Greek Island cruise 25June 2 July 1/4 live blog

[Traveler]

Yes, we already on the fourth day of the cruise so it's not really live blog but better late from never.  

I have good excuses for starting just now, the main one is the fact that both of us had to work on the first two/three days of the cruise in order to take it.

I will try to add some information about the train to port and how is to work from the ship. 

This cruise we are going from Rome (Civitavecchia) and stopping at Santorini,  Mykonos,  Ephesus,  Chaina . We were suppose to stop at Salerno but it was canceled due to port pier issues. 

Oh almost forgot,  we are on Odyssey of the seas in one of the JS. This cruise was chosen after a short survey answered by this lovely community.

 Some facts about this cruise , the ship is almost 100% full, most of the cruiser are new cruisers (3600 out of 5000), although this cruise going out from Italy most of the cruisers are not from Italy and it seems its very multi national cruise. Only 3 pinnacles (no issues in CK , yay) , 37 DP, 128 diamonds. 

That's it for now , more to come.

She missed the cruise also but being spoiled. 

[Traveler]

Day -2 flying into Rome

We took a short 3 hour flight to Rome , no main issues during the flight and it went smoothly watching Netflix and sending some emails. We landed at early evening,  the lines to the immigration was around 45 minutes, expect the same if one in your group holding a non biometric passport. Our hotel was quite far from the train station so we went to take a taxi , tried to use the taxi  application and Uber but no indication when we should wait for it so we went to the taxi line. After another 20 minutes we were I  a taxi were the driver wanted 75 Euro. The official price is 50 so some negotiations had to be done, I guess taxi drivers are the same all around the world. The hotel prices at Rome are crazy,  mainly if you want to find something near the main attractions. We found some decent price hotel at north of Rome near a lovely park and just 5 minutes walk from  a train station. The hotel (Courtyard centralpark) was nice with quite new rooms. As it was becoming late we just went to the supermarket to grab some things and we eat at the room before going to sleep. 

[Traveler]

Day -1 Rome

We woke up quite early and went to the local resturant for a quick breakfast with wonderful Italian espresso,  they sure know how to do espresso. Post breakfast and some work we went to the train station , the train is arriving every 30 minutes during weekends and takes around 20 minutes to go to the center of Rome , we did a short stop in a local mall to buy some cruise pants:-). We went to the center to roam around Rome but we quickly decided to had back to the hotel as it was very hot and we visit Rome during April (yes during  another cruise) when it was much better weather. the train cost 1 E each way. For dinner we decided to eat at the hotel resturant,  using the Fork application we got 20% off all the menu.  To start with we took salad and a cold plate which was very big an tasty . For main dish we had the sea food plate and pasta.  

We decided to call it for the day as  we had to catch the train to the cruise  and to have some work related calls . 

[WAAAYTOOO]

Ahhhhh. That bruschetta looks divine.

[Traveler]

Day 1 - Civitavecchia .

We started the day with a quick breakfast from products we bought in the supermarket and attend few working calls , at 9 am we checked out and called for a taxi to take us to Termini train station. 

There are few ways to go to the port: 

Taxi - you can book a taxi using the app (only Uber black is working in Rome or taxi applications for regular  taxi , fee from the airport is 125 E but good luck to find a driver that will agree to this price.

Shared transfer- there are few companies that offer share drive which will take you from the hotel for the price around 50 to 80 E per person , make  sure they are allowed to enter to the port (not all drivers are allowed) they might do 2 or 3 stops to add more people but if you are lucky enough you will be the last on the ladt pickup. Please mind there is a limit of one big suitcase PP. Also when I checked the first possible ride was 10:30 am .

Private transfer :

Cost around 160E , again check that they can enter the port.

Trains : 

There are two kind of trains , fast and regional trains.

The regional train takes around 80 minutes,  stop in 10 station and seats can not be reserved (actually, no  any limit control)  the regional ttrain are usually not starring in Rome and might come quite packed (not on Sundays) cost is around 5E PP. 

The fast train cost around 10E PP , you can reserve seats and many traina  starts from Rome Termini , it's around 50 minutes ride. For few Euro more you can also go to first class (not really needed).

On both of the options you will fine some small space overhead for small luggage,  on the fast train you might find some luggage racks. Otherwise you need to put them in a way not to block the passage.

Regional trains can  be taken  from  three or four different stations inside Eome , first one  is Termini , it's also a station that at least for the express train has  easy access as all the trains platforms are on the same level. On the other stations you will need to use the underground passage and not in all of them you have working lifts (if any). The train will bring you to Civitavecchia station from that point you can choose or to walk 20 minutes to the shuttle terminal and  catch the shuttle bus or to take a quick bus to the same terminal which cost 2 E or to take a bus that takes you all the way to the ship which cost 6 E. Both located just across from the train station exit .Tickets can be bought at the train station kiosk or you can pay on the buss. Another option which I used is to book the bus ticket when you order your train tickets from the official train Italia site https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html all you need to do is to chose Civitavecchia port instead of just Civitavecchia. 

We used the fast train option with the port bus. There is a big CC tread with useful information about the same.

Long story short,  we ordered a taxi that arrived around 9:20 am and we drove to Termini station,  it was quite tight as we had our train on 9:57 , luckily we got there ten minutes before. Taxi cost us 25 E. We went on the train and left our suitcase in an empty space we found. Our seats were adjust to a nice couple from Seattle which went to the port to catch MSC cruise, we exchanged some tips and cruise stories the journey past quickly.  Arriving to the port we found out that the elevators are broken so we had to carry the luggage using the stairs , not that bad. The buss was waiting outside and it was easy to find. Mind you need to give a printed copy of you tickets to the buss driver. 15 minutes drive and we got to our ship , I almost forgot my laptop bag on the bus but a nice lady saw it and brought it to me. The luggage, by the way is taken on the bus.

Check in was quick and we went to board the ship. There was a long line on the gangway but it was cleared after 10 minutes. 

First rhing we done was to find a quiet place to take a call, Apparently it's not an easy task on this ship First, we thought we tried to go to the library. But the library itself is open to the 270 venue and very noisy.  Eventually we found ourselves in the music hall , my spouse started her call (muting every time announcement was started) and I went to bring some food from El Loco fresh. The next thing I done was to visit the Costal kitchen to book our dinner.  The good thing about Odyssey CK is the fact the host desk is outside so no need to knock on the door I got the time I wanted. At 1 PM they announced that the rooms will be ready by 2 PM and 2 minutes they announced its already ready , nice. So we went to the room to continue to work. At evening we went for dinner,  it was excellent and the service was superb. You can guess what we took for first night and yes the steak was very good. 

As you can see the CK was very busy

 

Post dinner we went to visit the place that makes most of the money to RCL and spent some time making sure  RCL stock price will have good reason to go up . As it was the first time for us on Odyssey we went to tour the ship and oriented ourselves withe the different locations. Some more work and off we went to sleep,  not before we used our last voucher to take a Krakan lava flow.

Tomorrow , sea day.

 

 

[Ampurp85]

I think I liked Odyssey's casino; they had a good mix of machines and the whole place was pretty clean even with all the smokers. 

[Traveler]

3 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I think I liked Odyssey's casino; they had a good mix of machines and the whole place was pretty clean even with all the smokers. 

Yes , I think the smoking section is smaller comparing to other ships so less impact

[Traveler]

Day 2 - Working day , sorry sea day.

We start with a quick breakfast at the diamond club, not much assortment but quick and much less crowded than WJ. Post breakfast we went back to the room to work. As both of us require VPN to connect to work and the one time password is managed on the cellphone we had to have two device package so we can connect each laptop and we used the D+ two free days for the cellphone rotating it between us. As you might know , once you have a full internet package you can not use the D+ free days on the same account without RC internet  people figure how to do it. The way to manage it was to have the two device registered  to my account and the free two days on my spouse account. It worked OK most of the time although we experience few freezes from and I had to take most of the calls from the bathroom:-) . This is what I miss in the new Junior suite the walking in closet, it's really handy when you need less noisy room. In between we went to WJ for lunch and even got a drink or 2 ( or 3 but dont tell anyone) , hey it cruise after all. At 6pm we finally done with working and we had to the CK for another wonderful dinner 

When we came back this guy was waiting for us.

To conclude,  yes you can work from a ship and hey , to cruise with some work or not to cruise and just work I will choose the first any time. Let me know if you have any questions regarding working from the ship .

Tomorrow half day work and half day Santorini,  promise much  more pictures.

[Traveler]

Day 3 , half day Santorini. 

The ship was planned to arrive Santorini ar 1:30 pm and stay unil 11 pm. Tender tickets were  distributed at music hall but we decided to wait and go after all the booked tender will leave , around 4 PM,  until that time we continued to do our work and use the WJ for breakfast and lunch.  The booked tender was finally done around 4:30 pm and we went to take the tender to Santorini harbo,  It's was 10 minutes tender.

From the harbor to Fira you need or to take the cable car, or use the donkey trails (30- 45 minutes walk) or to take a boat transfer to Oia. Cost of of the cable car is 6 E , boat transfer including shuttle from Oia to Fira  is 30E PP , poor donkey ride is 10E. The cable car line was still huge so we took the boat option. Weather in Santorini was perfect 25C at the end of June is excellent. Boat ride was over 15 minutes.  At the end, although nobody's is telling youl, you need to take a steep walk f9r  10 minutes up to the parking lot where you take a shuttle bus that take to Oia. When we went down from the bus there was representative of the company who told us we can  take the bus back to Fira from the same location. There were busses at 7 PM and 8 PM. In general I recommend to take ship excursion at this port.

Oia was very crowded as expected during this hight session , considering there were 5 ships visiting Santorini.  We did a short tour and went to find the bus to Fira.

Of course it was not were they told but some guy pointed us to the main parking lot were it took us 10 minutes to find the right buss. We went to Fira , enjoyed an ice cream and started our way back

. We went down using the donkey trail as the cable car queue going down was even longer than the one going up. It took us 20 minutes to get to the port enjoying the sunset , not so enjoying the smell of the trail . While going down the donkey trail it's not a good time to think about dinner :-).

There was a long queue to the tender boats back but we successfully took the second tender .

Arriving the ship , after required shower we went to grab something to eat and went to see what's going on  the ship. 

Tomorrow Mykonos. 

 

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

35 minutes ago, Traveler said:

 

 

All of your photos were beautiful, but this one made my heart skip a beat.  How incredibly beautiful !!

[MLH]

34 minutes ago, Traveler said:

Day 3 , half day Santorini. 

The ship was planned to arrive Santorini ar 1:30 pm and stay unil 11 pm. Tender tickets were  distributed at music hall but we decided to wait and go after all the booked tender will leave , around 4 PM,  until that time we continued to do our work and use the WJ for breakfast and lunch.  The booked tender was finally done around 4:30 pm and we went to take the tender to Santorini harbo,  It's was 10 minutes tender.

From the harbor to Fira you need or to take the cable car, or use the donkey trails (30- 45 minutes walk) or to take a boat transfer to Oia. Cost of of the cable car is 6 E , boat transfer including shuttle from Oia to Fira  is 30E PP , poor donkey ride is 10E. The cable car line was still huge so we took the boat option. Weather in Santorini was perfect 25C at the end of June is excellent. Boat ride was over 15 minutes.  At the end, although nobody's is telling youl, you need to take a steep walk f9r  10 minutes up to the parking lot where you take a shuttle bus that take to Oia. When we went down from the bus there was representative of the company who told us we can  take the bus back to Fira from the same location. There were busses at 7 PM and 8 PM. In general I recommend to take ship excursion at this port.

Oia was very crowded as expected during this hight session , considering there were 5 ships visiting Santorini.  We did a short tour and went to find the bus to Fira.

Of course it was not were they told but some guy pointed us to the main parking lot were it took us 10 minutes to find the right buss. We went to Fira , enjoyed an ice cream and started our way back

. We went down using the donkey trail as the cable car queue going down was even longer than the one going up. It took us 20 minutes to get to the port enjoying the sunset , not so enjoying the smell of the trail . While going down the donkey trail it's not a good time to think about dinner :-).

There was a long queue to the tender boats back but we successfully took the second tender .

Arriving the ship , after required shower we went to grab something to eat and went to see what's going on  the ship. 

Tomorrow Mykonos. 

 

 

We are going in September.  thanks for your tip about the ship excursion.  We booked for 59.00 pp the shuttle to oia that leaves at 7:30am.  We will be the first ones off the ship to the cable car and over to oia.  Did you think wearing masks would help with the smell if we go that route?  

[Traveler]

23 minutes ago, MLH said:

We are going in September.  thanks for your tip about the ship excursion.  We booked for 59.00 pp the shuttle to oia that leaves at 7:30am.  We will be the first ones off the ship to the cable car and over to oia.  Did you think wearing masks would help with the smell if we go that route?  

I guess depend which mask maybe the N95 , it's not that bad but maybe because  I grew up near agricultural area:-)

[Traveler]

28 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

All of your photos were beautiful, but this one made my heart skip a beat.  How incredibly beautiful !!

Thanks, it's the only one you don't need to go out from the ship to take , it wad taken from our balcony 

[Traveler]

Day 4 Mykonos. 

At this day we arrived to one of my favorite ports  of call Mykonos. The ship arrived around 7 and they started to hand tickets to the tender boats around 8:30 . Until that time whoever wanted to go just went to the small queue to the tender boats , we got number 28 so you can guess when we worked  up,  at least no need to work on the cruose anymore. The tender boat brings you to the old port which is 10 minutes walk from the city. Mykonos is very accessible and even for people that visit the island for the first time you don't need any planned excursion . Weather again was very good and we started to walk around the narrow streets. Mykonos is a lovely island with nice restaurants and galaries. 

We went to see the famous windmills and took some panoramic pictures.

After strolling around we went to one of the coffee shops which adjust to the water to drink a Greek coffee and eat some Greek yogurt with honey , it was very good

While seating there we saw one of the famous resident of the Island , he was roaming around between the coffee shops and let people take selfie   with him.

Another island resident complaint about all the tourist 

We continue our trip in the small city also took sellf with the salt chef that was outside of one of his resturants.

We decided to go back to the ship  geting ready for dinner which was again at CK with , once again kept its excellent service and food quality. Really like the CK on this ship. 

We went to see one of the shows , nothing to wrote home about , it was OK. Some more contributions to the RC founds and wrap it with some live music in the music all (and yes also late Pizza and sandwiches) 

Coming back to the room  this guy was waiting for us , we are lucky to have a talented cabin attended 

Tomorrow,  Turkey

 

 

 

[Traveler]

Day 5 -kusadasi

Today we arriving to a new port of call in Turkey,  until now I only done some connections via Istanbul airport never visit it yet so we were happy to try this new port.

As always for a new port we decided to take a ship excursion to get familiar with the port. We decided to take the panoramic Ephesus which takes you to the important locations in the very old area of Ephesus,  as it was going to be very hot the excursion started at 7 am . We drove to Ephesus with a very nice bus while the guide pointing us with several interesting points , this tour is not including entrence to the Ephesus main archeological site and you see it only from the outside which I think is a miss  I hope to fix next time. We stopped near what left from Artemis temple which use to be one of the old 7 wonder of the world , as you can see it was repressed by someone (look on the top of the pool)

we also passed by near Mary house (which some believe she lived after she left the holy land).

The tour was also included a visit to a carpet school which demonstrates how the process silk and weaving the carpets. 

Usually,  such tours are not that good but we both found it to be very interesting.  They also offered some snacks and drinks (including wine and raki). 

After the tour ended we wanted to try some local food and tour the city. We ended up eating some sweet dish and bought some local sweets to bring home , prices are very low and it's a good port for souvenirs. They also sell allot of fake products,  like watches and other stuff, many use this signs to indicate it:

They sure love cats in Turkey and you will see many shops owner attending to the street cats bringing them food and water. Also many cats statues are found around:

We went back to to the ship , while passing via security we saw lots of police officers running and shouting after someone that appeared not local  while  was cursing them. Later we came to know that some crew members, not sure from what ship, tried to buy drugs , unfortunately for them they tried to buy it from undercover officers... I am sure they never saw the oscar winning movie midnight express ... I do hope everything is OK.  Beside that we found this port to be very nice and allot of things to do there, we will surely try to come back.

Later we went to see The book production in 270 , although still die not figure the plot the show was nice.

There are many more sunset picture so for a change here are some moonlight one.

 

 

[Ampurp85]

I never got the plot of the Book, was it entertaining .....yes but also a mess.

[Traveler]

5 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I never got the plot of the Book, was it entertaining .....yes but also a mess.

 Actually the book and the movie was a very bad things to Turkish tourist industry 

[Traveler]

Day 6 Chania, Greece.

The Chania stop was  not planned but added after Salerno port was canceled. That was not a big issue to us although I wanted to have a tour in the Amalfi cost, we'll next time.

There is a shuttle bus that takes you to Chania from the port and its  20 minutes ride . Usually it cost 3 E but this time it was free , maybe due to the last minute port change. Chania is a lovely port city with nice old port and a decent archeological museum.

Chania also a very good place to taste Greek food and for some local shopping. We took the 10 am bus and started to walk into the old port. 

The port:

Water were crystal clear 

Time past fast and we went to catch a snack and headed back to the ship. The last shuttle bus was scheduled to around 2 pm so we opted for the 1 pm bus. It took us some time to find it as many of the streets looks the same but I took a picture of one of the stores next to it which help us to find it. There was a queue of 3 busses by the time we arrived and I guess a 10 busses queue by the time we went on the bus , always it's good idea not to wait for the last minute.  Going back to the ship was fast and we went to El Loco fresh for q quick bite, there are serving sour cream who ever is asking. 

Who said they not allowing pets on board :

For dinner we decided to give a try to the main dining room. Service was good and fast although we have been asked many times were we have been hiding until now. 

The melon avocado salad was very refreshing:

The spicy shrimp was RC spicy level which mean not notable but still good

After dinner we went to see the showgirl show , it was good and we might see it again.

The layer club was next (it was with the captain) followed by the quest , both in 270. The venue was packed and everyone came with high energy, by the way the 270 was always packed , I think some of the activities  needs to move to a bigger place. Our team was doing well (guess who came with cruise compas , extra belt and a 20 Dollar note) but due to unfair judgment we came only in the second place.

Tomorrow sea day.

 

[Sweety]

Thank you for the wonderful pictures. I spent a month in Greece. I love the lemon potatoes. I had a favorite restaurant and they started making them the moment they saw me. I spent some time at the top less beach. That’s another story.

[Traveler]

Day 7 - Sea day.

Today was our second sea day , it was suppose to be a port day but since we had the change in ports we enjoy it. I prefer to end the cruise with a sea day always. Breakfast was in  the diamond club,  following WJ after we spotted people eating cherrys,  as you can see we found the the honeypot:-) , love cherrys 

I went to the captain corner to hear if any new news about one of the projects, nothing really new but still it was interesting at noon time they hosted the nightmare kitchen which was first time for us as they not doing this game on most of the ships. It a compilation between two teams to cook 3 course meal from products they have to collect in 1 minute. In between , the cruise director change the rules like changing products or switch stations. Each team also getting one real chef to work with thenIt was fun but results were already predicted by having one team with children only.

For lunch we went to 270, salds and some melting cheese sandwiches. There was one special show with the ships vocals. Dinner was at the CK again  we were happy to see day one menu appeared with the filet mignon, 

it was called @Lovetocruise2002 night.

Once again service and food was not disappointing.  Next was the Gold Art duo in a 45 minutes acrobatics/ circuses show.  Silent party was organized on  the promenade and it was very busy. We went to pack our luggage and prepare for early embarkation day.

 

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, Traveler said:

Dinner was at the CK again  we were happy to see day one menu appeared with the filet mignon, 

it was called @Lovetocruise2002 night.

Wait? What? Are you on an 8 night cruise? How did that happen?

[Traveler]

56 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Wait? What? Are you on an 8 night cruise? How did that happen?

7 night cruise but I think since they stop serving lobsters maybe they decide to do two nights of the filet... 

[Lovetocruise2002]

36 minutes ago, Traveler said:

7 night cruise but I think since they stop serving lobsters maybe they decide to do two nights of the filet... 

They stopped serving lobster on Odyssey in CK??

[Ampurp85]

OOH I love cherries. 

[Traveler]

9 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

They stopped serving lobster on Odyssey in CK??

Yes , I think they stopped serving it while in Europe. There is still a lobster salad...

[Traveler]

Last day .

We arrived back to Civitavecchia around 5 am.

Our flight was scheduled to 10 am , the next flight was around 10 pm and cost almost twice so we decided take our chance as it was Sunday and not much traffic. We booked a private transfer at 6:45 am . 5:50 am the alarm went on and we start to get organized , we had some fruit from yesterday for breakfast but we also had time for a quick bite at WJ. At 6:30 am the ship was cleared and we took our luggage and went to the terminal.  No queues at all (and no immigration or custom) RC people guided us to the private transfer area just on the right side if the terminal. The driver was already waiting for us and at 6:45 we started our way to the airport.  We used Rome taxi service as we saw here some recommendations , they were not wrong. We arrived to the airport at 7:40 , check in was 5 minutes,  security 7 minutes and passport control was 25 minutes for me and 5 minutes to my spouse that has biometric passport. By that time the flight had 30 minutes delay already and we got more than an hour to spent in the airline  lounge. Flight back was OK (although delayed) and after several hours we were at home. 

Some thoughts 

We loved this itinerary as it had good ship time with port time.

Ship is very nice and look and feel big and not crowded , only thing we were missing was the ice ring. The only venue which I think is over used is the 270 , it's just not big enough for some of the events. Now we need to start our diet for our next cruise. 

 

 

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Thanks for blogging @Traveler! I always enjoy your blogs. Very informative. Picking up little bits of info here and there for our med cruise next year. Have a safe trip back home!

[Traveler]

46 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Thanks for blogging @Traveler! I always enjoy your blogs. Very informative. Picking up little bits of info here and there for our med cruise next year. Have a safe trip back home!

Thanks, we already landed at home yesterday. Rome is much closer for us than Miami. 

Let me know if you have any questions regarding your next year port of calls.

[DDaley]

On 7/1/2023 at 4:10 AM, Traveler said:

While seating there we saw one of the famous resident of the Island , he was roaming around between the coffee shops and let people take selfie   with him.

Wow I can’t believe you met Petros!! I heard all about him when I was there but never saw him. What a handsome fellow!