Live(ish) Report - Celebrity Ascent - June 18, 2024 - Greece, Turkey & Italy

[HAPPY CRUISEGUY]

Enjoying your posts.

What is your Facebook group?

[Miaminice]

5 hours ago, HAPPY CRUISEGUY said:

Enjoying your posts.

What is your Facebook group?

Travellove.one same as our website www.travellove.one. But we dont have time to work on the website anymore - unfortunately.

[parrothead33]

Arriving very late but loving everything I have read and seen so far!  Thank you very much for posting.

[Miaminice]

On 7/4/2024 at 4:37 AM, parrothead33 said:

Arriving very late but loving everything I have read and seen so far!  Thank you very much for posting.

no worries…. I am late with the next instalments 😁

As we are back to reality and work, I can’t keep up. 
But I will post more soon.

 

To be continued… 😁

[Miaminice]

Celebrity Ascent - June 2024 - Greece, Turkey & Italy - 12 - Valletta, Malta

 

Valletta is definitely one of the ports where getting up early really pays off. Gliding past the bastions and huge stone walls of Valletta in the morning light is unforgettable. We were able to watch it from our bed when we woke up.

 

 

 

Exploring Valletta and Malta is easy and easily done without booking a tour. So before I tell you what we did on the day, I will give you a recommendation what you can do.

 

When you leave the ship you’ll be led through a small terminal building at Valetta’s Waterfront. At the exit of the building you’ll run into the vendors of tickets for the HoHo buses.

 

 

If you haven’t been to Malta before, the bus is a good way to see some of Malta’s main attractions. The fortified city of Mdina, the beautiful but unpronounceable fishing village of Marsaxlokk, the Blue Grotto, the over 5000 year old Megalithic Temples of Malta and the Church of Mosta are just some of them. Unless you have an overnight, you’ll not be able to see them all and you’ll need to focus on some of them. 
 

On previous visits we used the bus as a method of transport to get to Mdina, a fascinating medieval city. On the way we saw Marsaxlokk without getting off and listened to the interesting narrative. After walking through the alleys of Mdina we returned to Valletta and explored the capital city of Malta. We left the Upper Barrakka Gardens within the St. Peter & Paul Bastion to the end. From there you can take an elevator down to the port.

 

 

Instead of taking the bus, you can also negotiate a price for a taxi to Mdina. Taxi drivers can also be found at the exit of the terminal.

[Miaminice]

As mentioned this is what we did on previous visits. This time we had other plans. 
 

Some of you might know that we did a Southeast Asia cruise during the holidays a few months ago. On that cruise we toured with a lovely family from Malta. When we told them we’d be in Valletta, they kindly invited us to their home. So after a breakfast with a view of the Grand Harbour we had the privilege of our friend Godfrey picking us up at the port.

 

 

 

 

On the way to their home in Mellieha, Godfrey took us to the Dinli Cliffs and showed us the Viktoria Lines, the Ghajn Tuffieha Bay Beach and the Popeye Village.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we stopped at the St Agatha’s Tower (Red Tower) from which we had a nice view all the way to Comino and Gozo. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Miaminice]

After our visit of the Tower we continued to their home right by the sea in Mellieha where we had the pleasure and privilege to enjoy a Maltesian lunch cooked by Glorian and Cori, the ladies of the house.

 

 

 

 

We easily chatted the time away on their terrace and had to return to the port way too soon. Glorian, Cori and Godfrey, we can’t thank you enough for this beautiful day on Malta and for showing us parts of Malta we haven’t seen before and for showing us Maltese hospitality.

 

 

Of course we spent the sailaway in the Sunset Bar again as we slowly sailed out of Valetta’s Grand Harbour. The little lighthouse on the breakwater was the last image we saw before we started to sail towards Barcelona and the end of our cruise. Fortunately we still had a day at sea to look forward to.

 

 

 

[DaKahuna]

@Miaminice Malta has been on my list of places I want to visit ever since I read the novel "The Kappillan of Malta" many years ago.   I think I need to go have a conversation with the wife.  

 

[Miaminice]

Before I continue with the last part and conclude our travelogue, I‘d like to fast forward a bit to lunchtime of the last day at sea and give you a taste of the Extravaganza buffet.

 

PS: the video might take a while to start 

 

[hcat]

On 7/6/2024 at 9:39 PM, DaKahuna said:

@Miaminice Malta has been on my list of places I want to visit ever since I read the novel "The Kappillan of Malta" many years ago.   I think I need to go have a conversation with the wife.  

 

yes..  also definitely on our list as well... We wanted Malta but got Corsica on our cruise itin .. Seems they are not comparable! 

 

another great review by Miaminice

[Provence55always]

Your video of the last day Extravaganza buffet is fantastic…..note to self visit the buffet!!  What an amazing variety of seafood, meats, salads, cheese and deserts.

As always we have throughly enjoy your trip report. Thank you.

 

[depplep]

We never go to the buffet but this is worth a look! Thank you for the amazing video, above and beyond!

[DaKahuna]

3 hours ago, Miaminice said:

‘d like to fast forward a bit to lunchtime of the last day at sea and give you a taste of the Extravaganza buffet.

 

 Glad you were able to get a "before" video of that fantastic buffet.  I can only imagine what it looked like after they opened it up for people to eat. 

 

 I sure hope they do something like that on our next cruise.  I love seafood and the choice of cheese I saw, I would spend all day up there enjoying the seafood, cheese, and wine! 

 

[cruisetonowhere10]

2 hours ago, DaKahuna said:

 

 Glad you were able to get a "before" video of that fantastic buffet.  I can only imagine what it looked like after they opened it up for people to eat. 

 

 I sure hope they do something like that on our next cruise.  I love seafood and the choice of cheese I saw, I would spend all day up there enjoying the seafood, cheese, and wine! 

 

I am not a buffet person but that video made me contemplate trying it…

[depplep]

Does anyone know if this seafood buffet is unique to Ascent? We're on the Beyond this Saturday.

[SDWCruise]

Buffet looks amazing! Did you say that this was at lunch in the last sea day?

[vickykay]

 Do you have a link to your Southeast Asia cruise?  Love all your live reviews!

[Miaminice]

1 hour ago, vickykay said:

 Do you have a link to your Southeast Asia cruise?  Love all your live reviews!

 

Sure, I still have Southeast Asia and Japan linked in my account. There are more, but I´d have to search for them. You can find some older ones on our website www.travellove.one

 

and

 

 

[vickykay]

Thanks!

[Miaminice]

Celebrity Ascent - June 2024 - Greece, Turkey & Italy - 13 - At Sea - The End

 

There’s always the dreaded last day of a cruise. The day where you think it’s all over way too soon. And yes, it felt like the past two weeks just flew by. Since our last day of the cruise was a day at sea, Birgit took the chance to read in the sun and I took some more pictures of the beautiful ship. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Miaminice]

When I walked by the Oceanview Cafe I saw that they were just setting up an Extravaganza Buffet… impressive to say the least. When the F & B Manager saw me taking photos from behind the ropes still closing the buffet, he asked me to come in to take photos. Thank you again! The exclusive result was the photo/video compilation I posted a while ago. Of course I told Birgit about it and we didn’t leave it at taking photos. Birgit got a good dose of protein from shrimps and I thoroughly tried the non seafood selection 😁

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we got back to the room, we found a nice surprise from the Captain‘s Club hostess. We had talked to her before and mentioned how positively impressed we were about quality and staff on board.

 

[Miaminice]

 

 

 

Later in the afternoon we had a last afternoon drink at the Sunset Bar and talked about how much we enjoyed the cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

There was a time before our trip when I feared that I might have had an overdose of cruising. But I loved every minute of this one. Ascent is a beauty. She quickly became our new favorite cruise ship. We like Edge class and we loved the changes that have been made to improve it even more - like the new design of the Sunset Bar. The staff were fabulous and we loved the food - unfortunately 😉 Especially the Oceanview Cafe had such a tempting selection that - contrary to our usual habits - we had dinner there more than once.

 

Since we knew all the destinations, our excursions were very relaxing. No checking off boxes on a bucket list, just go with the flow days. We also met lovely people on board and visited lovely people on Malta. What more could we ask for?

 

Edited July 14 by Miaminice

[Miaminice]

After a last dinner at Normandie - I really like their baked brie - we met with Julie and her dad for a farewell drink at the Sunset Bar. Too soon came the time where we had to say goodbye because we had to put our bags in front of the door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next morning we went to the Cosmopolitan dining room to have breakfast. It was a more relaxed way to spend the time before we had to leave the ship. We took a taxi to the airport and started the way back to reality 😁 

 

 

As always, Wwe hope you enjoyed our trip as much as we did and thank you for following along. Our next adventure will be a different kind of cruise. A cruise on the Mekong from Saigon to Siem Reap in Cambodia. We have until September to look forward to it. 
 

Until then - bye bye friends, by bye Ascent…

 

[Ciaranaman]

Thank you for taking us along 😊.  I have thoroughly enjoyed your live from start to finish!  And have made numerous notes for future reference - if we're lucky enough sail there!

~Bernadette

[JackE]

Thank you for postings and photos! You always include great tips and pointers for those of us who follow along! 

 

Until next time, safe travels.

 

Jack