groryjm

No not especially and the mere sugestion in a private club, where most people want different drinks, seemed ridiculous. He seemed to be trying to find fault with Olympia who has been a great barman this cruise.

For Athens we grabbed a cab from the port to the Palaka and spent a pleasant morning shopping.... ....before returning the ship for a lazy afternoon. We lunched at the back deck of the Ocean View and Spent time watching the ships moving in the dock which I have to confess is something I love to do when on a cruise. We again dined in Luminae and again the service was slow. For my main I had the Daniel Boulod Chicken Tagine. The chicken was tough and dry and served with plain yellow coloured cous cous on the side. Now I have had this dish on previous cruises and I would swear that in the past it had olives in it and the scent of saffron but both seemed to be absent, we skipped desert and grabbed gelato to take to Michael’s the wonderful Olympia offered us some of her banana infused rum to have with it and an excellent desert was achieved, We had been in Michael’s earlier and tried this delicious rum on ice with a grate of chocolate and very much enjoyed it. Olympia is a great asset to Michael’s Club but I was somewhat appalled when one of the officers, a food and beverage manager I believe, while sitting at the bar suggested that she might perhaps premake some of the drinks, Negronis and other cocktails , and keep them ready made in the fridge to speed service. Firstly the bar service in the club this cruise has never been slow and secondly this is not TGI Fridays but the Retreat. If my Boulevardier had been taken pre mixed from a fridge I most certainly would not want it and ask instead for a fresh one to be made.

For dinner we ate in Luminae which is the first time in quite a while since we ate their and the first time on this cruise. This Luminae is the same size as all the others but there are more suites on Reflection than the other S class ships. Last time we at in a Luminae it was on Silhouette and while the ships capacity was reduced on our previous four cruises post pandemic the suites have always been full either on initial booking or due to moves. After all if you are going to run at reduced capacity then reduce the number of cheaper rooms you sell not the more expensive ones. The reason for our visit was my favourite desert, the chocolate sphere, which only seems to appear on sailings of 9 days or more. Luminae was crowed and while the food was very good the service was slowwww. Now pre pandemic when I have had this desert the sphere has been melted by pouring flaming overproof rum, Wray and Nephew, over the sphere to melt it. The desert is delicious and the rum adds to the flavour. This time however they used hot chocolate sauce to melt the sphere and while it tasted ok there was tooo much chocolate and in my eyes not on the same level as previously and lacked the taste of the rum.

After a lovely day in Kusadasi we wtnt to deck 6 for another helipad sail away. They keep referring to these sail aways as being from the “Best View at Sea” While it is nice to see sail away or indeed sail in from the helipad I have to disagree and say the best views for sailing in or out we have experienced have been from the retreat deck on the revolutionised Silhouette. Pre show drinkies in the room with canapés and to those who have asked, yes, Fever tree is available on board. We picked up drinks from the world class for the show and Joseph kindly let us take their glasses with us as long as we returned them afterwards, which of course I did. There is no drinks service in the theatre post pandemic so one has to bring one’s own. The show was Elysium and I thoroughly enjoyed it as it is one we haven’t seen it for a number of years.

We made our way to our tour “Off the Beaten track on Turkey” only to find there were only ourselves and four others booked to take the tour. The mini bus headed off against the traffic and into the country side. The roads were packed but we were going the opposite way. We arrived at the beautiful Dilek Peninsula and Menderes Delta and the old Greek village of Doganbey. We had chosen well and enjoyed a lovely stroll through this beautiful village with views of the delta. On our return we even managed to skip, the ubiquitous carpet demo and had a lesiurly stroll through the Kusadasi bazar before returning to the ship

We arrived in Kusadasi yesterday to a beautiful sunny morning and a fairly full port with three ships already in port and two more due. Mudit served are breakfast as the Norwegian Jade pulled in alongside. while we drank our coffee we watched as the ships emptied passengers in to coaches bound for Ephesus "Bird Island" after which Kusadasi gets it's name

We arrived in Pireaus this morning to a lovely sunny day and another lovely breakfast on the balcony Mudit found a selection of hangers which I photographed for info the top one is upper suites , Royalsuites , penthouses and reflection suites. The middle is all other suites , aqua and concierge . The bottom is all other cabins I will post more this afternoon to ctch up re Kusadsi.

I would say from the ship to the edge of the spice market, which is just the far side of the bridge is a leisurly 40min stroll in total . If one walked quickly one could probably do it in 25mins

The Ketut in the sunset bar here on reflection is the same A Ketut we saw on a nuber of Silhouette sailings in July and Augast blast year.

We should be reaching the bridge around 7:30 so much of the Dardanelles Strait will still be in day light 🤞

After thunder and lightning storms all night the weather was a bit drizzly this morning for our cruise on the Bosphorus. It was a lovely tour none the less despite the drizzle. When we booked the tour it had been marked up as moderate but with the new Galata Port it had been uprated to strenuous due to the walk to the bus to take us to the boat. It really does now take about 15 to 20 minutes to walk to the tour buses. A little further for private tours or taxis. We passed a number of Huge ships taking goods in and out of the Black Sea After the tour we had another excellent lunch at Sushi on 5....... with a Spicy Mango Tine and a Kanpie made for me by the amazing World Class barman Joseph. After lunch we went to our balcony to watch sail away as rain had abandoned the helipad event and we were half an hour late leaving due to a pier runner.

A French 75 before heading up to the sunset bar to enjoy the views an were greeted by another friendly face, A A Ketut, a barman we had known from our recent cruises on Silhouette. One of my favourite aperitivo and ingredients in cocktails is Campari. In Europe and Italy it is 25% by vol yet on the ship it is 28.5% by vol. is this Italian bitter really shipped from the States to supply a ship that is restocked in Italy? We had a lovely diner in the porch while the sun set and we watch the lights in the city

After a leisurely lunch we opted to wander over the galata bridge in towards the spice market and see if any shops were open. From our balcony I could easily see the new Galata port shopping complex with its many restaurants and if we could have walked off the ship directly the bridge would only be five minutes’ walk. BUT be warned it takes about 15 minutes to walk from the ship through the new underground terminal complex to the cruise ship port exit. And another 15 minutes’ walk to the restaurants below our balcony and a further 15 minutes across the bridge to the entrance to the spice markets. Last time we were here we walked from the ship to the same point in 15 mins total so the new port has made what used to be a gentle stroll from the ship to the old town into a 45 min hike each way, Well in fact a bit further on return as you have no choice but to walk to the furthest point in the terminal, the duty free shop, before you can turn around and return to your ship. Needless to say we enjoyed wandering the few shops that were open but the hike was somewhat challenging. We had thought to go to one of the local restaurants, possibly the one below our balcony, but the thought of a half an hour walk each way curbed that thought. The bridge was only just high enough for the boats going under it The river is not the ceanest and this is the clean up boat

We crossed under the The1915 Çanakkale Bridge in the early hours of yesterday morning arriving in Istanbul at around 12.30. This gave us the opportunity to have lunch on the back of the Ocean view café overlooking the old city. The views were fabulous and the food from the buffet was also very good

I don;t doubt your numbers but is it more prevalent in the Carabean. We sail mostly in Europe and out of Southamton at that, On four cruises on Silhouette there were not more than four or five Zenith couples on any one sailing and mostly they were in suites anyway. We are currently on Reflection in the Med and the ship is according to Captain Nikolaos the fullest capacity sailing to date, 2360 or so pax. That said there are no zenith members on board and we are top cruisers and are a little shy of 3X elite+. Zenith is 4x elite+. I had not realy taken any note of how many or few zenith cruisers there were before the pandemic as Michaels has never seemed croweded beyond its capacity. but since the pandemic I have got to know a number of zenith crusers on our sailings, all in suites, and had the impresion that there are fewer european zeniths than US. Now that people are crossing back from the US to the Europe I haven't noticed an increase in zenith numbers arriving on our shores. I wonder if especialy on the revolutionised Silhouette if the lack of an exclusive lounge and apparent reduction in perks has made the distance to travel less atractive.

Best place to see sail away and we haven't been on a helipad since 2019 partly because such gatherings had stopped since the pandemic and when they returned we were on Silhouette the view from the retreat deck is I think better. A bit windy though but a pretty good view never the less.

Lunch and a cocktail in Mykonos before heading back to the ship

A few random pictures i took as we walked through Mykonos today and of course some gin and a pause for a local beer Which super yacht is ours?

Beautiful sunrise this mormg just before we arrived in Mykonos

Trying a new cocktail before dinner - 30ml gin, 15ml fresh Lemon, 15ml fresh lime, 45ml rose, 20ml sugar syrup shake with ice and served in an ice filled glass topped with 60ml of soda - with some nuts from Michaels at the Lawn Club Grille (thank you Randy) while watching a beautiful Santorini sunset and sail out What better way to finish a very hot and tiring but perfect day

A few random pics from Santorini today

Breakfast in Santorini.

Another excellent meal in Murano last night and it was lovely to bump into staff we knew from sailins on other ships. Davut our wine waiter who we’d met previously at Luminae on Silhouette and Yandi our waiter who has served us many times in Murano also on Silly. Reconnecting with crew we had known from other ships realy seems to make Celebrity feel like family. I managed to cure my continual problem with drinks in Murano, as they don’t serve cocktails and I don’t often drink wine, by briefing the wonderful Olympia in Michael’s. An I was amply supplied with my to go daytime drink at home, an Americano. Nothing to do with coffee . The Americano developed from the Milano Torino ( equal parts Carpano Antica from Turin, although it should be Pun E Mess; and Campari Bitter from Milan) a classic from the 1890s by adding a splash of soda. This the became in, 1919, the Negroni when the Campo de Negroni ordered his Americano strengthened and the barman replaced the soda with gin. We ended the evening in Michaels with for me of course a boulevardier and the last of the calvados Olympia found for my Gastrognome.

A boulevardier consists of equal quantities of whiskey,sweet vermoiuth and campari. Its creation is ascribed to Erskine Gwynne, an American-born writer who founded a monthly magazine in Paris called Boulevardier, which appeared from 1927 to 1932. personally i prefer Bullit rye and Punt-E-Mess. but if you cant get Punt-E-Mess and only Carpano Antiqua I would use Woodford reserve.

To be totally honest my usual choice for a perfect Negroni or Boulevardier would be Punt E Mess but I doubt the could ever get that on board