LIVE(ish) - Rome, Turkey & Greece on Sun, 8/31-9/7

CruzerDeb · September 4

Cruise Day Four - Santorini, cont

We ended our tour in Fira, with our guide again providing some general info and suggested destinations. We went this little bar for cocktails and fantastic views!

I had the Santorina and DH had a Gregg’s Style (Mai Tai).

CruzerDeb · September 4

Cruise Day Four - Santorini, cont

We did some exploring and shopping, after which we were once again thirsty! Found a great restaurant with beautiful views (hint, this applies to all places we saw) and had a couple of tequila sunrises and some lunch.

The line for the cable car ride back down to the tenders was really long, so we decided to take the stairs. All 588 of them! Beware of donkeys coming and going and be sure not to step in donkey poop.

CruzerDeb · September 4

Cruise Day Four - Santorini, cont

Our time from starting to walk down the stairs to being back on the ship was about 45 minutes. We once again found ourselves in need of liquids, and made our way to the Wake View Bar, where DH had a Stella (or two) and I had a Blue Pineapple Margarita, followed by a chocolate martini. So good!

We decided it was time to get cleaned up and go to dinner. We decided to go to the American Diner, which is on deck 8 and the third level of the Horizon dining room offering casual fare.

We split an order of Mac & Cheese and I had the hamburger, which comes with both Gouda and cheddar cheese.

Had to run out for this great sunset picture during dinner.

We stopped in O’Malleys for a drink and listed to some great Irish music, before heading to Lido and some more great music by Mockingbird.

And so ends our visit to Santorini! Tomorrow is a sea day and IDK what we’ll get up to.

CruzerDeb · September 4

20 hours ago, CAVE MAN said:

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful pictures and answers to questions.

Enjoying it very much, We will board October 19, and all you are posting makes us even more excited. We mostly do Celebrity and Holland but we are Platinum on Princess and wanted to see this new ship. Wishing you a very happy 34th anniversary!!!!

Blessings

Thanks for the anniversary wishes! I’m sure you will enjoy your cruise on Sun in October!

CruzerDeb · September 4

15 hours ago, dides said:

Great photos - thanks for posting!

Someone on another site posted the dining venues patter for today and Catch and Butchers Block were marked as closed - the poster's reservations had been moved to a later day in the cruise. Seems very unusual - interested to know if you have seen anything going on in the Deck 9 aft area?

I haven’t noticed anything, but honestly haven’t gone very far aft on 9. Sorry.

crusdiva · September 4

@CruzerDeb Wow! Fabulous pictures…and cocktails! Thanks for sharing, belated Happy Anniversary 🥂

CruzerDeb · September 4

3 hours ago, crusdiva said:

@CruzerDeb Wow! Fabulous pictures…and cocktails! Thanks for sharing, belated Happy Anniversary 🥂

Thanks so much!

DavidsNana · September 4

Thanks so much for the pictures and commentary. Santorini was one of my favorite places when we took our Med cruise many years ago. We rode the donkeys up to the top and the cable car down. Yep, beware of that donkey poop it is very slippery and pretty stinky! The ship had advised us not to do the donkeys but we had been looking forward to it for many years so did it and glad we did. Love the views pretty much everywhere on Santorini. I am wondering how your calves are doing after walking down all those stairs. My husband and I walked down into Carlsbad Caverns years ago and the next day, wow we could definitely tell that we had put them to the test. Wouldn't have missed it for the world though. Thanks again for the memories.

CruzerDeb · September 5

9 hours ago, DavidsNana said:

Thanks so much for the pictures and commentary. Santorini was one of my favorite places when we took our Med cruise many years ago. We rode the donkeys up to the top and the cable car down. Yep, beware of that donkey poop it is very slippery and pretty stinky! The ship had advised us not to do the donkeys but we had been looking forward to it for many years so did it and glad we did. Love the views pretty much everywhere on Santorini. I am wondering how your calves are doing after walking down all those stairs. My husband and I walked down into Carlsbad Caverns years ago and the next day, wow we could definitely tell that we had put them to the test. Wouldn't have missed it for the world though. Thanks again for the memories.

I’m glad you were able to ride the donkeys! Calves were good, though I was glad the next day was a sea day.

linaka625 · September 5

On 9/4/2024 at 5:25 AM, CruzerDeb said:

Cruise Day Four - Santorini

We meet in the Arena for our excursion and, not surprising, everything was very well organized. We walked with our group to the tender and were taken to Oia, where we boarded the coach for our tour. We had no issues.

Traveled into Oia, and got off the coach with guide and she took us to a square, providing info on sights to see and then we’re were giving free time to explore on our own. Such a beautiful place!

Did the ship's tender take you directly to Oia? Or did you have to go the dock where the cable car is and get a tender from there to Oia?

TIA

CruzerDeb · September 5

5 hours ago, linaka625 said:

Did the ship's tender take you directly to Oia? Or did you have to go the dock where the cable car is and get a tender from there to Oia?

TIA

We were on a Princess excursion, as was everyone on our tender; the tender took us directly to Oia.

CruzerDeb · September 6

Cruise Day 6 - Istanbul

We again booked our excursion thru Princess - Breakfast cruise, carpet place, Blue Mosque and Grand Bazaar. Very well organized and informative.

Breakfast cruise

CruzerDeb · September 6

Cruise Day 6 - Istanbul, cont

There are a lot of stray cats and I saw food and water put out for them at many places; this is a kiosk where you could buy food for the cats - dispensed in a tray where they’ll come and eat.

Ti be continued …

crusdiva · September 6

Fabulous photos! Thanks for sharing.

CruzerDeb · September 7

Cruise Day 6 - Istanbul, cont

Blue Mosque (apparently I didn’t take any pictures of the grand bazaar 😳)

Next up - Mykonos!

CruzerDeb · September 7

Cruise Day 7 - Mykonos

Yet another Princess tour, which included a visit to Ellia Beach, a monastery and then Mykonos Town. Again, it was well-organized and informative.

We loved our 2.5 hours of beach time. Beach time is my favorite time and this was the only time in this cruise that I got to enjoy it - back to the Caribbean soon for sun and sand!

Me in the Aegean Sea with a mojito!

CruzerDeb · September 7

Cruise Day 7 - Mykonos, cont

In Ano Mera one may visit the historic monastery of Panagia Tourliani, one of the main attractions of the whole island, built in the 15th century. The all-white monastery is located right in front of the main square of the village.

We also had lunch there at the town square. So good!!

CruzerDeb · September 7

Sorry, I’ve fallen behind. Disembarking in a few minutes, so I’ll have to finish this up later. We have a full day planned in Athens and then fly home tomorrow.

No time to say hello goodbye, I’m late, I’m late, I’m late …

crusdiva · September 7

@CruzerDeb Thanks for taking us along on your wonderful cruise and sharing your thoughts and lovely photos. Safe travels home.

CruzerDeb · September 7

3 hours ago, crusdiva said:

@CruzerDeb Thanks for taking us along on your wonderful cruise and sharing your thoughts and lovely photos. Safe travels home.

It’s been my pleasure! I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Looking forward to getting home.

Esprit · September 7

You didn’t say much about the new ship.

Did you not enjoy it or was it just a means of transport to get you around the Med’?

CruzerDeb · September 8

Cruise Day 7 - Mykonos, cont

A short walk through Mykonos town completed our day on Mykonos.

CruzerDeb · September 8

Cruise Day 7 - Mykonos, cont

We got back on board at around 7:45, so decided to get cleaned up and have our last night’s dinner in the American Diner. Food was excellent; I didn’t get any pictures. As we were making our way back to our room we passed the Piazza where they were holding a thank-you tribute to the Sun Princess staff.

CruzerDeb · September 8

Post Cruise - Athens

They made us get off the ship in Athens. How rude! The captain announced that approximately 1200 guests were continuing on, some for another week to Barcelona and we met one couple who would stay on for the TA ending in Ft. Lauderdale.

I’d booked a full day private tour of Athens thru TripAdvisor. He was very nice and knowledgeable. The tour included visits to the Acropolis, Agora, cemetery, Temple of Zeus and a few other places, as well as lunch. We decided to pay extra for entrance to the Acropolis Museum and were glad we did.