Here you can browse through my blog posts prior to February 2022. Currently I'm sharing my travel experiences, candid opinions, and what's on my mind solely on my Facebook page. — Rick
These four photos are from Mykonos in Greece. Mykonos is the classic Greek-island stop and, along with Santorini, it’s the most touristy — and the island most impacted by cruise ships. Being on Mykonos reminded me how great the Greek islands are — even when they’re extremely touristy. What’s your favorite discovered Greek isle…and your favorite undiscovered one?
Tiny Mykonos is inundated by cruisers every day through the season. There's room for one ship at the pier (with a five-minute shuttle-bus ride into town), and while we were there, two more ships dropped their anchors. It's striking to realize that each of these boats has about 3,000 passengers, making the total number of cruisers in port the same as the population of the entire island — 9,000.
The sea, the wind, the birds, and the weather-beaten little whitewashed churches all combine to give Mykonos a vibrant allure.
Everyone gathers in the cafés and pubs that line the colorful stretch of houses called "Little Venice." We were there to nurse an ouzo or other drink, and to watch the sun set to the rhythm of the sloppy, slamming waves.
We jumped ship in Mykonos three days before our cruise was over. Leaving our beautiful cruise ship early (as I had to get back to my office), we experienced the whitewashed town of Mykonos with three cruise ships in port —and then after they left. Of course, the town was touristy either way, but I thoroughly enjoyed just strolling around nearly all day. Watching the Equinox power away, glinting on the horizon in the setting sun, was both sad and thought-provoking. As it eventually disappeared in the misty horizon, it hit us that our world had changed: no more elevators that arrived with the first two notes of the song "Feelings;" no more friends that found everything "amazzzzing" and "phenomenal;" no more small talk with our crew who brought good, warm vibes from Bali, Macedonia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, and about 60 other countries; and no more new port in a new country arriving effortlessly with each sunrise.
At each port you have three options: hop on an awaiting tour bus to enjoy the guided excursion you purchased from the cruise line; meet a private guide at the port who you arranged for on your own; or walk boldly into the unknown — guidebook in hand — and be your own guide. (Our new Mediterranean Cruise Ports guidebook is designed to be helpful to people going on any of these options.) On this cruise, I met an enthusiastic group on board who connected via cruisecritic.com, an online chat group. They organized various on-shore activities completely independent from the cruise line (such as arranging for a guide to meet them with a minibus here in Kuşadası) and were thrilled with the experience. Cruisecritic.com is a wildly popular resource among cruisers for feedback on independent guides who connect with travelers at ports.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
These six photos show more about life on board a cruise ship as we sail from Istanbul to Kuşadası in Turkey. One of the pictures shows someone using my new Mediterranean Cruise Ports book. As we consider our next edition, I’d love to know, what kind of information in a guidebook would be most helpful to you if you were on a cruise?
It's a special honor to be on the bridge with the captain when leaving a port, and I was there to bid farewell to my favorite port — Istanbul. The captain was very gracious and generous with me. He explained the process with the local pilot (who knows his home port intimately); told me about the wind, the current, and the uncontrollable ferries of the Bosphorus; and handed me a nice cup of coffee. Knowing how my dad always loved to be "on the bridge" in his boat — a 38-foot-yacht that seemed so big to me growing up but would fit three times across on this bridge — I felt my dad was with me in spirit. • The Turkish pilot bundled in like a doctor making a house call. The captain was nervously chewing his gum while he and the pilot huddled to chat about the wind and current. (A 15-story-tall ship catches the wind like a huge sail.) The Turkish pilot asked, "What's your power?" Considering his 100,000-horsepower thrust, the captain responded, "I could pull your pier out to sea." • The Bosphorus was churning with ferries and littered with fishing boats — "countless uncontrollable little boats," the captain called them. A security guard, arms folded, stood under a sign carved in wood that read "Eternal Vigilance Is the Price of Safety." The captain touched few controls on the bridge. He just barked out coordinates and commands. In spite of wind, current, and the confusion of boats, our ship majestically maneuvered out of port, heading south down the Bosphorus. Eventually — after an hour of urban sprawl — the city of 14 million was no more to be seen.
Our boat seemed designed to let you enjoy a meal as much "at sea" as possible. Some of my favorite tables were in the stern, overlooking the wake. Ships now offer romantic specialty restaurants where, for a cover charge of about $30, you enjoy more private and elegant service and better ingredients. Excited to get a window view for our fancy specialty dinner splurge, we made a reservation for 9 p.m. By that time, the view we dreamed of was long gone, and we dined looking at a black sheet of glass. Tip: If springing for a specialty restaurant on board the ship, do it early so you can see something out the window.
Traditionally ships come with a huge, chandeliered, multilevel dining room where passengers have appointed tables, appointed times, and regular dinner mates. In the cruise industry, this is becoming more flexible all the time; plenty of dining options means lots of empty chairs. Still, about every other night at 8:45, we'd join our gang at our six-person table, enjoy the lavish service from our multinational waitstaff, and share our adventures for the day — all under a huge and gently quivering chandelier.
On-board gyms and spas let cruisers enjoy taking care of their bodies. While the exercise gear was top-end — and the setting was breathtakingly beautiful — I never saw many people huffing and puffing here. Remember, I started this month of cruising weighing in at 212 pounds. On my last cruise blog — in a week or so — I'll be reporting on my embarkation weight. We'll be having a contest to see if anyone can guess how much I gained...or lost. More to come!
Arriving in Kuşadası on the west coast of Turkey, I was struck by the beautiful black hull of the Cunard Queen Victoria. Kuşadası built its pier after the 1967 visit by the pope (in which he OKed the importance pilgrims were giving the reputed "House of the Virgin Mary"). It has enjoyed a thriving cruise business ever since.
People always ask me why our guidebooks aren't produced spiral-bound. Of course that would be handy. But it would add enough to the cost of the book to kill sales — and even if someone did want to buy it, you wouldn't see it because, with a spiral binding, there's nothing to read on the spine. Still, there's nothing stopping a traveler like this one to drop by Office Depot and have the book spiral-bound. While I still prefer to rip out chapters and staple them together, this woman was really happy with having her Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports done up this way.
Each time we leave the ship, we punch out with our personal sea card. This functions as our room key, credit card for any purchases on board (the ship is essentially cash-free), and general ID. And when we return to our ship, we punch back in. They know exactly who’s on shore and who’s on board at all times. And no one comes back on board without having everything they carry run through the X-ray machine for security. After security, someone tries to get me to use a little Purell (which I avoid), and we’re back into our fantasy ship world. Here’s the security action from the point of view of my camera. (If you’ve never personally gone through an X-ray machine, you’re in for a treat.)
The cruise ship security was very impressive. It was a comfort to know that no strangers could ever get on board. How was your cruise ship security experience?
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
It’s easy to spend all your Istanbul time at the famous sights (Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace, Grand Bazaar, and so on). But it’s important to get out and see some other slices of the city. Outside the mighty walls along the Golden Horn is a district that has been famous among Muslim pilgrims for five centuries. Its venerable mosque holds the tomb of the Muslim holy man and saint, Ayyub Al-Ansari, called Eyüp by the Turks. I come here to get a sense of how the fundamentalist, moralist, and conservative wing of Turkish society is doing.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
