Celestyal Cruises: Embarkation Day

Join me as we embark the Celestyal Olympia in Pireaus before setting sail to Mykonos. I was invited by Celestyal Cruises to join them on a 4 day Iconic Aegean itinerary which visited Mykonos, Kusadasi, Patmos, Rhodes, Crete and Santorini. Celestyal Cruises have no control over my content.
Day 1, Athens and Mykonos
Boarding the Celestyal Olympia in Pireaus (the port for Athens) was really easy. We queued up for about 5/10 minutes to drop off our bags and maybe 5 minutes more to check in. We were onboard the ship by 9.30am which is incredibly early for a cruise. On most cruises you’ll embark, at the earliest, around midday.
I was continually impressed with the organisation of Celestyal during the cruise. They managed to organise cruisers who speak multiple languages with ease. A few of the bigger cruise lines could learn a lot from Celestyal.
The Ship: Celestyal Olympia
I LOVE exploring a new ship for the first time. The Celestyal Olympia was originally built for Royal Caribbean and you definitely can tell. She was launched in 1982 but you really wouldn’t know that just by being onboard. I’ve been on ships that are from the 00’s that feel much older…
The ship is a little bit higgledy piggledy with odd steps around and a bit of an odd layout. That said, everything has clearly been very well taken care of, nothing is broken or looking worn.
The ship also belonged to Sun Cruises and was Thomson Destiny for Thomson (now Marella). She is well loved by the crew onboard and by past passengers.
Muster Drill
It was again pretty well organised and didn’t take too long. The muster drill was done in a couple of languages with English being one of main languages. I was a little bit worried prior to the cruise about taking a cruise with a Greek cruise line due to me not being able to speak any Greek at all. This worry was completely unfounded. All staff onboard spoke perfect English and announcements were usually done in English before other languages.
All Inclusive Drinks
We had a couple of drinks around the ship and I actually took some time to sit down and read a book. Wow!
Celestyal are ‘all inclusive’ which means that things like gratuities and drinks are included. There is a menu of included drinks and another of ‘premium’ drinks that have a supplement. There is plenty on the included list, so I didn’t feel the need to pay extra.
If you do like specific drinks or like to have a lot of variety it may be worth ordering drinks from the premium menu. The drinks prices are pretty reasonable and similar to that that you’d find in a pub or at a bar on land.
I was very impressed that you could order a number of coffees, hot chocolate and tea on the inclusive menu. On a lot of other cruise lines this would be considered premium drinks.
Tender
We picked up our tender tickets for the evenings stop in Mykonos. Tender tickets are available on a first come first serve basis from a lounge onboard the ship. If you are travelling as part of a group only one member needs to collect the tender ticket. Up to 6 can be collected by one person.
We arrived in Mykonos at 6pm and left after 11pm. Excursions have priority disembarkation (as normal) and then the tenders are filled by tender ticket number.
I do get seasick but I am usually okay on tenders. I think it’s the fresh air and the dramatic movements of the boat. The tender to Mykonos only took about 5-10 minutes so it wasn’t too much of an issue. That said, I wouldn’t want to be on the tender for much longer.
Mykonos
We arrived in Mykonos a little after 6pm, just in time for the sunset. The sunset was gorgeous and we walked around the town. I do wish that we had a little bit more time in daylight to explore but I suppose that’s the price you pay for seven ports in four days. You get a little taste of everything. I’d love to return to Mykonos one day.
There are SO many cats in Mykonos. My travel insurance says I can’t stroke any stray animals so I managed to resist.
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