In most cases our Celebrity Cruise ‘met expectations’ and so I have given it an ‘average rating, but, unfortunately, Celebrity fell short on every level – perhaps with the exception of the hotel and restaurant staff.

One aspect in which Celebrity catastrophically failed to meet expectations was in the itinerary and name of the cruise. Listed as a cruise of the ‘Eastern Roman Empire’ – it actually managed to schedule port stops at two of the most important sites on the day they were closed. We booked this cruise because of the promise of visiting ancient roman ruins – as stated in the on-line promotion. For the Constellation to dock at Athens on a Monday - when normally the Acropolis Museum is closed - and Santorini on Tuesday when the Museum of Ancient Thira was closed is bordering on miss-selling.

In general, the time allowed for on-shore excursions was insufficient. Because of time constraints, visiting Akrotiri (the predominant Roman site on Santorini) was problematical but, having read that due to restoration, most of the important artefacts had been moved to the Museum of Ancient Thira anyway, this was an absolute must visit. However, this museum is closed on Tuesdays – and Celebrity cruise of the Eastern Roman Empire, chose to dock at Santorini on Tuesday. The story would have been the same in Athens as the Acropolis Museum is normally closed on Monday, but, because of the unusual political/financial situation in Greece – the museum was especially opened for a limited time during September . Read more