64. Greek Island Glow Virgin Voyages Cruise BTS

Ready for some travel inspiration? This week we’re cruising through the Greek Islands and exploring the wonders of Santorini, Rhodes, Mykonos, and more! From ancient wonders and tourist traps to local encounters and unforgettable authentic dining experiences, tune in and dive into the Greek Island Glow with me.

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Mentioned in this episode:
56. Getting over Jet Lag when Jet Setting
23. All About Virgin Voyages
20. River Cruising is the perfect Bougie Choice for Extra AF Vacations

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This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher.

Transcript

Hello, jetsetters. It is I'm Michele, your OG memory maker of Makin' Memories Travel. And I'm apologizing to you in advance for the audio this week. So last week, you heard audio that was recorded on board live on the beautiful Virgin Voyages Resilient Lady. And this week, you have the I went to Europe and came home sick voice. Seems like every time I go to Europe, I come home, and I have trouble adjusting back. And my body just says, I'm gonna take another week of vacation for no reason at all. You're just gonna be sick.

So I apologize in advance for that. And before we get into this week and the all Greek island glow of it all, as opposed to the sex in the city of it all, Did you hear the news? We are now a top 100 podcast on Apple for travel. So thank you from the very, very tippy toes in the sand. Actually, that's really never happened because I hate sand. All the way to the top of my hair blowing in the wind, where you can check out my flying dress photo shoot, I thank you. I truly never thought I would see my pod hit the rankings, and I look forward to now seeing it crawl up the rankings. So thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. If you haven't hit that check mark to follow this podcast, now is a great chance to do that. Following the podcast will make sure it automatically downloads into your podcast feed, so you can listen to each and every episode. And if you find a favorite, perhaps the one you're about to hear about the Greek Island Glow, please share it with a friend who might like it. And if you're so inclined to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or whatever platform you are listening to me and your ears on, it helps others find the podcast. And I'm not gonna lie, It helps my ego too. My very insecure, fragile ego loves seeing those reviews. So now, on with the Greek Island glow.

So, I've only been talking about this cruise for a year, so I assume. But many of you know that when it says Greek island glow, that it boards in Athens. And as I preach in episode number 56, getting over jet lag when jet setting, we did go in a day and a half early. The first day, we just walked around the Old Town. Of course, I was already ready to shop and get some traditional Greek made clothing or jewelry, but instead actually, mister jet setting with me found a fabulous shirt, and Michele found nothing on that first day. We did, however, find some really good Greek food to eat. So that was fun. And by the time we had a late lunch, it was time for us to head in for the night.

So the next day, we had a small group tour that started 8 AM, and just so happened to pick up literally outside of our hotel front door. That was not a happy coincidence. It was part of the reason I picked this particular tour, and I'm going to tell you that I have a brand new download available for all of you about how to make sure that you too pick the best possible tour. Of course, that means when you're not working with a travel adviser, which none of you would ever do, I know. So the first thing on our tour, it was bright and early, 8:30 in the morning, was to hit the Parthenon, which is at the Acropolis. So I learned that that Acropolis just means high point, and there are several of them throughout all the islands of Greece. This particular acropolis housed the Parthenon, which was dedicated to Athena, the goddess of love. And it was built in the 5th century BCE, and everything you need to know about it can be found on Wikipedia, which I actually recommend you do before you go, because it does get so crowded.

Thank goodness our tour knew enough to move out at the start time by a half hour and get us there first thing in the morning. Because later in the day, there was literally a 3 hour wait just to get in. So I'm so grateful for that. But it is hard to hear your guide even when you're there first thing in the morning. We did have some whisper ears, but it's still there's a language, a little bit of a language barrier, more like an accent barrier. So it was hard to really hear her and what she was trying to explain about Parthenon. Also, a lot of it is about architecture, and it has some math in it, and also your 8th grade Greek mythology. So I really wish that I had just done a good Wikipedia before I went, because truly, the most amazing thing about it was just standing among the ruins, knowing that they were built in the 5th century BCE, and that it's this marble of architecture.

It just it makes one feel so small among these very, very large ruins that are so old. I mean, it's just our time on earth is so very short, and things like this make you realize that there are things that'll outlast us and our lives and the lives of our loved ones. And it was a really cool feeling. And so just do your Wikipedia homework before you go. Next, we visited the Panathenaic, which I just always wanna call the Panhellenic because high Greek life in college. But it's the stadium. And it's the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble. It is the last venue in Greece where the Olympic flame handover ceremony to the host nation for every 2 years now for the Olympics takes place.

So the stadium actually held the opening and closing ceremonies of the 18 96 Olympics, but it's really never been used for what it was built for, which was the original Olympics stadium. On April 6th, the first Olympiad were officially opened. That was according to the Julian calendar. It was actually March 25th, so don't at me if you think I got the date wrong. The stadium at that time was filled with an estimated 80,000 spectators, including King George, his wife, and their sons. And most of the competing athletes were aligned on the infield, and that is how it gets the name that it was the 1st Olympic stadium. Then we went on to the changing of the guard, which is at the tomb of the unknown soldier at the old Royal Palace, which is the home to the Greece Parliament. And I have to tell you that we were so fortunate again to be going on this day.

It was a Saturday. It was the Greek Memorial Day. And so there were people from the 12 original Greek Islands who were dressed in their sort of native dress. And they each came and were announced in a very nice ceremony to lay a wreath representing their home island, their hometown at the tomb of the unknown soldier, and pose for a picture prior to the actual changing of the guard. And me being me, again, one of the things that I preach in every episode where I talk about travel is to get to know the locals. I asked someone what was happening. And this wonderful local man, I wanna say his name was Nikos, but I could be wrong, Gave me the 411, the download. He explained everything, and he was there to see the people from his home island, which was the furthest North Island.

It starts with a k, and I'm not even gonna try and pronounce it. And because I was talking to him, and he introduced me to his friends from his home community, who were dressed in the garb and were there to lay the wreath. And I got my picture taken with them. But, also, they were allowed more forward to see the actual changing of the guard than any of the actual tourists were. And since I was talking with them and posting pictures with them, security allowed me and mister jet setting with me, aka my husband, to stand there with these locals and the changing of the guard passed. Like, I could have reached out and hugged them if that had been allowed. Thank goodness. I know my my local protocols, and I did not do that.

But I have some great video that I am very excited to share with you about the changing of the guard. So it's definitely a moment that no one else on our small tour, which was only 19 people. No one else on our small tour experienced because I wheedled my way up to the front and started talking. Which as you know, if you listen to this podcast, I do love to talk. Must be the only child syndrome. Mom, what do you say about that? So then the next day, we boarded the ship. And if you don't know about all the perks of virgin voyages, I refer you to episode number 20 3, all about virgin voyages. And I'm not gonna talk very much about the ship and all there is to do and all the meals.

I'm really gonna talk about the ports and everything that I learned and the hacks for you at these different Greek guidelines. So first up was Santorini. I have to say, it was the port I was probably most excited about because it is the one that we see in all the photos. White buildings, blue roofs, high up in the mountains. It's more importantly where we see the sisterhood of the traveling pants, the girls climbing up in the donkeys. And, of course, that meant that that's what I wanted to do. Spoiler alert, I didn't, and that's a good thing. There are two parts of Santorini, which I didn't know.

I thought it was one big city, and it is Fira and Oia. Fira is the capital, and Oia is the one that we see in all the photos. Oia is really like the old town. Couple things. We were there before peak season. Thank goodness. Definitely go on the shoulder season, people. It was still hot, but it wasn't as hot as it's gonna be in 2 weeks.

It was crowded, but it wasn't as crowded as it's gonna be in 2 weeks. So definitely look for shoulder season if you're planning to go to the Greek Islands. We were there first thing in the morning. Also, please do that. Make sure that your cruise ship is gonna get there early or that you're gonna get there early from your cruise ship. There were already 2 cruise ships in port, but there were 2 more coming in the afternoon. So we wanted to get in, do our thing, and get back to our ship before the very 2 large ships, one of which was, I believe, a Norwegian or Royal Caribbean. 1 of those 2 large people pusher ships was coming in in the afternoon.

Now, we did an excursion from the ship, which I don't know why I did it. I really don't. I just knew that it was gonna get me off the ship and over to Oia, which was my goal. I wanted to make sure that I got to Oia, and I really didn't know, as I said, that it was two places, Vera and Ian. So I started to get nervous. I wasn't gonna get over there. So I booked a ship excursion. Totally unnecessary.

As it turns out, there's a hack. You can walk yourself off, get to the base of the port, which is actually kinda more or less in Fira, and take a ferry that will ferry you over to Oia, where you can catch a bus up the mountains to Oia, and you can save yourself, I would say about 45 minutes rather than doing it the way I did. Now granted, I did learn a little bit from my guide on the bus from Fira to Oia, and then back from Oia to Fira, where then we took the funicular down and got back to our ship. So it is a tendered port for you big cruisers who know that. So that's always a little challenging for the cruise ships, because it does mean you have to get from your ship over to the actual cities. The ships don't get to pull in and dock at the port. So it is tendered. It's tendered for everyone.

So just a few little challenges, which probably led to me buying this excursion from the cruise ship. But it's totally, as I said, unnecessary. It would be very easy to find your way and make sure that you see Oia and Fira and get between the two cities. There's actually a city bus that runs every hour on the hour. I had people in my group who did a wine tasting of 2 different wines in Santorini. It's a very big export there. The ground is perfect for growing the grapes. And I had some of the people in my group do a private guide, which if I were gonna do this particular island again, I would do that.

But probably what I would most wanna do now that I've seen it, and I've seen the view from the ship of the beautiful Santorini Island, is I would take a ferry to another nearby island that might not have all the traffic that Santorini did, where you could actually really walk around and maybe engage a little more with the locals. Santorini, at this point, is suffering from overtourism. It is extremely touristy. All that old town is is different. Shoes, clothing, jewelry, souvenirs, shops, and very little old town ish to see, except the views and the churches. So we only spent about a half day in Oia and Fyodor, and we came back to the ship to have our meals and spend the afternoon. And our ship was actually there until 8 o'clock at night, which did give people plenty of time in port. If you wanted to go back out in the evening or watch the sunset, lots of opportunities.

And then we went to Rhodes, which I knew very little about before we went. It's to the locals. And this turned out to be my favorite port. And the reason for that was we got a private guide. It was a private tour for 4 of us. So 4 out of the 10 of us did this private tour, and we got to direct it. So one of us really, really wanted to touch water. She wanted to stick her toes in water.

One of us was really interested in the wine tasting and the wineries. One of us, me, really wanted a local food experience. And one of us was just happy to be with everyone else in the company and riding around in air conditioning in a small car as opposed to a very large bus. And so our guide who was wonderful, I give him a 5 star review on Tripadvisor. He said, I have a solution to make everyone happy. So we did go to Lindos, which is about a 90 minute, maybe not quite 90 minute drive from the port of Rodos. But on the way, we stopped at a winery which he knows from his part of town. And at the winery, it was like a little kind of pop up wine tasting, But we did honey, olive oil, and wine tasting.

And I have to tell you that olive oil tasting was tremendous. And it was a place where clearly only the guides go. And on the way, we were the only ones there. But we saw on the way back, we drove past it. And on the way back from Leros to Rodos to the port, and it was very crowded. But it was crowded with all guides from our same tour company. So we really did get a very private tasting with the woman who was the proprietor, Woman Power. We took a great picture.

And then we went on to Leros. We saw the great view. We saw what everyone goes there to see. My friend who does really wanted to touch water, got to do that. But the best part of this whole day was that the guide took us to a restaurant that clearly only local people would know about. There's no way a tourist would find this place his or herself or their self. And they literally catch fish in the morning, and that is the fish that they serve. We got to go into the kitchen and pick our own fish.

They cook it in the back, and then they bring it out to the table, fillet it in person on the table. It was an amazing experience. And yes, I do have incredible videos. So that turned out to be our best day. It was a great day. They picked the wines. Well, we had a sommelier with us, I should say. One of the people in our group is a sommelier.

And together, they picked the wines would go best with our fish. And we had this view of water and pebbles. There's really not sand. And it was just tremendous. It was so lovely. Next day up was Bodrum in Turkey. And unlike the Greek Islands, there was actually very little English spoken here. So taxi drivers when you get off the ship, they offer to give you a tour of the island in an hour for €40, and they show you a little map.

I would say, please do not do that. They don't speak English, and they can't really tell you the history or what you're seeing. This actually might be an island where I would recommend a hop on hop off bus, going to a beach, or treating yourself to lunch at dinner at the Michelin rated kitchen restaurant, which also has 391, 5 star perfect reviews on TripAdvisor, and I do say treat yourself. The prices start at $100 per person. So mister jet setting with Michele and I did our usual segue tour. This was the port where we found a segue. And because it was in Turkey, it does make it our 5th continent to do a segue tour. So we were super excited.

We did see the 3 biggest sites on Bodrum, which are the windmills, the walls of the ancient city, and the last wall standing at the mausoleum, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Nothing exists except that final wall. I did get to try Turkish coffee, which was very hot and very strong, but I did miss out on trying the Turkish version of chimney cake. If you wanna know what I'm talking about there, I refer you to episode number 20 about river cruising and Budapest and chimney cake. So what we didn't get to see and what some of the people in my group did because they did different excursions was the farmer's market with the spices. We didn't have a bite of food. Like I said, I missed out on the Turkish version of chimney cake. I didn't really get to interact with any locals other than our Segway driver, and I found the experience just slightly lacking.

I actually talked later about how Odorim reminds me of the fake Fendi episode of Sex and the City, which everyone got because we were all there for a Sex and the City fan cruise. And I got to tell Molly about it later that every place that we passed by, every shop in Bodrum, had these exquisite fake bags. There was fake Louis', fake Fendi's', fake Chanel's', fake everything. Name a luxury bag, and it was there for €25, but the next store had it for €20. And if you went down 5 more stores, it was only €5, and they were willing to bargain. And in my life, anyone who knows me knows that I want a Louis Vuitton so badly. It's like my thing. Like, I just want one.

And they had some that looked like the limited editions, like colors with blue and all. And I thought, I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna get one. And then I realized, just as Carrie and Samantha do when looking at the fake Fendi's in the trunk of a car, you would know it was fake. And it was just it felt icky. So the whole city just felt like the fake Fendi episode of Sex and the City. That was what the city felt like to me. So I was pretty excited that the next day was our c day.

And the one thing I am gonna talk about at our c day was that I got a perfect score at trivia. It's 30 out of 30. I mean, how could we not? We had Richard Lawson who was a TV and film critic. Like, that's his job. We had me who worked at Disney and is kind of a Disney fanatic. And the categories, it was Y2K. It was movies. It was news, and it was Disney.

All of the Y2K area. So I mean, how could we not? Our team of 4, we just rocked it. And when people found out we got a perfect 30 out of 30, we hired one person go, no way, you're lying. And we got booed. So Richard Lawson is now wearing that as a badge of honor, so I will too. A perfect 30 out of 30. And yes, we won free drinks, and I do have pictures. I did the plate snap and eat.

You plate the food, and then you get some Instagram iPhone photo tricks, and snap some photos, and then you eat what you snapped, which actually my food looked too horrendous to eat. I didn't eat any of it. I escaped my plate, snap and eat without eating to go to trivia and get a perfect score. So it was worth it. But I took pictures of other peoples, and I have great, great behind the scenes photos of that as well. So that was another really fun activity. And if you remember on a previous virgin voyage cruise, I did a behind the scenes. Also a really fun activity for a sea day.

That night was our group dinner. Everyone in the group gathered together at Gunbae. We had one big table, which is Gunbae is Korean barbecue at sea. One of the best restaurants on any ship at sea anywhere. It's won awards. It is fabulous, and more importantly, you play a game for sake shots. So that was really fun. And one of the people in our group, her name is Tammy Shackley.

I interviewed her on a previous episode as well. She's the CEO founder of H4M. H like happy, 4 the number, m like Mary. The gay and lesbian matchmaker. And she invites you to book for the May 25th cruise of 2025 on Scarlet Lady. It's Barcelona to Rome and more. She is inviting you to book an entry level cabin and join her to party like a rock star, and I do mean a rock star, in her massive suite. That is the name of the suite, massive suite, and it has a hot tub in it.

The ship leaves Barcelona on May 25, 2025, and it heads to ports of Italy and France with an overnight in Ibiza before heading back to Barcelona. There is also one c day on that 7 day itinerary. And for more information on how you can join this massive sweet party, you can email me at Michele@makenmemoriestraveldot c o. And hopefully, we will see you there. Now our final report was Mykonos, and that was actually where we overnighted, so we knew we had plenty of time in Mykonos. So we kinda took it easy. By this time, you know, we're heading towards the end of our stay. We took it easy.

So day 1, we took a cooking class. This cooking class, this woman, the chef has been doing these cooking classes for, I would guess like 25 or 30 years. You have to book it through the ship's shore excursions just because she does them every single day. She doesn't really do anything private. So I do recommend this is the one sure thing for virgin voyages or excursion, if you're on a different ship that I highly recommend. It's a local cooking class. You then eat the food that is prepared by someone else in the kitchen. And then her father owns a winery in Crete, and so she pairs the wines.

She is hilarious. And Tammy, as I just mentioned, missus h for m, and I commented that we would totally watch her on a PBS cooking show. She is so funny. I'll just give you an example. She asked what we thought a typical Greek dessert was, and we all said baklava, And she said, not Greek. It's actually Lebanese where then it migrated to Turkey and from Turkey to Greece. So she was very offended and insulted that we all thought we were getting baklava for desserts. A typical Greek dessert is actually Greek yogurt with fruit and honey.

So very healthy food. It was a lot of fun. Also, there were, like, 20 of us. It's in her home, this beautiful Mykonos home, and she talks about the island of Mykonos. It is an expensive expensive island. Just know that going out. However, you can get to the beach for free, and there's an Old Port and Newport, and don't get confused by them. They are a very easy walk from one another.

You don't have to take the shuttle bus or taxi or anything unless you really want to. It's a very easy walk. Now, day 2 on Mykonos is where we did the famous flying dress photoshoot. So Tammy and I did it together. We originally were going to do it in Santorini, but because that was the very first day, and I desperately wanted to see Santorini and make sure that I saw Oia, I was really nervous about trying to do the photoshoot there. So we moved it over to Mykonos, knowing that we had 2 full days in Mykonos. And if I didn't necessarily see it all on one day, then during the flying dress photo shoot, then I could see it later. So we did it actually on our very last day of the cruise.

And I will tell you, this is strictly between us very confidentially. I shared it with my therapist, and I'll share it with you. The experience itself truly is a bucket list item for so many people who see it online. And I just have to say, I am glad I did it, but I was wholly miserable the whole time. And I think a lot of that is that I am 55. I am gaining weight due to menopause, and all I could see and think about were the flaws in my body. And I wasn't present in the moment, and I don't feel like the photographer was able to draw out the best in me. Please do not email me or at me on Instagram or anything else and say, but you look great because I have posted some of the behind the scenes photos and a first look.

I know they look good. I do. I get it. Photoshop does great things, and how can it not look good when you're wearing a gorgeous pink sparkle dress with beautiful faux diamond earrings. And I had a blow up that morning. Like, of course, the photos are pretty. I get it. What it has to do with is my mind space.

So I'm just telling you this in terms of finding a space during your trip. If this is something that you really want to do to make sure that you're in the right head space when you do it. So that you can check that off of your bucket list items and with a full feeling of joy. Now, if you want my tips to book the best experience, whether that is a cruise excursion or for your fully independent travel, you can head to the page in the show notes that says get my tour tips.