nights. Perhaps guest performers, but not part of the house band.

[mj_holiday]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post the details of you trip.  Knowing details like your experience at Madrid airport will help someone who gets in similar situation to not panic.  ( i.e. At Heathrow you are not shown your gate until 30 minutes prior to boarding, this is nerve racking for us Americans.)

[BellaOnline]

MM9U / "Thank you for taking the time to post, and thank you again for posting menus.  For those of us who cannot be traveling right now, it helps to remind us of why we do."

 

Mark - I actually took photos of every single thing we ate, but I didn't want to deluge the thread with those images. I think what I might do is make YouTube slideshows for each day so that people who really want to see all the food items can go at their own pace that way. In general I was quite impressed with the food flavor and plating. A few months ago we were on Oceania and the Oceania plating was fairly feeble. When I mentioned that in my Oceania write-up, many Oceania folk responded with "what do you mean? It's lovely?" So I'm tempted to post these Regent photos to show them what actual well-plated food looks like :). 

[BellaOnline]

22 hours ago, 1982CruzStart said:

looking forward to see how your trip progressed. thanks for posting. Pictures are lovely. 

Thank you! I took TONS more. I'm trying to choose just a few representative images for this thread.

[BellaOnline]

20 hours ago, FengShui@Sea said:

I am really enjoying the detailed description of your travels.  Were your flights arranged by Regent?  I live three hours by plane from Miami and when cruising from there I fly in two days before embarkation day.  I can’t imagine arriving the same day when boarding a ship half way around the world.  I would be a nervous wreck, worried that I would miss the ship!

 

 

Yes the flights were arranged by Regent and my mom started in Tampa, so not far from you. If you think this flight in to Greece was challenging, just wait until you hear the ENORMOUS trouble we had trying to get out of Istanbul on Turkish Air. It was an absolute nightmare. Regent wouldn't even answer the phone or call back. We are extremely grateful Air Canada stepped in and spent two hours finding us a safe way home, which involved Mom flying to Miami and then UBERING back to Tampa. But that is still 'in the future' in this travelogue :). Right now we were blissfully unaware of that lurking doom.

 

And yes to answer your more direct question, we were definitely worried about flying in only hours before the ship left port. But that is what Regent set up, and we trusted that if something screwed up that they'd then fly us to Mykonos to catch the ship.

[BellaOnline]

5 hours ago, Cruiseswithfamilyornot said:

We are on the Explorer in January and am very interested on your thoughts on the ship itself, the different areas.    How full was the ship that it seemed so empty? Your comment about the lack of a string classical quartet I agree is surprising.

 

I took a video of every single public room which I'll be posting later on. The rooms were nicely elegant, but again, I was surprised that the art level was low compared with our previous Riviera cruise. The Riviera just had SO much nice art on it. This ship had a lot of blank walls and then a lot of work by the same few artists.  I suppose it depends if you care about art or not. To me the art is a great fun part of a ship.

 

I go into more detail about the ship fullness later, but to briefly summarize, the Seven Seas Explorer officially holds 738 passengers. I believe they had about 650 signed up for this cruise. A full 50+ of them tested positive for COVID 3 days before cruising and didn't fly. That means, if there hadn't been that pre-screening, 50 out of 650 passengers would have gotten on board COVID-positive and we'd probably had the entire ship sick in a few days :). As it was, after only a few days, they had blocked off a quadrant of the suites near the gym for 'quarantine' and I know a number of crew members, including the musical duo, were quarantined. So even with let's say 600 passengers on board it seemed a number of those passengers weren't 'out and about'. Nearly every venue seemed mostly empty.

 

On our previous cruise a few months ago, the Riviera, they had COVID running rampant through the ship and my sister got COVID. It made her sick for days. I'm fortunate I didn't get it; I was her cabin-mate.

 

Mom loves her string quartets. It is always a highlight of a cruise to her. So it was sad she wasn't able to have that, with this being a special cruise for her. She put in a comment card about it and was called back by a staff who said he, too, loves string quartets and wished they had them. He claimed that the ship was too small to support four classical musicians - but we've had them on smaller ships than this. So it's a decision they're making, to instead focus on their orchestra.

 

 

[BellaOnline]

5 hours ago, Brownie54 said:

I don’t ever recall a classical string quartet on Regent and we have 270 nights. Perhaps guest performers, but not part of the house band.

It could certainly be that Regent has never had a classical string quartet. I really wish they did. It's something my mother loves, and we heard from other staff that they love them as well. We would much rather listen to a string quartet than listen to a guitarist who plays the same set list over and over and over again.

[BellaOnline]

2 hours ago, mj_holiday said:

Thank you so much for taking the time to post the details of you trip.  Knowing details like your experience at Madrid airport will help someone who gets in similar situation to not panic.  ( i.e. At Heathrow you are not shown your gate until 30 minutes prior to boarding, this is nerve racking for us Americans.)

I definitely have seen in other airports that all flights over let's say an hour out say 'wait in Section E for boarding information'. That is at least reassuring. But here, all the other flights gave details on terminal and gate. It was only this one specific flight that said 'contact company'. And with a multi-terminal setup at the airport, to not even know which terminal to go to while you wait is stressful. Especially since the board didn't update with gate information until 15 minutes before boarding :).

[BellaOnline]

Day 2 / Sunday August 21st /  Mykonos Greece

 

Sunday was the first real full day for my mother and me on the Regent Seven Seas Explorer cruise ship! Hurrah! As expected, despite the exhaustion, neither of us slept well the first night. We had breakfast, me with my traditional fresh fruit plate. We rested a while more and then had a light lunch. I had my usual salad. Then we walked down to the pier for 12:40pm where we met up with our group for our tour of the island of Mykonos, Greece. Today’s tour was specifically of a monastery, then an ouzo tasting, then a short walk through the main town of Mykonos. 

 

There were enough people for this tour that they split us into several busses. We got our bus assignment and walked a short distance to board.

 

The bus drove out through quiet rural countryside with abandoned farmland marked by low stone walls. Apparently the farm families have mostly gone into tourism instead which is much more profitable. Mykonos receives millions of tourists a year and in comparison has very few locals to manage them. We heard about this imbalance several times during the tour.

 

Due to the multiple busses, our group ended up going to the ouzo tasting first. It was in a quite small village. We parked in a tiny parking lot then walked up a steep street to a small stone plaza. There were a few little shops around the square. One had a ton of cat sculptures and gifts. I hoped I could shop there, but we never had time.

 

We were led into a quiet open-air cafe. The one table of locals there fled as we approached. We were told which tables to sit at. Each person was provided a plate of a few olives, tomatoes, and such. We each got a small glass of ouzo – a liqueur with an anise flavor. They put on loud Greek wedding music.

 

Once we had all drunk our ouzo, it was a short walk around the corner to the Monstery of Panagia Tourliani. In essence this was a small marble church with a lovely belltower and a few side buildings.

We stood in the courtyard for perhaps ten minutes while the previous group finished inside. Our guide told us the history of the monastery. Once the other group left, we went into the church. It had a lovely engraved wood inner wall. We learned that visitors who were healed would then donate jewelry, which was put on display.

 

Around the monastery area, there were many cats. We were told Mykonos is overrun with cats, and indeed we saw quite a lot of them. The cats all seemed well cared for. People here love their cats.

We walked back to the bus and we drove back down toward the dock / main town of Mykonos. The boat dock is only a short 10-minute shuttle ride away from the downtown parking area. That parking lot is then a five-minute walk from downtown itself. Our tour bus took us to the parking lot. 

 

At this point my mom was tired. She went right from our tour bus over to the ship shuttle bus. Several other people did as well. The rest of us - about fifteen people - followed the tour guide.

 

The tour guide set out at a fast pace along the waterfront until we got to the town plaza. We stopped her briefly while she told us about the statue of a heroic woman, Manto Mavrogenous, who in the early 1800s fought for Greece against the Turks. 

 

Then we delved into the town itself.

 

Mykonos deliberately designed its town to have hundreds of tiny, narrow, twisting alleys specifically to confuse and slow down pirates when pirates attack. The alleys are all slender, go up and down and around, and are easy to get lost in. Nowadays they’re lined with gift shops rather than residences. The alleys are all quite pretty, painted in white, with colorful doors and shutters. The tour guide kept us going through that maze at a fast pace to get to our next stop – the windmills.

 

One couple, exhausted, asked her please if they could wait and just have her get them when she came back. She said no, she goes back on a different route so people could see different things. She told them to just keep up. In essence she said they'd never find their way out on their own so they had to stay with the group.

 

We finally got to the famous windmills. These are a line of six no-longer-functioning no-sails-in-place historic buildings. Most people in the group were very tired by now. But now we had to walk all the way back out again. The alleys were twisty, with protuberances to catch at the feet. It was definitely hard on many of the tour people. The tour guide told the group to just take photos of shop names they liked along the way, that way they would know where to come back later to shop there. However, it was clear that nobody was going to try that.

 

We finally made it back to the main plaza.

 

The tour guide asked if anyone wanted to remain to do some shopping. Everybody looked at her as if she were crazy. At last I tentatively spoke up. I said I'd stay. I wanted to look for those cat statues I’d seen near the monastery. 

 

The tour guide began telling me how to look for specific, complicated landmarks so when I got lost I’d find my way out. I said I’d be fine. I'll mention that this entire maze shopping area is a "jut out" into the ocean. That is, there is water on three sides. It's not as if you can go very far until you run into water, and then you just follow that coast clockwise to get back to the main plaza. There is literally no way to get "really" lost in a grand sense of things.

 

She kept listing ways for me to find my way out.

 

I didn't want to hold up the entire group for this, so I held up my phone and mentioned I had google maps as a backup.

 

I now got a lecture about how google maps never worked and I’d be lost forever. I reassured her I’d be fine. 

 

The people around me expressed their faith in my ability to get out of a tourist town that was, after all, surrounded on water on three sides. I couldn’t get THAT lost.

 

Off they all went, back to the parking lot.

 

I headed into the maze of twisty white passages, all alike.

 

Bizarrely, even though I went down alley after alley, looking through a variety of different shops, NONE of them had the cute cat sculptures that I’d seen near the monastery. That shop must have featured a particular artist who only sold near the monastery. So I was even more sad that I wasn’t given time back then to do some shopping. Still, I found lots of contentedly sleeping cats to take photos of. I went back to explore the windmills. I walked along the water.

 

Finally, I wanted a direct route back to the main plaza. I popped up Google Maps and, you know what, it works just fine. I wriggled my way back out of the maze and down to the main plaza. Then it was easy enough to go along the water back to the parking lot. I then took the shuttle bus back to the ship.

 

Shower time!! This time I paid attention to why water was appearing in the toilet area. I realized that the water wasn’t overflowing the shower area or getting past the sliding glass door somehow. Instead, it was bubbling up from the floor drain near the toilet. I.e. something in the under-floor plumbing was backing up. I made a note to tell the reception desk.

 

Normally this would be the time where my mom and I would go and listen to the string quartet. Sadly, though, there was no string quartet on the schedule. Instead, we went to dinner out on the Veranda. It was an Italian theme. 

 

The Veranda is the 'casual' dining area on the back of the ship. It has both an inside and outside area. At lunch it's a buffet. We chose to eat outside. It was fairly windy but nice. I had veal piccata. There were two pieces given, and for some reason one was very salty while the other was normal. This was the only real food issue I had during the cruise, besides some of the meat being tough.

 

My mom went back to the room. I walked around the ship to photograph the art. The art here wasn’t nearly as nice as on the Oceania. Yes there was the occasional piece from Picasso or another known artist, but overall there were many blank walls and many similar pieces.

 

Time to sleep!

 

Step count: 11,540 steps

[BellaOnline]

OK just a few cat photos from Mykonos. They were everywhere!

[jeb_bud]

Thank you for this travelogue. My wife and I will be on Voyager for a Athens to Istanbul cruise next May. We haven’t finalized our excursions yet. Not sure if your Mykonos excursion is on our short list but will check. We’re not crazy about forced-march excursions. 
 

how was the weather?

[pag111]

We will be flying out of Istanbul on Turkish Air in mid Oct. Would be very interested to hear what happened on your return flight. 

[irishwitchy]

Love the forced march excursion!  Mind you I’m the fast walker type,  that gets to a point in a walking tour - I have had an hour of learning something - oh look a great place for lunch,  a drink or shopping - I’m done see you at the ship.   I will always let the guide know we are leaving, but we have gotten lots of concern and comments.  Never had an issue getting back, especially if we know we can walk to the ship.   Enjoying your comments.  

[RJ2002]

Really enjoying your travelogue.  Looking forward to more. 

[califsealion]

9 hours ago, BellaOnline said:

I headed into the maze of twisty white passages, all alike.

 

 

This phrase sounded so familiar I had to google it. It's from a computer game I probably last played 40 years ago. Why does my brain keep these sorts of things???

 

I'm enjoying your travelogue!  Looking forward to the rest!

[lincslady]

Watching the TV series shown in the UK about the building of the Explorer I was amazed to see the CEO (forgotten his name) choosing the artworks for the ship.  He seemed to be buying them by the yard, at great speed, without any apparent interest as to their quality or looks.

 

Did anyone else notice this episode?   Unfortunately the whole series of programmes was emphasizing the cost of everything, as it was at the time the most expensive cruise ship in the world, according to Regent.  Which it no doubt was.

 

Thought the OP might be interested, after her comments on the art.

[flossie009]

5 hours ago, lincslady said:

I was amazed to see the CEO (forgotten his name) choosing the artworks for the ship.  He seemed to be buying them by the yard, at great speed, without any apparent interest as to their quality or looks.

Yes I remember we made the same comment. Frank del Rio's only criteria for choice appeared to be size & colour; maybe he assumed price determined the quality 😉

The best wall decoration for us on Explorer is the excellent variety of vintage photographs on the passenger accommodation decks 🙂