10-26/27/28-2022: At Sea and Santorini

We spent 3 great days on the ship, 2 of them we practically had the place to ourselves as everyone else went off on excursion. On Wednesday, after our long Jerusalem excursion, we decided to not do another Jerusalem excursion. And the logistics of doing something on our own from Ashdod didn’t seem practical, requiring a shuttle bus to central Ashdod and then figuring out how to get someplace by public transport. So we relaxed and enjoyed simply being lazy and hanging out on the ship. The evening’s entertainment was singer Michele Moten and she was really wonderful. She sang mostly standards from the Great American Songbook and was very good. She’s had a 30-year music career, reinventing herself many time over. The story of her journey was inspirational.

Thursday was a scheduled day at sea as we departed Ashdod, Israel for the Greek Isle of Santorini. We spent time talking with women with whom we’ve enjoyed meeting. It’s nice to sit and chat during and after breakfast or lunch or just hang out and watch what everyone else is doing.

Thursday evening we had a reservation at one of the two specialty restaurants on the ship. We went to Aquilina, an Italian restaurant. We enjoyed our meal, especially the surprise tiramisu that arrived before the dessert course as an extra, not that we needed two desserts, but it was out of this world.

We arrived in Santorini early Friday morning. We were one of 7 ships anchored just off the island, two of the ships were huge, having over 5,000 passengers each. With that many tourists taking the cable car up to the town of Fira, we decided to skip the crowds and spend another day on the ship, again, practically on our own. We visited Santorini on our Venice to Athens cruise in 2018, so we didn’t feel it necessary to go up to the town again.

We enjoyed marveling at the scenery. You can’t quite believe your eyes seeing all the white buildings across the tops of the mountain peaks and hanging off the sides of the mountains. Our anchorage was between Santorini and another small island that was a national park. It did not appear to be inhabited, at least not on the side we saw, but we enjoyed seeing and hearing all the birds swooping along the shoreline. And off in the distance there is another island having a mountaintop village with a winding white road down the mountain to the sea. I remember it so distinctly from our visit in 2018.

We lazed the day away, soaking in the hot tub and lying out on the pool deck. There was a very strong wind so the ship’s flags were snapping in the breeze and we had to coverup while lying on the loungers by the pool. One of the things we watched was a bunch of crew members working on the string of lights that goes across the ship from forward to aft. They had the string down on the deck and were replacing bulbs and mending the electrical cord. Then guys climbed up the antennae stack aft and the chimney stack forward and hoisted up the string of lights. The guys up high were in precarious positions trying to get the string positioned correctly. But job well done and we applauded the crew when the job was finished. The crew is mostly Southeast Asian and we’ve been impressed by how cheerful they are. Service staff in the restaurants are anxious to chat with you, I think because they are practicing their English. I imagine, the better their English, the more opportunities they have for advancement. Most of the staff we spoke with like working for Azamara, which was nice to hear.

For dinner we went to the main restaurant with women from the Lifeboat group. We hadn’t made it to the main restaurant all week, preferring the buffet meals in the cafe. It was a really good dinner and an enjoyable way to end the week. After dinner we went to the show, Roxanna Ward. We’ve seen her several times as she’s been doing Olivia tours for 30 years. Although she never has much new material in the way of songs, her constant chattering is very entertaining. We enjoyed her very much, especially the song she does about 18 wheels on a big rig, which she gets the audience to sing in different languages, counting to 18. The part that totally cracks we up is when she says let’s sing it in Roman numerals, counting to 18.

So at the end of Friday, we had to pack and get our luggage out the door by 11:00 p.m. for pickup. It’s always a job to plan well enough to have what you need for the morning but not have too much stuff that you can’t pack it in your carry on. I think we did okay with that.

Saturday, it’s disembarkation from the ship, an airport transfer by bus, and then our flight from Athens to JFK. Makes for a very long day. Then Saturday night well stay at a Hampton at JFK Airport, and then Sunday we’ll go to Roosevelt Island and spend a night there at the Graduate Hotel. We’ll be meeting up with another college friend of Christine’s, Joe Aboulafia. Should be fun to catch up with him and tell him all about our visit with Carol, who he also knows.

Then it’s home, sweet home on Monday, October 31, taking the bus from Port Authority. I think we’re both looking forward to being home. It’s been a wonderful trip, but there’s no place like home.