Review of Celestyal Olympia - 4 night Iconic Aegean Cruise (Aug 21 - 25, 2023)

[CruisinKikster]

I cruised on the Olympia about a month ago, and this is my very delayed review (and pictures of all the daily activity sheets in the comments) and thoughts about the cruise. Feel free to ask questions, and I'll answer what I can! We were in Junior Suite 7001. 

 

Embarkation - If you have your health forms pre-printed, you can drop your bags and just check in. We did not, so we had to stand in a very slow moving and chaotic line to get the forms. Once we got to check in, it was quick and easy. Then security was a short line. You can take the bus to the ship, but honestly I would have preferred to walk. The bus doesn't save any time, and it saves maybe a couple hundred meters of walking. 

 

Boarding - We could go immediately to our cabins, so we went to 7001. It was easy to locate, and we met our room steward almost immediately. 

 

Cabin - Our cabin was roomy and just as described online on the Celestyal site. One caveat, the window was overlooking the deck, not the water, so that was a disappointment. Also at the beginning of the cruise the bathroom smelled of sewer, but the stench seemed to be gone by the end of the week. 

 

Food - The food was very hit or miss on this ship. We found much better food on land, with a couple of exceptions.

 

Breakfast - We ate in the dining room for a breakfast each morning. We sat with different people every day, and sometimes we could talk to them and sometimes not. Most groups just stuck to themselves in the morning. (There were no tables for 2 in the dining room, which we would have much preferred.)

 

Lunch - On embarkation day, we ate in the restaurant with the buffet. It was fine. We ate at the pool one day. The burgers were fine, but nothing to write home about. We ate at the a la carte restaurant one day, and that was probably our best meal on the ship. The pasticcio (sp?) was amazing! We ate lunch off ship one day. 

Dinner - Dinner was fine, but again nothing stellar. Presentation was beautiful, but taste did not live up to it. 

 

Shore Excursions - Overall, I would not choose to do these again with the exception of one. 

Mykonos - We did the Mykonian dinner excursion through the ship. We basically had to run through town (or that's what it felt like), and our tour guide was constantly losing people. At the windmills, we got about 10 minutes to walk around and do some pictures then we headed back to the bus. Where we kept losing people on the way, so our guide was upset we were getting back late. The bus took us out to a small village tavern for dinner with a small dance demo. Dinner was good. Just a note - there isn't ever an indication of what is served as part of this, so I assumed there'd be some sort of choice given all the dietary restrictions. Nope. They just straight up served chicken (which I don't eat), and when I let them know, they prepared a plate of beef for me. 

 

Kusadasi - We arranged a private tour for this, and it was well worth it. We liked not having to wait for other people all the time. 

 

Patmos - We did not do a tour or excursion. Just walked around town for a bit, and it was a much quieter (and better IMO) version of Mykonos. 

 

Rhodes - We did not do a tour or excursion. Just hopped off the ship and walked around town. This was easily our favorite stop on the cruise. 

 

Crete - We did the ship tour to Knossos, and this is the only one we thought was worth doing. The tour is about an hour at Knossos and an hour plus in town for shopping, coffee, or wandering. Nothing felt rushed, and the order was good for feeling relaxed. We did have to wait for latecomers to the bus back to the ship (EVERY TIME), so that was annoying. 

 

Santorini - We did the Spectacular Oia excursion, and I was incredibly unhappy with this one. The point of doing this excursion was so we could be first off the ship and maybe get a little more time in Oia since we’d only be there for 4 hours. The tenders for the excursion took us to the very southern tip of the island, where we waited half an hour on the bus because not everyone got on the right boat and we had to wait for them. Then the bus drove the long way to Oia, and when we finally got there, we had about an hour to explore. This was when I realized that we would either be having a buffet dinner (which I don’t enjoy in general, and was Tex Mex in Greece – just never had good Tex Mex in Europe so this wasn’t a promising experience) or we’d have to spend our whole time in Oia getting something else. Well, it was wall to wall people in Oia and absolutely miserable, so we opted to eat there. Ended up at a nice (and mostly quiet) pizza place with a great view. It salvaged the excursion, but truly I would have saved my money and just done a la carte if I’d have known. I’m pretty confident that people from our ship who didn’t do an excursion made it to Oia before we did.

[CruisinKikster]

These are the bar menus. Every bar had the same menu. Our favorite of the whole trip was the martini flight, although I enjoyed all the Greek drink variations I tried. And I see all the pictures are upside down, but there's no option for rotation. My apologies! 

[CruisinKikster]

These are the daily activity sheets we had. 

[portofrome]

Thank you for the review and photos.

[CaptJerry51]

CruisinKikster,

 

Thank you for your review.  I am interested in Celestyal's 14 day Greek Islands itinerary and only became aware of the line because of their placing in service the Journey - former Holland America Line Ryndam on which I took my first ever cruise.  I love that size ship!  There have been four reviews posted of the Journey so far and all have been quite negative.  However, I have seen a Youtube video interview of a travel agent who recently sailed the Journey and she was positive about her experience.

 

I don't know your level of cruising experience, but expect you are not a beginner and can render an opinion based on that experience on other lines.  Although your cruise was only 4 days, what was your overall experience and would you sail Celestyal again?  I am looking at their 14 day Greek Islands itinerary and don't want to be disappointed over that length of a cruise.  I have a history of  about 100 days cruising Holland America ships only.

 

Thank you.

Edited September 24, 2023 by CaptJerry51

[CruisinKikster]

CaptJerry,

Thank you! I've been on over 20 cruises mostly on Celebrity but also a smattering on Virgin, NCL, RCCL, and Carnival. It's a tough question about whether I'd sail them again, because I didn't hate our experience and it was VERY different from sailing in the US. We also didn't sail Celestyal for the ship. We sailed for the itinerary, which is different from how I sail Celebrity. 

 

I'd say that Celestyal has a lot to offer: friendly staff, great itinerary, and good on board programming. It's also culturally much more diverse than the American-focused cruises we've done. We weren't enthralled by the food (hence why we love Celebrity so much and why we'll do Virgin again). I'd say the food is on par with Carnival or RCCL. 

 

So if all factors were the same, Celestyal isn't a top choice. But I wouldn't say no if the itinerary or dates were more important.