Live from Greece and Croatia

[uktog]

So this is a tale of two Cruises back to back. This allowed it to be a round trip out of Athens. 
We flew in the day before and given the timings of the flights did not arrive till after midnight Greek time. With that in mind we did not attempt to go into Athens which we will visit on our way home but rather stayed at the Holiday Inn near the airport. This was a choice driven by economics as the Sofitel was four times dearer. The Holiday Inn had a free shuttle from the airport and totally ticked all the boxes we needed to do  - a clean room a comfortable bed and a good night sleep. 
Next day we used a welcome pick ups as before and they very promptly delivered us to safely to the port despite a hiccup in the instructions from Azamara which told us we would be at one terminal when in fact without another. 
We had organised antigen tests the day of fluing only to discover on arriving at the port that the requirement had been removed and did they had no walk up testing facilities or checks. for any guests. 
soon we were on board and ready to enjoy the cruise. We discovered many old faces in the crew but also some new ones who had clearly settled well to the Azamara way of doing things. The 530 guests on board where a mix of nationalities and also at this stage I do not have the figures I think those  the UK are  in the majority. 
We found a lot of substitute wines in the passage package whispering angel and Wairu River were still available, so despite the continued appearance of the dreadful Club tonic we did purchase the upgraded beverage package and started that evening to enjoy some lovely drinks. 
In the den they serve an extract from the Atlas bar menu on onward and we found this mix of the Den music drinks from the special menu and ordinary drinks worked extremely well the whole cruise and seem to be a great compromise on the concept

 

 

 

[uktog]

Syros and Volos

 

The  appeal of this cruise was that it stopped at many ports we had never been to before and many had the opportunity just to explore on your own. That said we did also have a significant amount of on-board credit so we had chosen a few ships excursions along the way as well however these were later in the cruise. 
 

Our First stop Syros highlighted that beautiful little Greek islands often have their nicest places high upon hills so either you have to be quite fit or use taxis or compromise on enjoying lower down sites. For this stop although the cathedral way on the top of the hill looked beautiful and those who went to it said it was

we decided to enjoy our more local experience a short walk from the port. We started to discover just how beautiful Greek orthodox churches where as we explored here and this became a feature of our stops  we would go and have a look inside he is very simple at times but very well decorated buildings

 

 

Volos next day was another beautiful port. 
Again it was a short walk to beautiful churches and in our case not climbing to the higher parts of town

 

 

[uktog]

Our third day saw us docking in Thessaloniki. It was a very special day for us as it was our silver wedding and we had lovely drinks and a cake on board to celebrate.  We also enjoyed a beautiful meal in Aqualina. 

During the day we had some time ashore using the hop on hop off bus which worked out very well for taking us to the main parts of the town without having to walk. 

The only thing is the bus does not take on board passengers at the cruise terminal you have to walk about 3/4 of a mile to the round white tower where you pick up the bus and get tickets. We felt the €13 fare each was very reasonable for what we saw and it did drop us off at the ship on the way back. 
 

It was great to get the views from the old town looking out over City without the effort of getting there. 

Again the Greek orthodox church was beautiful and I’m glad we chose that extra hop off there to see it

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Great review so far – and wonderful pictures.  I hope we will see some Greek Orthodox churches on the trip back to Athens from Ravenna.

[Mackdogmolly]

Thanks for all of the lovely pictures and a very happy anniversary to you and the mister!

[Mrs.Dukes]

Happy Anniversary! Loving your pictures. Looks like a fabulous trip.

[lisiamc]

Happy Anniversary!!

[Grandma Cruising]

Thanks for your review and glad you had such a nice anniversary - beautiful cake!

[malcliz]

Thank you for your live review and photos.  We are loving this cruise too.  Several are new ports for us and we found them easy to wander round and explore on our own. Being the only ship in so many of the ports was great too. Happy Anniversary. What a lovely cake. 

[travelberlin]

Have a wonderful cruise! Happy Anniversary 🍾.

Ivi

[uktog]

Thanks for all the lovely wishes. Azamara has had well over a year of our 25 so it was good to celebrate with them. 
 

Our next stop was Kavalla another unknown. Research told us there was another castle with great views, a strong Arabic influence and best of all a little train would take us up for 7 euros. A winner! 

 

Looking from the port this was going to be a steep climb so we headed in the opposite direction to the tourist office where the train runs from. Sorry it’s broken it will be working next year. Aagh. Taxi? No all booked. 
 

For some reason I did think we could make it up to the fortress. 
 

 

Well we made it to by the hotel with Arabic influence but seeing the next street we would have to take on the left and speaking to a lovely local (everyone is so friendly) who said the leg after was steeper we quit but got one “view picture” 

 

So this is one port if you are not racing fit take a panoramic tour if you want to see more! 
 

We did manage the gentler walk to the ancient aqua duct which is amazingly intact in parts before our daily stop at the church to light a candle for our granddaughter. So a lovely day despite having to think on (tired) feet about Plan B

 

[uktog]

Lesbos

 

Well we have learned our lesson. No we do not care that the ship says this fortress is a 30 minute gentle stroll. We are not going!  Our fit friends told us it was nearer 45-60 minutes so wise move. 

We enjoyed a walk around the beach front

and through back streets to another beautiful peaceful church followed by a gentle stroll back along the prom.

One great thing Greeks are big on their “benches”. In every port I’ve found lots of places for a quick five minute breather.
 

I have become fascinated by the symbolism and beauty of light fittings in orthodox churches every one is such a work of art.  This main church is visible from the port so easy to find. 

 

 

Although this is an island that has had many issues with migrants and we did see some begging to be honest it was less prevalent than in Edinburgh. I had read people say don’t go ashore you will be hassled. Maybe that’s something of the past and the authorities have now got ontop of it as it was absolutely no issue. 

[Westaussie]

Happy anniversary - what a lovely cake!  Enjoying your photos, love Greece but still have more to see there (just wish that flight wasn't so long from 'down under'!

[uktog]

Just an update on what life on board has been like

 

This is our fourth Azamara cruise since the return to service and this is the first one where we have really felt like it’s old times. That of course was further emphasised last night when the crew were allowed to remove masks - talking to them the captain had announced it over the crew deck tannoy and they said we were surprised we had not heard the cheers on deck 11 so they are very very happy. 
 

The food in the main dining room has been extremely good and whilst the specialities have also been good the star dishes we have enjoyed based on our taste have been in the MDR. 
 

We have thoroughly enjoyed the Den at night though the pianist Anna plays the same stuff most nights and doesn’t interact much - not even a good night when she leaves. She was playing way too loud but we mentioned this to the cruise director and he did indeed speak to her and the noise level has been better since. 
 

We and others have loved the special cocktails in the Den complete with the theatre of making by Toonie. Isarah the waitress there is relatively new and is a treasure so proactive in looking after you and welcoming everyone. 
 

Talking about Cruise Director we have one of the new hires Darren Lynton- he is just great. Best we have ever had in many years on Azamara- not tired like some have inevitably become. He’s got the visibility and guest engagement level of Heike and is extremely talented but modest with it. He covered in the Living Room one night when there was an issue there, he did his own show he is doing the Den tonight. He puts in the hours and he is clearly loving it. 
 

The Living Room Band Vibes are ok but would be better suited to a Caribbean pool deck but that’s just a personal taste

[uktog]

Kusidasi. 
 

Having done all things Ephesus and surrounding areas but with OBC still to burn we opted on trip to The Seven Graces winery. A nice drive out of town took us to a small boutique organic winery. They produce only 10000 bottles a year. It was very interesting to taste these wines which were surprisingly good. 

 

We’ve never seen grape crushing before we are always at wineries at the wrong time so this was good to see

 

 

Unfortunately the trip ended in the store in town owned by the tour provider. We believed we were seeing artisan production and whilst the work of the girls was interesting it was clearly staged. We decided to leave before the high pressure sales pitch and it got a bit awkward. The door out of the shop was locked and they initially got upset we would not visit the jewellery display before leaving. We just stood at the door and eventually got the message. 

Talking to others this seemed to be the standard ships tour end (come on Azamara make it optional!) so our advice is when you disembark your tour outside the bazaar excuse yourself and walk across the road to the ship. 
 

Early that evening we indulged in a balcony activity we haven’t done for years. Watching the runners in the 1605 NCL race for the 1600 departure 

Happens every port we were beside them it seemed 

That night we had the Destination Celebration- the Antakya international choir who were very good singing hymns and songs from all sorts of cultures. It was a good evening though one we hear was offered outdoors in the past and think it would be far nicer in an outdoor setting. It was a gorgeous warm night so we’re surprised it wasn’t offered on the Pool Deck as Quest did the next night. 

 

But a lovely day nevertheless 

[RW75]

Happy Anniversary. 
 

Your pictures are excellent.
 

Very good to know the mask mandate has been lifted for crew. 

[uktog]

14 minutes ago, RW75 said:

Happy Anniversary. 
 

Your pictures are excellent.
 

Very good to know the mask mandate has been lifted for crew. 

Thanks. My trusty IPhone 11 never ceases to amaze me   I was disappointed I did not have my new one for this trip but to be honest I’m not sure what more it would have given. 

[uktog]

Santorini 

We shared Santorini with several other ships including two big monsters. It was approximately 10,000 cruisers heading a shower so with that in mind we decided to make it 9998. 
We very much enjoyed our chill by the pool day but were pleased to hear that friends who had gone on the boat sailing trip we had recommended that was offered by the ship had been a success. It’s always worrying when you have an excellent experience and you suggest it to someone else and then remember it’s  12 months since you did a trip so my tits have changed but this time it hasn’t. 
 

Tonight  was white night one of the challenges to have a pool day on the day that is fight tonight is that there is a lot of disruption for example all the sofa seating under the shade by the port side entrance at Deck nine is not put out that day and by 3 o’clock they are starting to pull away sun loungers. 
 

White night was very enjoyable although we noticed the buffet was much less substantial than on previous trips still plenty of food and lots of variety but for example no barbecued fish steaks or lobster tails and no shrimp tempura.

 

We did have fun smoking negronis on deck!

The singers and dancers supplemented by the vibes band and the cruise director and assistant cruise director did a fantastic show with a new playlist. 
 

Two comments I meant to make in the general post on entertainment first  the assistant cruise director Grace O’Donnell Clancy an Australian is an absolutely fantastic young lady bundles of energy lovely personality and a great voice to match. Much better talent both at hosting activities and in holding her own and more in entertainment than assistants on other Azamara ships. 
 

The other thing is that Journey  has the combination of four singers and two dancers rather than the quest combination of two singers and four dancers. In my mind there is absolutely no comparison having four singers makes a huge positive difference. The team also seems to gel much better than the entertainment team on quest I’m not sure if that is due to personalities or what but it just seems a much smoother provision of entertainment and this really made a difference at white night. 

 

They actually played for well over to hours as opposed to the 90 minutes we had on both recent quest trips what a difference

As always Santorini gave us a great sunset 

[aliaschief]

Really enjoying your post. Thanks for sharing your cruise experience.

[RW75]

Often find I am surprised at iPhone photos. Sure I take better pictures than I ever did with a camera. 
 

love the smoked negroni. 

[uktog]

Monemavasia 

 

There  is only one thing I can say and that is if you are looking at an itinerary and it has this stop in it book the cruise. They call the old town the Gibraltar of the East I think you can see why

It is connected by a narrow causeway to the new town which actually is still quaint and not high rise Modern. 

it was the first time Journey had been to here and every single guest is saying it was the best stop of the cruise

 

There were crystal-clear bays and beaches within walking distance of the tender drop-off but what was much more fun was to either walk up the gradual slope into the old town or take the little minibus that ran opposite the port. You buy your tickets in the little ACV shop on the corner and it costs €1.10 each way with the minibus running every half hour - in the end we rode up but walked back down which seemed a great way to avoid the slope but also have a beautiful walk of about a mile back to the tender with lovely ship photo opportunities along the way 

What can I say about the old town traffic free narrow winding streets not overcrowded because we were the only ship in town although being a Sunday a lot of Greeks has also come out to enjoy its ambience.

I think it’s best to just like the photographs of the beauty of the town till its own story. 

 

 

We are looking to book to come back here. We had missed seeing what the old town looks like on sail in but on sail out we had an excellent view of the old town and it was really finished of the day and nicely

[uktog]

Katakolon

 

Today we shared this port with Celebrity apex. - it was really great that we docked a good 2 1/2 hours before apex. 
I had done the research and knew we wanted to go to Olympia to the ancient ruins and to see the home of the original Olympic Games. The cruise line was offering two excursions and again with credit to use we thought this was the safest way to do it although we did hear some people did the journey which is about 45 minutes each way in local taxis without issue

The two excursions had a price difference of $70 each person. One was Olympia on your own which effectively drove you up there and you made your own arrangements for entering the site whereas the other one included your admission and a guide. Having researched online that admission tickets were easily viable in advance for €12 each and recognising that sometimes going with guides can be too strenuous for me with the pace too fast we opted to go for the on your own option. Not only was that much better value it really worked out so well for us

In case there was a switch ports I did not buy the online tickets until the day beforehand and guest relations very kindly printed them out for me. Azamara really came up trumps for guests on bus tours due to our early arrival we got Olympia with virtually no tourists

however when we were leaving around 12, we were having to part the red Sea on the walkway back to the buses as 12 Celebrity buses each with over 40 guests in them arrived. 
 

The interpretive plaques beside all the monuments gave me enough information to know what each monument was about and the key features - everything was clear in English and for my level of interest in Greek things this was very sufficient. 

The entry to the site also gives you entry to the archaeological museum which contains many artefacts that have been dug up during excavation. It surprises you find you think how many hundreds of years BC these items were made for you see how complete they are today.

 

There is also a small coffee shop here if you need topping up so most people opted to use the two little cafés on the way back to the bus if they were wanting anything more than the water they had brought from the ship
 

Unless you really need extensive guiding I would say to Olympia on your own and you will not be disappointed you can even run the track at your own pace! 

 

[uktog]

In Corfu the ship provided a shuttle in to town main square and also the shuttle to the port gate was useful  for anyone who wanted to use the hop on hop off bus as it picks up there. 
 

We had opted for our expensive tour in Corfu going on a tour of the markets with the chef and buying items that he would later cook for us for dinner. As always it was fascinating watching chef Dhani choose what he wanted to buy he was often ignoring the guide who wanted him to go into certain shops and was heading off in two other stalls to get exactly what he wanted. 
 

it is also fascinating to watch him pick through produce and he will select one tomato and reject another and it’s good to learn from him why he took that choice. 
 

After shopping the chefs headed back to the ship

and we had an extensive walking tour around Corfu town. We stopped at a beautiful pavement café 

We had one of the largest pieces of baklava I have ever see. Suffice it to say I only managed about a third of it. 

This is where the trip got a little disjointed (hope they fix that) in that we then went back to the ship for an hour to have lunch if we wanted but after that cake  very few of us wanted any lunch before heading out to a winery where salads cold meats cheeses and breads were served together with the wines. It would be better if we had gone straight from the town to the winery no one was going to want any larger lunch than the spread put on there given what we knew we would be eating that evening

The winery was very interesting in that it does not commercially bottle any of its wine rather they serve it in the restaurant attached to the winery and the host a lot of weddings in the beautiful setting. The owner is saving old-fashioned vines and old Greek varieties for making the wine and it’s very interesting to see her passion for this rather than any overriding commercial desire. Silus the sommelier was fascinated by it all. 

Returning to the ship we watched a folkloric sure of Greek dancers before heading off to the unbelievable meal that Dhani cooked us from what we had bought

Cold meats and salad 

Fish soup

Seabass with herbs and squid ink and lobster risotto

Ouzo sorbet 

A Greek selection of meats

Some sweet treats

All washed down with wine from the winery simple bottling (!)

 supplemented bye our wine bought in Corfu town. A great day and evening in Corfu. 

[Rabo]

uktog,

 

I’ve really enjoyed your posts over the past week (and your insight and posts over the past few years). We have 6 Azamara cruises booked over the next year and a half. Hopefully, we’ll cross paths.

 

Jerry

[tgg]

uktog,

 

The way you combine fantastic photography and actionable advice makes your posts "must reads" for anyone planning a cruise that calls at any of these ports.  For those of us who will be cruising elsewhere, we'll continue to enjoy your writing and the scenery. Hope to see you again on Azamara.

 

Toni