11 Night Eastern Mediterrannen Celebrity Cruise - Reflection
Rome > Santorini > Istanbul > Kusadasi > Mykonos > Athens> Naples > Rome
Our dear friends Craig and Christina put the thought of cruising in our minds. We had a 3 week gap to fill when we were in and around Italy and Christina mentioned the cruise they were taking...so why not. After a couple of weeks with trying to secure 2 cabins, it was only 10 days before sail date that we were confirmed.
Reflection is the youngest ship of the Celebrity fleet with her maiden voyage being October 2012, we were able to celebrate her first birthday with her in style.. The making of these ships is amazing and this one only took 5 years to complete. With 3000 passengers and 1500 or so crew members we sailed off into the sunset with our first stop being Santorini after a day at sea, a perfect way to become aquainted with the ship and all it had to offer. Tony and I took advantage of a couple of packages for ourselves and got the kids booked into the 'Fun Factory' where Hamish remained for 11 days straight with never setting foot on land. We enjoyed the fitness centre each day and were able to go into the Persian Garden for relaxation with body scrubs, aromatic steams and sauna. The place had a ceiling to floor glass view of the endless ocean and several heated relaxation beds for rest after a stenuous work-out in the fully equipped fitness centre. We choose a few different body scrubs, as it was self administered in the common steam room there were always onlookers and a bit of chat about the flavour of scrub we were using. I have to say my skin was as soft as a new borns bottom.
Ports of call in a nutshell;
Santorini - the jewel of the Greek Isles. This was a special day for Tony, as he has always had a drawing to this place. It was absolutely wonderful to be sitting at the top after our trek up, approx. 600 steps as we weaved our way through donkey's and the trail of mess they left behind...I was certainly hot after that climb and was thankful for the cool drink at the top. The first thing we see is the green and red sign (Victoria Bitter). We stepped inside to cool off, use the facilities and of course wifi. We were having withdrawals. It is the funniest thing to see all us tourists in this bar in one of the most scenic places on Earth and we have our heads in our devices. Well Tony had an excuse as the final payment and close of sale was requiring attention and wet signatures. Of course this happens whilst we are cruising.
Tony writes:
Having trekked all the way to the top, I figured we are in Greece better try the Ouzo. Brings back memories of my teenage years with the boys drinking ouzo and lemonade. Not bad, but just not the same, oh well a bit older and a lot more sensible these days just one is fine, back to enjoying the view and a beer.
There was no line-up for the cable car down to the port so given we had already had our workout going up the stairs it was cable car down for us and some quick photos of the track we had taken to get up to the top.
Istanbul, Turkey - Istanbul is a unique city built on 2 continents - Europe and Asia...this was very cool to see! It is located on the shores of the Bosphorus, with the waters of the Black Sea and combined with The Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn. We travelled through some of the narrowest waterways on our way in, it was quite surreal to be running on the treadmill in the gym and seeing all those historical sites just off to our left and right as we approached. Istanbul houses some very special monuments that we were able to get a closer look at.
A two day stopover, so we decided to do the first day by ourselves and went in for a look around with Emma. The shopping bazaar holds some 4000 shops and is all undercover, it was surprisingly cold outside. After a bit of a look around we came to the realisation that there might be 4000 shops but they were selling mostly the same stuff, time to escape and have a spot of lunch. A quick trip past the outside of the blue mosque for some photos and back to the boat for us via the leather shop for the girls.
Day 2: We scheduled an excursion through the ships 'shore excursions' desk and we set of with our group of 40 odd shipmates to see the sights. We started at the Aya Sofia also known as the Hagia Sophia, which was a magnificence mosque and was the first Imperial mosque in Istanbul from 1453 - 1931. Today, it now serves as a museum and has since 1935.
We went on to see the The Blue Mosque as known by us Westerners, but the proper name is The Sultan Ahmed Mosque and serves as a historic Mosque. It received it name due to the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior. It took 7 years to build from 1609, it is still used as a Mosque today. Unfortunately, we were unable to enter the Mosque due to poor timing, it was Friday after all and prayer was in full form.
Our favourite had to be the Basilica Cistern, which is one of the most magnificent historical structures of Istanbul. It wasn't a far walk from Hagia Sofia, across the street, so off our group of 40 went as we herded together like sheep. It is an enormous underground cistern built by the Byzantine Emperor. There are 336 columns in it with each being 9m in height each. It is a large rectangular structure being 140m in length and 70m wide. The Cistern has a capacity of 100,000 tons of water storage and is 9,800 SQM in total. They used the left over materials from the Hagia Sofia to build the Cistern and it only took 1 year as opposed to the 5 years for Hagia Sofia. 2 Medusa heads rest here and are used as plinths, there are many myths concerning how the heads arrived there and their uses. (I'm so sorry my photos cannot load here, as it is so beautiful).
Kusadasi (Ephesus) - Kusadasi means "Bird Island" and is thought to be one of the most eye pleasing cities on the Aegean Sea. It is on the west coast of Turkey and the main holiday destination for the country. It was originally a small fishing village and is now dedicated to the tourists who flock to visit their beautiful beaches and of course the old town of Ephesus. For both Tony and I, this had to be the highlight of the ports. The Ephesus ruins were exceptional...too bad as so did 7000 other people. Ephesus is a showplace of Aegean Archaeology. It is something to see and resembles a large park with ruins all within walking distance from each other. My favourite was The Celcius Library, the work that went into restoring this beauty is remarkable. Afterwards, we were taken by our driver to a Turkish carpet weaving centre. I loved this and was educated on wool on wool, wool on cotton and silk on silk. I had a go with the wool on cotton and mastered that, but was no where as fast as my teacher. The silk on silk, I couldn't even get 2 strings on my finger to start the weaving. I surely would have purchased one of these pieces of art if given the chance. Tony didn't even entertain the notion of a beautiful Turkish rug adorning our lounge room with the thought of rubbing his toes through it.
Mykonos - this island is part of the Cyclades in the deep blue waters of the Mediterranean. Rhinos, Siros, Paros and Naxos surround it, it has countless bays, beaches (much too cold for our liking to enjoy that) and quaint cobblestone streets. Just as you have seen in the pictures white everywhere trimmed with accents of blue. Our ship arrived in the early morning so it was a sleepy little town, but I am sure it would have been a bit of a party later in the day. Tony and I were keen to enjoy the quiet of the Spa on a port day, without having to cue for the heated beds. They were only suppose to have made 40 passes available to the Spa, but it's seems like we were all taking advantage of this at the same time. A bit of shopping with Emma, a coffee and a baklava and we headed back to our floating hotel.
Athens - Piraeus is Athens' main port, the biggest in Greece and yes I agree with that fact as they have 7 ships daily, most days of the week. So what does that mean? Too many tourists. We were lucky as I believe there were only 5 ships the day we were there. We disembarked and were ready to tackle the Acropolis of Athens. We discovered it was just as easy to do your own excursion/tour and arrange for a driver outside. We did just that and with a bit of negotiation we were on our way. Our driver was ever so pleasant and helpful with information and stopping to get that special pic. Seeing he was only suppose to drop us at the Acropolis, this was a very kind gesture. From the little exposure we had of the Greeks and a bit of chit chat with 2 different drivers, it seems they are very angry and bitter with their government for allowing the country to reach the economic disparity that they are in. He felt he paid his dues and taxes for all those years and stopped paying any tax for the last 18 months. He tells us that 70 % of the population feels this way.
Onto the ruins of the Acropolis, which was amazing! Emma was quite taken with the whole scene and we were even able to do a bit of rock climbing in the area, let's just call it rough terrain. It is unbelievable to think that these structures have been maintained and restored for so many centuries. Some of the works were erected in 432 BC. The Parthenon in particular was sensational, it is a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena and was one of the earliest of the classical monuments of the Acropolis.
Naples - we forfeited this port as we had just spent a week in the Amalfi coast. So no pizza in Naples for us. From what I understand it is not that great anyhow and we discovered some great pizza in Siena since than.
I never thought I would be a cruiser, but I have succumb and converted. I get why the oldies prefer this mode of travel. Think about it...fuss free! Never having to unpack and pack again. While you see many ports of call and numerous cities, transport issues solved, food and at the end of the day you are back on the dance floor doing the two step in your formal attire on those special nights. We all had our own private holiday, the children were entertained all day long with Emma being able to come and go at her will. What a sense of freedom for her to decide when she wanted to eat and plan her day. I have come to see that Emma is very good with the younger children and really enjoys being with them, she doesn't think they are a nuisance or a pain and has a lot of time for them.
The fun factory stage performance was something to see, some of the boys playing musical instruments, Hamish doing magic tricks and Emma doing a gymnastics routine. Check out the photos of the gang from fun factory.
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