Greek islands with friends: a Celebrity Infinity cruise

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Lucy and I already knew we liked cruising. In August 2025, we got to share it with friends: a week on Celebrity Infinity with Lewis, Dave and David. Lewis was an experienced cruiser, while Dave and David were trying it for the first time.

We sailed from Athens, calling at Santorini, Kuşadası in Turkey, Rhodes, Mykonos and Hydra before returning to Athens. Ephesus was my favourite stop. There was just as much fun around a dinner table or over drinks with the five of us together.

Celebrity swapped our Mykonos and Santorini stops around because of some really bad weather. As I remember it, the other ships that stuck to their original itineraries had a rough time and couldn't get passengers ashore. We avoided the bad weather and everything was absolutely fine, so big points for Celebrity on that one.

Settling into Celebrity Infinity#

We flew to Athens late and stayed at FILON Hotel in Piraeus before boarding. Having a minivan booked for all five of us made the airport transfer straightforward, and the next day we could get on with the cruise.

Lucy and I had an ocean-view room. We could unpack once and settle in for the week. We'd come a long way from our first cruise through Norway, when everything about being onboard was new to us. Lewis had recommended Celebrity back then, so it was lovely to be on a cruise with him this time.

The food was really good. We had anytime dining on this sailing, which often meant waiting around half an hour for a table, and service could be slow. It reinforced my preference for fixed dining, where we'd been able to walk straight in at our usual time on other cruises. Once we were all sitting down together, though, we enjoyed our dinners.

Dave's ice cream became a running joke. However much he asked for, the waiter seemed to bring extra. It felt like a friendly challenge to see how much he could manage; I think one day's total was something like sixteen scoops.

David is a big theatre fan and was surprised by how good the shows were. Lucy and I love that part of cruising too, so having a different show to meet up for each evening suited us. It gave the five of us something regular to look forward to around our days exploring.

We also wanted to play poker while we were away, but bringing a whole poker set wasn't practical. I'd bought a set of a hundred tiny metal 'ancient coins' online to use as chips, and we used toothpicks for the higher denominations.

Santorini: Fira, Oia and the view back to the ship#

Santorini gave us the first of those views where the ship suddenly looked much smaller. We went ashore by tender, then took the cable car up to Fira. Looking back from the cliffs, Infinity was sitting in a huge stretch of blue water below us.

We also went over to Oia, walking between the whitewashed buildings, blue domes and windmills. The lanes were busy, but we found plenty of places to stop together and look out over the caldera. This was a good day for the group photographs: sea, sky and those buildings almost wherever we turned.

We used the cable car one way and walked the other. Seeing donkeys carrying tourists uphill in that heat made us uncomfortable, so we were happy to make our own way. The walk didn't feel particularly far to us.

There was a family of cats near the cable-car station, too. We stopped to stroke so many cats during the week that they ended up with quite a substantial share of the holiday photographs.

Kuşadası and our private tour of Ephesus#

Turkey was the best stop of the trip for me. We'd booked a private tour with Ephesus Port Tours, with a guide, driver and vehicle just for our group. Our guide, Banu, was easy to find at the cruise port, and within a couple of minutes we were on our way.

We started at the House of the Virgin Mary, tucked among the trees, before heading into Ephesus. Having someone take us between the different places and explain what we were looking at made this a really full day ashore.

The ruins at Ephesus were incredible. We walked along the ancient streets, past columns and carved stonework, towards the Library of Celsus. Seeing its facade ahead of us, then getting right up to it, gave us a sense of just how much there was to explore here. We made sure to get a photograph of all five of us in front of it.

We even found a cat having a wash among the ruins.

It was seriously hot. I'd bought a fan that blew air inside my T-shirt and a neck fan, and already had two handheld fans. I shared them around the lads, particularly as Lewis was really feeling the heat.

The Terrace Houses were well worth including. Under the protective roof, we could look down into rooms with painted walls and mosaic floors. After the big public buildings and streets outside, these gave us a much closer look at the details of the houses.

We also visited the Great Theatre and the Temple of Artemis. Banu fitted so much into the day, and the private tour was worth it for us.

Back in Kuşadası, we had a look around the bazaar and I picked up a watch. We took some more photographs by the waterfront before returning to the ship. It had been a packed day, so the day at sea before Rhodes fitted nicely into the week.

Rhodes: the old town and the ancient stadium#

Rhodes gave us a different sort of place to explore, with thick stone walls, gateways and narrow streets. We walked through the old town and visited the Palace of the Grand Master, with its big round towers above the entrance.

There was plenty to look at between the larger sights as well: patterned courtyard floors, stone arches and little lanes. We went up a tower for a view across the rooftops towards the palace and the sea. From there, we could see how closely everything in the old town fitted together.

There were plenty of cats in Rhodes too, including one stretched out on a window ledge.

We stopped for colourful drinks along the way. Lucy's was pink; mine managed to turn my tongue bright blue, which naturally needed documenting.

Later, we went up to the acropolis area and walked around the ancient stadium and the small theatre beside it. The long track and rows of stone seating were quite a change from the enclosed streets of the old town. We fitted a lot of walking and quite a few different parts of Rhodes into the day.

Mykonos: windmills, waterfront and more cats#

In Mykonos, we walked around Little Venice and up to the windmills. The water was washing right up beside the buildings along the waterfront, with the windmills visible beyond. We stopped to take in the view before heading through the lanes.

The streets were full of white walls, blue doors and little shops, with flowers overhead in places. We wandered through together, stopping for photographs and, inevitably, more cats. Some were stretched out in doorways or on the paving, quite at home among everyone walking past.

Hydra and a day by the water#

Hydra was our last island stop. We walked around the harbour and along the coastal paths, with Infinity anchored offshore. By the old cannons, we could look straight back across the water towards the ship.

Lucy, Dave and David went snorkelling while Lewis stayed ashore with me. The hire was expensive, but the three of them had a lot of fun. It gave them a change from all the exploring on foot.

Around the harbour, there were stone steps, bright flowers and cats seemingly making themselves comfortable on every spare patch of pavement. We were still stopping to say hello to them even after a week of it.

Athens and one last look through the photos#

We had a late flight home, so leaving Infinity didn't quite mean the end of the holiday. We put our luggage in lockers and went up to the Acropolis. On the way, we looked down into the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, then carried on to the Parthenon.

There were plenty of people up there, but we got another photograph of the five of us together. Between the Parthenon, the Caryatid porch and the view over Athens, there was still a lot to see on our final day.

Later, we stopped at a rooftop bar to fill some time before the flight. It was a lovely spot, with swings and a view back towards the Acropolis. We sat sharing and looking through our photographs from the week, which was a really nice way to spend those last few hours together.

Dave and David had both really enjoyed their first cruise. Dave had surprised himself with how much he'd liked it, and David was already browsing future cruises on his phone on the last day. Time will tell whether we get everyone aboard again, but it was a very good start.

Our later cruise diaries cover my thirtieth-birthday trip from Hong Kong to Singapore and California to Canada on Celebrity Summit. You can find the rest in our travel posts.