Y’all. What a bummer today was. I woke up several times during the night thanks to the ship rocking side to side. I got a little queasy but tried my best to ignore it. We got up at the same time as yesterday to get to breakfast and to the meeting point for our full day trip in Santorini including a boat tour with snorkeling. The wind was whipping and the waves looked so high from the windows-but I’m no sea captain.
We ate the same breakfast as yesterday and went to the meeting spot only to hear that the current weather had us delayed “for now.” It was 8:45, they’d update us at 9am. Ok-fine. No problem. 9am rolls around and the captain of the ship comes over the PA system to tell us that there are 10ft swells and 60knot winds-it’s too unsafe to get off the boat, waves are literally crashing over the gangway higher than a human. Cool. No worries. They’ll update us again at 10am.
The issue with the updates was that we had to be in a public place to hear them, because they don’t make announcements into the staterooms (fantastic when you’re sleeping, not so much when you want to nap AND be in the know.. ya win some ya lose some..). Mom laid down on a couch in a lounge area that they started doing trivia in. I half listened half scrolled the internet trying to stay awake until 10 to hear the announcement. The whole time you can hear the wind whistling through the doors and windows from the deck of the ship.
As I was watching the waves rolling by seem only higher and higher, I held out hope that the announcement would be in our favor. Absolutely everything in the last 20 days has worked out, mishaps be damned, surely this would, too! The 10am announcement comes on: “we’re so sorry, for your safety we cannot dock at the port nor can we allow anyone off the ship… refund.. blah blah blah.” I was heartbroken! Of all the places.. this is SANTORINI! The captain let’s us know that he will head on to Turkey a day early, we’ll dock around 7:30pm and see how the weather fairs.
To drown our sorrows, mom and I head back to our room and decide to take a nap. If anyone knows either of us well-you already know neither of us knows how to actually take a nap. We were out cold comatose for HOURS of the day! While it was sunny outside, the wind had the upper decks closed, so there was honestly nothing for us to do unless we wanted to gamble, eat, or play more trivia. If Nana and Joe were here-sure-I’d play some trivia and probably get some right (I did get a few correct that I was half listening to, even if I wasn’t officially “playing”), but without the entertainment of them-nah, I’d rather sleep! Drinking was off the table for me, too, thanks to the rocking of the boat from the waves.. the last time I thought I’d drink through sea sickness I ended up on the cruise ship bathroom floor for hours on end and it was quite ugly (not this trip lol). I won’t say never again-but I will say not today!
So, we napped until some time in the afternoon. We whined about not getting to go on our awesome excursion, and then I whined about them crediting our “onboard accounts” (separately I might add) when I paid for them on a card-we’re talking $720.. like-I better get that money back on a card-mine or moms-but not a cruise credit! Lolol anyway, it’s fine, we’re fine, I promise 🥴😬
Then we ate lunch. I read a bit, we went to the casino-mom was bored and went back to the room, I promptly wasted $20.. I was up by $37 and then lost it all-of course. After losing my money and finding no one to commiserate with, I went back to the room too.. I did verify the winds were too high and the pools were still closed. Back in the room, we both started to watch a movie until we fell asleep AGAIN. Yikes! We slept until 8pm! I swear, we have to have a sleeping disorder!
When we woke up, we realized we were about to miss dinner. ONLY THEN did we realize we were docked in Kusadasi, Turkey! We weren’t sure if we were allowed to get off, since they don’t announce in the rooms.. so we went to the buffet to grab some food and ask someone there about getting off. The water was much calmer, even though the wind was still pretty strong, the decks were open, the pools were not-and it was suddenly quite chilly.
After some quick eating (pasta), we went down to the gangway and excited the ship! The port of Kusadasi is absolutely beautiful! Ocean meeting the mountains almost immediately. Buildings and homes built into the cliff side, one area with homes literally painting into rainbow colors.. so so gorgeous. Mom and I walked around, saw the oceanfront-I did my run (1.35 miles) and met mom at a coffee shop. Why we decided to drink coffee at 10pm after sleeping all day-I could never explain-BUT we did! And it was fantastic! I got an iced coffee, for the first time in forever. The Turkish people were all so nice! Even their port security guys were beyond nice.
We hung out and walked around until close to 11pm when we finally moseyed back on board the ship. We showered and got ready for bed, again, and I’m here to tell you it’s not even 12:30 and I’m half asleep already! Fingers crossed tomorrow goes well. We have an excursion planned to see Ephesus along with the home of the Virgin Mary and also the burial site and church of John the evangelist. It’s a long tour-so let’s also hope it’s as cool weather wise as it is today.. because if it’s as hot as Venice was, mom is going to bail! Lolol
Goodnight, y’all. Thanks for following along! So sorry for the delays.. the WiFi onboard does not like to load pictures to wordless-or on Instagram either, really. Lol