Day 3~ Santorini, Greece
Day 3 was a bit of a different kind of day. The first half was still at sea and we arrived at Santorini, Greece in the early afternoon. It was an absolutely awesome day though; one I know the kids will remember and talk about for years to come.
The morning started with the usual get up, get ready, buffet breakfast. It’s always nice when everyone can get exactly what they want and no one is left still hungry (and I didn’t have to cook!) Especially when you have a busy day ahead.
The rest of the morning consisted of walking around the ship with no specific plan. There is always something going on all over! Because the ship anchors in the bay at Santorini and not at the dock, guests have to be tendered by boat in groups to the island. Corey made sure to go pick up tender tickets for us early so we wouldn’t have to wait too long after arriving to get on shore.
After lunch, we saw we were getting close to the island, so we returned to our cabin to watch our arrival from the balcony. Once we were anchored, we filled our water bottles and headed to one of the lounge areas to hear when our tender ticket number was called to get to the Fira Port.
This is where the fun began. Santorini is one island of a chain in a volcanic caldera, with a steep face to the island. There are 3 ways to get from the port at the bottom to the town of Fira, the capital of Santorini, at the top. You can walk the nearly 600 steps to the top, ride in a cable car, or ride a donkey. We chose the latter to get to the top.
S went from excited to terrified about a quarter of the way up; she is still convinced the donkey tried to kill us! C on the other hand, enjoyed every minute of the ride and wanted to keep going!
The donkeys go up and down all day long, so they know exactly what they are doing and are stubborn. They will take no steering from you and push their way right through people walking up and down the stairway. And they have no qualms about walking right along the edge where you feel like you are going to fall over the edge any minute.
The view up is breathtaking! And a great thing about not needing to guide the donkeys is that your hands are free to take pictures of those aforementioned breathtaking views.
Santorini is the island most people think of when thinking of Greece. The white walls and buildings with the blue roofs and pools interspersed facing out towards the caldera. Fira is an incredibly busy town with multiple cruise ships anchored. There were many restaurants and shops to see as you walked through, but we decided to make our way to the town of Oia at the northern part of the island.
We took a local bus that wound its way through the countryside of the island. It was interesting to see such a vastly different part of the island, one not bustling with tourists like us.
Oia was much like Fira in the look of the buildings but didn’t seem quite as crowded. The views were still stunning, with plenty of shops to peruse for souvenirs, and restaurants to try if you wanted. We had eaten lunch on the ship and weren’t hungry, mostly thirsty from the heat; we were going through the water in our water bottles quickly.
Many of the shops were set into the cliffside, practically underground. This makes sense though when you figure it helps keep the inside areas cooler and air conditioning is not as common throughout Europe as it is in the U.S.
By early evening, both kids were getting quite tired from all the walking and we decided it was time to return to the ship. Instead of the donkeys, we took the cable car down, much to S’s relief.
We took the tender boat back to the ship and went swimming for a little bit before dinner.
Afterward, we let the kids return to the kid’s clubs and Corey and I went to the evening variety show performance in the theater.
By the time we all returned to the cabin for a well-earned night’s sleep, I think we were all nearly sleepwalking!
This is Part 3 of Review: 11-Night Eastern Mediterranean Cruise with Celebrity Cruises: Read other parts below:
Part 1-Civitavecchia & Check-in
Part 2- At Sea
Part 3- Santorini, Greece
Part 4- At Sea/Istanbul, Turkey
Part 5- Istanbul, Turkey/At Sea/Kusadasi, Turkey
Part 6- Mykonos, Greece
Part 7- Piraeus (Athens), Greece
Part 8- At Sea
Part 9- Amalfi Coast/Sorrento/Pompeii, Italy
Part 10- Disembark Civitavacchia & Wrap-up
(This was NOT a sponsored post.)
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