We finally made it onto the cruise ship but not before a twist of sorts that at first appeared to only deepen our brief homeless episode.  A shuttle bus picked up the four Wagnersons as well as six other people at our hotel to take us all to the port to the location of our cruise ship, the Olympia of Celestyal Cruises.  We had been told that our ship would depart at 6:30. As we arrived at the port at 6 p.m., the one and only ship at the port was a Norwegian Cruise Line vessel.  A lady at the front of the shuttle was speaking to the driver in Greek, asking if we were at the right location because we were supposed to be going on Celestyal cruises.  The driver said he would check and left the van to consult with someone.  We couldn’t see who or if he spoke with anyone but in a few minutes he returned and climbed back in the van and told us this is the correct location but we are way early.  He said he would take us to a place where we could wait with our luggage.  He drove a ways and stopped at a bus stop where he told us to get out, our luggage was unloaded and he drove off.  And so we waited, and waited……..Hmmmm.  Questions of “Did we just get ditched? Or don’t homeless people hang out at bus stops were echoing through our heads.

In about a half an hour however, we could see the Norwegian vessel begin to pull out as the Celestyal Cruise vessel approached in the distance.  We all breathed a sigh of relief.  The Olympia soon docked and we began walking towards the ship trailing our luggage behind us.  After everyone’s credentials were checked and our luggage was evaluated by a drug dog, we were allowed to proceed onboard.  This is a small cruise ship but is quite a cushy place.  Our cabins are huge, bigger than just about every one of our hotel rooms that we’ve had on this trip.  Doug and Barb are right next door to us and we each have a balcony off of our cabins that measure about 15’ x 8’ each.  A king size bed, a couch, coffee table, two front room chairs along with a desk and chair and full bath make up the interior.

We were told to report with our life jackets found in our cabins to an abandon ship safety briefing.  Doesn’t sound too safe if we’re abandoning ship, nevertheless we all attended and then signed up for beverage service while onboard, all you can drink (alcohol and non-alcoholic) for $25 per day.  We’re thinking they will be losing money on us with that deal.  Dinner in the dining room around 9:00 p.m. (pants required for the men) and off we went to another section of the ship where we were planning unwind while listening to a guy who was playing a piano when we passed him before dinner.  After dinner however, that guy was gone replaced by a loud singing something that drove us from the area.  There are multiple music areas around the ship and you can pick and choose what type of live music you want to listen to.  We moved on and found another.  As we sat to relax with a glass of wine, the length of the day caught up to us and we were soon headed back to our cabins to sleep as the ship began to pull out and we set sail for Kusadasi, Turkey where we would arrive at 7:00 in the morning.  As I blog this, I’ve discovered that my camera which I’ve relied on for this trip and which gave an inkling of trouble back in Athens when we ditched the 60-person tour, has finally given up the ghost and has died.  Unfortunately, all the photos I took over the past day and a half which I would be able to share, are now forever gone.  I guess I’ll be switching to photos with my iPhone.  To be continued.