Sailing in Greece? Send us your report!

[Host Bonjour]

Greece is one of the first European destinations to have welcomed back travelers and we've noticed your conversations about cruises started soon or might be in progress.

 

If you're onboard or soon will be, as always, we'd love to hear about your experience. You can post reports live while you're sailing or do report once you're back on land. 

 

Tell us what's new, what's different, what's better (or not) and as always, details about the food, entertainment, excursions, anything that really stood out, or could be improved. 

 

As you can imagine, everyone is eager to hear about initial experiences. Anyone who has been among the first to return to sea is in a great position to share the news with their fellow cruisers and we're ready to share your stories.

 

We're collecting reports for Laura, so post them in this topic so either a mod or she can find them and organize them into a collection for the Cruise Critic community. If you see a report on another board you think we might be interested in, post a link to the topic here or in a similar topic. 

 

It's still early days but it's wonderful seeing that bookings are being made and plans are moving ahead. We've come a long way but it's looking a lot brighter now. Sharing our stories will help to nudge all of on a little more. 🙂🛳️ Let's do this.

[Lois R]

Hi,😃 I just sailed from Athens.......got home on Sunday night. I started a thread over on the Silversea forum before I left and posted live from the ship on the same thread.......if you want to look at it.

I haven't done a full review (yet). But you are more than welcome to take a look at that thread.

[classy_cruiser]

The July 25th NCL Jade Greek sailing is getting underway tomorrow so keep an eye on the NCL forum 

[Lois R]

Hi again,  Host Bonjour, I decided to sort of write a review of my Greece cruise......

Here is a link:

 

 

[Host Bonjour]

On 7/24/2021 at 8:57 PM, Lois R said:

Hi again,  Host Bonjour, I decided to sort of write a review of my Greece cruise......

Here is a link:

 

 

 

Hi Lois,

 

Thank you so much! We've got hosts monitoring the cruise line threads but I REALLY appreciate that you wrote a report!

 

We're so grateful you took some time to share your initial thoughts and experiences! I can't wait to read the rest and I think I'm not alone in this 🙂 

 

I'm going to share this with Laura, we're collecting reports for her to share with the entire Cruise Critic world. If you've already share it on Silversea, then our Silversea host may already have given it to her, I'll check. 

 

But I thank you very much for sharing it here, making it convenient for everyone to read as they click through ports. Some folks may not read every board, every line (or they might but miss posts now and then) so we really appreciate it. More than anything, so glad you had a wonderful experience on board!!!!!!! 🙂 🛳️🏆

[Lois R]

48 minutes ago, Host Bonjour said:

 

Hi Lois,

 

Thank you so much! We've got hosts monitoring the cruise line threads but I REALLY appreciate that you wrote a report!

 

We're so grateful you took some time to share your initial thoughts and experiences! I can't wait to read the rest and I think I'm not alone in this 🙂 

 

I'm going to share this with Laura, we're collecting reports for her to share with the entire Cruise Critic world. If you've already share it on Silversea, then our Silversea host may already have given it to her, I'll check. 

 

But I thank you very much for sharing it here, making it convenient for everyone to read as they click through ports. Some folks may not read every board, every line (or they might but miss posts now and then) so we really appreciate it. More than anything, so glad you had a wonderful experience on board!!!!!!! 🙂 🛳️🏆

Hi Colleen, glad I could help.🙂  I know Host Jazz is on our forum but I don't know if he submitted it to Laura or not.

[jas283a]

I sailed on the Norwegian Jade sailing July 25, which is Norwegian’s first cruise out since the pandemic. 

 

I may or may not do a cruise review, it’s a busy work time. But quick thoughts. Mask policy (and social distancing) was manageable but annoying. Not super strictly enforced, but you had it on most of the time indoors. We upgraded to a balcony, that helped a bit and I think we spent more time in our room because of mask policy (and first time with a balcony!). I sort of expected this bring their first cruise out, be interesting to see if they learn things like no one like QR code for their menus and relax on certain social distance things like open up more tables in restaurants. They tried to go paperless and use app, but WiFi was very hit and miss. 
 

Other real negative was the heat. Greece is warm in July, but they had a heat wave most of our time there which made going ashore brutal for certain things (like ruins sites we wanted to see). And it’s supposed to get worse the next week or two, be warned those going soon. 
 

Depending on how you like to cruise, the “port a day, no sea day” was interesting. It felt go go go, almost everyone I know took at least one port as a break (heat plus borderline overstimulated). Some people this was perfect for. It’s a destination cruise, obviously, and Greece was the highlight not the ship. 
 

Positives Greece was amazing. Going to a port a day meant we were able to see so much. Crew were mostly friendly and tried to help everyone adjust to all their changes (they had the most changes to do). I felt they did a great job with the food and drinks in all areas. Embark/debark/Covid testing/tender/docking was all very very organized and well executed. We did all arrangements through NCL this time (air, hotel day before, transfer) and they did great on their end. Many merchants in the ports as well as crew were so grateful to get American tourists/get back to work. And it was so nice to meet and talk to everyone from all over and have vacation talk, simple talk that wasn’t super serious in contrast to the last year and a half. Everyone was mostly very pleasant, out to have a good time. It wasn’t perfect or 100% normal, but it was amazing and I’d go 10 times out of 10 (except maybe in September/October when it’s cooler or I plan more beach days). 

[Hlitner]

Cruising around the Greek Islands now, on the Seabourn Ovation.  We have about 260 passengers on a vessel that would normally have over 600 so the ship feels almost like a private yacht.  Life onboard is very normal with everything functioning and no masking for the passengers (the crew does wear masks).   Entering Greece at ATH was painless with a quick look at our Passenger Locator Form and vaccination certificate.        SB did an antigen test prior to embarkation and we had results in about 20 min and were quickly in the ship.

 

It cannot be overstated that it is now hot in Greece  with 100* not unusual during the current heatwave.  But it is great to be back on a ship and everyone (passengers and crew) seem quite happy.

 

Hank

[Lois R]

7 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Cruising around the Greek Islands now, on the Seabourn Ovation.  We have about 260 passengers on a vessel that would normally have over 600 so the ship feels almost like a private yacht.  Life onboard is very normal with everything functioning and no masking for the passengers (the crew does wear masks).   Entering Greece at ATH was painless with a quick look at our Passenger Locator Form and vaccination certificate.        SB did an antigen test prior to embarkation and we had results in about 20 min and were quickly in the ship.

 

It cannot be overstated that it is now hot in Greece  with 100* not unusual during the current heatwave.  But it is great to be back on a ship and everyone (passengers and crew) seem quite happy.

 

Hank

Hi Hank,🙂 thanks for checking in and glad you had a painless experience upon your arrival into Athens......looks like it is MUCH smoother than what I went through😲

 

Hope you have a wonderful cruise😃

[greeneyedgirl58]

Does anyone who is in Greece now have a report on conditions in Athens ( and other locations) due to the wild fires? Air quality, power outages, tour cancellations, etc? Would be helpful to those of us with upcoming travel. Thanks!

[Hlitner]

18 minutes ago, greeneyedgirl58 said:

Does anyone who is in Greece now have a report on conditions in Athens ( and other locations) due to the wild fires? Air quality, power outages, tour cancellations, etc? Would be helpful to those of us with upcoming travel. Thanks!

We are in Nafplion today and there is some haze attributed to distant fires but no excursions have been affected.  Will be in Athens tomorrow with no cancelations.  The heat wave does continue and it was over 100 today.  I assume the air quality has been somewhat degraded because of the fires but it has not been a major problem on our cruise.  That bein said, DW and I would not normally go into Athens with this kind of heat.  Been there done that and it is no fun with temps over 100 and the usual Athens air pollution.

 

Hank

 

 

 

[Hlitner]

Just an update that we learned an Athens tour up Mt Lycabettus (the funicular) for tomorrow has been cancelled.  I suspect it is because smoke in the atmosphere would ruin the view.

 

Hank

[leaj]

We are flying out of the states on the 11th to Athens and hoping for cooler temps and clearer skies. I read all of Hank's reviews that I can find on the Ovation, since we are also sailing on the 14th. Thank you for sharing. We had booked walking tours through the Grand Bretagne for Thursday since my daughter (an adult) has not been to Greece and really wants to see as much as possible.We have reservations for dinner at the outdoor rooftop. I'm wondering if the air quality is too poor to enjoy this?

 

Safe Travels! Jolene

[Host Bonjour]

On 7/27/2021 at 5:20 PM, Lois R said:

Hi Colleen, glad I could help.🙂  I know Host Jazz is on our forum but I don't know if he submitted it to Laura or not.

 

Hi Lois,

 

Sorry for the delay in responding! 

 

Yes, Jazz is, and I checked before submitting but it wasn't showing up in the queue yet, I he may have been off for a few days. I will say, the other hosts were THRILLED to know that you were both cruising and reporting, they missed hearing your accounts. 

 

Thanks again! 🙂 

[Hlitner]

Time to add some more life to this thread.  Yesterday we finished our 2 week Seabourn cruise which was a completely excellent experience.  The SB Ovation cruised with about 300 passengers (capacity is nearly 650) but everything onboard was handled in a normal manner (nothing was cut back because of the fewer numbers).  After 14 days we can think of nothing negative as everything was consistently perfect.  But my post is about post cruise.  We disembarked yesterday morning about 9:45 and asked for a taxi to take us about 1 mile around the Pireaus harbor where we were catching a ferry to the island of Naxos.  The large ferry ran into high seas (driven by gale winds of more then 40 knots) and we finally arrived at Naxos about 6:30pm (nearly 2 hours late).  We dragged our luggage several blocks to the Europcar office only to find it was no longer a Europcar office (it is now some motorbike rental place).  They told us that Europcar had moved back in May (this is still not reflected on Europcar's web site) but were nice enough to call Europcar whose local franchise owner quickly came to pick us up.  He explained that Europcar had closed all three of their offices on Naxos (back in May) and he opened a new single office in town (not far from the port).  

 

Naxos is an island we have long wanted to explore.  Last night DW and I enjoyed a wonderful seaside dinner.  The large island is packed with tourists (both Greek and tourists from many places) partially because it is the major summer holiday weekend and also because this is the country to visit for those who want to escape all the COVID restrictions.  Like what we have seen around other parts of Greece, life seems to be very normal except for indoor mask wearing (not always enforced).  Ever since we arrived in Greece (late July) it has seemed like we are in a normalized world where the pandemic is something folks have accepted and now moved on with their lives.  On this (and most of the other popular tourist islands) the Greek Government had implemented (back in May) a program to get everyone vaccinated.  They have done well and the result is that the very important tourist industry (which is often more then 70% of the economy on some islands) is back in full swing.  The Europcar manager told us it was a two edged sword because while the tourist numbers have exploded the major islands are having issues getting all the related services up to the levels needed to deal with the large influx of visitors.  We have not felt any of the service related problems other then the complete screw up (by Corporate Europcar) not updating their website.

 

Cruisers planning on coming to Greece for a cruise might want to give a lot of consideration to doing a pre or post cruise "island hopping" extension.  Much of the Greek Island ferry system can be accessed from Pireaus which works well for many cruisers.  One can easily explore islands (such as Naxos) that are not normally visited by cruise ships or could elect to go to other popular islands such as Santorini and Mykonos.

 

Hank

 

 

[Lois R]

Hi Hank🙂 thanks for your review and glad you had a great trip😃

[Host Bonjour]

8 hours ago, singinalot said:

We will be transitting by ferry.

 

Yes, please do! You'll be using the ferry system which are large vessels, and traveling by sea from island to island. Works for us right about now. It's the ports board, it's been a tough time for everyone, we can do this. Here, the focus is usually on what to do while on dry land, so I think it'll work for the community and if that's the case, it works for me. 

 

We've all been waiting a while to be able to go places, and I think everyone is eager to hear about how things are proceeding as it relates to all aspects of the journey. In a way, it's all kind of new again. 

 

And I suppose, depending on the day, there will be requirements to show vaccine or test status when boarding the ferry and arriving at a new island, or even for some tours/excursions/restaurants. This is important information right now so it would be helpful to hear your reports on how things are going as you travel through the islands.

 

It's kind of you to ask before posting, thank you, we appreciate the courtesy @singinalot 🙂 

Have fun making plans, stay well, and we'll look forward to hearing about your journey soon! ⛴️

 

[Host Bonjour]

5 minutes ago, singinalot said:

Thanks again

 

Thank YOU! We'll look forward to hearing from you when you're island hopping. Safe travels 🙂

 

[irvington]

I haven't boarded the cruise ship yet, but thought I would pass on what we have seen so far. Athens is not smoky though we saw forest fire smoke over Greece flying in. If I understood our cab driver correctly, it could affect a day trip to Sounion, so I would ask about that if it is in your plans.

 

We had a wonderful cab driver get us at the airport who did a great job orienting us to town. Themos Krasakis +306947329595. You can reach him via what's app.

 

The airlines seem a bit flustered about the PLF form. Or at least United was. We had to show it when we checked in for our first domestic leg (330 am) and then were asked for it again at Dulles. The bizarre part was that in Dulles a gate agent decided she/they needed to recheck the whole plane for the PLF, Vaxx cards, passports, and facial recognition. This was decided after everyone was lined up for boarding. Eventually she was overruled, perhaps because the facial recognition computer wasn't working. Funnily enough, we weren't checked at all for it in Greece, the man at the station to check the forms was just waving us all through (separate stop from passport control).

[Hlitner]

An update about testing and travel.  We are currently finishing up our post cruise island hoping on Paris.  Since we fly back to the USA in two days we need to deal with getting the required Antigen test.  There are many government approved testing centers, so this morning after breakfast we jumped in our rental car and drive about 15 minutes to a health center.  Upon arriving we presented our Passports and immediately got our nose swabs.  The nurse asked us to wait 5 minutes for the results.  We had to pay 20 Euros but had the hard copy of our negative test results in a few minutes.  There are some Greek locations that do the test for free but their hours and availability are hit and miss.  Our back up plan was to get tested at ATH but that would likely have meant lines and a longer delay for results.  All in all a hassle free experience unlike finding tests at home.

 

Paros is a very popular tourist island (near Naxos) easily accessible by a 2 1/2 - 5 hour ferry from Piraeus.  Town is packed with tourists and last evening we

met a nice guy from Belgium who shares our love of Key West.  Like most folks

we have met in Greece he was very happy to again be traveling.

 

This has been a terrific 3 week cruise/land trip where COVID was a

minor player in a land where life is good and masking rare.

 

Hank

[irvington]

Leaving for Apex soon, but thought I would give a few more reports on Athens. It does not seem crowded. We bought advance tickets for the archaeological sites and for the Acropolis Museum, but didn't need the "skip the line" feature - no lines. Acropolis was busy but I assume not like normal, same with Corinth and Delphi. Highly recommend the Acropolis Museum! Also recommend the Mythology Tour through Alternative Athens.

We're staying at Athens Gate Hotel and have appreciated the good location given the heat. Nice hotel, beautiful rooftop breakfasts.

Vaccination cards needed to eat indoors and for many museums or sites. Mask wearing indoors, optional out of doors.  

[cornbread4]

Hi! What’s the best way to get from the airport to Athens Hilton? We will be arriving September 22 around 10:00 am. Thanks in advance for any recommendations! 😊

Jan

[Hlitner]

10 hours ago, cornbread4 said:

Hi! What’s the best way to get from the airport to Athens Hilton? We will be arriving September 22 around 10:00 am. Thanks in advance for any recommendations! 😊

Jan

The best way (especially if you have luggage) is to simply take a taxi.  There are always plenty of taxis at ATH so you should have no problem.  Taxis are required to use their meters.  While some taxis will accept credit cards this is not guaranteed so you should be prepared to pay in Euros.  If you do want to use a credit card make sure to raise this issue with the driver before you get into the taxi.

 

Hank

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

On 8/17/2021 at 10:33 AM, singinalot said:

@Host Bonjour My husband and I are doing a island hopping adventure in Greece in October.  This is not a cruise. We will be transitting by ferry. I have, however, had several people on the board request that I do a trip report since we will be visiting cruise ports: Athens, Milos, Santorini & Naxos. Could I please post a trip report under the Greece forum?

 

You can see my previous cruise reports in my link in signature.

 

Hey Crystal!  Returned from Greece land trip (4th trip and 13 islands so far) end of July where we ferried to 2 different islands - Kea from Lavrion and Aegina from Pireaus - and our documents - test results for my travel buddy who wasn't yet eligible for vax in his home country and vax card for me -  were merely glanced at, so no need to fret about the paperwork too much. Also, had the experience mentioned before in the airport.  Was waved onward to passport control with no real scrutiny of PLF.  Could have been displaying ANY QR code, really.

 

If you have the chance, do a boat tour that circumnavigates Milos. We used Excellent Yachting and it was a highlight of our trip that year ('16).  Also, loved the short ferry over to Kimilos for a day trip and beaches. I'm sure Sarakiniko is already on your don't miss list. It's stunning!  I know you're a hiker and on the back side of Santorini there's a good one between Kamari and Perissa.  You can tour Ancient Thera at the midway point high above both beaches. Buses on Santorini are quite frequent and easy to use.

 

In Athens, you will need your mask handy.  It's required indoors.  Crowd levels were much lower than in past years.  It was really very pleasant.  The heat wave started the day that I left.  I had perfect weather. I hope that you will love Greece as much as I do! I look forward to your trip report.

 

Adding one little tip on the ferries.  Pack light as you will often need to haul your bag up several flights of stairs if you don't want to leave it unattended on the luggage racks on the bottom level. First class tickets are worth the extra fees IMO. 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Steeler Nation At Sea

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

1 hour ago, Hlitner said:

The best way (especially if you have luggage) is to simply take a taxi.  There are always plenty of taxis at ATH so you should have no problem.  Taxis are required to use their meters.  While some taxis will accept credit cards this is not guaranteed so you should be prepared to pay in Euros.  If you do want to use a credit card make sure to raise this issue with the driver before you get into the taxi.

 

Hank

 

Agreed.  It's a flat rate of €35 to downtown whether using the taxi rank or ordering the return via Uber (which the taxi drivers use in Athens.)

 

If I'm going straight to Pireaus, I've used the Airport X96 bus for just €6.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Steeler Nation At Sea