There's always that moment of truth when you get to your travel destination and you see if its really like all the photos in the brochure. We werent terribly surprised to find that it is exactly like the photos - just beautiful!
The staff is amazing and very friendly. Every cabin on this ship has a balcony - no inside rooms and spacious cabins - one of the reasons we thought it would be a good choice...better than we expected though. Our cabin is just beautiful. We are on the horizon deck at the rear of the ship. Literally our balcony looks out to where we are coming from. Get this - a walk in closet! For the record, both of us unpacked and we still have room in the closet so our attempts to continually edit what we are taking on the trip must have been successful.
We got settled in and decided to explore a bit, we explored the top deck a little - the ship is not a mega huge ship - which is really nice. We know its booked, but there isnt a feeling of crowdedness at all. Our exploration was cut a bit short by the cruise directors announcement (I'm sorry I'm still surprised when the announcement isnt this is Julie McCoy and yes I've dated myself). We needed to return to our rooms and get our life jackets for our lifeboat safety drill. Life jackets are so fashionable. Back up to the lounge, then right hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you as we filed out to the life boats - of course the terminology of "in the unlikely event of an emergency" really helped make us feel all safe and sound, then again, maybe it was the guy sitting with us who was making Titanic and Das Boat references... we all laughed and giggled - the life boats are huge by the way. Over and done with and now out to explore a bit more.
As we set sail, we got a glimpse into the food orgy cruises are known for at the cocktail hour buffet - amazing amazing amazing - although it could have been peanut butter sandwiches - having no clue what day or time it was or what meal we had eaten last we were starving! A few drinks and a little something to eat we walked the deck and met some of the other passengers - especially those we met at the life boat drill now that we were better attired sans orange flotation devices. The views are so pretty - a mix of ancient and new.
Next stop, a reception for people not traveling in groups. We wound up having dinner with a few of the women we met there including two women who are part of the ships production cast - one singer, one dancer. Just so happens that singer is married to the Executive chef of the entire ship - good person to have dinner with dont you think? Great conversation, amazing dinner and a host of tips about the ports we're about to go to.
It's now about 11 p.m. in Greece - makes it 4:00 at home...We've had a total of about 3 hours sleep since Friday morning. What a whirlwind of two days - but we're here and now at sea scheduled to dock at Nafplion in the morning.
Just fantastic!