Somewhat live from the Celestyal Journey, March 23-April 6, 2024

[StartrainDD]

Summary of the Celestyal Journey cruise

 

Despite having low expectations beforehand, the cruise fell below my expectations.  As hard as it was to gather information before the cruise, once onboard it truly wasn’t much better.  For someone who is a ‘planner,’ not knowing when a tour is going to leave until after 9:00 the night before just doesn’t work.

 

The shame of it is the company must treat its employees pretty well.  Our dining room service team (the first nine days) was among the best we’ve ever had.  Geri has 17 years with the company.  Harvey, who joined our team the last five days, has 20 years with them.  The highpoint of the cruise was certainly the dining room food for dinner and the served lunches.

We enjoyed the ports but the frustrations with the ship’s tours (including not knowing the schedule or length beforehand) took away from those.  The tour in Santorini was good, as was the mostly tour on your own in Chania.  The other ship tours, not so great.  Of course, the way Celestyal structures the fares you almost have to take at least one (two if buying the enhanced fare) ship’s tour on each part that you buy separately.  Juan Carlo did seem genuinely concerned that we were not happy with the tour(s), and he did what he could, but that just wasn’t enough to make up for (our opinion) in lost vacation days / opportunities.

 

I’ve talked enough about the frustrations with the beverage package.  That could all be avoided with a simple concise list of what is included.  Or, of course, simply making it “All beverages up to a specific € amount.”

 

Their cell phone AP is totally useless.

 

Announcements and show introductions in seven languages becomes old very quickly.  What should take two minutes becomes a fifteen-minute ordeal.  When the announcements are over the PA system, they are generally too loud to continue conversations.  The worst of all of these was standing through a 40-minute muster drill due to all the languages.  Every other cruise line we’ve sailed recently has updated their muster drill procedures.

 

The last evening, we received an old-fashioned paper survey.  I did take the time to fill it in.  The last question was “Would you cruise with Celestyal again in the future?”  There were five responses, and we chose “Very unlikely,” the lowest one.  In the same way, I would not recommend Celestyal to friends.

 

In the end, on my scale of 0-5 stars, this was a one-star cruise.  Due to the dining room food and service, I am bumping that to 1.5 stars.

[zdcatc12]

Thanks for all of this. We are leaving on the 13th and will try to have an open mind about everything. So far the only ship excursion that I booked is the Santorini one that you recommended. All of my other ones, I have booked independently other than Milos, as I am having a hard time figuring out if it is even worth doing one there.

 

 I did not order a beverage package other than the one that comes with the fare that gets you beer and wine for dinner. I figured that as port intensive this cruise is, it wouldn't be worth it.

[Sujormik]

3 hours ago, StartrainDD said:

Saturday, April 6, 2024, Disembarkation of the Journey

 

We had the alarm set for 6:40 but DW woke earlier.  I turned on the TV at 6:25 and the Journey was in the port but not yet tied up.  By the time I got the coffee and tea at 6:45, we were docked.

With our flight on Sunday at 7:05 I needed to check in for the flight home.  Working through the Lufthansa AP for the four of us it took over 15 minutes to complete the check-in.  We met our friends and went to breakfast in the dining room at 7:40. They “Close” at 8:00.  At 7:55 one of the waiters asked if we wanted anything else from the buffet.  We thanked them.  It was interesting to see that when most of the guests had left, the waiters were helping themselves to whatever breakfast items were still on the buffet.  We never noticed that before.  We were the third to last table to leave the dining room at about 8:15.

 

We sat in the deck six atrium and at 8:25 a first announcement was made for decks nine & ten to disembark.  I had looked outside just before and noticed folks were leaving despite no announcements having been made.  We called an “Up” elevator which took us all the way to deck twelve, and then non-stop down to deck three.  There was no line, and we had our cards scanned for the last time and left the Journey.

 

Upon entering the terminal, we quickly found our luggage.  Someone actually checked that our ship’s card matched the luggage tags, and we headed towards the street.  Our driver from George’s taxi was waiting for us.  He ran to retrieve his Mercedes van and was back in five minutes.  He brought us back to our Athens home, the Attalos hotel.

Thanks again for sharing your trip for us celestyal newbies!  I’d love to hear about your day in Athens too, if you’re up for it!

[StartrainDD]

3 minutes ago, Sujormik said:

Thanks again for sharing your trip for us celestyal newbies!  I’d love to hear about your day in Athens too, if you’re up for it!

Athens?  Athens is great.

 

Our driver from George’s taxi was waiting for us.  He ran to retrieve his Mercedes van and was back in five minutes.  He brought us back to our Athens home, the Attalos hotel.  Being only a little after 9:00 in the morning our rooms were not available (as expected).

 

I had Rick Steve’s guidebook, and we followed his “Psyrri and Market” walk to a T.  We certainly found things and places we have never seen before, despite spending quite a few days in Athens on this trip and two others beforehand.  Perhaps a highlight was sampling authentic Greek snacks and coffee along the way.  The central market is not touristy but a place where local folks buy produce, meats, and fish.  There is also a sprinkling of other vendors, coffeeshops, and restaurants.

 

We finished the walk around 1:00 and walked through many of the shopping streets near Monastiraki square.  I found two vendors with the t-shirt I like but neither had my size.  Our friends bought a small piece of luggage to get everything home.  Fortunately, later than afternoon we received an e-mail from Lufthansa inviting us to check our carry-on bags for ‘free.’  We also found the tower we had been looking for five weeks earlier and stopped there to take photos.

 

Back at the Attalos at about 2:30 our rooms were ready.  The men retrieved our luggage from storage and while the ladies relaxed we went to the “Full Spoon” for a scoop of that dark chocolate orange gelato.  We also stopped at the supermarket to bring some beverages back to the hotel.

 

We relaxed for the afternoon, getting cleaned up after a few hectic days, and went out to find dinner.  During the morning walk we saw a restaurant with a nice courtyard away from the street.  We found they also had a duet playing Greek music there and it was most enjoyable.  Dinner for four, with appetizers and three 500 ml carafes of wine was €90.  The courtyard was nice and quiet (not yet busy) and was a beautiful place to enjoy our last Athens dinner.

 

Back at the Attalos we used our large balcony to enjoy some beverages and the second package of prosciutto from Kotor.  I copied photos and ended up completely filling my hard drive.  I left the computer running, making a jump drive of all the photos, as we turned in for the night a little after 9:00

[zdcatc12]

It seems like you ate at 6:30 every night. I assume that they had assigned dining times and tables or is it open dining?

 

 Also, if you know, are steamers allowed onboard. Not an iron, just a handheld steamer? Thanks 

[StartrainDD]

5 hours ago, zdcatc12 said:

It seems like you ate at 6:30 every night. I assume that they had assigned dining times and tables or is it open dining?

 

 Also, if you know, are steamers allowed onboard. Not an iron, just a handheld steamer? Thanks 

Hi Randy!

 

All dining is "Open."  We really liked our wait staff the first night and asked if we could have them every night.  6:30 is just right for our schedule.  We had two late tour nights where we arrived later and they saved our table for us.

 

No idea about "Steamers."  Security is much more relaxed except at embarkation, where everything appears to be scanned.  At most port calls no metal detectors returning to the ship.

[zdcatc12]

On 4/10/2024 at 3:20 PM, StartrainDD said:

Hi Randy!

 

All dining is "Open."  We really liked our wait staff the first night and asked if we could have them every night.  6:30 is just right for our schedule.  We had two late tour nights where we arrived later and they saved our table for us.

 

No idea about "Steamers."  Security is much more relaxed except at embarkation, where everything appears to be scanned.  At most port calls no metal detectors returning to the ship.

  Thanks. Yes, we had good service the first two nights and poor service the next two, so we ended up eating dinner in the buffet the last three nights.

 

 My one disappointment, probably more than anything else, was the lack of selection for all things on the dining room menu. As this is the first European line that I have been on, it may be due to that, but I have never been on a cruise where steak was not offered at least once in the dining room, even just a flatiron steak that is offered every night on Carnival. I believe that beef was only offered two of the seven nights and neither of those were a steak. I also thought the appetizer and soup selections weak.

 

 Other than that, and some general disorganization that you have previously mentioned, I thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, especially for the price, and I would sail them again.

 

 Twice a day cabin cleaning service is a rarity nowadays and I appreciated that they did that and also the fact that they had two people assigned to each cabin, so the cleaning was always prompt.