Tom Burke’s Blog

Another very hot day, this time at Santorini. We went in search of a tender ticket at just after 9am, got one straight away, and were immediately directed down to the tender station on deck 3. It was probably only 5 minutes later that we were sitting in the tender, and another 5 minutes after that we were climbing ashore at the small dock below Fira port. We queued for just 5 minutes for tickets and then for another few minutes before the cable car arrived. Then we walked to the bus station for the bus to Oia, discovered that we would have to wait for 20 minutes and took a taxi instead (€12 on that occasion). And then we just wandered around Oia for a couple of hours, then had a leisurely lunch, eventually got a taxi back to Fira (€15 this time), had a beer in Fira, and were back on the ship by about 3 o’clock. It took about 35 minutes from arriving at the cable-car station on the top to boarding the ship, with several short (5 minutes or so) hold ups at various monents, plus actual travelling times. All in all a really good time ashore.
Now for some calculations about the cable car capacity. I made a few timings. It was about 2 minutes 40 seconds between one set of cars leaving and the other set arriving at the startion, so that’s how long an actual trip lasts. Each car holds a max of 6 people, and there are 6 cars in each train, so that’s 36 people per trip. Then you need to add some time for loading/unloading & supervision. I estimated that with that a complete trip (loading, travelling & unloading) would take 3 minutes. So 20 trips in one direction would mean 20 x 36 = 720. Yikes! – what happened to ‘1200 people an hour’, the stated capacity? Well, of course, while those 720 are going up, another 720 people could be coming down in the other train. That’s actually just over 1400 an hour so perhaps my timings are a bit short: a trip every 3 and a half minutes would be 17 trips in an hour which is just over 600 people. So my conclusion is that the rate at which the cable cars can move people in any one direction is between 600 and 720 an hour, not 1200. This is a crucial point for cruise passengers – there aren’t equal numbers of them wanting to go in either direction at any given time. In the morning they all want to go up, and in the afternoon they all want to come back down. This explains the congestion. So that’s a serious bottle-neck. Get used to the idea of the donkeys, folks!

I was going to give the sort of detailed report today that I’ve been doing so far, but I’ve decided not to. I shall simply report that it’s 7:15 pm, we’re sat out on the port side Promenade Deck as we cruise along the NW coast of Rhodes on our way towards Santorini. It’s warm, there’s a breeze, the sea is looking a bit more lively (nothing significant, just a bit of spray coming off the waves in the breeze), and we’re watching Rhodes slip past us with the setting sun shining full on it. This is what cruising is all about.
(Also – my wife has inisted that I report a sad glitch in cabin provision, specifically in a subject dear to her concerns – the plumbing. The toilet stopped flushing late yesterday afternoon. We reported it and were told that there was a known problem and that it was being fixed. A while later we discovered that it was OK, but then more worryingly another hour or so after that we discovered that it had failed again. Again we reported it, were reassured that it was being fixed, but when we went back to the cabin after dinner it was still broken. So we prowled the ship looking for a working toilet (which we found), and when we returned to the cabin for bed it had been fixed and has been OK today. But it rather did spoil our enjoyment of dinner and the ‘Carnivale’ party on the Resort deck at 10:30. There, dear, I’ve told them…..)

Day 6 – Kusadasi
Turkey today, our first visit to Asia. We were on a 3-hour excursion to Ephesus. Celebrity do a number of these but this one is the shortest and easiest – basically a procession from the top gate down to the bottom gate (maybe three quarters of a mile?), with frequent stops and commentaries.
This was a good visit – the ruins are spectacular, and our guide & his commentary was first-class. The commentary delivery system was excellent – a radio receiver that we were each given and a earpiece, so it wasn’t necessary to be constantly pushing to get close to the guide to hear what was being said. But as ever with these excusions there were so many visitors – I think Celebrity was running about 20 buses to Ephesus that day – that the simple press of people inevitably affects what you get from the site. But those other people were probably saying that about my presence of course – one person’s travelling is another person’s tourism. What it would be like if there were several ships in port together I can’t imagine. (Galaxy is alone in Kusadasi today.)
Then we went to a carpet shop in Kusadasi town where we were treated to a short presentation in which the proprietor explained the history of Turkish carpet-making, and the different types of carpet. We then allowed ourselves to be shown some carpets. They were small (6′ x 4′), they were spectacularly beautiful, they cost €3,600…… We made our apologies and extricated ourselves.
It was very hot again today – last night’s ‘Celebrity Today’ said that the expected temperature in Kusadasi would be 40c/104f, and I’m prepared to believe it. We had planned on going back ashore in the afternoon and maybe going to a beach, but it would have just too hot in the heat of the afternoon so we stayed aboard, and spent several hours on loungers by the covered Oasis pool (with the roof part-retracted again). I had a swim in the main pool, and was able to check the condition of the poolside area. Everything seemed fine to me, and I can report that the hot tubs were working fully. In fact I’ve seen quite a bit of steady maintenance taking place while we’ve been on board. I walked past an open cabin door on deck 8 this morning and saw that the floor carpet was being replaced, and this afternoon I saw that there were several crew members painting the inside steel (below the handrails) on deck 12 or 13. And I’ve also seen a number of ‘wet paint’ / ‘wet varnish’ notices on the open decks in a number of places. So Galaxy is being taken care of.
Rhodes tomorrow, and it’s forecast to be cooler – a mere 29c/89f. Almost cold!

This was a day I had been looking forward to since sailing away last year and, with a change of plans due to the heat, it equalled my hopes.
For those who don’t know it, Mykonos is a very small island – about 10 kms north to south, and maybe 15 kms east to west. Mykonos town is about half way down the west coast and has a classic ‘horseshow’ harbour with buildings all around. There’s a good webcam here: http://www.mykon.net . Galaxy docked at a new cruise ship and ferry port (Tourlos) about 2 kms to the north, and there were shuttle buses (cost: $8 per person) from there to the northern edge of the town.
We got into town at 10am, and wandered around the narrow streets for a while. We were aiming for the windmills above the ‘Little Venice’ area of the town, which we hadn’t reached last year. Well, this year we did but it was very hot & dusty, and a trifle disenchanting to discover that most of the windmills are actually converted into holiday homes. But it was good to walk around Little Venice – we found a few spots we hadn’t been to before, and we also spotted some of the locations used in the final scenes of ‘The Bourne Identity’, one of my favourite films. We found the building where Marie runs a scooter rental and where the meet up at the end of the film, right on the edge of the water, but it’s actually called the ‘Sea Satin Market’. Cue Moby and ‘Extreme Ways’….
Then we went on the bus to Platy Gialos, a family beach on the south of the island (total cost €4.80 for two return journeys). We then hired beach loungers under a sunshade for €10, but found that if we had lunch at the restaurant to which the loungers belonged, the €10 would be knocked off the lunch bill. So we lay on the beach for 90 minutes, I did the ‘Mediterranean Total Immersion’ thing a couple of times, and generally had the most relaxing time of the holiday so far. This was followed by a simple refreshing lunch on the terrace of the beach restaurant with a couple of glasses of wine, and then we bussed back to town, where we had time for a cold beer in Katerina’s Bar in Little Venice. Then a long walk back round the harbour to the shuttle bus, and back to the ship. It’s very very hot again today, and our original plan was to spend time in the town followed by lunch and hit the beach in the afternoon, but it would have been too hot for us – temps were expected to reach 36 degrees, somewhere in the mid-90s. But I don’t think it’s been quite so humid this last couple of days.
One more thing – the price Celebrity is charging for water is annoying. We paid $3.75 + 15% gratuity per bottle for 1 litre bottles of Evian before leaving for Corinth yesterday. That was probably unavoidable. But today my wife bought a 1.5 litre bottle of water from the beach supermarket for €0.90. So if you can, buy your water when you go ashore.

Did I say it was expected to be hot today? It didn’t disappoint.
We had already decided not to do the Acropolis, etc, in central Athens – I felt that that choice was always likely to be hot & hard. So we went to Corinth, for a cruise on the Corinth Canal & a visit to the ruins of Ancient Corinth.
This was a good excursion, albeit with a 75-minute drive in each direction. The canal cruise was especially good – a quick cruise around in the open sea first, then a leisurely cruise up the canal to the far end, followed by a charge back down at some speed. The boat had an open upper deck, open bow & stern lower decks, and an inside saloon. Refreshements (‘mezes’) were served, but it was perhaps too soon and I didn’t participate. Cruising along the canal was very impressive, especially through the stretch with the highest walls (120 feet, I think) as Mariella our guide explained the history of failed attempts to build a canal across the isthmus, back to classical times.
Then we moved on to Ancient Corinth. This is basically an archaeological site with some interesting & photogenic ruins and a small but informative museum. The pottery, mosaic & other ceramics displayed here were very attractive, and brought home just how advanced in some of the technologies of civilisation the classical greeks were, 2,500 years ago. By this time it was getting hot, however, so when we moved outside the Celebrity umbrellas were unfurled (thank you for the idea, Stuart), people were moving from one patch of shade to another, and I’m afraid that even Mariella’s enthusiasm couldn’t inspire me to fully grasp the exact relationship between the Agora and other parts of the site.     Then back to the coach. We broke our journey  for 30 minutes at a spot where the main road crosses the canal, and were able to take pictures down into it. This was also a spot for refreshments & restrooms, and after that we went back to the ship arriving at about 3:20. Enroute the external temperature display in the coach reached 40 degrees several times – that’s about 104 degrees fahrenheit.

This was another hot & humid day, so we just took it very easy. We sat inside next to the Oasis pool for several hours (and they opened the magradome roof part-way!), then in the late afternoon went down to the Promenade deck on the north side where there was a bit of breeze and lots of shade. One indication of just how hot it is, is that the open deck at the back of the Oasis Pool (right aft on deck 11), which last year was one of our favourite spots and was always crowded, is generally deserted this year – it’s too hot in the open sun.
Formal night tonight, and I have to say that I was impressed with the degree of observance. I didn’t notice anybody dressed completely against the policy, and I would say that among the men there was a high proportion wearing DJs/tuxedos. And a lot of ladies in very glamourous evening wear. One additional point on the dress code, taken from the ‘Activities & Events’ sheet, ‘Daily Dining Choices’: ‘Casual Dining Boulevard’ , which means Casual Dining (by reservation, 6pm – 10pm) and Sushi Cafe (5pm – 10pm): “The Dress Code is casual every day. Although in all other areas the dress code of the evening applies. We ask for your cooperation & consideration for your fellow guests.”.
Unfortunately, however, both I and my wife were not impressed with the actual dinner. The appetizer was excellent, but the salad was very unimaginative – just a big chunk of lettuce and some large tomato slices. Then my wife’s shrimp entree (Shrimp Marseillaise?) was disappointing – about 4 little shrimps, a bit of sauce & a few mushrooms, a lot of stodgy rice, and quite a bit of not-fully-cooked brocoli. I had the pasta which was OK, but not especially exciting (and I recognise that it was partly my fault for selecting the pasta on a formal night).
Athens tomorrow, and it’s going to be very hot again. Stuart (CD) made an announcement at dinner (!) warning everyone about the expected heat, and advising us to take lots of water & also take the umbrellas & use them as parasols.

Day 2 Afternoon: ‘Taormina on your own’ excursion.
This afternoon we went to Taormina on a bus, walked around for three hours, and got the bus back. This was hot, hot, hot – temperature well into the 90s, and very humid. We had intended to visit the Greco-Roman amphitheatre, but it was too hot to contemplate. So we walked very gently up Corso Umberto (the main street), walked back a bit, then found an open-air restaurant on a side street where we had leisurely lunch, then strolled aorund a bit more, then found a shady spot, sat down, sweated, and waited for the end of the excursion – it really was that hot. By three o’clock even the restaurants were closing, and by the last 45 minutes it had all become a bit of an endurance event. This was a pity as there are many interesting shops and other buildings in Taormina. But it was too hot to appreciate any of it.    Actually, the drive to & from was quite spectacular – it’s along a motorway which is cut into the mountainside, and which proceeds through tunnels and aver viaducts. When it turns off to get up to Taormina the road spirals round and round in order to gain the height (hundreds of feet) and some of the views on the outer edges of the spirals are really very impressive.
And I should say that our guide was a pleasant & friendly young woman, a language student, who gave us a lot of information (in pretty good english) about Sicily & Messina, and about the places we were passing by. On the way beack she mainly played (by request) a CD of italian music; some peope were humming along, and others were snoring along….

Day 2 morning – Early Rising & Cruise Critics Party
I was awake at just after 6am and went up on deck just after 6:30. The joggers were out in force! It was already hot, and also very humid: when I took out my camera the lens steamed up immediately. But we were sailing steadily southwards. At about 8:30 or so we went past Stromboli, I think. But it was very misty and hazy, so it was hard to be certain.   During the morning I sorted out the connection of my MacBook to the on-board network, and also bought a package of minutes. We qualified for a discount (being Captains Club members) of, I think, 10%, but this was given to us as 10% extra minutes, not 10% off the price! I bought 125 minutes (+10%) for $60, which works out to about $0.44 a minute, or around 25p in English money.
Interestingly I had to use Internet Explorer (*not* Safari) to set up the account – apparently the PHP web app that controls it expects, and can only cope with, IE. But it was perfectly happy with my old IE 5.2 Mac version, so it suspect it’s a perfectly arbitrary decision. I think that’s the first time I’ve run IE on this (December 2006) machine. But thereafter I was able to use Safari.
Then we went to to the Cruise Critics party where we met Rich and his wife, and one or two other people. At 10am, the party due time, there were just 6 of us there! But we had an interesting chat with Stuart the CD plus one of his staff. Then he had to leave at 10:30 as we were approaching the Straits of Messina and he was due on the bridge to make an annoucement or two. After he left several other Cruise Critic people arrived. It was especially good to meet Cass and her husband, who gave us an update on her father-in-law’s trip after the passport worries the week before they set off.
Then an early snack at 11:30 (made-to-order omelette at the omelette bar – excellent!) to give us time to prepare for our 12:15 gathering for the afternoon excursion: ‘Taormina on your own’.

Well, a long and tiring day. We rose in our Heathrow hotel at 3:45(!) in order to get a taxi at 4:45, in order to check in at 5:05 for our flight to Rome at 7:05. No problems encountered, just the usual Heathrow palaver, including two security checks. We arrived at Rome at 10:45 or so Rome time, queued for ages to get through passport control, then found our bags and a Celebrity rep in quick order. After a bit of a delay hanging around in the terminal we were shown to an already almost full coach, with a lot of obviously very tired and very hot passengers who had just flown in from the US that morning. The weather in Rome was very hot (above 90 degrees) and humid, and the bus’s airconditioning didn’t seem to be working. At about 20 minutes to 12 we set off, and were going well until about 45 minutes later when, at the Civitavecchia South exit on the motorway, the coach headed straight through the toll gateway, the barrier went up, and then dropped back down straight in front of the coach. Result: Coach 1, Toll Barrier nil. Unfortunately however the driver then had to wait for the police to arrive so he could report it, and this took about 35 minutes; and by the end of this time some passengers who had earlier decided that they could get to Civitavecchia without using the restrooms at Leonardo da Vinci airport were discovering the error of that decision. So a further pause ensued while people were allowed off to, err, answer nature’s call.
We eventually arrived at the quayside at 1:45, about 2 hours after leaving the airport. After that, actual embarkation went very smoothly – we were on the ship in 10 minutes or so. That free glass of fizz was especially welcome.
First report on Galaxy’s condition: the refurbishment work (carpets, general painting, etc) is obvious, and she looks in better condition cosmetically than last year. With one sad exception, however: the windows in the Stratosphere Lounge, the far-famed Portals of Obscurity, have not been replaced and in fact look worse than a year ago. Not so good, that one.
Later: one thing we have noticed, and which was reinforced as we were waiting to go to dinner, is that the age range this summer seems much wider than last year (we did almost the same cruise last year, but in early June). This year there seem to be many more younger people, including some groups of young adults & adolescents. Also more children.
Dinner was good, as we expected. Our dinner companions include a couple from Perth, Western Australia, and another couple from Ottowa, Canada (although the man is actually from Italy). We had some good conversation. But we were tired after the long day & didn’t linger.
Tomorrow promises to be hot for our afternoon in Taormina, from Messina, where Galaxy will dock at noon.

We start the cruise on Friday – 10 nights around the eastern Mediterranean. And the temperatures in that region have gone sky-high. Messina (where we’ll be on Saturday) apparently hit 40 degrees today, and is forecast to stay in the very high 30s for the rest of the week. I enjoy good weather, but this may be too much. I’ve been reviewing our choice of excursions in view of these temperatures and I don’t think we’ll be too bad: we’re not going into Athens on Monday (expected high Sunday: 38!) so we won’t be tramping around the Acropolis in the heat, and similarly we aren’t going to Pompeii. We are supposed to be going to Ephesus; we’ll see how we feel about that when the day comes (and it might have cooled down a bit by then anyway). We are going to Taormina (near Messina) on Saturday, and we shall just have to take things very steadily when we do.