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Cruise Days 1-2 - April 20-21 - Athens - SeaDay

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 23:05:55 -0300

Our last day in Athens had us up early looking for breakfast near our hotel. We found the Regal Restaurant after just a few minutes walk, most places were still setting up their patios.

After breakfast we returned to the hotel, Acropolis Stay to check out. We would definitely recommend this hotel - the staff are super friendly and the rooms are spotless! It’s just a quick 5-10 minute walk from the Acropolis (side entrance) and Monastiraki Square is only 15-20 minutes. It was a good thing we liked this hotel as we will be staying here again after the cruise before flying home. The only drawback was the elevator is for luggage only, our room was up two flights of stairs and our knees were not a fan.

After checking out we waited for our ride to the port of Piraeus port and our home for the next 11 days - The Celebrity Infinity.

After arrival we dropped our luggage with the porters, got checked in, went through security, and after a short wait we were on board. First stop the Muster Drill, to get it out of the way, then on to our room to pick up our room keys and drop our remaining bags. Next stop Lunch in the buffet.

We spent the afternoon on the pool deck in the sun with some refreshments before heading to supper and then checking out the evenings activities. A show in the theatre, games and trivia, and music and dancing in the lounge.

Day 2 on the Infinity was a relaxing sea day. These sea days have challenges getting a lounge chair anywhere near the pool. It took us a while but we did manage to find a good spot. We settled in to what would become our norm, afternoons by the pool, dinner in the main dining room, followed by a show in the theatre, then games, trivia, music and dancing in the lounge.

🛳️ 🇬🇷

pre-Cruise - April 19 - Athens

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:16:41 -0300

Our full day in Athens started early with a quick pastry for breakfast on the way to the Acropolis for our early 8 am entry to beat the crowds.

Parthenon

It was a 20 minute walk from the side, or Dionysus Theater, entrance, past the Odeon of Herodes Atticus up some incredibly uneven stairs, slippery marble walkways, and incredible views of Athens to the Propylaea which serves as the grand entrance to the Acropolis.

Dionysus Theater

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

Propylaea - Entrance

Propylaea

Erechtheion

After spending a couple of hours on the Acropolis we made our way back down the hill heading to Syntagma Square and the Hellenic Parliament to watch the changing of the guard. Planning on attending the full ceremony which includes the official ceremonial parade of the Evzones, we thought we were getting there early, as recommended for the grand Sunday ceremony. As we walked up the steps a crowd of probably 2000 people were already there before us.

We stopped for lunch at Kosmikon before strolling through Plaka, Monstaraki, and the Roman Agora and wandering through the streets back to our hotel.

🗺️ 🇬🇷

Travel Days - April 17-18

Sun, 24 May 2026 16:00:44 -0300

We left Halifax at noon on April 17th with a stopover on Toronto in our way for Athens, Greece for our 11 day cruise of Greece and Türkiye. Flying in a few days early to checkout Athens and get use to the time change.

After two flights and 12 hours in the air, over 17 hours from the first take off to arriving in Athens, we are on the ground at 11 am picking up our bags and trying to find our ride to the Acropolis Stay Hotel. Arriving so early meant our room would not be ready so, we dropped off our bags and headed out to start our tour of Athens.

As with our previous cruise we arrived on Free Entry day so most attractions were quite busy. We decided to go to the Acropolis Museum as the Acropolis itself would be too crowded on a day with no entry fee, our tickets were already purchased for an early start tomorrow.

As we walked up to the museum we noticed we could see through the walkway. During construction they found ruins so they built directly over them preserving and showcasing them.

We spent a couple of hours wandering through the museum.

After we left the museum we went on a walk back to the hotel looking for supper and got our first look at the Parthenon.

Sleep did not come easy on the plane and we were reaching the end of our day, having been up for over twenty eight hours. Had a great supper at sto Kentro Eatery before retiring for the night.

✈️ 🇨🇦-🇬🇷 🗺️

Travel Days - June 15 & 16

Sun, 11 Aug 2024 08:30:00 -0300

Last day in Europe, we grab a couple of pastries for breakfast and head to the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II to meet our water taxi to the airport.

One hour later we are at the airport, get checked in, through security, and waiting at the gate for our first flight, 8.5 hours to Montreal.

Once again noise cancelling headphones and inflight entertainment made the flight just fly (pun intended) by. We were fed a full lunch along with snacks provided twice during this flight. Is this only on international flights? I have never had the same service when flying domestically.

Once in Montreal we had a seven hour layover before we could catch our one hour flight back honey to Halifax. We grabbed a meal at the Pork and Pickle and then found a quiet area at an unused gate, put on our headphones, and watched a couple of episodes of Clarkson’s Farm.

The last flight home was delayed, slightly, due to the pilots coming in on a delayed flight.

1:03 am on June 16 we landed back at Halifax Stanfield International with our daughters MacKenzie and Lorien waiting to pick us up.

After thirteen months of planning and fifteen days of travelling we come to the end of our honeymoon, 20 years late, our first cruise, and our first vacation with just the two of us.

We have already started talking about the next one! Maybe the another cruise, this time in the Southern Caribbean in early 2026?

✈️

Travel Days - June 1 & 2

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 16:14:09 -0300

We left Halifax, Nova Scotia for Rome at 5 pm for our first stop on a short flight to Montreal.

In Montreal we had a two hour layover at a gate three or four times smaller than needed with nowhere to sit and absolutely no airflow.

After what appeared to be a free for all boarding the plane we were on our way. A short seven hour flight later we landed in Rome at 9:30 am local time.

Our first day in Rome was busy starting with taking a bus from the airplane to the airport, apparently an airplane still at our gate was in the middle of a repair not able to be moved. Once in the terminal we waited at least an hour for our luggage. Pretty sure they were the last ones off the plane.

At a friends suggestion we had hired a car for transportation to the hotel. Would definitely recommend, especially if you have never been to your destination before. We eventually met up with the driver, a lady who could have a former career as a race car driver, and experienced some crazy traffic and crazier drivers while en route to our hotel.

We had booked a tour for the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Mamertine Prison that should have allowed us to bypass the lines. Two days before we left for Rome the tour operator contacted us and told us their tour was cancelled due to the first Sunday of the month being free entry day to almost all major attractions in Rome. We did not know this when booking our vacation. We would not recommend, spoiler, the lines were insanely long.

After dropping our luggage at the hotel we headed to the Colosseum in the rain to see if we could beat the lines. We could not.

While looking for the line to pick up our free tickets we happened on a “tourist ambassador” who helped get us a replacement for our cancelled tour. Not gonna lie, this was giving us a real scam vibe but turned out to be legit.

The tour started in the line for tickets, because of the “free entry day” each person must pick up their own. We had 45 minutes of Rome history from the tour guide while we waited to pickup our tickets and then 45 minutes within the Colosseum itself ending up over looking the arena floor.

We had enough of the lines and the heat and headed back to the hotel. On the way we found pizzadellamadonna tucked into a side street and stopped in our first authentic Italian pizza and then retired for the evening exhausted.

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