ATHENS
Radisson Diamond - Part 1
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Radisson Diamond - Part 1
Written by: Dominick A. Miserandino
Photography by: Margherita Miserandino
A departure on the most stabile and unique cruise ship out there. The double-hulled Raddison Diamond.
The flight was long and the anticipation was high. In the planning stages for something as exciting as a cruise, you don’t consider flight times as often. At least this thought occurred to me when we had to change planes in London to get to Athens. Just when I felt like we should be there, we had to do it again. On the second flight exhaustion finally took over.
“Honey, please don’t wake me up as I really want to sleep.” I requested ever so sweetly.
Ten minutes passed and I quickly accomplished that sleep for which I set out.
“Dominick, do you want some breakfast?”
“I asked you not to wake me up sweetness.”
I find that when you’re really angry, adding words like 'sweetness' and 'honey' makes it seem like you’re less frustrated.
“But it was breakfast,” she responded.
Ahhh, that explains it.
We landed in Athens and took a taxi to the ship. The Radisson Diamond basically shocks you to your senses from the start. It’s the only double-hull cruise ship in the world. That’s a simple statement, but it is truly unique. What does that mean? Basically, the ship has two hulls and looks like a catamaran and is, therefore, much more stable than a normal cruise ship. It looks somewhat box-ish, but regal. Let’s just say that in a port like Athens, with a few dozen large ships, it’s not hard to find the Diamond.
We arrived, checked in and attempted to get over the jet lag quickly. Everytime we go on a cruise we say, “We should have arrived a day early to settle in,” but we never do.
It was then a quick walk through of the ship just to get ourselves acclimated. There’s a unique, curved, art deco style throughout the ship and in the center of the main lobby is a glass elevator, which is really striking. Everywhere you turn, though, you see art deco. The overall style reminds me of a combination of the 20s and today.
We changed and got ready for dinner. Margherita was a bit weary too, so we were wobbling from exhaustion of the flight more so than the movement on the ship. In fact, like I mentioned because of the double hulls, there really was no ship movement, so we had no excuses.
I will start off by saying that I hate writing paragraphs like this. It is a dangerous road as overly praising sometimes can sound coerced.
This was the best dinner I’ve had on a ship. I will never again mention the dinners because most readers have found that a bit repetitive, but we will talk about this one. They had soft shell crabs, seafood bisque a salad and soft shell crabs. Yes, I mentioned the crabs twice because I had to order a second helping.
[Margherita’s note: He really didn’t need to order a second helping, in fact he neglected to mention that he actually ordered three portions in total. His stomach certainly didn’t need the extra crab.]
Radisson Diamond from a distance
The meals on the ship are done as high quality as they can be done without coming across as snobby. There are meals that you can recognize, but yet done so well that they’re gourmet. Gourmet without being gourmet, which I’m sure makes absolutely no sense.
After I was forced to eat my second helping of soft shell crab we went to the nightclub, called the Windows Lounge, which is at the back of the ship facing a big window looking out onto the water. They have the ship’s band playing jazz; blues rock and whatever else you’d have an interest in requesting. Obviously, they were very talented.
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