The Great European Adventure, Day 11: Santorinifeatured

Before I went to bed the evening before, I told Stephanie not to wake me up a minute before 6:05 am. I hate waking up on the hour.

She woke me up exactly at 6:06 am, and I jumped out of bed full of energy and ready to get this day started. It wasn’t because I got a good night’s sleep – even the best night’s sleep won’t get me out of bed without groaning at 6:00 – it was because this was our Santorini day and I’d been dreaming of visiting Santorini since Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II (I’ve also been dreaming of Jesse Williams’ abs since then, but that’s another story for another day).

The first thing I did when we booked our trip was begin a two month search for a Santorini dress – something white accented with the perfect shade of blue that would compliment the white and blue backdrop Santorini is known for. I spent hours researching the best places to take pictures, the best vistas and angles. We contemplated how we’d get back to the ship after our excursion, if we’d make Mom hop on a donkey or if we’d wait in a long line for the cable car. We made a lot of plans. This was the place.

I didn’t think too much of it when the boat started rocking as we approached the spot where it would anchor for the day. We headed upstairs for breakfast as we did every day. By the time we reached the Windjammer, the ship was rolling side to side. By the time we went downstairs to meet our excursion at the Masquerade, we had to hold onto the handrails and walls because the rocking left us unsteady. I wondered to myself how they could get everyone on tenders with such violent seas and how Stephanie and I could best help Mom onto a tender to keep her balanced. We got our tour numbers and put our stickers on and waited. I thought to myself how odd it was that this beautiful, sunny morning was betrayed by such turbulent waters.

And when Captain Lis came on the loudspeaker to cancel our day in Santorini due to the gale force winds forecasted for that afternoon that would make tendering all but impossible, I wasn’t surprised. I saw the forecast for high winds the evening before, but it never occurred to me that it would cause an issue for us. We’d never missed a tender port before. You’d think a cancelled port would be accompanied by dark skies and rain and it was beautiful outside.

We lingered in the theater for a bit after they announced all tours would be automatically refunded (though they gave no word on refunds on port fees). Mom and Stephanie waited for me to react. I don’t know if they were expecting tears or some kind of rage spiral. Maybe I was expecting that more from myself. But I just felt…okay with it all. I was sad that we were losing a day of exploring a new place and the adventure that would bring, but as much anticipation we had riding on this port, it was really hard to be upset or disappointed in a trip that had already brought us to so many wonderful places. This had already been one of the greatest experiences of my life and it wasn’t even over yet – we had two more sea days, another port and three days in Paris to follow it up with. How can you find any disappointment with that?

Mercedes made an announcement that her staff was hard at work creating a new Compass full of fun activities for our now sea day and we headed outside to catch whatever glimpses of Santorini we could get. We weren’t alone – we were joined by a handful of disappointed cruisers, also trying to get a look out towards an island we wouldn’t get to step foot on (at least, not this time).

At this point, we decided there was no point in being awake this early on vacation if we weren’t going anywhere, so we went back to the room and promptly went back to sleep, as if nothing had disturbed our morning slumber.

We headed up to the pool after we woke up from our morning nap, only to find most of the poolside chairs taken. It was considerably cooler and very windy, and a poolboy came around every half hour to remove the belongings of anyone not occupying the chair they were saving.

We grabbed a quick lunch in the Solarium at Park Café while we looked over the new Compasses. The activities for the day included such riveting events as Breathing Exercises with Mercedes, so we knew pretty early on that we were on our own to create our own fun that afternoon.

After lunch, we headed out to the shops to check out whatever Greek souvenirs they were putting out. Captain Lis announced those heavy Gale force winds would cause some choppy seas around 4:00 pm. At 2:30 pm, they started putting out motion sickness bags. The only bags I planned on needing were the shopping bags carrying my Greek souvvies.

To make our day a little better, they offered 25% off drinks at all bars between 12-3, including Latitudes and Ben & Jerry’s, so we grabbed some coffee and sat out to people watch.

Mom went back to the room and Stephanie and I tried to figure out how to entertain ourselves on a ship we’d already thoroughly explored and there were only two answers: sitting on the promenade and day drinking.

We thought the Vision had a champagne bar (we were quite fond of the one on the Allure), but it didn’t. But it did have the R Bar in the lobby, which had primo people watching space and champagne cocktails at 25% off, so we settled in.

We went and tried to check out “tea” (which was literally just them putting out tea packets in the Windjammer). We strolled around every public deck. We shopped. We watched the Family Feud. We drank some more. We literally did anything, everything and nothing. The boredom was painful and I was never more thankful that we sprung for an internet package.

By the time dinner rolled around, the seas were considerably calmer and we did an obligatory round of picture taking out on the promenade.

The menu for the main dining room hadn’t impressed us, so we made reservations for Chops earlier that morning. I have nothing but praises to sing about our meal at Chops. Our server was helpful and attentive, offering to bring us anything we wanted and making sure our meal was paced properly and the food was spectacular.

Bread + Spread

Wine was BOGO!

Shrimp Cocktail

Crispy Goat Cheese Salad

The King Caesar

Charred Beef Carpaccio

Three Cheese Roasted Onion Soup

Grilled Black Pepper Bacon

Side Dishes

Grilled NY Strip Steak

Grilled Filet Mignon

Cappuccino

Fresh Baked Cookies

Chocolate Mud Pie

Warm Chocolate Cake

Red Velvet Cake

Such a heavy meal required a heavy dose of fresh air afterwards, so we headed upstairs to the sun deck to watch the sunset. We were treated to a spectacular one.

We headed back to the room to relax for a little bit before the evening festivities really got started.

The big event for the night was a late night 70s party in the atrium and the staff went all out for this one. The singers did a live set. The entertainment staff had a dance party. The atrium was packed.

And when we had enough disco lights and KC and the Sunshine Band, we headed back to the room, trying to figure out how we’d survive another day at sea.