Carnival Vista to Caribbean

Cruising the Greek Islands on the Celestyal Olympia is a short, port intensive voyage that gives you a quick snapshot of the islands visited, with around four or five hours on each. With these trips often taking in two ports of call a day, it's a very fast paced adventure that takes in a lot of sights over four days. It's long on memorable sights, but short on relaxation and actual sea time.

That said, the Celestyal Olympia had everything you could want; there was a main dining room plus an upper deck, more casual buffet, with the emphasis on predominantly Greek fare. In both venues, the food was vastly improved from a previous cruise some years back. The ship has just had a large refurbishment, and the public areas are an appealing run of rooms.

I had an outside promenade deck cabin, with about 269 feet of space. This room had a double bed, small but adequate bathroom, and a lovely sitting area. For four days, it had more than enough space and comfort.

Celestyal Olympia tries to offer an authentic Greek experience afloat, and on the whole, succeeds admirably. There is a genuinely rustic, upper deck Taverna that looks over twin swimming pools, where ouzo and bouzouki music is the order of the day. Gliding between Kusadasi and Patmos while enjoying a beer here was an experience bordering on the sublime.

Shore tours, though brief, were well organised, with 'quiet boxes' issued to all passengers to hear the guide. Above all, the great advantage of cruising on Celestyal Olympia lay in sailing with the 'local' line. Their captains know these waters like the back of their hands and the ship herself- 38,000 tons of her- was big enough to provide enough space and diversions on board, while still being small enough to slip into many smaller harbours along the way.

With all drinks and shore excursions now included into the fare for 2017, this cruise was great value, and a very pleasant, comfortable way to take in a lot of wonderful sights.