Greece

Early Start! Up at 6am to shower as we had to be out of our cabins by 7am. Made the deadline easily, then up to buffet breakfast in the restaurant. Breaky again not too crash hot! Disembarked ~7:30, found our bags then a taxi back to Syntagma Square. The Taxi driver tried to rip us off - said 25 Euro fixed fare - but we knew better! A board inside the port said fare should be 8 - 12 Euro, hence we insisted he use the meter! Final fare was 18 Euro - taxi driver was quite nice, talkative, but hard to understand!
Went to the hotel expecting to leave our bags - but our room was ready (8am)! The hotel was fully booked, so we were upgraded from a standard room to a suite (king bed, separate lounge, balcony, spa bath) - puts all the other rooms to shame! Napped till noon as very little sleep on the final cruise night.
Lunch at Maccas! Meredith had a cheeseburger and nuggets, Will had a 'Chicken Mythic McMenu' then caught the metro to Akropoli station for some sightseeing. First to Hadrian's Arch, then 12 Euro each to see Temple of Olympian Zeus. Large monument but now falling apart. Then across to Panathinaikon Stadium - massive 70000 seat stadium open at one end. Walked back through the National Garden where we spotted some turtles in a pond. Then to the Acropolis & Theatre of Dionyses. Both very large, but due to restoration work mostly covered in scaffolding which ruined it a little! Enjoyed the excellent panoramic views of Athens - then back down to the Metro and to our hotel.
We attempted to go to a restaurant for dinner, but 40 minutes of walking yielded no results - only a few cafes which had small menus! Ended up eating toasted sandwhiches from a place called 'Everest' - very crazy & they stuffed up both our orders!
Overall our opinion of Athens is low! Language barrier is high, the city is dirty, everyone smokes (yes, indoors - and yes, in enclosed food areas!) and people try and take advantage of us foreigners!

We woke up at 7am - for Meredith to set foot on the floor in ankle-deep water & asked Will whether the ship was sinking and we just hadn't been told! We threw some clothes on and figured it was coming from our bathroom. Meredith needed to go to the bathroom so she ducked upstairs while Will located Min, our cabin steward who called the head cabin steward and the crew to do a plumbing job - turns out the deck's main drain pipe was blocked & obviously the next outlet was our shower drain which flooded our room. So while they worked on our room we went to breakfast though we felt very dirty! After they still hadn't finished but they took all our wet clothes & belongings and put them through the laundry for free.
We took a walk in the port we were docked at while they finished working on our room. the port was 'Heraklion' on the island of Crete - we only took a brief walk from the shuttle bus to the little side streets - bought a magnet, walked through the streets and a park. Will saw toilets ('WC') and needed to go & was charged 1 Euro to go to the toilet - therefore made Meredith need to go less! We checked out a supermarket while we were there, and bought a snack & drink and headed back to the ship.
Finally a shower - feeling clean again! We attended a briefing from the cruise director about final disembarkation, passport and suitcase collection.
We had lunch after in the restaurant - we were seated with 2 retired guys from Florida (there were alot of Floridorians on the cruise). It was surely an interesting lunch. After this Meredith had a nap which wasn't very nappy, while Will wandered around the ship trying to occupy time but mostly bored!
Then at 3:45pm we anchored at Santorini: We were taken by tender boat to the new port where buses can go (only road that links port to island villages) as we were doing a tour, so we were taken to our bus / guide 'Nikola' who spoke English and Spanish. The bus took us on a drive first through Thira village telling us many things about the island such as housing, cars, buildings (the earthquake in 1956), water, donkeys, chapels, cherry tomatoes, pistachio nuts, and grapes / wine. We arrived Oia (pronounced eeh-aah) & were taken to the main square after a quick tasting of pistachio nuts. We were shown the Volcano, Olympic villas & houses and the main chapel, then given a free hour to roam the shops & meet back at the bus. The bus then took us down the coastal road back to Thira where it ended, showing us the shops & the way to the cable cars or donkeys (which is the only way down a 300m cliff!) or the 600 steps the donkeys took, along with their poop!
We looked at the shops & took photos of our ship in the bay below & then heading to the donkeys - cable cars had a long line, but the cruise director scared Meredith out of both & the stairs didn't look as scary! So donkey it was ... they did slip from time to time but seemed very disciplined - apart from Meredith's that either didn't move or got kicked by the one in front because he kept smelling his bum - therefore he was punished & separated, then more punishment because he didn't like being separated! Meredith tried to bribe it but apparently donkeys don't each chocolate - they only need TLC & after the owner kinda suckfaced with the donkey (definately tongue!). After 20 minutes donkey ride we were at the old port which is where we got in a tender boat back to the cruise!!
Unfortunately missing the fancy dinner so we had to go to the bistro / pub which was kinda gross!! ok but not great! We went to the Aquamarine lounge for the night's entertainment, which was caberet singing, talent show, and Latin Fever presented by the Academia dancers. After to bed, well to our mooshy wet room to pack our suitcase which had to be outside our door by midnight - then finally to bed!

Woke up late & had breakfast in the restaurant - we sat at a table with 2 USA couples and a older lady who was painful - whingy & bragging or complaining, we weren't sure!
We then disembarked around 10am, walking along way through the dirty port from our ship to the main road where again we walked to the Old Town which is surrounded by an old wall. The pavements were all narrow and made of stones, very crowded with tourists, scooters, dogs and cats! We walked up & down the narrow pavements exploring shops, buying our magnet & doing some shopping. Then we went to the clocktower which you can see all the village from - Will went up, again Meredith chickened out. Then we went up to the Palace of the Grand Master which was closed due to damage in recent heavy rainfall. We headed to the outskirts of the village to see the wall & bridge which comes into the village. There we passed a beggar with a young child draped in her hands - the child looked cold & sick making Meredith feel like she wanted to take the child home. We had lunch, served to us by a guy who bears an uncannily close resemblance to Pete Salafia (we have a photo!). Around 3pm we began to head back passing a little beach which had the clearest water - it looked idyllic. We stopped at an icecream cafe & shared a Strawberry Kiss sundae, which was lovely! Then headed back to the ship.
We had dinner with the dress theme as 'Elegant'. We dined at our table again with Sergio and Marilyn (the Belgian coulple). Again dinner was beautiful and after dessert the waiters came out with icecream cake with a meringue top which was lit on fire - they all carried one singing & flinging napkins in the air which was entertaining. Then we were served a piece of the icecream cake, while being entertained by the waiters singing throughout the restaurant announcing themselves as the 'Spice Boys'.
That night we went into the Aquamarine lounge to watch the Broadway entertainment from the Academia dancers - then to bed.

Woke up at 8, having breakfast at the Taverna by the pool. Following we disembarked at our second port.

Kusadasi Turkey: We were escorted to a cycle cart - then transferred to another which took us into a specific jeweller in the mall. This is where we viewed lots of laced hand made rings - exclusive to Turkey. Will bought his wife a nice holiday ring. However through the day we were caught at many jewellers who really push you to buying point (but we resisted)! Suddenly we found ourselves telling fibs to get out of those shops such as we bought a house and have a mortgage back home, etc etc.
We went to a cafe & Will had a Turkish Coffee (sludgey - i think they brew it in the cup!) & Meredith had a milkshake - though no surprise they owned the jewelery store next door so yet again ... sucked in!! They had us try Turkish Apple Tea which is beautiful. While the salesman kept reducing the price really trying to get us to buy, but yet again our 'new house' came back to the rescue. We headed back to port where we stopped at a sweets shop & Will bought some mixed Turkish Delight. We boarded again, leaving Kusadasi.
We sat up on Sun Deck, Will went and took some photos on the upper level. While Meredith baked in the sun for a while til the strong winds picked up, she had a couple of French girls who decided to sunbake beside her in their finest or least should we say - and still had troubles keeping the minimum on!! Shortly after we headed to lunch in the restaurant again meeting 2 other couples from the USA - they were from a church group in the USA & go on 3 tours each year! This time they were travelling around to see the seven churches from the book of Revelation. During lunch we passed through the straight of Samos, where Turkey & Greece are at their closest. It was cold & windy outside, so after lunch headed back down for a nap so we would be rested for Patmos and the evening's entertainment.
Patmos: we anchored & transferred to the island by tender boats, better than the last ones! Went for a walk around the town - many stands and kiosks, lots of clothing. Went a little into the back streets - it was hard to feel like you weren't in someones backyard! Plenty of people zipping around on 'motos' (scooters) like psychos, weaving in and out of the tourists. Bought some gelati from a man who spoke no English - Ananas (pineapple) and Limoni (lemon) - both very nice and true to their flavour! We did a little shopping then headed back to the ship.
Main sitting at dinner - probably didn't enjoy the food as much as lunch but the company was better - a 27/28 year old couple from Belgium, also on their honeymoon! At dessert time we were brought a 'Happy Honeymoon' cake and serenaded by the waitstaff with singing and a guitar and bazooki! You could tell everyone else was thinking "why do they get sung to?!" and jealous, but they still gave a round of applause at the end!
Entertainment tonight was Greek night, staff & crew doing traditional greek dances ending with Zorba's dance. Everyone cleared out straight away so we checked out the rest of the nightlife. Got roped in to singing a song at Karaoke (Piano Man by Billy Joel) then went to check out the nightclub. With 10 people (5 of these were waitresses!) it wasn't very happening! One quick dance but the DJ changed the song halfway through. Not much nightlife on this ship - ~98% of the population is OLD!!!!

We woke up early to a Greek breakfast - unusual combination. We left at 8ish to head up to Syntagma square for a Taxi - but there were none to be seen! One eventually came past and he waved his hand in acknowledgement, pulling up 100m up the road. After sprinting up to him with our bags he said he wasn't available! So we tried again - and ended up coming back to the taxi rank where the original taxi was, to find out from the driver that all taxis were on strike - not to mention he could of said so in the first place!!
So we ran over to the Metro station jumping on one to get us on the correct line to the port at Piraeus where we walked a VERY long way to get to Louis Cruise Lines terminal.
We ended up boarding virtually straight away - we had a nap then they had emergency fire drill where we found ourselves in assembly lines under our life boat which took 1hr - quite boring!
After this we attended a meeting telling us where everything was on the ship & optional shore excursions. Then to the restaurant for lunch which was 3 courses - lovely service, and met 2 ladies from the States (Perri & ???) followed by a nap, which put us at our first port ...
Mykonos: it is a very tourist oriented isle, everything is white. We were taken to shore in tender boats then bussed in to town where we walked about to see the village life. The village was overrun with taxis and restaurants!
The maitre d' of each restaurant was very persistent by giving you a menu and pictures of food and swaying you towards what dish you should taste. Will tried the Chicken Gyros plate, which Meredith had breaded chicken. We took some photos and bought our magnet then headed back to the bus stop as the winds were getting stronger - which made the tender boat ride very rough!
We went aboard and headed to the lounge to see the evening entertainment - while also taking a look at the moonlight lounge and the casino. We finished off the evening in the Aquamarine lounge watching the dancers.