Day 13 (Friday, May 26, 2023) - Naples, Italy, Celebrity Beyond 12 night Mediterranean Cruise

 Day 13 – Naples (May 26, 2023)

Our last port of call on this cruise was Naples. We had a tour scheduled today with Kensington but Tim decided to stay on board for this last day with Lisa so the tour was just Seth and I. It took a little while to find our guide at the cruise terminal – it was a bit of a madhouse with a ton of people getting off 2 ships, tour groups standing around, and tour guides holding up various signs. I walked back and forth several times for about 20 minutes before finally finding our guide. For some reason, even though I was the main contact booking all of our tours, our tour guides all had “Teske” on their signs and I expected this last tour to be the same but, no, of course, this time the guide had “Hodge” written on a sign.

We met our guide Carmen and driver, Antonio. We had been to Naples 15 years ago and did the Pompeii tour and enjoyed a wonderful homemade lunch by a family that grew their own olives, made their own mozzarella, and had a vineyard – we had high hopes for the same. Our first stop was Ravello – Carmen’s favorite town. We got to Ravello via the highway because Carmen felt that traffic was going to be really bad. In Ravello, Antonio dropped us off and we walked to the public square in Ravello, stopped to use the bathroom, and had some coffee and a breakfast roll at a small cafe.

We then walked across the square to the Cathedral of San Pantaleone, down the street to an overlook and then met up with Antonio and drove to Amalfi where we visited the town square and Duomo di Amalfi. This Cathedral was magnificent.

                            

We walked about half a mile to the far end of Amalfi where we had lunch at Lo Smeraldino. It was a nice day and we sat out on the balcony where I had pan-fried eggplant parmigiana cooked in a wood oven (so good!). I had a good amount of Seth’s octopus salad too. We shared the Linguine pasta “Afeltra” with fresh lobster and a bottle of “Per Eva” white wine. The food was really good but a bit on the pricey side.

After lunch, we drove from Amalfi to Positano and this is where the roads got really interesting. Huge tour buses battled with local city buses (also huge) to make their way in opposite directions on the narrow, winding roads that make up the Amalfi Coast. The scenery was gorgeous but I couldn’t imagine living in this area between the traffic, the tourists, and the crazy landscape. Antonio dropped us off after expertly navigating these teeny streets and we walked down to the beach. We had mentioned to Carmen that we needed to be back on the Beyond by 5:30 pm and it was already almost 4 pm by the time we used the bathroom and grabbed a Positano magnet. The drive back to the cruise terminal would take about 75 minutes (in favorable traffic) so we were worried that we would be cutting it close. Fortunately, there were hordes of people still getting back on the ship when we got back to the terminal and we still had about 20 minutes to spare.

We had dinner reservations at Fine Cut again for 6 pm. It was just Tim, Lisa, Seth, and I for dinner, though. Wade wasn’t feeling well. I had the arugula salad again which was delicious, shared a ribeye with Seth, and had the truffle fries. The food was delicious again and I didn’t feel super stuffed this time like I was the last time.

We returned to our cabins and had to pack. They wanted our suitcases outside our cabins by 10:30 pm for pick up. Our tag numbers were 2 and, being suite guests, we were invited to breakfast at Luminae and could disembark any time we wanted to after 6:45 am. Fortunately, I had brought along an Adventures by Disney duffel bag and we used that to put our overnight stuff in (Seth’s CPAP machine, makeup, Pjs, etc) to carry off the ship.

Next post:  Day 14 - Saturday, 5/17/23 – Civitavecchia to Rome

Day 12 (Thursday, May 25, 2023) - Sea Day, Celebrity Beyond 12 night Mediterranean Cruise

 Day 12 – Sea Day (May 25, 2023)

I woke up this morning thinking it was past 7 am but forgot that our clocks went back an hour overnight so I changed and headed to the fitness center for a little bit. I had to have the eggs in purgatory again for breakfast at Luminae and then we all went and hung out in the Retreat lounge after I stopped at Cafe al Bacio for a Highlander Cappuccino. I did some work and caught up on my travel blog, spoke with concierge at the lounge about the booking we made the other night (they didn’t give us the right on board credits), and caught up on some emails. This was the first day, though, that I wasn’t able to login to our EHR server. I did run downstairs once back to Cafe al Bacio to get a Cafe Ole. Deck 4 was super crowded and the shops were teeming with passengers.

We had lunch at Raw on 5 and I had the teriyaki chicken, broccoli and rice which was pretty good. It’s the first time I’ve ever had teriyaki chicken on the bone. I’m not a fan of just boiled rice, though, and prefer steamed rice that’s more “sticky”. The broccoli was undercooked too.

Spent most of the afternoon catching up on my travel blog and updating our expenses worksheet. I had, prior to leaving on our trip, labeled snack bags with each tour we were taking so I could divide out the USD and Euros we had to pay for tipping. In the end, this worked out just easier for everyone to have all the tips planned out instead of each of us asking one another how much we were going to tip the guide/driver each time. Kensington sent a very detailed guide for every port we were in and it included typical tipping guidelines. In general, I tipped about $20 per person to the guide and about $10 per person to the driver. Some days, Lisa and Wade returned to the ship a little early or didn’t participate in the tour at all so I tweaked the amount we tipped each day.

We decided to have dinner at Fine Cut on Friday night but, for some reason, we were booked for Le Voyage on the app and it wouldn’t let me change our reservation so I caught Teo when she dropped off our afternoon snack to switch our reservations for us. She said only 3 of us were scheduled for Le Voyage and that she did go ahead and change all 5 of us to Fine Cut instead.

After cocktails at the martini bar, we had dinner this evening at Cyprus – one of the 4 main dining rooms where you don’t need a reservation. We were seated immediately. I had the kale salad which was really strange.  It had a lemon vinaigrette dressing but it tasted oily with no real lemon flavor - or any flavor at all, for that matter.    I then had the mezze board which was ok.  I didn't care for the dolmas - they weren't nearly as good as the ones we had in that taverna in Crete.  For an entree, I went with the grilled octopus which was good but in hindsight, I should have had something more substantial because I woke up hungry in the middle of the night. 

Next post:  Day 13 - Friday, 5/26/23 - Naples

 

Day 11 (Wednesday, May 24, 2023) - Athens, Greece, Celebrity Beyond 12 night Mediterranean Cruise

 Day 11 – Athens, Greece (May 24, 2023)

We had breakfast in Luminae again and this time, I tried the Eggs in Purgatory which were quail eggs served on top of a San Marzano tomato and red pepper “stew” with sourdough toast. This became my favorite breakfast.

We met up with Chrysanthi at the terminal who took us to the Acropolis. She explained a ton of Greek history to us. The Acropolis had changed a lot since the first time we visited. We climbed the steps up to the ruins (I think Tim was having PTSD flashbacks to Santorini) past the Odeon theater and I was relieved to see that they had paved the pathways at the top. One thing I vividly remember from 15 years ago was how treacherous and slippery the marble was having been finely polished to a shine by the hundreds of thousands of tourists they have every year. The Parthenon was still covered by scaffolding which, Chrysanthi said is now permanent. There was still a lot of restoration and excavation going on. The day was beautiful but just a smidge hot in the sun. We walked from the Acropolis down past another theater and ancient hospital to the New Acropolis museum. Chrysanthi pointed out that the top of the museum is offset from the rest of the structure so that it was exactly parallel to the Parthenon and was the same dimension and size as the Parthenon so it gave visitors a reference point for comparison. We spent about 1.5 hours in the museum which isn’t even close to the amount of time you would need to really see the whole thing.

We then took a driving tour of Athens and then got dropped off at the cruise terminal.

Dinner was at the Rooftop Garden Grill which is located outside on deck 15. It was pleasant, mostly shielded from the wind, but when the ship started moving, it cooled down quickly. The restaurant does offer blankets for diners. I had the seasonal vegetable crudite which included labneh (greek yogurt), hummus, and babaganoush (I love eggplant!) – it was delicious. Seth’s smoked chicken wings with dry rub was also really good as were Wade’s pulled pork sliders. I was so happy to see baked potatoes on the menu that I just ordered a ½ rack of “wet” ribs so I could have the meat on top of my baked potato. The waiter, however, did go ahead and bring us one of each side just like at Eden and Fine Cut. Everything we had was delicious – even Wade’s double-cut pork chop which was some of the most tender pork I’ve ever had. I had almost no room for dessert but did enjoy a glass of Rosa Regale after our meal. 

Next post:  Day 12 - Thursday, 5/25/23 - SeaDay 

Day 10 (Tuesday, May 23, 2023) - Kusadasi, Turkey, Celebrity Beyond 12 night Mediterranean Cruise

 Day 10 – Kusadasi, Turkey (May 23, 2023)

We were scheduled to visit Ephesus (Selcuk) today and, after breakfast in Luminae, met our guide, Huseyin, at the terminal just before 9:30 am. We boarded our van and headed out to visit the House of Virgin Mary first which, once we reached the entrance, I remembered that we had visited this site before. The line was long but it moved pretty quickly. The day was perfect – overcast and cool. We walked through the house that the Virgin Mary was reputed to have lived in during her last days (no photography was allowed) – where St John had brought her after the crucifixion. 

Our next stop was the ruins at Ephesus where we spent about 1.5 hours. Huseyin took us to see a few things that we didn’t get to see the first time we were at these ruins and pointed us to some of the better vantage points and photo spots.

After visiting Ephesus, Huseyin took us to the Agora restaurant for lunch where I had the mezes platter (including yummy eggplant) and the spicy kebab. The food was pretty good and “spicy” wasn’t really very spicy at all. There were quite a few cats hanging out at the restaurant and I couldn’t help but slip them some meat morsels. Kusadasi not only had the cats that we’ve been seeing all week but also quite a few dogs. Huseyin told us that the government would round up the dogs and make sure they were all vaccinated – marking them with a tag on their ear. The Turkish people provide them with food, water and shelter everywhere and, of course, the tourists help too.

After lunch, we went by the Basilica of St John as Huseyin explained the history of this site to us. I have to say that Huseyin was the best tour guide we had during our entire trip. When we told him we weren’t interested in buying a rug or going shopping, he was cool with it and didn’t try to push us. He seemed to genuinely enjoy spending time with us and showing us his country and had a special interest in the etymology so he taught us a lot about the origin of some English words. He also introduced us to the Turkish terms “shadap” (wine) and “kanka” (equivalent to “dude” or “bro”). We got a good laugh at how closely these terms resembled “shut up” and “canker” or “chancre”.

On our way back to the terminal, we saw more stork nests which were huge at the top of light poles and other columns around Kusadasi. 

For dinner, we decided to try one of the main dining restaurants. Joyce and Perter had recommended Normandie so we headed down (after cocktails at the Martini Bar) to just about the only part of the ship we hadn’t seen yet and got in pretty immediately. Dinner was really good for a main dining room.

We decided over dinner that we would book our next Celebrity cruise in 2024 to the Norwegian Fjords so Wade, Lisa, and I went to the Future Cruises desk and got it booked. We got 3 Sky Suites all next to each other on deck 10 mid near the elevators on the Apex for July 20-27. The premium internet and liquor packages were included as were gratuities. The price was the same but the perk for booking early on board was that the deposit was $100 per person instead of $500 (non-refundable) and we got an additional $250 on board credit per stateroom.  

Next post:  Day 11 -Wednesday, 5/24/23 - Athens