We were able to go back to sleep for a few hours, finish packing, eat breakfast at the hotel, and then we were picked up by Rome Transporter car service to take us to Civitavecchia to the port. It was about an hour drive with overcast skies so we were hoping the rest of the storms were going to pass. The process in the port was very smooth, thanks to our driver. We were on the ship within 10 minutes of arriving with our two bottles of wine from Rome in our carry-on.
The ship was beautiful! You looked in one direction and it was sunny skies. You turned the other way and it looked like a tornado was coming our way. And then it just passed. We grabbed some food at the Windjammer for lunch then changed in our bathing suits to lay out in the sun and swim. Our room wasn't ready yet so I'm glad we packed all our pool stuff in our carry-on.
Later in the afternoon when our room was ready, we went to check it out and got changed back into clothes for the Sail Away Party. It was pretty choppy the first evening and the first full day at sea going through the Straits of Messina because of the storms earlier on Sunday morning, but it didn't bother us much. We ate dinner at the Windjammer because we didn't feel like dressing up to eat in the dining room. We played in the casino for a while and wandered around the ship before heading to bed.
Monday morning, on our full day at sea, I got my butt up and went to the gym to run on the treadmill. It felt good to exercise after not exercising for almost a week. We ate at the Windjammer for breakfast and decided to be pool bums most of the day. We got great chairs near the main pool and enjoyed swimming, laying in the sun, and people watching.
In the afternoon we decided to head over to bingo and boy, I'm glad we did! We bought the deluxe bingo package so we could split the cards. They did 3 games and on the second game, four corners, we won! So did someone else so we had to split the cost, but it was still $250 and a heck of a way to start our time in Greece!
It was the first formal night so we went back to the room to rest for a bit and then got ready for dinner. We ate in the dining room at the first seating, 6pm and I enjoyed a steak dinner and we split a bottle of wine. It was a beautiful sunset out on the deck after dinner and then we changed into comfortable clothes to hit up the casino again.
Tuesday morning we had a late start getting into Santorini so we enjoyed another breakfast in the Windjammer and some time at the pool before showering and getting ready to tender into Santorini. I stepped out onto our balcony around noon to be completely surprised to see the caldera! I got all teary eyed. It was on our bucket list to go to Greece and a destination I never thought I'd actually get to. To see it in person for the first time was breathtaking.
The tender ride was pretty short and we were taken to Fira. Our plan was to take a boat over to Oia right away with bus transportation back to Fira later in the afternoon. We found a company with a pretty cheap price and were boarded onto a boat. We waited for probably 20 minutes in the hot blazing sun waiting to head over to Oia and we were losing our patience, but we chatted with some people from our ship that helped the time pass. And then we were there - in Oia! And it was everything!
The boat dropped us off in Ammoudi Bay where we had to walk up the hill to catch a bus that would drive us closer into Oia. I got my picture of the octopus hanging to dry in the sun that I saw all over the internet when googling information about Santorini! Once in Oia we stumbled around street by street, weaving our way around trying to find the blue domes and spots to get good pictures. I'm going to be honest. It was hot. Like sitting on the face of the sun, hot. And it was crowded. And people were posing in the most ridiculous positions to get the perfect Instagram picture. It was a lot to take in.
We knew we needed to get out of the heat and sun so we found a place to sit down and have some beer while connecting to Wi-Fi. We ended up catching the boys just before they were going to camp in the morning, thanks to the 7 hour time difference. They were excited to hear from us and while it felt weird to Facetime in a cafe overlooking the most picturesque place, it was nice to check-in. This was also when we discovered that Greece is known for their stray cat population...
We walked around a bit more, popping into shops and trying to find some gifts to bring home and then we went back to the bus stop to head over to Fira. In Fira we did some more wandering and shopping. We stopped in another small bar to have some Santorini Brewing Company beers and to get out of the heat. And finally, it was time for our sunset dinner reservation at Metropolis Str.
This dinner spot was fantastic! I can totally see why it was the number 2 restaurant in Fira. We reserved our table months in advance to ensure we had a sunset view and it did not disappoint. I got chicken slouvaki and Scott had prawns for dinner. I wasn't in the mood for wine so I got a Coke Zero and it came in the cutest glass bottle! And of course, for dessert we had to have the baklava, which was amazing and served with pistachio ice cream. The sunset was incredible! Unfortunately, my allergies were horrible. Maybe it was the cats? Through all the sniffing and sweating I did, I still really enjoyed our dinner.
We opted to take the 582 steps down the caldera to get back into Old Port for the ship since the cable car line was quite long. This was not my favorite. The steps were oddly shaped and were covered in donkey poop. Scott was rushing me down all the steps, worried we were going to miss the last tender, but we made it with plenty of time to spare. And had he not been holding my hand, I would have fallen at least two times. Ugh! But, our time in Santorini came to a close and we were back on the ship ready to call it a night.
Wednesday morning we arrived in Mykonos and we had an early excursion time to take a transfer to Elia Beach. Ship excursions met in the Coral Theater so we were ready to roll in our beach attire for the day. Another quick tender took us into port and we got on a bus, after walking through the town in port, to take us to the beach. We were able to rent chairs and an umbrella for 40 euros and while the beach was very rocky and rough on the feet, it was beautiful to look at the Mediterranean Sea felt amazing!
The bus took us back into town where we had time to grab lunch at a cute restaurant hidden around a corner. The food was pretty good and the beer was cold; hard to complain about that. We walked through the streets after lunch to shop for a bit before heading back onto the ship to lay out at the pool the rest of the afternoon.
It was another dinner in the dining room tonight so we put on some nicer clothes and enjoyed touring more parts of the ship that we hadn't ventured much to. It was a fun evening! But, we had an early start the next morning in Athens so we made our way back to our room to call it a night.
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