StartrainDD

We have stayed in the category I 1111/1115/1124 & 1128 type of cabins before, and those are terrific. For a cruise we are looking at, several of the "Lengthwise" insides just aft of the mid-ship elevators are available (1140/1141/1146/1147). Obviously, they are not as large as the 1111 group, but are they any larger than the "J" insides? The J insides are just too tiny for us to be comfortable. We are looking at a port-intensive cruise, so the cabin is really just for sleeping, dressing, showering, yet the J category are not acceptable for us. Else we likely will go to a verandah and of course that is a very different budget category! Thank you in advance!

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.

Thank you for your wonderful posts! Just wondering was any mention ever made if HAL is planning to repeat the Grand Australia and New Zealand Cruise in the next few years? We so much want to return and circumnavigate Australia but refuse to do the long flight to Sydney. Thank you again!

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

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.

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.

Friday, April 5, 2024; Chania, Crete, Greece (Port of Souda) It was a relaxing morning as the Journey doesn’t reach port until 1:30 PM. We enjoyed breakfast and ran into our friends just as we left the dining room. Once back in the cabin we began the packing process. Honestly, we didn’t realize how much we had purchased during the trip. Over five weeks it adds up, even though each individual purchase is not a significant amount of weight. It’s so much nicer to SAIL back to Florida rather than fly. We will do that twice later this year. Packing was quite a chore. At 10:03 I felt like I needed some tea. The lido closed at 10:00, and we know that their closing time is strict. This is the only ship we’ve ever been on that tea, coffee, and water are not available 24 hours a day. We went to the martini bar with my laptop to finalize our shared expenses spreadsheet as our friend gave me his US$ costs from checking his bank statement. At the end of the day, the expenses were remarkably close leaving one owing the other all of $20. We had tea and a diet coke at the martini bar. Back to the cabin we closed up the “Do not open until home” suitcase and my scale says it weighs 49.8 pounds. Hopefully, that will pass the scales at Athens airport. The second suitcase is overweight. We will need to resort a few things in Athens. We enjoyed lunch in the dining room, although it was a buffet. Strange thing is there were very few folks there. We did catch some of the very pretty sail-in to the port of Souda. There is a building near the entrance that sure looks like the “Stone house.” At 1:30 we met in the theater for our ‘complimentary’ shore excursion the “Walking tour of Chania.” This may have been the most enjoyable shore excursion through Celestyal. It was about a 15-minute bus ride to the drop off point. It was a LONG walk from the drop off point to the old town fountain near the harbor. I don’t know why but it seems everything with Celestyal tours involves a lot of walking. Our guide, Katerina, told us about the UNESCO designation and gave everyone the option to stick with her a while or have free time on their own. As we had Scott’s notes and a good map, we headed out on our own. We enjoyed the harbor, took photos of the Venetian Lighthouse, walked past the Maritime Museum and the Etz Hayyim Synagogue, which we missed going into by 5 minutes. We had a delightful beverage break at a spot right on the harbor waterfront. We stayed there for 45 minutes. We walked all over the old town including areas we never made it to in 2013. The only purchases we made were a lady’s leather chain belt and a gelato. Meeting time was 6:00 and everyone was there on time. We walked back to the bus. One thing I wonder is why our guide kept us along the road (on a narrow sidewalk) when we could have walked through a nice municipal park. It might have increased our step count by ten, but it sure would be better than the dirty new city sidewalk. We were back at the Journey at 6:35. We dropped our things in the cabin and headed for dinner. We brought our “Thank you” envelopes with us for Geri, Jerome, Harvey, Clinton, Putu and Arif. We ran into Putu and Arif and saw them before dinner. Everyone seemed sad we were leaving and grateful for our envelopes. We met our other friends, whose tour returned a little after 7:00, at the Ocean Bar. We enjoyed the time together and may see them in October or certainly next year in June when we are both on an “Arctic Circle” cruise. We returned to the cabin to struggle with the luggage, put the two large bags out in the hall, and call it a night by 10:15.

I suppose if you don't have folks tempting you to play Catan you have time for the blog! Enjoying following along - have a super time!

Corfu certainly remains one of our favorite Greek islands. Wish we had more time there in the old city! Thursday, April 4, 2024, Corfu, Greece DW woke before our 6:15 alarm. I went to get coffee & tea at about 6:30 and land could be seen on both sides of the ship as we passed through the channel between northern Corfu and Albania. We went to breakfast at 7:15 as our tour meeting time was 8:00. Finally, we are docked today! Next to us the Viking Mars is docked. Our tour was “Paleokastritsa – Natural Beauty and Byzantine Presence – the City of Corfu and Kanoni.” That is sure a mouthful. By the time we actually left the pier on the bus it was 8:30. Being the last bus to leave seemed like a bad omen and so it was. We were actually the second bus to arrive at Paleokastritsa. Parking in the beach-level parking lot our guide told us that the road to the Zoodochos Pigi Monastery was too dangerous for full size buses, so we needed to walk up. Ugh, it was quite a climb. When we were about half-way up the hill (sloped road not steps) a full-size Viking tour bus comes up the hill and nearly pushes us off the cliff. This is not a safe situation. Two more Viking buses came up the hill after we were at the top. Somehow, despite being the second bus to arrive, we were the last group to actually tour the church. This put our “We need to be back in the bus at 10:00” to 10:30. Was it worth the trip to Paleokastritsa to see the sights (admittedly quite spectacular)? If we had more time, perhaps. On a short port call, no. To top it all off, on the walk back down the hill (where we were ahead of everyone as a WC break was being taken by many) the cute family of sheep we had seen walking up were walking across the road. What a great opportunity for some video! Daddy sheep didn’t like my shooting video and came over and rammed me on the thigh. I suppose his message was ‘Don’t mess with my family.’ From Paleokastritsa we drove 40 minutes to the Kanoni area of Corfu so we could see the “Postcard view” of Corfu with the Viacherna Monastery on Pontikonisi Island. Except when we reached the viewpoint the parking lot was completely full of tour buses, and we couldn’t even get in. The bus had to park far down the road, and it took 18 minutes for the ‘brief photo stop.’ By the time we were let off the bus near Corfu old town it was 11:40 and we needed to be back by 12:45. Therefore, we have just 65 minutes to take in the UNESCO world heritage site of Corfu Old Town. We made the most of our time, discovering back-alley walkways and lots of interesting shops. We tried some Kumquat liquor and bought a small bottle to bring home. DW found two material belts she hopes will work with her new red dress. We were back on the port just after 1:00. No, the bus can’t bring us back to the ship as we have to be dropped off at the port gate to pass through port security. There is a shuttle bus, but we all walked back from there, about another 1000 steps. All in all, this was a very poor ship’s tour, and we certainly would have been better off just touring the old town and citadel by ourselves. Once back on board the dining room was still open for lunch and all six of us had a nice lunch. We then obtained some beverages at the martini bar and retreated to our cabins to relax and get ready for the evening. At 5:20 I saw on my phone that Lufthansa sent an e-mail that they needed additional passenger data completed for our flights on Sunday. So, I took the computer with me to see Juan Carlo at shore excursions. I needed to see Juan to get our tickets for Chania. It turns out our one set of friends had prebooked a longer excursion with Chania, and now it was past any possible cancelation, so they will stick with that tour. Juan gave me the tickets for ourselves and our other set of friends. I also let Juan know about the unsafe situation in Paleokastritsa. Back to the cabin I took care of Lufthansa. We then went to meet our friends at the Blue Bar. We visited until dinner. This dinner was the more challenging menu (for me), and the lamb was not as good as the prior week. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their meal. I wasn’t very hungry anyhow after our late lunch. Following dinner, we all went to the Ocean Bar. One of the ladies had bought a small bottle of Corfu Limoncello and shared that with anyone who wanted a taste. This was a very good limoncello. At 9:40 we called it a night just as the first show of the evening was letting out.

Wednesday, April 3, 2024; Kotor, Montenegro Another port call on the Journey and another tender port. The Viking Mars is docked. The Journey is ‘anchored’ a 25-minute tender ride from the dock. It’s not like Celestyal is paying less for tendering a long distance as the port fees on this cruise are rather high. We had a ships tour “Historic Kotor & Budva.” The meeting time was 8:30. We were up early, and I took photos of the sail in and the little church sitting alone on the island in the fjord. I ran into our friends who were doing the same thing. It was nice watching the sun begin to touch the mountain tops and slowly working its way down the mountainside. We went to breakfast in the dining room and then got our things ready for the day ashore. At 8:30 we were in the showroom. At about 8:50 we were told to head down to the tender platform. There was a long line and obviously not everyone would fit into a tender. Sure enough, one just left, and we were the last two on the next one, sitting on opposite sides of the tender. It was after 9:30 by the time we were ashore. Since we were here in 2013, the port built a pier that ships the size of Viking can use. They also put in a nice underground passage to the old city which avoids crossing the very busy road. Our bus took us literally through the mountain to the seaside village of Sveti Stefan, an exclusive enclave of celebrities and the top of the one percenters, with rooms at the hotel starting at €2000/night. Our guide worked at the hotel there for over 20 years. We then went to the old city of Budva. The old city is very nice and compact. We had quite a walk to get there as construction just outside the old city has narrowed the roads and buses cannot traverse them. Our guide was thrown for a bit as the public toilets were closed. That resulted in a loss of 20 minutes as folks waited to use one WC at a café by the city gates. We enjoyed eventually seeing the old city. During our free time we went to a spot our guide recommended for coffee and to use the WC’s. “The Old Fisherman Pub” had squid on the menu (calamari) and we asked how long it would take to get one order. Our waiter checked with the kitchen and said, “Six minutes”, so we ordered one to share. This was the best calamari of the trip! Our friends returned to the old town to procure a few items they glimpsed during our tour, and everyone was happy. We returned to the bus and while we were away our bus changed! The tote bag we left behind was moved to the new bus. The bus brought us back to Kotor where we left the bus and enjoyed a tour of the old town. We could see the stairs along the wall going up the mountainside and had fond memories of 2013 where we climbed about halfway up and one of our traveling friends at the time reached the top, after 1,450 steps! Our guide led us to some of the highlights of the old town and finished at St. Paul’s church. This church is 897 years old, having been completed in 1127. We went inside and took a few photos. Just after this my camera reported that my memory card was full! Good thing I have another back on the ship. We walked around the old town a while and then visited the marketplace outside the walls. There, a kind vendor had us sample some local cheese and prosciutto. Little did we know that Montenegro is known for its prosciutto. We ended up buying two vacuum sealed packages for ten euros to use for snacks. Back to the tender port we got in line but there were no tenders in sight. It was more than 30 minutes before a tender showed up. While we were touring an AIDA ship anchored quite close to the pier. Those passengers had only a five-minute tender ride. On the tender ride back, DW was splashed when a local boat created quite a wake by cutting in front of our tender. We were finally back on board at 3:25. We went directly to deck 11 to find the buffet was still open. We got ourselves a few things and opened one of the prosciutto packages. This is indeed extremely tasty prosciutto. We agreed to save the second package for our last evening in Athens at the Attalos hotel. DW and I stopped by the martini bar to bring a few beverages back to our cabin where we got changed for dinner. After relaxing a bit, we went to the Blue Bar where we met our friends for a few diet cokes. Dinner was better tonight although one of our friends’ orders still had an allergen on it and needed to be sent back. After dinner we all went to the Ocean Bar to enjoy one set with a few beverages. Losing an hour on the clock we called it a night at 9:05 and we have an 8:00 tour meeting time the next day. General note: The Journey truly does a poor job with tendering. The ship has six tenders. There is no way that it should be more than 30 minutes between tenders even if the tender transit is 25 minutes. Keep them going on a cycle and guests should never have to wait more than 10-15 minutes. When the tender finally arrived at least half the folks in line behind us did not fit. To rub salt in the wound paying guests were left on the dock in favor of returning some of the show cast to the Journey.

No self serve washers. Laundry prices by the piece are about half (or less) than what Celebrity charges. We sent out one "Bag" which was stuffed with 30 items (mostly smaller things, but two pair of slacks, a pair of shorts, and a few long sleeve shirts) and the "Bag special" is 29.95 Euros. Way back when we booked this Celestyal was using a smaller ship and some of those ports were to be docked. We could have docked in Mykonos except there was a 4000 passenger P&O ship at the dock. When they bought the former Ryndam now they have to tender as the ship is nearly double the size. We will also be tendering in Chania (Souda port).

Tuesday, April 2, 2024; At Sea (Ionian & Adriatic Seas) The only sea day of our 14 days on the Celestyal Journey began with no alarm and a chance to sleep in. Still, I woke by 8:00 and went to get coffee & tea up on deck 11. My friend was there and said he was going to breakfast in the dining room, so I joined him after returning the coffee to DW. Breakfast was fine. On returning to our cabin my card didn’t work. Putu opened the door for me. DW’s card didn’t work either, so I needed to go to the front desk once again to have the cards re-activated. Note that four days earlier I had been assured that this would NOT happen today. My friend and I went to the hot tub and stayed about 40 minutes. As we were drying off we were talking with another guest when announcements began. Three minutes in English. Then three minutes more in multiple languages. How long all together? Who knows? We returned to our cabins to get dressed for the day. We met outside the movie theater (not used for movies by Celestyal) on the long tables to play Catan. We played two rounds, and I won the first and our new player, along with his traveling companion “Floppy bunny” ended up winning the second. This was followed by lunch in the dining room, but only a buffet was again offered. Clinton came around with a new German wine for the red wine drinkers to try and they really liked it. The chicken skewers on the buffet were not very good. Believe they were made from chicken thigh meat. The fish and chips were quite tasty. We left lunch to go to the pool deck for an ice carving demonstration. The chef carved a dolphin, and it looks terrific. We stopped at the Blue Bar and DW enjoyed an iced cappuccino while I had hot tea. Then we returned to our cabin to rest a bit and figure out dress for the evening’s dressy night. We made our way to the Blue Bar at about 5:45 and our friends joined us a little later. We now have six for dinner the rest of the cruise, but it’s just ‘not the same’ as it seems that Geny has been relegated to assistant status and Harvey appears to be primary. He is a nice enough guy, but he doesn’t know our dietary needs like Geny and Jerome do. My order and a friend’s order for “Shrimp ONLY” both came with red peppers (which she is allergic to) and DW’s request for vegetables rather than rice came with all nightshade vegetables (which she has sensitivity to). After dinner we went to get seats for the show which was preceded by the captain’s welcome. This was the “Welcome to Cabaret” show that we left before it started a week prior. Again, it was very late, and the actual show didn’t start until after 9:10. We did have a pleasant surprise that there is a time change tonight and we gain an hour. Of course, that will mean that tomorrow night we will lose it again, but for our attempt to be up for the sail in at the Montenegro fjord that will certainly help. At about 10:30 (!!!) we called it a night. General notes: On many days, the dining room lunch is a buffet only. I would much rather see a served lunch as that is much less prone to spreading germs. It seems every day the ship thinks they could have quite a few guests in the dining room they go to buffet only.

Monday, April 1, 2024; Athens (Piraeus) Greece No rush this morning yet we woke at 7:00. The dining room breakfast was from 6 – 8 AM only as 90%+ of the passengers were disembarking. We went to the dining room at 7:50 and had a good breakfast. We literally closed the room down as we were the last folks to linger. I went to the hot tubs with my friend, and we were the only folks there. “Last call” for disembarkation came at about 8:50. My friend made arrangements with George’s Taxi to pick us up on Saturday at 8:30. After drying off, we set up a Catan game. First we played a three person “Treasures” match and my friend won. Then we played a four-person match, and I was successful. We went for a dining room lunch as new cruisers were coming onboard. There is a large group with orange lanyards. We had instructions to stop in the cruise terminal between noon and four PM to have our passports scanned. We went down at about 2:45 to take care of that. We stopped in the duty-free shop to find a few needed items that were running low. They didn’t have what we wanted but sent us to a nearby supermarket. We found the supermarket without trouble but crossing the terribly busy road along the port was nerve-racking. There are no marked crosswalks. Returning there was quite a line for security mostly because people were simply unprepared. We were back on board by 3:30 and had a relaxing afternoon, except for the muster drill announcements which came through in our cabin even though we did not need to attend this time. By the way, this time the announcements were ONLY in English, and the muster drill took just twenty minutes. We went up to the Blue Bar a little before 6:00 and our friends found us there a little while later. It seemed very cool on the ship, so I stopped back in the cabin for my jacket before dinner. We moved to a round table with Gery as our other friends will join us beginning the next day so we will have six. We lost Jerome as our assistant waiter and picked up “Harley” instead. Harley is very personable, but we enjoyed Jerome. Dinner was very good with a nice Cod as a great entrée. We learned from several crew members that more than one thousand guests left today and about seven hundred boarded. Most of those boarding are from Bulgaria (the group with orange lanyards) or Greece. For the remaining five days we are onboard the ship only has about 800 guests, or ~66% capacity. After dinner we headed to the Ocean Bar where our other friends were. We enjoyed the music, a terrific set while visiting with everyone and hung out until about 9:30. We found an elephant in our cabin along with tour tickets and returned laundry. After taking care of the laundry, it was a little after 10:00 when we called it a night.

Sunday, March 31, 2024; Mykonos, Greece (Easter Sunday except for Greece) With no tour today we slept until 7:45. We went to breakfast at 8:45 and were pleased to see Hot Cross Buns as a bread selection. There were also colored ‘Easter Eggs’ decorating the dining room. We finished getting ready for our 10:00 meet up to tender over to Mykonos. The tender today went well, and we were pleasantly surprised that we tendered directly to the dock in the heart of town, rather than the cruise dock outside of town. We had no tour, but “Rick Steves” was with us, and we used his excellent printed walking tour as our guide to the maze of Mykonos streets. At one point, we met one of Rick Steve’s highlighted characters, Katerina, who was the first female ship’s captain from Mykonos. She now has a shop in town. At the shop, she has photos and a ship’s etching from her days as a captain. We also passed the Catholic “Cathedral” which was in the midst of an Easter service and the church was packed. As 95% of the residents are Greek Orthodox, I suppose at least some number of the attendees were from one of the three ships in port. We had hoped to do our own private Easter service at a cove near the windmills. With no shade there and too many steps that was not to be. We finished our walking tour at about 1:00 and had a gelato and coffee-based lunch on the waterfront. We then broke up to shop, and DW picked up a long hand-crafted scarf in one of the shops we had passed on the walking tour. We walked around a little more and then headed back to the tenders, getting back on board at 2:30. From overhearing one of the ship’s tour guides, we learned that the brown/yellow haze we see in the air is sand carried from Africa by the winds from the South. Who would have thought? We stopped by the martini bar for some beverages. The cocktail of the day “Continental Sour” sounded interesting as it included Sandeman’s Port from Portugal. For a €2 Euro charge Arie tried one. It was interesting indeed. We also had large glasses of water and brought them back to the cabin. As it is Easter, Arie made a call back to his dad to wish him a Happy Easter. It was good to hear he is doing well. After the four+ hours in the bright sun, we decided to do a total clean up before the evening as after all, it is a special day. We stopped in the Blue Bar for a diet coke and lemonade. Our friends offered their suite for our Easter Service, so we met them there at 6:00. My friend did a great job on our Easter service, “We need a savior and God wants sons and daughters.” We had been led to believe based on a front desk comment that there would be a special menu for Easter dinner. That was not the case, this was a repeat of last week Sunday’s menu. Still, it was enjoyable, and the Aegean fish selection was nice. At the end of dinner, a server came around with special treats. It was not clear if this was because of Easter or because for 90% of the guests this was the last night of the cruise. Our friends attended the show, “Mythologia.” We returned to the cabin and put together a very full bag of laundry to be done by the ship for €29.95. I handed the bag to Putu. That will certainly provide enough clothes to last the rest of the trip as we have six days remaining. We then went up to the Ocean Bar to listen to the “Music Zone” Duo from the Philippines. They are most enjoyable. At 9:45 we called it a night.

Saturday, March 30, 2024; Kos, Greece With an 8:00 tour meeting time we set the alarm for 6:00. We headed to breakfast at 7:20 and sat two at a four-top. Unplanned, within a minute our friends arrived and joined us. Breakfast was nice but no matter what I do I can’t get more than about 5 ounces of tea at a time. I make 14 oz. cups at home. We headed up to the showroom and arrived just before 8:00. Several tours sound the same so our tour, instead of the first off, as we thought, was the last one called. So, we were there at 8:00 but not on the tender until 8:45 and on the bus on shore at 9:07. A prime example of why we normally avoid ship’s tours. There were folks on the tender with us and another tender right behind ours that were touring independently, and they were ashore at the same time as we. The tour was “Asklepton- Zia – Winery – Plarane of Hippocrates” Asklepton was not far from town. This archaeological site includes a health & healing center begun by Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine. There is a temple to Asklepios, the son of Apollo and “God of healing.’ We were there for an hour which may have been a little long, but with only two WC for men and two for women, and five busloads (it seemed all the tours went here first) that sure took time! Back on the bus it felt hot. The longest part of the bus ride was to the mountain village of Zia. It never cooled down but rather the heat seemed to increase. Upon arrival in Zia, my friend was already speaking to the guide about the heat by the time I arrived. We are not dressed for 40 C (>100 F) as we are dressed for the outdoors at 20C (69F). The guide said he would talk to the driver. We took photos from the overlook which is very nice. Easy to see Turkey (the area around Bodrum) across the narrow channel. I bought a couple of bottles of water at a convenience store. The ladies shopped and one small purchase was made by one. Back on the bus it was even hotter. The guide said the A/C was not working. He promised it was only five minutes to the winery. It was actually 15. We were told we had 90 minutes at the winery. I asked the guide if he would call the bus company and have them send another bus. He looked at me like I was crazy and muttered something about being just 15 minutes from town. All the more reason to get a working bus. My friend and I both had the same thought, and we ditched the tour after tasting the wine, taking a taxi back to town. For less than we would typically tip, we had a comfortable Mercedes sedan ride back to town. Our taxi dropped us off near the Odean, the Roman theater discovered in 1929. The original seating from the second and third centuries is still in place. We took a few photos and walked towards the old town center. We passed by a few other sights, and everyone was ready to relax and have a light lunch. It was supposed to be “Light.” “Senses Café” had a large menu. Three of us had pizza and I had a chocolate and Oreo waffle. They also had the Greek Cider I like. We enjoyed our time there and they also had free internet. Walking to the town square the ladies saw a store, “Peppermint” that had large 50% off signs. They ended up buying matching t-shirts for €10 each. We reached the town square and there is a large shop with local goods. Nice to see but no purchases were made. We ran into our other friends, whose bus had working A/C. They enjoyed their tour and especially their time in town. They told us where to find the Tree of Hippocrates, said to be the same tree that Hippocrates taught his students under 2500 years ago. One last stop at an ATM to obtain more Euros and we walked back to the tender dock. We just missed the tender but fortunately another arrived a few minutes later. Back on board we stopped at the martini bar to bring a couple of drinks back to our cabin. After being stuck in the hot bus, we needed to completely refresh before the evening. Our friends with a working phone texted me to get together before 6:00 at the Blue Bar. I left our other friends a note. We met together and agreed on the walking tour of Chania for our complimentary tour. We were going to do our own walking tour anyway, and this way we will get off the ship quickly with the tenders. The men went down to talk to Juan Carlos, and we had a nice discussion. He said he would take care of getting us the tickets. We also let Juan Carlos know about the 40+ degree bus today and how the guide refused to call to get another bus. Juan said the guide should have called him. We made it clear we weren’t asking for anything, we just wanted to let him know. He said he rides a bus nearly every day but can’t be on every bus, which of course is understood. Back together again my friend and I went out to take photos of the sunset. Then we headed to dinner. The dining room menu is on a seven-night rotation, so this evening is a repeat of our embarkation day menu. The lamb was most enjoyable. Clinton brought us a sample of the Pinotage and explained this would be an extra cost, about €80 for four bottles if we wanted it. It is not significantly better than the red wine that has been enjoyed but we really appreciate the sample. Talking with Geri, he has been with the company for 20 years. He has sure seen a lot of changes over that time. Geri and Jerome gave each of the ladies a gift of a Philippines keychain. We made sure to let them know we are not leaving the ship on Monday but staying on until Saturday April 6. After dinner we headed to the Ocean Bar to listen to the duet and visit with all six of our group. It was a very nice time and the soda, water, and ginger beers kept flowing. A little after 9:00 we called it night. We lose an hour tonight as Europe moves to daylight time. At least we do not have an early tour and can sleep in! General notes: We enjoyed the Ocean Bar in the evening. The Ocean Bar is the same Ocean Bar arrangement from when Holland America sailed this vessel as the Ryndam. Some of the furniture of course is refreshed. The ship in general is in very good shape for a 30-year-old vessel. Funny thing is we noticed the crew cleaning the windows on the tenders today. Why are the tender windows cleaned but not the windows on the Journey itself? The weather has been absolutely incredible and perfect for touring.