Celebrity Xcel Mykonos: A Charming Greek Surprise

Why are we in Mykonos, Greece

Back in April, 2025 we traveled to Europe for the first time. Hesitant as we were to travel by land, figuring out transportation and hotels, we instead booked a cruise aboard the Celebrity Apex taking us from Barcelona, Spain, through the Strait of Gibraltar stopping in Lisbon and then Porto, Portugal, with one more stop in La Coruña, Spain before ending in Southampton England. In addition to those ports, we spent two amazing days touring Barcelona before boarding, and two more whirlwind days in London after disembarking.  Everything we experienced is in our collection of Celebrity Apex Barcelona to Southampton (2025) trip reports.

Not long after we came home, a familiar itch to cruise Europe returned, and we began researching Celebrity’s 2026 itineraries. One particular sailing stood out: it departed Barcelona once again, this time sailing east with ports in Valletta (Malta), Kusadasi (Turkey), and the Greek islands of Mykonos and Santorini before ending in Piraeus (Athens). While we are all about the destinations, it was also incredibly cool that this cruise would be aboard Celebrity’s shiny new Edge-class ship, the Xcel, which had not yet launched when we booked. Who knew back then that the Xcel would be ready early and we’d have the opportunity to sail on her preview cruise –  certainly not us.

Well we’ve just come back from that 2026 sailing from Barcelona to Athens, and this post is all about our Celebrity Xcel Mykonos port day. If you haven’t already done so, check out our Kusadasi, Turkey port day post to read about quite possibly the best excursion we’ve ever done and all the ancient history.

Anchors Awake

Wednesday dawned bright in the Aegean sea, but also with a surprising cacophony of grinding, roaring, clanking and quite possibly some rumbling and screeching toward the end. The Celebrity Xcel had apparently just weighed anchor in the wide harbor bay between the new and old ports of Mykonos and we were awakened to the joyfully loud noises of the windlass motor and hydraulic brakes dealing with the massive anchor chain as it dropped through the hawsepipe and locker. As mentioned in our Sky Suite Review, stateroom 9112 brings with it the possibility of some noise, and these 5-10 minutes were that moment of discovery.

Mykonos was our first visit to Greece and the first of the two Greek islands on this trip, with Santorini set for tomorrow. To be perfectly honest, we were ambivalent about Mykonos. We’d done our research and had some ideas of places to visit on our own, but nothing was hugely compelling. At the same time, it’s common for cruise ships to detour from Mykonos due to strong summer winds, called Meltemi, which make for choppy waters and unsafe operation of tender boats. While this wasn’t quite Meltemi season – typical from late June through early September – had the ship detoured to someplace like Rhodes, we would not have been disappointed. 

Spoiler alert – we’re glad there was no detour.

As indicated by the anchor-weighing racket, we were going to be tendering to the island. Mykonos has one pier that can accommodate one or two modern cruise ships, though it is farther from Mykonos Town and not particularly walkable. The Celebrity Infinity had joined us in Mykonos and occupied the pier, while the Mein Schiff 5 had arrived about an hour after us and would also tender its passengers.

With no excursion planned and no inclination to rush, we’d be relying on the priority tendering available for Retreat guests, rather than showing up early for tender tickets. We headed up to Luminae for breakfast, where Kendra and Mario were waiting for us with menus and the morning pastry selection.

The morning pastry selection was on point, and the apple turnover was all the right kinds of light, airy, and sweet. Rona ordered – not for the first time – the smoked salmon with all the fixin’s plus a hard boiled egg, while I had a couple of eggs over and some toast, all of course with coffee.

By 9 AM and visions of iconic windmills, baklava and gyros in our minds, we made our way down to the tender meeting point in the Grand Plaza. There was absolutely no wait, and we walked down and out onto the magic carpet, which had been lowered to deck 2, and right onto a tender.

Mykonos

By 9:15 AM we were standing on Mykonos on an absolutely gorgeous, but breezy day. The water and sky fought like Poseidon and Zeus over which was a richer blue.

The 5-minute walk along the marble-paved harbor promenade in Mykonos Town led us past seaside cafes before finding our first blue-domed church, Agios Nikolaos, built around 1700 in honor of Saint Nicholas, the protector of sailors and fishermen.

We were able to step inside the tiny, intimate sanctuary with its blue ceiling and yellow arches, a black-and-white tiled floor, and a white altar screen adorned with traditional golden icons.

The walk continued, and we briefly stopped at the archaeological site of the medieval Mykonos Castle, though there isn’t really much to see at this point.

But right past this spot is the melting, whitewashed shape of the historic Panagia Paraportiani Church, a cluster of five separate chapels built on top of and next to each other between 1425 and some time in the 17th century!

Soon we were wandering through the Little Venice neighborhood of Mykonos Town, along whitewashed alleyways between 18th century houses with blue painted wooden balconies intermixed with shops and cafes.

This led us through the outdoor seating of Little Venice’s waterfront restaurants, which was… interesting. Also, there was a cat having a nap at one of the tables. There were cats everywhere.

After squeezing past the final rows of outdoor restaurant tables at the water’s edge, we weaved a few yards inland to a paved walkway with wide, low-rise stone steps built into a hillside. We shortly found ourselves at the iconic windmills of Kato Mili ridge, which were built by the Venetians in the 16th century to grind wheat and barley into flour. Of the original seven built in this spot, six remain with five in excellent repair. 

This area is completely exposed to the open sea, so the wind was more obvious here. The elevated panoramic view back over the rooftops and colorful balconies of Little Venice is striking. For those trying to understand the distance, including the aforementioned sightseeing stops and a bunch of leisurely walking, it was 35 minutes from setting foot on Mykonos to this point.

From the windy windmill plateau we headed farther uphill to Niochori Square then headed left toward some local souvenir shops where Rona picked out some evil eye amulets for the family. After this we found our way onto a promising street called Agiou Efthimiou, because this is where we expected to find Gioras Wood Medieval Bakery, which we’d seen featured on a Youtube video.

But first we stopped into a store that caught Rona’s eye, called Calypso Handmade Jewellry. Inside the small shop, which also had a room in the back that was inexplicably full of hats, Marina was extremely helpful in picking out bracelets for the kids and a necklace for Rona. They offered a discount for paying cash and we had some euros to burn.

We ultimately moved downhill along Agiou Efthimiou street, the path narrowing between more whitewashed walls. Though we still hadn’t found the bakery – it was supposed to be here somewhere – we next walked into a busy clothing store called Mykonos Path, where one of the attentive staff “facilitated” Rona buying a beautiful handmade sweater she was pretty excited about fitting into. 

Now we were kind of done with the shopping portion of Mykonos and wanted to move on to the eating portion. But we still hadn’t found the bakery, and found ourselves on a very busy cross street loaded with tourists, high end boutiques, and art galleries.

We paused along the side of the street to examine Google Maps more closely for how we might have missed the bakery. That’s when good fortune landed on us, or more precisely when a bird atop the tall, weathered utility pole on which I was leaning pooped on my head with a mighty gravity-enhanced BLAP!  Fortune was indeed on our side that day, friends, because I was wearing a black Celebrity Xcel baseball cap.  

After stepping away from said pole (and avoiding any such pole the rest of this trip), I cleaned the hat as best I could. Fortune continued to smile as Google Maps led us along another road then through a random whitewashed alleyway back to Agiou Efthimiou, depositing us right at the low and non-descript doorway to the subterranean Gioras Wood Medieval Bakery. It was literally a couple doors up the street from the clothing shop we’d just been to and we’d walked right past it… probably twice.

Carefully stepping down a steep stone staircase with no handrails for support, we emerged into what almost feels like a well lit cave with stone and wooden beams. A free standing but small display case greeted us on the left with a larger one to our right. It sure smelled pretty good. 

Gioras is the oldest wood-fired bakery in Greece, dating back to the early 15th century during a Venetian rule, long before they built the windmills. The bakery did eventually come to depend on the flour ground by those windmills. It is entirely mind boggling to this American tourist that the Vamvakouris family has run it for over 200 years.

In that 600-year-old oven they bake bread, spanakopita (spinach pies), cheese pies, various sweet biscuits, and the reason for our visit: baklava. We ordered two small pistachio baklavas and one larger pistachio chocolate baklava because… it’s all about Dubai Chocolate nowadays, even here in this medieval bakery. They also have coffee, so Rona added an iced americano and we grabbed a small table.

Now we haven’t had a lot of baklava in our lives, but these were all of the things you could possibly want — crispy, flaky, sweet and nutty, with a buttery finish. The pistachio chocolate baklava added velvety chocolate with a fudgy core to the mix. And sitting in that cool, underground ambiance? Totally chill. After the exchange rate, this snack cost under $13 and was worth every penny.

With our sweet tooth momentarily satisfied, we decided to wander around other whitewashed streets in Mykonos Town, never really getting lost, since you just need to go down hill toward the water, after which it’s easy enough to return to the ship. We found ourselves passing the still 15th century Church of Saint George (Agios Georgios), which is still a functioning Greek Orthodox Church. It’s right beside Tria Pigadia Square, with its tall Mediterranean cypress trees and vivid purple bougainvillea plants. 

The winding streets of Mykonos Town offer a variety of shops, restaurants, churches, and homes. Some of the areas were busier with pedestrian/tourist traffic than others, but it was truly fascinating. But now it had been at least 20 minutes since our excellent baklava and lunch time was approaching. So we set off in search of some inexpensive food. After winding down to the waterfront and finding mostly expensive tourist restaurants, we once again employed Google Maps to locate a place called Souvlaki Story, a relatively popular, no-frills Greek street food spot just a few minutes in from the waterfront.

We had read about $5 gyros on the Greek Islands, but this was not the place. We’d have to try again in Santorini. Meanwhile, we went inside and ordered a couple of Gyros Bowls, which included french fries, pita and sauce. We tapped to pay, and with a couple of sodas, this cost us $33. We sat at a small table outside along the wall right outside the door, and after a few minutes one of the guys brought our food out to us. The food was great, the right mix of protein, crunchy french fries and warm pita. The included tzatziki topped it off nicely. It wasn’t huge, but it was satisfying.

Having spent about three hours on the island, we felt like we’d seen and done what we wanted to see and do, and so were ready to get back on the ship. We were truly surprised at how much we enjoyed our time at Mykonos. Getting on and off the island was easy. The pace was chill. The scenery was gorgeous and the people were super friendly. Three hours was the perfect amount of time to experience it the way we wanted to.

Back on the Xcel

We walked back along the waterfront and in short order arrived at the old port where a tender was waiting with no line. We were back on board at 12:30 PM, and moments later we somehow blacked out and wound up at Café al Bacio with americanos and chicken salad on a brown roll.

Celebrity seems to have learned from earlier sailings on the Xcel, where the rotating festival shows required you to arrive an hour beforehand for any hope of getting a seat with a view of the show. On this sailing, where possible, there were three showtimes for each of these spectacles. 

After spending some time in the cabin and our veranda, enjoying our ocean view and fresh air, we went down to deck 5 for the 3 PM Bazaar show, Opa! We arrived at 2:30 PM and had no trouble obtaining good seats in the middle. The Bazaar was decked out with Greek decor.

Rona had a gin and diet tonic, though they did not have her preferred Contessa gin at the Bazaar Bar, while I went with my traditional old fashioned. Opa! was a high energy show that turns the Bazaar into a Greek village party, and blends traditional Greek music with modern party tracks. It was a lot of fun.

Side note on the Bazaar Bar – it was probably our least favorite bar on this sailing, both in terms of the quality of the cocktail and the service. Maybe we were just unlucky.

After the show, we blacked out once again and wound up back at Café al Bacio, this time to take away an iced americano for Rona, a skinny flat white for me, and a macadamia cookie for mostly me. It’s a vicious cycle of caffeine, cocktails, caffeine. But note this: there would be more cocktails because…. drinks package. Also, massive props to Bianca and Dustin at Café al Bacio, who consistently took care of us. 

Dinner at Luminae

Tonight was chic night, so we took the caffeine and sugar back to the cabin to change into our snazzy clothing before heading up to Luminae where Kendra and Mario were expecting us. They really were. At breakfast, Mario asked if we’d be back for dinner.

Drinks were the gin and tonic for Rona and the Luminae special Bourbon and Peaches for me. With all the walking in Mykonos, we both felt obliged to order the French onion soup and I added a shrimp cocktail appetizer. Being fully in sync tonight, Rona and I ordered the Citrus and Chili Braised Short Ribs entree. 

Kendra brought all the kinds of bread – crispy flat for Rona, soft and with butter for me. She also brought a white truffle cheese-filled puffed pastry amuse bouche. The Celebrity French onion soup is always very good with plenty of cheese and not unreasonably salty. This was no exception. The shrimp cocktail was solid. The short rib was loaded with flavor, including a nice balance of rich beef, bright citrus and a little chili kick on the back-end.

For dessert, Rona opted for the Coconut Crémeux and I went with the Bitter Sweet Chocolate Tarte, both of which were excellent. This is when Celebrity’s Retreat staff really turned things up a notch. 

After our desserts arrived, Jedson, the delightful Luminae head waiter brought over a small plate of the sesame nougatine that Rona had with the Chocolate Bar dessert two nights prior. On our way out of Luminae that night, Rona had commented to Jedson that she loved that sesame nougatine so much and it may have been her best bite of the entire sailing. Last night, we were at Bora for dinner, and here we were two nights after that comment, and Jedson remembered. They even gave Rona a to-go bag to bring most of it back to the cabin. 

No notes.

Nighttime Entertainment on Day 6

After dinner, we settled into reserved Retreat seating in the main theater for the 7:30 PM headliner show, magician and mentalist, Marc Spelmann, who achieved massive viral fame across both Britain’s Got Talent and America’s Got Talent: The Champions by combining mind-boggling illusions with emotional family stories and a famously masked alter ego named “X.” The audience interaction was great, he was funny and charming and the show overall was really enjoyable.

The plan was to see the show HOTEL in The Club at 10:30 PM, so with time to kill we went over to the Club and found no line at the photo booth. After posing and making faces at the camera, we followed the hidden passageway to the Speakeasy for some of our favorite cocktails, great music and some conversation with Sarah, the assistant manager.

We eventually emerged from the Speakeasy at the entrance to The Club on deck 4, and nabbed some seats along the side, with good views for the show. Celebrity described HOTEL as a comedic murder mystery performance with eccentric characters and several musical numbers. The audience votes along the way on who they think “did it”. The cast were entertaining, funny, talented, and had loads of energy, but if you go in thinking you’ll see a funny whodunit, you’ll be a little disappointed. HOTEL was more of a chaotic, campy cabaret with the audience voting designed more for laughs and improv than anything else.

And that’s a wrap on Day 6 – Mykonos Port Day from Celebrity Xcel. Mykonos surprised us in a very good way. The afternoon and evening on the ship were filled with coffee, great food, cocktails and entertainment with some relaxation thrown in for good measure.

Keep an eye on the Xcel Mediterranean 2026 page or subscribe down below to be notified when the next trip report goes live. Next up is our Santorini, Greece port day, for which we took advantage of an excursion that helped us avoid the lines for the cable car to Fira. Funny story, we still took the cable car, just not as we had planned.