Hello!
DH and I just returned from our 7-night Greek Isles cruise, our first non-
Disney Cruise. I'm not writing a trip report since it was on Celebrity Cruise Line but thought I would share a few thoughts and photos from our trip.
Going into the cruise, DH and I tried to keep an open mind about Celebrity and not compare it to
DCL, but we had a really difficult time with that. We were on the Infinity, which is one of Celebrity's oldest ships, it's still younger than the Wonder and the Magic, but it looks like they haven't bothered to refurb anything, the ship is incredibly dated. We also didn't have the service that we're used to with DCL, our stateroom host was pretty inattentive, DH asked for extra pillows on the 2nd day, but never received them (even reminding our host a couple more times throughout the week), also our chair at our vanity was broken and we let our host know, he took the chair, but never brought a replacement.
I will say, we loved having a drink package, it was so nice to just grab a cocktail and not have to pay for it. I also liked that if you booked dining or excursions through Celebrity's site, you paid for them ahead of time (including the gratuity). At the end of our cruise, we owed less than $50 because we paid for everything ahead of time. I also loved how they did the muster drill; you watched a video ahead of time, then just scanned in at your muster station.
We only had 1 day at sea (the first full day of our cruise) and then we had a port stop every day. The ports on this trip were amazing! Our first stop was in Rhodes, and we did an excursion through Celebrity, and it was a Medieval Walking Tour. We learned so much information and the sites were beautiful
This was the Palace of the Grand Master of Knights, and it was beautiful! From the statues in the main entrance to the mosaics throughout the palace, I was just in awe. We also toured an old hospital which was very interesting as well. DH and his coworkers interviewed our tour guide, Maria when the tour concluded and she was fascinating, the amount of information she provided not just as a tour guide, but also on her own personal life was amazing! After the interview concluded, Maria invited our group out for a drink, and she showed us this beautiful restaurant with the most amazing patio
I will say that these were the best drinks we had our whole entire trip! I didn't really know what to expect from Rhodes but wound up loving the stop!
The next day, we ported in Kusadasi, Turkey. The
travel agency that DH's company works with put together a special tour just for those in our group. We made several stops on this tour, first we went to the Virgin Mary's home, where she reportedly spent the last 8 years of her life.
Our next stop was what made this our favorite port stop, we stopped at the Ephesus ruins. I can't even describe how phenomenal these ruins were. The ruins are most known for the library, and it was a sight
We also visited the ruins of the Basilica of St. John, had a tasty lunch, and ended our day checking out hand woven rugs.
Mykonos was our next stop, we had no official plans here, instead, we just explored the city and took in the sites and the food. We saw the windmills in Mykonos which were beautiful
There is a local "celebrity" that I had never heard of, but we were lucky enough to encounter.
This is Pelican Pete and he's been a mascot of Mykonos since 1954, the original Pete passed many years ago, but his legacy remains.
We then headed to Santorini, which looks like a postcard, it was beautiful! I loved the white buildings and the blue domes, although I was a little nervous about the bus ride, it was a very steep incline! In addition to touring the cities of Oia and Fira, we also made a stop at vineyard for a wine tasting!
The final stop of our trip was to Hydra, this was an interesting stop as it's pedestrian only, no cars (well, you could ride a mule)
This was the only port that DH didn't have to work in, but there really wasn't much to do. We did hike up to more windmills, but for the most part, we spent most of our time wandering the alleys and doing some shopping.
Of course, we vlogged this trip, so the link to our travel day is above, we'll be posting the other videos soon. As for what's next for us, we'll be sailing the Disney Magic this fall. I finally convinced DH to do a Southern Caribbean itinerary out of San Juan. We're flying in a couple of days early to enjoy San Juan and then it will be another port heavy trip with only 1 day at sea. We've enjoyed a couple of these ports with previous cruises so we might treat those days as sea days. I'm excited to get on the Magic again, we've only sailed her once and I loved her! If you're still reading, thanks again for following along and I will be back this fall!
