Ephesus

September 20, 2013: Ephesus
I had port day yesterday, so didn’t have to deal with Lesbos tendering, of course that meant that I never got off at that port, but according to most people, there’s not much to miss in going. Anyway, I signed up for a few excursions to Ephesus a few days ago, hoping that I may get one, despite the fact that the sign-up page was already half full. Luckily, there were at least two buses for each excursion, and it seems like they sent an escort with each bus, so I got to go to Ephesus. It was a very early morning, I had to be in the showroom by 7:15 to meet the rest of the group and direct them downstairs where we all got off the ship and walked around to find our bus. The Celebrity Equinox arrived in port and got cleared the same time as us, so all of their excursions were leaving at the same times as well, it was a bit chaotic! The parking lot was full and there were people attempting to direct tours to their buses, and directing traffic as buses left. I almost walked into a bus, yikes. We had a small bus, a rather small tour group; 23 of us including me. The 30 minute drive to Ephesus wasn’t bad, our guide told us a bit about the history of the area and the general plan for our tour.

We arrived and hung out at the entrance, and bought hats/bottles of water while our guide got the tickets. Once inside, we put in our headphones and tuned into our tours’ channel on the audio guide things and followed her as she told us about what different building were, what they were used for, where the harbor was, etc. That was a LOT of information thrown at us all at once, especially as we were trying not to lose her in the crowd and take pictures at the same time. I also had the added responsibility of making sure all the guests in our tour weren’t lost and were managing to keep up somewhat well (the ground was somewhat slippery as we were going downhill on well-worn rocks).

It wasn’t bad though, we got a good tour of the area and got to go up into one of the Terrace Houses. We had about 30 minutes on our own near the end to either get some souvenirs, use the restrooms, or see the theatre. I walked around the theatre, took some pictures, ran into a 5-minute long “gladiator” show, and got a snack since I’d missed breakfast. We all made it back to the bus on time and listened to our guide talk as we rode back to the ship. We got back just after 11:30, so I hung out in the room a bit before going to lunch and hang out with Megan in Club HAL since it was her port day. We watched a movie with the 4-year-old that’s been staying most days this cruise (she’s bored of it, will have been here for 24 days at the end of this cruise, too long for this child).

After 4, Megan and I got off and walked around inside the port for a bit, took a few pictures, broke a few hearts (because we didn’t stop in some of the shops in the port area), and bought a few souvenirs; all in the hour before all aboard. I had enough time to go through a few of my pictures before dinnertime. It was another movie night, so we hung with Ryan for a bit until he put in the movie, then Megan and I walked around the ship for an hour or so, running various errands (picking up photos from the photo gallery, withdrawing money at the crew office, looking around the shops, and generally showing Megan around the areas of the ship she hasn’t been to yet). Then, we went back upstairs just as the movie was ending and my night shift started. Right about the time that movie ended at 9, all but one of the kids left, so we put in Dumbo (it’s only an hour) for her, and after she left Megan and I tried not to fall asleep for the last hour of my shift. We had intended to play Skip-Bo in the OB, but decided against it since we both had almost fallen asleep watching movies tonight.