Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas: Grand Suite Tour & Exploring Greece & Turkey

We are going— ah, my foot! You just hit my foot! Okay, because that's where we are going to Greece on the Royal Caribbean Brilliance of the Seas Grand Suite Greece and Turkey. We're at the Toronto airport now, flying over there, and you're coming with us. Let's go!

We have arrived in our hotel. This is our room. Shoes off.

Shoes off. Okay, sounds good to me.

This is the bed and the couch area and a working station. This is Evan Carmichael.

Let's go. Yeah, best part of the room.

This is the bathroom here. And then here's the Temple of Athena. It's all the way in the back.

So we came a day early, uh, so that we didn't have to rush to get to the cruise ship and also potentially miss the cruise if there's a delay or whatever. And so we have a day in Athens, and we're gonna go to the Acropolis, but first a legendary sandwich shop called Garanti, and we'll see if they have a good sandwich. Garanti, then Acropolis, then a legendary pastry shop, and then back home to relax.

Let's go! All right, Nina's gonna dig in.

Here we go. She got the roast beef Garanti sandwich. There it is. That's the face of happiness and excitement and a big pack. And—

It's good.

Good.

Very fresh.

Okay, fresh. All right, Evan, it's cruise day, it's cruise day! We're leaving the hotel on the way to, uh, Piraeus, I think is how you say it.

Yeah, Piraeus.

It's about a 40-something minute drive, so we got a private transfer to get there. Apparently we have two problems: one, we have 5 people, so we take two cabs, and apparently cruise terminal is chaotic and huge, so better to go with someone who knows what they're doing. So we're gonna hop in our transfer and then get on the boat. Let's go!

All right, we just got into the, the cabin. This is our room for the night, and this is Evan Carmichael.

We are gonna go do a tour of the boat.

You're gonna do a tour of the boat?

Okay, Nina's gonna film. Yeah, you get to see the Brilliance of the Seas.

Yeah, let's go. Get ready for the heat!

Dinner time!

Yeah, we're going to the restaurant for dinner.

It's being served. Nina got her iced coffee.

I forgot to film that. I forgot to film. This is the ride we're going to go up.

Yep.

They're mule.

Actually, you know what? Uncle Evan travels before, he always get McDonald's.

Really?

Yeah, until I say no.

Yeah, yeah. All right, we're gonna go to the number one coffee shop in Santorini salad.

We ordered like 2 breakfasts, eggs, and then a couple drinks. And then the guy came over, the owner came over to pick up the dirty plates, and I told him the food is really good, especially the eggs. And then he came back 5 minutes later, gave us a brownie with hazelnut. I think these are hazelnuts. Huge brownie. Yeah, it's a very nice Nice stretch shirt.

Thanks, Karma. Karma is practical. Do good. Be good.

Try it, Evan. It's hot. Is it good?

Good.

Thank you for taking us here, Evan Carmichael. Oh yeah, it's hot.

Fresh?

Very fresh. Cheers!

Cheers! Cheers!

You happy to be back in the boat?

Back on the boat?

Yeah.

Good day. Very hot. There's a heat wave happening in Europe right now. But we made it!

Good day!

We are here in Ephesus. I think it's the largest collection of Roman ruins outside of Rome. And we have a guided tour because coming here by yourself is a little tricky. So We're about to go in. Let's see.

It's a pretty big dog. It's not straight for sure.

This is barbecued eggplant. It's a little bit smoky, but it's perfect. This is tomato sauce. It's a little bit spicy, but it's edible. This is tzatziki, cucumber, yogurt, and mint.

It's perfect.

This is a salad. If you want to do your salad traditional way, should I do it?

Sure, yeah, do it.

So like this, you're adding the olive, olive oil like this.

You can do the same.

So you can put the pomegranate.

Oh, it's syrup, very syrupy. Okay, like this, right?

And now what you need to do, you need to mix it.

Turkish carpets are double knotted. Double knot goes like this, goes around, and the second goes around too. This is the pile of the carpet. It is proven double knot is much, much durable because single knot, one knot is half knot, can go out. But double knot, when you walk on it, you vacuum your carpet or you pull it, it gets tighter on the skeleton of the carpet. Workmanship for wool on wool It takes about 1 month's work time for 1 square meter.

This is going to tell me my fortune. It's a fish.

Yeah, it's a fish. It means luck.

Good luck. And a camel. Wait, how does that happen?

Where did you see the camel?

I see it's a fish on top of the camel. Look, there is literally a shark.

Oh, that's cool.

It is something like this.

What's yours?

Yeah. Where's Evan's? What happened?

Mine got destroyed. What happened to mine?

Yeah.

Too much luck.

Too much luck. How are you liking the cruise ship so far? Cruise ship's great.

Yeah.

Cruise ship's so good.

Bread is yummy.

Got some good bread here, um, and we ordered food, so let's get to it. Here we go.

Perfect.

We are in Istanbul, one of the main reasons why we did this cruise. We're going to spend— we got here, what, it's like 1:00 in the afternoon. We have the whole rest of the day and then Uh, we're here overnight and then we leave tomorrow like 8 or 9 at night.

9 PM.

So we got the whole day again tomorrow. There's so many things to do. Uh, we booked a 2-day guide to take us around to different spots including different mosques. Nina has to wear a, uh, a scarf.

Yeah, I have to go buy a scarf.

Yeah, to cover her head. And, uh, we're going to have some fun. Istanbul, baby, let's go!

This is the old town. Tamil street food. Bagels.

All right, we got some of the local bagels here. This is apparently a must-try. So one has chocolate. We're going to try that second. Okay, give it a bite, Nina. Original bagel. Here she goes. Fresh.

Good.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Aiden's going to give it a shot. Loving life. Okay. The chocolate's a little bit on the messy side.

Yeah, messy little bit.

Little bit on the messy side. Here she goes. She's going in. She's getting her bite. And Nutella?

No, not fresh.

That one's not as fresh, but it's got chocolate. The fresh one was nicer because it's got chocolate. Dub! All right, let's go. Next stop. Here we go.

This is gorgeous. Gorgeous. We're going to the coffee shop. Evan said it's called Coffee Number 4.

Okay, we're gonna try the legendary Turkish pistachio coffee. Nina's gonna have it. Pistachio Turkish coffee.

Huh, very good. It's different.

Pistachio, oui.

It's a pistachio flavor. It's pretty strong.

Okay, good.

That's good.

Yum.

Where are we going, Evan?

Uh, we're going to the legendary Grand Bazaar. 4,000 stores. 4,000 stores inside. All sorts of little entrepreneurs selling their stuff. I'm excited. It's going to be fun.

This is the legendary Turkey's dessert place, Hafiz Mustafa Baklava.

Yeah, and other desserts.

Oh, balava! I got jump scared. I got jump scared when he honked at me. Yeah, the baklava dessert.

You got a big smile on your face.

Because I'm always smiling to the camera.

It's 10 o'clock. Yeah.

At night.

Yeah.

Nina wanted to go back out since we have overnight.

Yeah.

We went back to the room.

Relaxed.

We relaxed, we ate dinner, we're all chill, ready to have settled in for the night. And Nina's like, we should go back out without the kids because we have overnight here in Istanbul.

Yeah.

Okay, so now we're going to go back out and see what is open. Just want to see the nightlife.

At 10 o'clock.

Yeah. And burn off some extra calories and get some steps. So we'll see what Istanbul has for us at 10 PM.

Wow, look at this, how pretty! We stopped by this, uh, famous dessert baklava store here.

Again, the same place we got the boxes for that cost us like $100 of Uh, anyway, we got just two.

We got just two to, uh, taste it.

The famous pistachio one. One is normal pistachio, then there's chocolate pistachio. Oh man, it's good. Really good. I was gonna inhale it and then eat the chocolate one, but it tastes too good.

Okay, can I try it then?

I don't really taste the chocolate, so they're both good. It's really good. Okay, good.

Yeah, yum. Back to the boat. Start tomorrow again with Istanbul.

11:30 at night.

Yeah, 11:45 at night.

Let's go get a shower. Yeah, and then, uh, day 2, we do it all again.

You have another great day? Great sleep?

Not a great sleep. I don't know how much I slept.

I don't know how deep I slept.

I didn't sleep as much. Nina was needy. Nina was a party animal last night, wanted to go outside. Um, yeah, day 2. Day 2 in Istanbul. We're doing the spice market, we're doing a couple other things with our guide, and we're gonna— oh, Turkish delight! I'm excited to have some today.

Let's go!

Ma Bachay. Bachay means garden. Don't know means filled it up. Oh, you can smell the fish.

Okay, yeah.

Potato, minced meat, Turkish crepes. Is it good?

Yeah, it's lunch.

Let's go.

What are we doing?

Having lunch at the Old Balat Cafe and Kitchen, uh, which they're famous for their— I forget what they're called now, but they're pancakes. Oh, gozleme pancakes, uh, where they have this really thin— it's almost basically like a crepe, and then they fill it with different meat. And the woman is like hand-making it for us, so it got really good reviews, so we're going to enjoy.

Evan's going to try the pancakes. He got the mince— no, he got some mix. Hot.

Oh, it's hot.

It's very hot. It's good.

Good?

Yeah, yeah, good. Yummy.

This is the famous house special besides the crepes, is this thing. So here it is. It's chicken and cream and rice and seasoning.

Oh, the rice is very good.

Oh, you're an Asian person too, so that's good. You got high standards for rice.

Mm, very good.

This is the spice market. We're here at the dinner. Came back, Evan took a nap.

Nina woke me up.

No, I didn't wake wake you up. The, the guy ring the doorbell and then you were up, that's why. And then I just went over to see if you're up or not because you, you have to get up anyways because you want to come here for dinner. Yeah. How was your day in Istanbul?

Great.

What's your highlight?

Got a big headache. Uh, highlight? Spending time with Nina. It's always a great default answer. Yep.

Okay, what's another thing besides Nina?

Um, um, the Spice Bazaar was pretty bizarre.

Good.

Yeah, okay, forget it. You had a great day in Zippo? In Zippo? In Zippo? You had a great day in Turkey?

Istanbul?

Istanbul.

Istanbul.

Yes, Istanbul.

Yeah, Istanbul. Istanbul. Yeah, yep, yep. Good day.

Tomorrow's day at sea.

Beautiful day, beautiful view, sailing out, and then tomorrow day at sea.

All right, today is a day at sea.

We spent the day at sea.

We spent the day at sea. Evan and I, we just, uh, worked. We worked most of the time.

Most of the great work done.

Yeah, he got some great work time. And then we booked ourselves a date night, just the two of us, for dinner.

Yeah, Chop Steakhouse. Yeah, the hardest place to book. If you're gonna book Chop Steakhouse, do it before you leave because it's really hard to get a time, especially for the day at sea. So we're gonna enjoy some steak and you can see we eat.

And you see how Evan is really dressed up for tonight.

Yeah, dressed up, exactly.

Yeah.

We finished dinner and did an hour of work, and now they have a bachata, Latin dancing, Latin music, so we're gonna do some dancing. You're gonna do some dancing?

No.

All right, it is our last day on the boat and we are in Mykonos, Greece. Small island and we just got off the tender. They take you on a tender to get in, but pretty small city. Yeah, we're not going to spend a ton of time here, but, uh, we'll see some of the highlights, take you with us.

Let's go!

Free coffee! Our first free coffee. Oh, nice! Strong!

Yes, good!

Known for their IPAs here, this restaurant. Oh wow, that might be the fruitiest IPA I've ever had. Good though. Yeah, I like fruity, very light.

It's dinner time, Evan.

Dinner time.

What's your message for the The world.

Believe and get a good wife.

It is our last night on the cruise and my face is really red. Yeah, anyways, and big. Yeah, big. Jeez. Okay, you should take over this.

Yeah, no, no, you're good.

No, you should take over this.

That was good.

Okay, so what do you want to talk about?

Oh wow, wow, hello. Wow. Okay, gotta pack up, gotta pack up.

Yeah, I gotta pack up. Yeah, I need to pack up.

Yeah, Nina, I mean, I've already packed up. Yeah, I just gotta pack up her stuff.

No, I need to pack up his stuff.

Pack up. Tomorrow we land back in Piraeus, which is just outside Athens, and then we have a day trip booked to Delphi and then 3 more days in Athens, which we'll show to show you before we head on back home. Today we're gonna go to Delphi, and it's a 2-hour drive or so out of the city, so we booked a tour. It's going to take us there and show us around. That's where the Oracle of Delphi was, and there's the Temple of Apollo and Temple of Athena there that we're gonna check out. And then another 2 hours back to Athens, and hopefully it's a fun day. Let's go!

We just got off the bus, finished the tour, now heading to our Airbnb. So we actually got into the— oh, hello, this is me. Hello. We got into the Airbnb half an hour ago. This is gonna give you a little quick tour. They have 4 rooms: Royal Penthouse 1 and then Royal Penthouse 2. 2, and then Luxury Suite, Luxury Suite 2. And then this one, it's a very nice— this is a pan out. Well, it's kind of messy. My nephew, he just settled in, start to do his laundry. This is a bedroom, queen-size bedroom. It has its own kitchen, mini kitchen, and a TV. And a bathroom. This bathroom is tiny, but shower is big shower. What the heck? But I think we got the smallest shower. And then there's a balcony outside. He's too shy, he's hiding. I'm gonna leave now. This is our room. We have a, like, a living room here. I started to do my laundry as well. And living room here, kitchen, mini kitchen. Evan is working outside. I don't know. Yeah, you can see him. He's working right now. And then this is our bedroom with the bathroom. Our bathroom is— shower is the smallest. The other two are similar, same thing, just a little bit smaller. But this room has the biggest shower room, has a bathtub. Anyways, we settle in a little bit. I'm not 100% settled in. Did you give a tour of the— I did. Okay, I did, I did.

Good Of course you did, because you're Nina Carmichael.

Yeah, I did. We need to pick up some dinner, something.

It's 8:40, so we need to pick up something quick and bring it back. Yeah, we had a late lunch, so we're gonna go do a— actually, don't remember— something that's quick, Greek food that's quick, and bring it back.

Let's go!

Today is, um, a day.

Today is the day. Yeah, are you gonna say day at sea?

No, I was gonna say today day at sea. No, but I sat on this hit my butt. Okay, we're at Ethan— Athens. Ethan, I don't know. Sorry, I'm not just—

I'm not going to— we got sick from the boat.

Yeah.

And, uh, had a whole day just in the room yesterday. Yeah, did nothing.

Yeah, I had a fever. It's like, yeah, it was the worst.

So, but feeling better today.

Yeah.

And the first thing Nina is craving is Chinese food. So when you're in Athens, the best thing to do is go to Chinese food at the East Pearl Chinese Restaurant. Try it.

Yeah, we're going to go.

Okay, next up we're going to go to a flea market.

Yeah, famous flea market. I don't know, bunch of entrepreneurs selling their stuff. Hopefully we find some interesting local Athens stuff. Let's go!

Evan, give a try to your ice cream.

Italian cream. Oh, very, very rich. Oh, it's leaking. Banana coffee. Oh, it's like there's banana in here. It's great. What are we doing?

You want to tell them what you found?

Oh, Hayden bought some statues of Hermes and Athena and a keychain and just some local stuff. And now we're gonna head back to the hotel through a famous street because everybody— well, Nina and two of the kids are feeling a little sick still. So instead of risking it, we're gonna make our way back to the hotel so we can get some forest.

We chill a little bit in the Airbnb. Well, did some work.

Got some work.

Yeah, got some work done. And then just— it's a dinner time, 6:00.

He don't want to eat Greek food this time.

Yeah, ramen. We're going to have some ramen. It's a most popular ramen restaurant around the corner.

No, I don't think they have ramen.

They They have ramen. I looked at it.

Okay, they have ramen.

I look at their menu, I don't see ramen, but okay, we'll go check first. Japanese. Check before we go in.

Japanese.

Yeah.

Okay.

How's the gyoza, Evan?

It was pretty good.

This is pretty weird.

The burger is weird.

I didn't think I was getting the burger.

We thought I was getting the katsu on rice, but it's a burger.

Good.

How was the dinner, Evan Carmichael?

Uh, very weird.

Why is it weird?

It ended up being a fusion place, and some of the fusion was awesome. It hit so hard, and then the other half was terrible. So I'm kind of questioning my life right now. How was yours?

Yeah, it's weird. Anyways, it's fine.

You're talking but people can't see you.

Yeah, it's weird, but it's fine. We're gonna go back to the Airbnb and do more work and chill because my stomach is hurting right now a lot. Yeah, today is our last day in Athens and we need to pack a lot of things in today. What are we doing?

I don't know that we're doing a lot. We're going to the museum.

Museum.

Acropolis Museum is our first step. It is 1 o'clock, so we're not getting an early start to the day. Museum closes at 5, so see how much we can do in a few hours.

We just finished a museum.

Pretty cool. Yeah, yep, air-conditioned inside, historic places, a lot of glass floors that you can walk over and see, which is pretty cool. And now we're gonna to go to a local cafe and get a coffee and maybe some celebratory baklava.

We're stopping by Italian restaurant to get some—

I'm full— spaghetti, but Nina's hungry. Spaghetti? Is that what you want?

Maybe.

This place is known for the risotto and gnocchi. I'm going to have a pizza and Nina's going to eat spaghetti. Nina is on a Greek food ban. Yeah, in Greece. Yeah, yeah.

So Italian, let's The Italian food is pretty good.

Okay, good.

Yeah, it's good. Do you enjoy your mushroom pizza?

Yeah.

Are we gonna have any Greek food before we go home?

Oh, I don't know.

Okay, perfect.

Yeah, my stomach is still not 100% recovered yet, so I don't know yet.

From Greek food?

Yeah.

Okay, great.

Yeah. Okay, where are we going next?

We're gonna check out a hammam. We never did the hammam in Morocco, and there's a famous one close by, so we're gonna see if we have time to squeeze it in before we go for a scrub and massage, uh, and then we're going to make our way back to the Airbnb.

Evan, you want to explain what happened?

What happened?

The spa was closed.

Oh, spa was closed. Nina's going to call them later on to see what's going on. Google Maps says they're open, so maybe they're out for lunch or something. Nina's going to call them back, see, and we're going to explore the shops of downtown Athens.

Let's go!

All right, we are on our way home. An amazing couple weeks. Greece, Turkey, lots of memories, good vibes. And if you want to see our last trip to Madrid, it's a short one, watch the video right there next to us. Thank you, love it. Continue to believe. We'll see you there.