Athens, a few Greek Islands and Turkey all in one week!
Celebrity Infinity Cruise Review to Europe - Eastern Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
First Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 7
Helpful Votes: 158
7 Night Greek Isles (Athens Roundtrip)
Sail date: June 17, 2023
Ship: Celebrity Infinity
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 9157
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 9 months ago
Review summary
If we have time and resources, we'll go back to Greece for more! If we don't, we've had a great, grand look at Athens and a few of the wonderful islands!Embarkation
Orderly and quick. The Celebrity Team had plenty of seating - we waited on bench seats and then were called by rows to stand in line for a very short time at the check in counters. We then walked toward the ship and waited in line for screening - this took a few more minutes, but overall from the time we were dropped off at the cruise terminal to our time crossing the gang plank onto the ship it was less than 45 minutes. For reference we had selected a 12:30pm check in time and were dropped off at the port at approximately 11:30am.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We enjoy the main Dining Room and always pick to add an evening meal in Tuscan - very much worth the extra spend for the evening. We recommend trying out Le Petit Chef - at least once. We heard the show there is new, but didn't add it to our plans for this trip. With all of the island hopping and the late boarding times, it was nice to have our Trellis dinner reservations each day as the target for being back on board, cleaned up and ready for the evening entertainment. We chose a 6:45pm reservation for each evening in Trellis.
Since this trip was very port intensive - no sea days, we chose to only use the basic beverage package and pay for upgraded drinks on an as needed basis. This reduced our frustration we have experienced in post-covid cruising as Celebrity has limited stock of wines on board. For our March cruise this year on another Celebrity ship we continually found "out of stock" as a response to our request for wines listed in the menu printout and online. When you simply ask what is available and pay for the upgrade, the frustration is reduced since you haven't already committed the spend with an expectation of full stock. Had I prepaid for premium alcohol - I would have taken a star away on this review, as this ship did not have all of the wines listed for the premium package available.
Onboard Activities
We enjoyed the casino, the trivia options and the Solarium. One of the reasons we choose this Millennium class of ship is that it doesn't have water slides or go carts. While there are families on board, the kids have a few spaces for their activities and the adults get to enjoy the facilities focused on their vacation experiences.
Entertainment
We enjoyed the variety of live music each evening (off the boat every day in ports). We always make an effort to see the show - there were great dancers, singers, acrobats - a comedian and a female singer who performed tribute shows to famous female singers. We choose Celebrity because of the number of live performances scheduled. Our one place to improve - the DJ on this cruise catered to some of the younger crowd (13-19 year olds in my estimate). Especially in the evening when we would venture up to the Constellation Lounge - there would be music for everyone to dance to for 15 to 30 minutes and then the choices of music played -devolved to things that only the youngest teenagers would get up and dance to in a group. Mostly hopping around. This lead to everyone retiring early from the lounge.
Children's Programs
We didn't bring kids on this trip
Service and Staff
We choose Celebrity because of the staff. Our experience this trip met every expectation for excellence in service from our cabin steward to every bar and restaurant.
Ship Quality
As stated before, we're fans of the Millennium class ship with Celebrity. For us it is the perfect size to walk end to end and up and down. Our cabin had a shower curtain - the only negative I could share as many other in the Celebrity fleet have updated to a curved door, which is much better. We were in 9154, Concierge Class. it is only a few steps to the stairs and into the middle of the buffet, or out to the bar. It is also usually quiet as there are very few walking the hallway at the stern of the ship.
Cabin / Stateroom
This is a good size room for 2 people. We've picked this exact room on multiple Millennium class ships and enjoyed it each time.
Ports of call
We arrived two days early, stayed at the Athens Gate Hotel ( 10 Syngrou Avenue , Athens, Attiki 11742) on the edge of the Plaka neighborhood which surrounds the Acropolis. We booked a great tour with an English speaking guide through Viator for the highlights of Athens - which included a brief bus tour around Athens, along with guided time in the Acropolis Museum and on the Acropolis with entree fees prepaid. We also booked an evening dinner at the hotel, and had the most beautiful view of the Acropolis after sunset.
Thumbs Up
2
We didn't prepare for this port and the excursion options offered by Celebrity didn't appeal to us. We did buy the Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) bus pass and make the loop. We didn't hop off, except when we returned to the port.
We were greeted by protesters as the ship arrived at port, but they were nice and after making there statements, disappeared prior to any of the tourists disembarking from the ship.
We walked, shopped and enjoyed every minute on Mykonos. I highly recommend reading "Daves Travel Pages" and the "Mykonos in one Day" commentary. Based on that research, we purchased the water taxi over to "Little Venice" and wandered - shopped, took pictures and simply enjoyed every minute on this island.
As Christ Followers, we very much enjoyed our excursion to Biblical Ephesus. The history provided by our local tour guide and the opportunity to walk the streets of Ephesus will be something I will remember for the rest of my life. The tour also include a visit to the Catholic Church Shrine for Mary's House, a "Biblical Lunch" at a local restaurant which was delicious, a stop at ruins of St. John's and a local silk rug factory. Amazing cultural immersion. We also took some time back at port to shop around prior to returning to the ship. One big difference in our whole trip - where you typically see the same shops on an Alaska or Caribbean cruise - that appears to be the exception and most all of the goods appeared to be local and shopkeepers were local as well.
We chose the Lindos excursion and hiked up to the Acropolis with our tour guide. Amazing views! Another opportunity to shop with local vendors. The excursion also included a stop at a local pottery manufacturer. That wasn't our cup of tea for shopping, but the process was interesting.
On return to the port, we struck out to the Old City of Rhodes and shopped and explored some more - every turn was interesting. Again, no feel of the corporate cruise ship shops, local products and vendors where what we noticed.
We chose a Small Group Wine Tasting Experience as our excursion. I highly recommend an excursion here as it gets you a priority path off of the ship as this is a Tender port. There isn't any wine tasting until almost 11am so the first part of the trip is around the island and sight seeing. The big thing on this island is the return to the ship - we agreed to get in line and test the movement for taking the tram back down. This was a good thing. We saw many head down the steps assuming that the tram was a 1 or 2 hour wait. For our day and time, the line wrapped around the shops for what appeared to be around 150 to 200 yards. It was less than 45 minutes and the trip down was easy - compared to the steps.
Hydra, Greece
We chose to wander around the port, shop and eat. This island has no vehicles, so it is all about foot traffic and exploring. We spent a few hours and a few euros and went back to the ship.
Disembarkation
Super smooth and easy. Plenty of cabs available for our trip back to the airport. Our biggest challenge was that I wanted to go to the Car Rental at the airport and not to check in for a flight. We stayed on a couple of days and visited Elvia Island. The cab driver understood airport in English, but nothing else. We made it - but we took a note to get some basic phrases ready in the local languatge should we try this again.
Traveler Photos
