Mediterranean Iconic Shores Ocean Cruise

Day 7: Wednesday, November 05, 2025 - Çanakkale, and Troy, Turkey Scenic Sailing

The day's statistics:
-  Weather: upper 50s
-  Steps: Linda: 7,484; Steve: 10,222

The trip's original itinerary had us stopping at Troy, with our excursion at 8:30.
At about 7:30, while we were still getting ready to go to breakfast, the captain came over the loadspeaker and told the passengers that due to rough seas, for the safety of the crew and passengers, we would not be porting in Troy, and would now be heading straight to Ephesus.
Well bummer on that.

Since we no longer had a timeframe to stick to, we decided to slow down a little, take our time, and go have breakfast in The Restaurant instead of the World Café.
Right outside The Restaurant is a large collection of bottles of various mostly wines, still and sparkling.

I even saw a bottle of sparkling tea. Yes, tea.

These bottles are probably the bottles that those that want to buy a bottle (house wine, beer, and soft drinks are including with each meal), either straight up or with the Silver Spirits package where they can get a "30% discount on other premium beverages".
The Restaurant menu is pretty much what we had on the rivers, not that there was anything wrong with that.

A waiter with a basket full of various pastries visits each table and offers three different flavors of muffin (blueberry, chocolate, and corn), croissants, and others, including Sfogliatella (Linda had one of these).
Linda [thought she] ordered a hard boiled egg (but got two soft boilded eggs), with mushrooms, and sausage (the tomato was provided without requesting).

I ordered a two egg omelet with peppers, onions, and mushrooms; hashbrowns, and sausage (the tomato was provided without requesting). Miraculously, one of the sausage links on Linda's plate jumped onto mine.

Some people need to be told about the obvious...

We saw some interesting scenery during breakfast too.


We even had two - TWO - cups of coffee.
After breakfast, we headed back to the cabin to brush and pick up the Dominion and Pinochle cards we packed to go to the Lounge to play.
Before leaving the room, I stepped out onto the veranda to take a picture of the sea.

We played a few hands of Dominion and Linda won more than I, and we tied even more than that.
And we had more coffee too.
After a couple hours playing, we went to the second deck and did a couple laps around the deck since we weren't going to be going on an excursion this day - we wanted, no NEEDED to get some exercise.

Before too long, it was actually time for lunch.
The Restaurant is usually closed for lunch. Except on sailing days like today, even when they are unexpected.
Like the dinner menu, the ocean lunch menu has an "Always Available" section - some of it the same as the rivers such as the salad, burger, and hot dog. But the ocean lunch menu also added consommé and tiger prawns.

Linda had the Broccoli & Potato Soup, Shrimp Salad Wrap, and Tropical Cream Glacé.



I had the Shrimp & Panzanella Salad, English Style Fish & Chips, and Pecan Praline Choux. I asked for cocktail sauce and more ketchup (it's served in tiny little jars)

After washing my hands, I happened to notice what looked like a smiling face on top of the drain cover.

We returned to the Explorer's Lounge and played some more cards - Pinochle this time - then visited a couple areas of the ship, including lounging by the pool where one of us may or may not have taken a nap too.
This was a lazy, relaxing day, and one of the only ones we'll have on this five week journey.

Dinner time!
This evening's menu.

While we were waiting to order, or after - it doesn't really matter - we heard someone from a table behind me at the end of bench seating, order a Caesar salad. But then he said "with no coutons, and no anchovies." So in other words, lettuce with cheese...
Linda had the Caesar salad, Tofu & Chickpea Curry (with rice and naan - not pictured), and Cappuccino Panna Cotta.



I had the Chicken Croquette, Lamb Kefta (like we had a Millocal in Cappadocia) & Tabouli, and Turkish Tulumba Tatlisi.



As we were eating, a woman at table 51, two tables to my left, looked at us and said "You don't remember me, do you?" No, no we didn't. Then she said we met her on the River of Gold cruise - our most recently completed cruise.
We chatted a little, and made a "dinner reservation" with her for two nights.

Our glasses of wine were filled, and we stopped in the atrium to hear the pianist and cellist play. They were in different outfits.

We enjoyed a couple songs before departing the area.

In the Explorer's Loung tonight at 8:00 was music trivia called "Name That Tune".
15 questions about movie music, but with each questiion having a different bonus question such as "Who was the director of that movie?", "What were the names of the lead roles in the movie, not the actors names?", and "What year did that movie come out?".
Our team comprised of Sandy and Steve from Illinois, Sandy and Skip from Florida, and Linda and I (another Steve).
We actually got 27 of 30 points - and we didn't even tie for first!
We chatted with our teammates for a little afterward too.
The ship was arriving in Ephesus tonight rather than tommorow morning.
Before departing the Lounge, we stepped out onto the deck to take a quick selfie.

After returning to the cabin, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to get a couple night shots of the port.



we washed up and retired for the evening.

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