Baggy178

Why does it matter if the rate goes up or if people pre-pay or not ? Gratuities are entirely voluntary and you're not obliged to pay whatever the cruise line indicates. It's a matter of your own personal choice. Paying gratuities in advance of receiving service that may be bad seems bizarre to us - try getting a refund if things are not to your liking ...

We stopped visiting Mykonos 10 years ago having seen the way it was going - we just happened to score a really cheap flight which required us to overnight so we weren't THAT surprised by what we saw. My comments were really about Mykonos town and the problems caused by the influx of a huge number of cruise passengers all at once but also the type of tourism the island is pursuing as we didn't have time to visit elsewhere. https://www.politico.eu/article/mykonos-greece-rich-and-famous-playground/ Of course there are wonderful beaches that are not all total rip-offs if you choose to explore them and as has been mentioned upthread these can easily be done independently without an expensive excursion. But it would be remiss of me not to point out that Mykonos and places like Santorini really aren't indicative of the real Greece. Like the wonderful island of Syros, a 30-minute ferry ride from Mykonos, where we're currently staying. https://www.greektravel.com/greekislands/syros/ However as a Greece lover of old I'd still say visiting any island is better than no island at all.

Ignoring your personal slight I note you reference a niche German hotel group I've never heard of and a booking using an award scheme. Speaking as a European bringing a European perspective and knowledge the idea that you can't book a hotel in Athens for a year ahead or that hotels there are somehow withholding inventory is simply preposterous as a quick look at any hotel booking site would show. Hotels want confirmed bookings as far ahead as possible - unlike airlines they have fixed assets and the same number of beds year round. How do you think tour companies plan their schedules so far in advance ?

I just checked. Around €300 a night is the cheapest hotel unless as a couple you're prepared to share a dormitory in a hostel where you'll pay €180. Booking.com taking bookings in Athens till Dec 2024.

Total nonsense I'm afraid. You can book any hotel in Europe a year in advance or even longer. In fact such advance booking is imperative in some cases - try finding a reasonably-priced hotel or indeed a free bed in any European city where Taylor Swift is touring next summer. US tourists looking to book in Dublin for the weekend of her two concerts next June are in for a big shock.

Delighted it worked out for you. I've been using Matt's guides for years. They're perfectly pitched between Lonely Planet backpackers and TripAdvisor all things to all people and remarkable work by a one man band We're currently staying in a delightful hotel overlooking the harbour in Syros recommended by him. Whisper it quietly but it's a wonderful Greek island virtually devoid of international tourists, high rise hotels and resorts but popular with Greeks. Great food, fantastic service and excellent prices. A good dinner for two tonight including very good local wine cost us €29.

Not sure a comparison between a small Greek chora and a large international airport is much of a comparison although having travelled through Miami recently I know what you mean. Likewise comparing an unpopulated Stonehenge and Lands End with a tiny Greek town with narrow streets. There are some fine beaches on Mykonos particularly if you can avoid the ones already busy on this party island. But many passengers rarely venture further than the main town and as we witnessed this week and as you can read in the article upthread it can't really cope with the influx of multiple cruise ships. The end result is you could be anywhere in Southern Europe instead of experiencing the real Greece where I'm sat now having a morning joe overlooking a harbour busy with ferries arriving throughout the day but not a single cruise ship. And that's by the choice of the islanders who have seen what has happened in Mykonos - just 20 minutes but a world away by fast catamaran.

I used to live in a port with a population not too dissimilar from Santorini. The arrival of one cruise there was manageable - I can't imagine the thought of seven at once being anything other than a new Greek island called Horrendos. It sounds like you have found at least a reasonable workaround but personally I'd enjoy a quiet ship.

Got chatting to the owner of the restaurant we ate at tonight on Tinos ( the grilled smoked mackerel and fresh squid were superb and reasonably priced ) who confirmed everything I suspected. Like many others we talk to he's deeply embarrassed about the reputation that Mykonos has gained and its effect of Greece's tourist image as a whole. When he has to visit it's for as short a time as possible. " I feel ashamed to be Greek when I'm there " he said with an air of sadness " but it makes us more determined as an island not to repeat the mistakes of Mykonos." Still, some English bloke on the internet reckons he's got it all wrong so what does he know ...

Matt Barrett runs the best independent online guide to all things Greece and Athens. You may find something here of interest for your trip. https://www.athensguide.com/

" Two ships moored is unusual " On August 22nd there were a EIGHT cruise ships in town, part of a staggering 895 cruise ships expected to visit Mykonos and the nearby island of Delos this year. Surely even you can do the maths ? https://greekcitytimes.com/2023/06/28/overcrowding-concerns-as-mykonos-faces-influx-of-cruise-ships-and-thousands-of-tourists/

If ever there was a cruise destination that warranted spending the day on board ship then Mykonos must be high up on the list. We reluctantly spent a night in Mykonos town this week thanks to an ATC problem in the UK that delayed flights and our ferry connection to the nearby island of Tinos. What we found confirmed our worst fears - it's a tawdry, tacky filthy rip-off facsimile of a Greek island that is a source of great embarrassment to many Greeks. The restaurants serve over-priced Euro-slops, the bars blare incessant loud music, the shops sell overpriced tat often sourced from China and the whole place exists merely as a Greek theme park. We caught the next morning ferry and witnessed the chaos of three cruise liners disgorging thousands of passengers via tenders in shambolic conditions in 32C heat. Two were moored at anchor and a third in the new port which then required a scramble to board smaller boats to take passengers to the old port amid much shouting and gesticulating. Passengers then trudged in a never-ending conga line around narrow streets entirely devoid of local people because most had moved out years ago as developers gobbled up homes to turn them into Gucci shops and €200 a night boarding houses. From the tranquility of nearby Tinos, popular mainly with Athenian and French holidaymakers, we found a haven of old-fashioned Greece tempered with controlled modernisation. Mention Mykonos and the locals shudder and whisper conspiratorially about corruption and criminality that has allowed the festering blot on the landscape across the water. Seriously, enjoy a quiet day on board rather than plunging into this Aegean hellhole that simply cannot cope with the huge numbers of people descending on it every day from cruise ships. I've been visiting the Greek islands regularly for 50 years and sad to say Mykonos and other popular cruise destinations like Santorini have come to represent the very worst examples of culture and identity being vandalised by greed. If you love Greece don't add to the problem.

Welcome to the party. It's where the real fun is 😅

Me too. I hate unnecessary and intrusive loud music. It's everywhere. Malls, stores, hotels, bars, restaurants, ships, planes. A couple of years ago I spent two days by the pool at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. On the first day I discreetly ripped out every external loudspeaker around the pool and gardens. There were 15 of them. A few ended up in the adjacent waterway. I left one unharmed near the outdoor bar area so no staff member would notice and amazingly no-one did. In restaurants before I even look at the menu I ask for the music to be turned down - if it's not I walk out. I once took a holiday company to court and won the cost of my holiday back after staff by the pool of a Turkish hotel played the same Red Hot Chilli Peppers CD on shuffle by the pool very loudly for 10 hours every day. Even now the sound of Californication stirs grim memories. Every day it's a screeching and mostly rap music onslaught on our sensibilities. I fight back with every means I have and ripping out wires from loudspeakers is, in my opinion, perfectly justifiable. Rant over.

Is there a Riff-Raff Class among your ideas for the forum ? If so put us down for two seats ( Homer Simpson + Guest ) at the buffet for every breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night snacking. I must admit reading about some of the complaints on here have been hilarious. Sliced tomatoes instead of whole ones has already gone down in CC folklore...😅

Wake up to the sight of a buck naked Gigi Hadid making a nice pot of English Breakfast tea in the suite. Immediately decide it's not going to be a typical Celebrity sea day ...

' On a cruise you can't refuse the gratuity unless you do not want the product or service connected to the tip.' But you can refuse to pay the auto-gratuity which in the case of our Silhouette cruise is nearly 30% of our Oct TA price. We shall instead convert our OBC to a gratuity as it's a much more reasonable 18%.

Imagine working in Celebrity's media department. You think you've got everything covered. Finger on every pulse. And then boom 💥 Out of nowhere comes Cookiegate™ ! Shell-shocked spin doctors are sitting there now in BS HQ drinking cans of warm Bud Lite saying " Chuffing heck man, where did that come from ? "

That's us. We prefer the buffet to the MDR because what you lose in being waited on you make up with what is often better food with more variety and unlimited portions in the buffet. Which you can eat wearing shorts and T-shirt. No brainer.

Do what we do. Cancel the automatic gratuities and instead apply the sum pp that you consider to be most suitable. That is, after all, the very definition of a gratuity. In our case it matches the on-board credit. That way the staff get their salaries paid by the company and not through guest tips. Kerching. Simple.👍

If it's women and children first I'll be exercising my right to identify as a female Russian shot-putter, circa 1970's.

I suppose just leaving a deposit is out of the question ? 😳

Is there a 20c per tomato service charged for having it handed to you and does this increase if you request for the tomato to be sliced. Maybe per slice ?

Oh that is good news for our Silhouette TA. Marmite on rye toast. Breakfast of champions.

I can basically live on this but in the UK it's quite hard to find proper Jewish-style rye bread with caraway seeds. Does anyone know if it's included in the on-board bakery options. Or if all else fails a decent sourdough to toast. We'll be bringing out own Marmite.