First Port Stop in Chania

Our port arrival time to Chania wasn’t until noon today so no rush in the morning. The boys woke up first and headed to breakfast with Grandma and I followed close behind with Ainsley. We opted for Royal Court again this morning with a round of Mickey waffles for the kids and Grandma while I had some smoked salmon.

Eventually the rest of the crew joined us and then we headed to the atrium to find Chip & Dale. Whitaker was so excited! Liam and Odin set up a game of Ship Detective - a game that takes the detectives throughout the ship to reveal clues at various interactive picture frames while we waited in line. We also found a photo opportunity with Captain America’s shield and a glass slipper so we hopped in line for both of those as well. The big 6 went off on the detective hunt while Whitaker and I sat out on the open deck enjoying the views coming into to Chania. There are so many small, uninhabited rock islands before we got to the big island of Crete and the port city of Chania. It was fun to be able to see them dock the boat and watch all of the action that goes with it.

While enjoying the views from the lounge chairs we saw several characters walking by. Goofy and Whitaker went for a walk just as Grandma and Grandpa joined us. Whit was so happy! We also ran into Daisy! These unscripted surprise encounters with the characters are the best!

The rest of the family met up with us and we headed down to get off the ship. With a midday ashore time, it seemed like everyone was getting off at the same time which made for a little bit of stress since it was the first time going through security like this.

In Chania, we scheduled a walking food tour. Our guide and driver picked us up in a minibus which was great. We all rode together so no worries about losing anyone! The driver dropped us off and it was a short walk to the first restaurant where we tried bugasta which was cheese filled pastry. We tried it first plain then with sugar and then with cinnamon sugar. All three options were delicious. Then we went to a cheese shop and tried several different types of cheeses along with some honey.

Things started to go off the rails a bit when we got to the next cafe where we all tried some spanakopita. Surprisingly, Liam really liked the first one which was an herb and cheese filled deep fried pastry. Unfortunately the second one took forever to come out. The seating for this restaurant seemed to be in a tunnel so not a lot to look at while we waited and waited and waited.

The next stop was in the old town of Chania. There are no cars allowed in this part of town which is right on the water. Keely and I stayed here when we came to Greece on Sabbatical 2.2 in 2019. It’s very much a tourist area for cruise ships and we made our way to a restaurant for some refreshing and delicious bruschetta which was my favorite and a cheese and flour tortilla with honey which was definitely Griffin’s favorite. Our stroll through old town continued to the water where we saw our hotel from 2019! Finally we reached our last stop and enjoyed some chicken and pork souvlaki. We were a bit behind schedule so we opted to combine the dessert stop and get that to go. The food was great on the tour and the old part of Chania is neat, especially the marina, but after some really great guides and tours in Rome, this was definitely lowest on our list. Credit to Dad who ate and enjoyed the Greek food way more than we ever expected!

We were back on the ship by 5 and the kids wanted to do a quick swim and AquaDuck ride before our 6 pm dinner. No one was hungry since we had just spent the last 4 hours eating but since dinner was in Royal Court tonight, we didn’t want to miss it.

Once again, Whitaker fell asleep at the table. We had another great table location and as we wrapped up dinner, the ship departed the dock right outside our window. We stopped for photos with Goofy and Minnie in their Greek outfits before Liam and Odin ran upstairs to change into swimsuits quickly while we distracted Ainsley and Whitaker so they could get to sleep.

The big 4 and I did an AquaDuck ride before they hopped in the pool for a bit. But we have an early morning in Athens tomorrow so we didn’t want to stay up too late. We decided to skip the ventriloquist show in the Walt Disney Theater and catch the kids up on some sleep.  Everyone but Whitaker was asleep by 9:15 who of course was wide awake until 10 after his 3 hour nap!

We arrive in Athens early tomorrow morning and our tour picks us up at 7:30 am! Lillian, Sydney and especially Griffin are really into Greek mythology so looking forward to their excitement during the tour of the Acropolis and Ancient Greece tomorrow.