Best of Greece and 7 Day Aegean Cruise
Day Eight – 18 Sept 2009
Weather – Sunny, 29 degrees.
We could sleep in this morning since we didn’t need to check out until 11:30 but I couldn’t sleep past seven. I went down to breakfast then caught a taxi to the Titania Hotel to meet up with Stelios, one of the Trafalgar reps. He spoke to me at the farewell dinner, and as a photographer, he knew where I could get a new lens for my camera. I met up with him in the lobby as he sent off a group at the end of their tour. I had a pleasant chat with a man from California while I waited and then Stelios told me to go around the corner and up a couple streets.
I picked up a 75-300 lens (cursing the fact that I already have one at home, but it was the only telephoto and it cost 500 Euro). In retrospect, I should have never bought it and got a point and shoot with more zoom than my Olympus.
I walked back to the Divani which took almost an hour and met up with others from my tour. We went to lunch at a cafe near the hotel called Ambrosia. They have great gyros. We sat outside (which cost us an extra 50 cents) where I managed to tip over my chair and fall onto my backside. A woman ran up to help me up and she put the seat back on the chair for me. I turned around to find that she was repairing the other chairs.
We finished lunch and returned to the hotel where we waited for the transfer to the port. Days like this must be a nightmare for the organizers. Tours arriving, leaving, parts of tours joining other tours. It’s amazing how they can keep it all straight and yet keep a smile. George gave us our boarding passes (a key card) and our tickets and we left around one.
The bus ride to the port took less time than the drive to the farewell dinner. We pulled up to the dock and lined up at 1:30 to wait for the boarding to start at two. It was quite hot and we didn’t have any water with us. I was standing outside the door so I didn’t see the stores inside where I could have gotten some water for us while someone watched my luggage.
George walked around and assigned us our table for dinner and it was easy to get a table together with the people you want to eat with. Once we started moving, we passed through passport control and then gave our passports to the Louis Line reps. The security check put our luggage and carry-ons go through the x-ray, but on the other side the luggage went down a ramp and you had to get to there before your carry-on went with it – and without any tags, you’d be lucky to see them again.
There was a duty free shop where you could pick up just about anything except a can of Coke. Outside the door, a woman waited with a sign for Cristal. You had a choice to wait for the bus or walk to the ship. We opted to walk.
There was hand sanitizer waiting at the bottom of the gangway as well as the ship’s photographer who took pics of everyone getting aboard.
Inside the ship they swiped my boarding pass and took my picture to match the card. Afterwards, I was met by an army of stewards. One woman took my card and led me to my room on the seventh deck. A buffet lunch was offered on the ninth deck, but I opted to wait until 3:15 for George’s talk and checked out my room.
I got the Premier cabin. I think the biggest difference between this and the cabins on the lower decks was the size of the cabin. I had a sitting area next to my beds with a couch across from the TV. The other cabins didn’t have that extra few feet and some had smaller windows. Also, I had a glass enclosed shower with a barrier between the shower and the rest of the bathroom. The other cabins had only a shower curtain and no barrier, so the entire floor got wet. There was a safe in the room, but cost 15 Euro for the key for the week.The bathroom had shampoo.
I got a good look at the two other rooms offered – the moderate (inside) and superior (exterior but smaller than the premier) – and if I had my time back, I would have went for the inside room. The extra cash would have been better spent elsewhere. I simply did not spend enough time in the room to make it worthwhile. The layout of the other two rooms also made it much easier to navigate around the room (with the two beds in the corner). There wasn’t a lot of room at the foot of the beds in my room and I had to squeeze between the bed and furniture to get to the window (and kept stubbing my toe).
There was a bar fridge (which inside cabins didn’t get). It was empty when I came in, but a selection of Pringles and soft drinks was sitting on the desk. Soft drinks go for about 2.75 Euro, so we plan to pick up some in Istanbul and keep them in the fridge.
There was a drink plan available for both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks but one has to drink a lot to justify the cost. Don’t waste your money on the package unless you want to spend the entire cruise passed out on the deck.
There was an internet corner but one cannot use their own computer to log on wirelessly. There were three computers and it cost 10 Euro per hour. The hour can be started and stopped so that you can use the time for days until the time is up. (But the port in Greece had free wireless, so we used that until the ship left port).
At 3:15, I found the conference room and George gave us a talk about what to expect. He had been a guide for twelve years and knew his stuff. He gave us a rundown on things like our boarding pass (which acted as a door key, a credit card and a passport all in one). Then he went through the optionals and gave us his opinion on each. It wasn’t hard to choose. After twelve years, he knew what we liked. Just so happens they were exactly the same choices my research said were the best bets.
I paid for my optionals then went to the reception desk to register my credit card. That way, I would use the boarding pass to charge anything on board and it would be applied to my card at the end of the week. One can pay cash at the end of the week, but that usually involved standing in a long line.
I returned to my room and unpacked. Boy, it felt good to put the clothes away and stuff my luggage under the bed. The ship left ten minutes early and the weather was good, so we expected to be in Istanbul by three the next day. If that was the case, George expected to be able to get us to the Grand Bazaar and maybe the Spice Market before they closed (but only for those taking the Highlights of Istanbul on Sunday).
Once we were underway, we had the usual lifeboat drill.
At 6:45, I joined my group for dinner. It was a menu with a choice for any taste and included everything from risotto balls to french fries. The staff were very friendly and the service was top notch. We were done by 8:30, and after looking around the ship a little, I stopped by my room to change my shoes and found, to my horror, that the beds had been turned down. I pointed out to my friend that my laundry was all over the room….ALL my laundry….underwear, bras, socks!! LOL.
Then, as I closed my door, a male cleaning staff called out to us from down the hall, waving and saying “hello ladies!”
I should have went back into my room and counted my underwear to make sure they were all there. Instead, I put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door and left it for the week. (Actually, I’ve used it on my hotel doors ever since).
We decided to check out the Abba show at nine. The show involved singing with some dancing by American Idol wannabes. A couple of them weren’t bad but some over-performed. The best part of the night was when the tour director invited some of the audience to dance at the end. One older man from our group (who never cracked a smile and never seemed to move very fast) got up there and stole the show. We never laughed so hard. Turned out he used to be a dancer.
The show ended at ten. I checked my email and went back to my room then counted my underwear.
All there.
Go to Day Nine
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