We board Infinity in about an hour. Let me know if you have any questions.

[Stockjock]

Morning sunrise over Kusadasi Turkey.
 

The shower situation is a bit of a problem. There are times where you will have plenty of hot water, but other times, like most mornings, where it’s not even lukewarm.

 

I had maintenance in a few days ago, but I don’t think it’s a issue specific to our cabin, I think they just run out of hot water, which I don’t love, but it is what it is.

[goofysmom99]

14 hours ago, Stockjock said:

I was listening to an ad yesterday from Celebrity, talking about their “Michelin star chef”. And I was thinking to myself that this is not remotely approaching a Michelin starred dining experience.

Maybe Michelin Man starred.  

 

Your Greek lunch at Zizi looked wonderful!

[Stockjock]

41 minutes ago, goofysmom99 said:

Maybe Michelin Man starred.  

 

Your Greek lunch at Zizi looked wonderful!

It was really good food, I recommend the place. Again, what we had is the Greek meal for two and there’s also a Greek meat meal for two, but we just got the regular one, because the other sounded a little heavily loaded with meat.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Stockjock

[Baggy178]

15 hours ago, Stockjock said:

For anyone wondering, apparently, there has been more rain in parts of Greece, including Athens, then at any point in recorded history during a short window of time.
 

We’re not getting any of that bad weather. It’s all around us, and we did see a little bit of lightning one day at sea, but otherwise it’s been sunny and hot.

So I think we’ve been super lucky weather-wise, and I feel bad that other areas, including Greece, are getting walloped right now. 
 

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/torrential-rain-follows-summer-wildfires-greece-one-dead-2023-09-05/

 

 

We're on Syros right now which was on the edge of the storm system - luckily just a couple of overcast light rain days.

Dinner last night on the hoof was a gyros ( Thick round pitta bread, pork/chicken, a few fries, tomatoes and a sauce in a wrap ) and a bottle of local beer = €7.

I say on the hoof but that was after an evening of tremendous cocktails dreamed up by some talented mixologists in a superb old building converted to high end cocktail bar. I think there might have been a few Bulleit Ryes as well 🍸🤦‍♂️

Reading your blog so far convinces us yet again of the merits of Ninja Cruising™ - we eat every meal in the buffet and are never disappointed.

I mean NEVER.

However my wife and I are considerably longer in the tooth that you glamorous two so getting comfortable rather than getting dressed up suits us.

Plus we prefer to spend the extra time drinking.

Enjoy the rest of your cruise - sadly our last day in the North Cyclades and we have a long lunch at the beach planned and Greece are playing the Netherlands at soccer tonight so lots of late night remonstrating by the locals.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2023 by Baggy178

[Stockjock]

Today we went to the home of Virgin Mary, which was interesting, but smaller than I expected. Next, we visited the ruins at Ephesus, and now we are having a lunch at a nice hotel, and the Turkish food is very good.  
 

I am told that the weather is nice, there’s barely a cloud in the sky, but it was still pretty warm at Ephesus. Still, our tour guide said it’s cooler than usual.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Stockjock

[TeeRick]

11 hours ago, RichYak said:

A couple days ago, I watched an episode of Mighty Cruise Ships or something like that. I'm sure we've all heard of it. The episode I watched featured Celebrity Solstice. I don't know how old it was, but the kitchen/dining room scenes showed plates of food that reminded me of what Celebrity used to serve. The difference is stunning.

I looked it up.  That episode was from 2014.

[gardenfrog]

2 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Today we went to the home of Virgin Mary, which was interesting, but smaller than I expected. Next, we visited the ruins at Ephesus, and now we are having a lunch at a nice hotel, and the Turkish food is very good.  
 

I am told that the weather is nice, there’s barely a cloud in the sky, but it was still pretty warm at Ephesus. Still, our tour guide said it’s cooler than usual.

Enjoying your regular updates. Which excursion was this and did it involve a stop at a carpet factory? Thanks

[Stockjock]

14 minutes ago, gardenfrog said:

Enjoying your regular updates. Which excursion was this and did it involve a stop at a carpet factory? Thanks

Destination Highlight: Highlights of Ephesus with Lunch.  The excursion itself was pretty good, but it did stop at a carpet factory. I wanted to leave, but my girlfriend thought it would be rude. So I left at the earliest opportunity once other people started standing up.

 

While we did enjoy the stop, the merchants are extremely pushy. One woman actually stood in front of me, with her hands extended, telling me to stop, and when I moved to the right, she blocked me, and then I moved to the left and she blocked me, lol, but I did get past her.

[Stockjock]

Tonight is our second formal night and here is our dinner menu. I will definitely be having the lobster tail and hopefully it will be decent quality.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Stockjock

[CruiseCrew123]

Enjoy the mouthful - you may need the steak as well 

[Jim_Iain]

I have to say, your meals while ashore, sure look far better than anything in the MDR.  

[Stockjock]

and tonight‘s dinner selections on the second and final formal night. I thought everything was very good. No complaints.

[hcat]

5 hours ago, Stockjock said:

Destination Highlight: Highlights of Ephesus with Lunch.  The excursion itself was pretty good, but it did stop at a carpet factory. I wanted to leave, but my girlfriend thought it would be rude. So I left at the earliest opportunity once other people started standing up.

 

While we did enjoy the stop, the merchants are extremely pushy. One woman actually stood in front of me, with her hands extended, telling me to stop, and when I moved to the right, she blocked me, and then I moved to the left and she blocked me, lol, but I did get past her.

Seems they all stop at "the"  carpet shop. Overly long aggressive hard sell imposed on a captive audience.  We did in fact leave as soon as we could escape quietly  (we don't owe them a carpet sale...)

 

That was the only down side of this port..we did not come all that way to buy a rug! I would suggest if this is the last stop on anyone's tour..just walk off..do not enter!  (unless u  actually want an expensive rug plus shipping)

 

Our tour was mostly of  Ephesus with a great guide. After we escaped the carpet place,  we were able to enjoy a great lunch in what was a former inn for caravans :  people and their animals( on the ground floor,) .  Great food and sevice, and the historic  building had amazing original mosaics. 

 

 We shopped for awhile in the large bazaar..bought some scarves to bring home as gifts,  but the aggressive sales push there was a big turn off.  Seems once you have even a short conversation they expect you will buy!

 

Wish we could have stopped at one of the beautiful beaches we glimpsed during the bus rides..A memorable port.

[hcat]

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

I have to say, your meals while ashore, sure look far better than anything in the MDR.  

I thought the same..X  presentations used to look  much better.  They may have to start using smaller plates

 

The chic  night pics looked ok. Here is my fav shot...modern luxury!

Edited September 7, 2023 by hcat

[doghog]

2 hours ago, Stockjock said:

and tonight‘s dinner selections on the second and final formal night. I thought everything was very good. No complaints.

We wouldn't have either. 

[Jim_Iain]

Inquiring minds what to know.   Did they charge you for the extra Lobster Tail?

[comfy_critters]

20 hours ago, RichYak said:

A couple days ago, I watched an episode of Mighty Cruise Ships or something like that. I'm sure we've all heard of it. The episode I watched featured Celebrity Solstice. I don't know how old it was, but the kitchen/dining room scenes showed plates of food that reminded me of what Celebrity used to serve. The difference is stunning.

I was on Solstice earlier this year and the menus posted here were very similar except there were more choices for the starch each night, like baked potatoes, hasselback potatoes and rice. The lunches at the buffet were outstanding some of the days, better than the MDR food, with different themes each day and made-to-order stations. However, at night the food in the buffet was more like leftovers and very uninspiring, so the MDR was much better to go to for dinner. Took a Princess cruise to compare and found the shows at night and music options were much better on Princess than Solstice, but the food better on Celebrity Solstice. We'll be on Infinity in Greece next year and really appreciate seeing your reviews and menus and photos!

[kwokpot]

2 hours ago, comfy_critters said:

I was on Solstice earlier this year and the menus posted here were very similar except there were more choices for the starch each night, like baked potatoes, hasselback potatoes and rice. The lunches at the buffet were outstanding some of the days, better than the MDR food, with different themes each day and made-to-order stations. However, at night the food in the buffet was more like leftovers and very uninspiring, so the MDR was much better to go to for dinner. Took a Princess cruise to compare and found the shows at night and music options were much better on Princess than Solstice, but the food better on Celebrity Solstice. We'll be on Infinity in Greece next year and really appreciate seeing your reviews and menus and photos!

Interesting I was on the Solstice Feb. 18-25 and don't remember those particular carb sides you're mentioning. 

[Stockjock]

9 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Inquiring minds what to know.   Did they charge you for the extra Lobster Tail?

I think they are supposed to charge for an extra tail. There may be some discretion involved, but I’ll leave it right there.

[Stockjock]

8 hours ago, comfy_critters said:

I was on Solstice earlier this year and the menus posted here were very similar except there were more choices for the starch each night, like baked potatoes, hasselback potatoes and rice. The lunches at the buffet were outstanding some of the days, better than the MDR food, with different themes each day and made-to-order stations. However, at night the food in the buffet was more like leftovers and very uninspiring, so the MDR was much better to go to for dinner. Took a Princess cruise to compare and found the shows at night and music options were much better on Princess than Solstice, but the food better on Celebrity Solstice. We'll be on Infinity in Greece next year and really appreciate seeing your reviews and menus and photos!

We only had dinner one night in the buffet, and it was underwhelming. They did have some carved beef that was not bad, but overall it was disappointing.
 

The lunches in the buffet were pretty good. I especially enjoyed the one with a Greek theme, and many of the ship’s Greek officers were present for the food, so that tells you that it was tasty.  The French buffet was not bad either.  The Indian food is Omnipresent and it’s pretty good as well. I presumed that they had an Indian chef and it turns out I was right.

Edited September 8, 2023 by Stockjock

[Stockjock]

11 hours ago, hcat said:

Seems they all stop at "the"  carpet shop. Overly long aggressive hard sell imposed on a captive audience.  We did in fact leave as soon as we could escape quietly  (we don't owe them a carpet sale...)

 

That was the only down side of this port..we did not come all that way to buy a rug! I would suggest if this is the last stop on anyone's tour..just walk off..do not enter!  (unless u  actually want an expensive rug plus shipping)

 

Our tour was mostly of  Ephesus with a great guide. After we escaped the carpet place,  we were able to enjoy a great lunch in what was a former inn for caravans :  people and their animals( on the ground floor,) .  Great food and sevice, and the historic  building had amazing original mosaics. 

 

 We shopped for awhile in the large bazaar..bought some scarves to bring home as gifts,  but the aggressive sales push there was a big turn off.  Seems once you have even a short conversation they expect you will buy!

 

Wish we could have stopped at one of the beautiful beaches we glimpsed during the bus rides..A memorable port.

I’ll tell you what bugs me about the carpet sales situation is that we are paying full price for the tour.  Just to illustrate, I booked a trip to southeast Asia that was much much cheaper than what I could’ve booked it for on my own. But the reason it was so cheap is that there was going to be a lot of sales presentations to subsidize the cost of it, and I understood that, and was fine with it because the price was great.

But in the case of the carpet sales situation, they’re not giving you a price break, in so far as I could tell. What I would rather have them do is say look if you sit through the carpet presentation, we will knock 25 bucks or 50 bucks off or something, but they don’t do that. 
 

The carpets are pretty, and I don’t doubt that there’s a lot of labor involved, but I personally am not looking to spend $10,000 or $20,000 for a rug.  And they kept calling them investments, but I work for one of the big Wall Street firms, and I personally don’t feel that these are great investments. Maybe I’m wrong.

Edited September 8, 2023 by Stockjock

[Stockjock]

Tonight‘s menus, which will be the last before we depart for a few days in Athens. I will be ordering the prime rib.

[Stockjock]

Tonight‘s menus, which will be the last before we depart for a few days in Athens. I will be ordering the prime rib.

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by Stockjock

[gardenfrog]

54 minutes ago, Stockjock said:

I’ll tell you what bugs me about the carpet sales situation is that we are paying full price for the tour.  Just to illustrate, I booked a trip to southeast Asia that was much much cheaper than what I could’ve booked it for on my own. But the reason it was so cheap is that there was going to be a lot of sales presentations to subsidize the cost of it, and I understood that, and was fine with it because the price was great.

But in the case of the carpet sales situation, they’re not giving you a price break, in so far as I could tell. What I would rather have them do is say look if you sit through the carpet presentation, we will knock 25 bucks or 50 bucks off or something, but they don’t do that. 
 

The carpets are pretty, and I don’t doubt that there’s a lot of labor involved, but I personally am not looking to spend $10,000 or $20,000 for a rug.  And they kept calling them investments, but I work for one of the big Wall Street firms, and I personally don’t feel that these are great investments. Maybe I’m wrong.

The carpet thing is really putting me off. I have seen a few excursions that say you can walk back to ship if you don’t want to do the carpet stop. I wander how true this this is.

[newtocruiseinblue]

29 minutes ago, gardenfrog said:

The carpet thing is really putting me off. I have seen a few excursions that say you can walk back to ship if you don’t want to do the carpet stop. I wander how true this this is.

We did the celebrity Ephesus and virgin Mary’s house with lunch in July and we departed before the carpet presentation. We just handed the tour guide a tip (he was very good), said thank you and quickly departed. We tried to be respectful and discreet and it. We walked back to the ship, which was right next to the stores. It was fine. The heat was too much for us that day and we were ready to get back on the ship. Yes, they want you to stay. Yes, high pressure sales are their culture, but it really wasn’t that big of a deal for us to skip it. The tour was amazing and I will remember the day for the rest of my life. I view it as a part of their culture and pass no judgement. I am a visitor and a polite observer. You will enjoy seeing the sites!