(Port of Piraeus in Athens, Greece and Island of Mykonos)
Today we woke up at 5:00 – we are checking out of this hotel so we must finish packing. We came down for breakfast at 7:00, ½ hour later than our 6:30 breakfast yesterday. Let me tell you, ½ hour seems to make a huge difference in the food that is available. We settled for cold cereal as all the hot food was gone. We ate breakfast with Rick & Cathy Cole, Gary & Phyllis Glisan and Paul and Jackie Dennis.
Port of Piraeus
At 8:00 our tour guide, Wayne – from Sweden, met us downstairs in the hotel lobby. We loaded our luggage and ourselves onto the bus to transfer to the port of Piraeus to board our cruise ship, RUBY of the Louis Hellenic Cruise, for a 4-day, 3-night cruise of the Aegean Sea. For those of us that are new to cruises, we soon learned that the boarding process is one of semi-controlled chaos. We hurried off the bus, collected our luggage and formed a line behind one of several other groups waiting to board the ship. Wayne, our tour guide that accompanied us from the hotel to the port seemed to be one of the few people who could navigate the mess. Picture our group of 46, dragging our luggage behind us, cutting through other lines, going up and over curbs, avoiding taxis speeding through the loading area, and keeping our eyes on Wayne who had kept blowing his whistle while making all kinds of arm gestures as he tried to organize the scene. We 1st timers were consoled by the cruise aficionados and told that this lunacy is pretty much what happens anytime you board a cruise ship.
Cruise Ship – RUBY
As we got closer to the passport entry control point (the ship personnel collected our passports for the duration of the cruise), Wayne delivered the cabin keys to everyone. We were on Dionysos Deck (or as we called it - D Deck) and in Cabin 83. Shannon and her roommate, Michelle, were down the hall in Cabin 113. As we were about to walk up the steps to board the ship, we posed for the obligatory family photo. We had the opportunity to buy this photograph as they were posted along a hallway on the Hera Deck outside the Sirenes Lounge. The cost for each photograph was 7 euros - so we bought two, one for us and one for Shannon.
Now seems like an appropriate time to comment on the ship. First, do you remember this news story from April 5, 2007?
‘An evacuation operation was carried out today as a cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Santorini, a Greek island, leaving up to 1,167 passengers and 391 crew to abandon the ship.
The Sea Diamond took on water and listed twelve degrees after running aground, but had been stabilized. Fifteen hours after the grounding, the ship sank.’
The Sea Diamond was built in 1986 and underwent extensive refurbishment in 1999. She joined Louis Hellenic Cruises' fleet in 2006. We were supposed to be on this recently refurbished ship. Since that ship sank, Louis Hellenic Cruises' had to come up with a replacement vessel for all the scheduled cruises. That is where our ship ‘Ruby’ comes in. We learned that Louis Hellenic Cruises' said it had acquired the MV Opera from Opera Company Acquisition LCC for $49 million. The Opera was built in 1992 and according to Louis; Opera features an array of amenities and is a luxury cruise ship of modern design with all the comforts of an upscale hotel. Let’s stop right here. The ship was old, was being worked on even as we boarded, the swimming pool was not filled with water, and we were not convinced this ship would float. We 1st timers were again assured by the cruise aficionados that the new cruise ships were far nicer than our Ruby. Cathy referred to our ship as a relic – are you getting the picture now? As it turns out, the ship was old but it floated and was functional.
Port of Piraeus
At 8:00 our tour guide, Wayne – from Sweden, met us downstairs in the hotel lobby. We loaded our luggage and ourselves onto the bus to transfer to the port of Piraeus to board our cruise ship, RUBY of the Louis Hellenic Cruise, for a 4-day, 3-night cruise of the Aegean Sea. For those of us that are new to cruises, we soon learned that the boarding process is one of semi-controlled chaos. We hurried off the bus, collected our luggage and formed a line behind one of several other groups waiting to board the ship. Wayne, our tour guide that accompanied us from the hotel to the port seemed to be one of the few people who could navigate the mess. Picture our group of 46, dragging our luggage behind us, cutting through other lines, going up and over curbs, avoiding taxis speeding through the loading area, and keeping our eyes on Wayne who had kept blowing his whistle while making all kinds of arm gestures as he tried to organize the scene. We 1st timers were consoled by the cruise aficionados and told that this lunacy is pretty much what happens anytime you board a cruise ship.Cruise Ship – RUBY
As we got closer to the passport entry control point (the ship personnel collected our passports for the duration of the cruise), Wayne delivered the cabin keys to everyone. We were on Dionysos Deck (or as we called it - D Deck) and in Cabin 83. Shannon and her roommate, Michelle, were down the hall in Cabin 113. As we were about to walk up the steps to board the ship, we posed for the obligatory family photo. We had the opportunity to buy this photograph as they were posted along a hallway on the Hera Deck outside the Sirenes Lounge. The cost for each photograph was 7 euros - so we bought two, one for us and one for Shannon.Now seems like an appropriate time to comment on the ship. First, do you remember this news story from April 5, 2007?
‘An evacuation operation was carried out today as a cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Santorini, a Greek island, leaving up to 1,167 passengers and 391 crew to abandon the ship.
The Sea Diamond took on water and listed twelve degrees after running aground, but had been stabilized. Fifteen hours after the grounding, the ship sank.’
The Sea Diamond was built in 1986 and underwent extensive refurbishment in 1999. She joined Louis Hellenic Cruises' fleet in 2006. We were supposed to be on this recently refurbished ship. Since that ship sank, Louis Hellenic Cruises' had to come up with a replacement vessel for all the scheduled cruises. That is where our ship ‘Ruby’ comes in. We learned that Louis Hellenic Cruises' said it had acquired the MV Opera from Opera Company Acquisition LCC for $49 million. The Opera was built in 1992 and according to Louis; Opera features an array of amenities and is a luxury cruise ship of modern design with all the comforts of an upscale hotel. Let’s stop right here. The ship was old, was being worked on even as we boarded, the swimming pool was not filled with water, and we were not convinced this ship would float. We 1st timers were again assured by the cruise aficionados that the new cruise ships were far nicer than our Ruby. Cathy referred to our ship as a relic – are you getting the picture now? As it turns out, the ship was old but it floated and was functional.
The ship was supposed to set sail at 11:00 am, but didn’t actually sail until 11:45. The ship sailed from Piraeus for the first port call at the island of Mykonos. Shortly after checking into our cabins, an announcement was made over the ship intercom that we would be having our evacuation practice drill. We were instructed to get our life vests, which were in the closet on our cabin, and proceed to the staging area identified on the life vests. Once at our staging area, the crew made sure everyone had the life vests on, that it was appropriately fitted, and we sat like that for 15-20 minutes. After the drill was complete, our 1st cruise began. There were a couple of announcements for us: first, lunch and dinner will be served on board and second, the ship should arrive at Mykonos at 6:00 and depart at 10:00 – so there are four hours for us to explore the island.
Mykonos
Mykonos is supposed to be an island of beautiful beaches, white-washed houses, narrow paved streets, and windmills which cover the island. Mykonos is also known for its churches – 365 of them dot the island. Because Mykonos is not a very large island, its port is large enough for 2 ships. Since we were late leaving Piraeus, we also arrived later in Mykonos than anticipated. Rather than docking right at the port, we had to anchor off shore and get ferried by tender boats to shore – about a ½ mile away. These tender boats are something we 1st timers are not crazy about. The boats can fit about 30-35 people (squished together), provide no life jackets, and you’re just not certain if the boats are sea worthy. We did arrive at the docks on Mykonos and then paid for the bus transfer to get us to the edge of town about 1 ½ miles away. We arrived in the town of Mykonos around 7:30, not around 6:00 like we anticipated. We immediately tried to get lost on the side streets, going from shop to shop, and heading toward the wind mills at the far end of the island. We reached the windmills but had no idea how we got there. We headed back to the bus pick-up point at a leisurely pace along the waterfront. We saw lots of white buildings with colored shutters and flowers, restaurants, shops, the island mascots – 3 pink pelicans, a beautiful harbor and a wonderful sunset. The souvenir purchases were kept to a minimum. Cathy bought a visor with the name Mykonos on it and Shannon bought a refrigerator magnet. The family photographer – Shannon – took the first 100 digital pictures of her 1,700 total for the trip on this beautiful island.
RUBYWe were not on the island long – we arrived back on the ship at 9:45 so that we could still catch dinner in the dining room before it closed at 10:00. As it turns out, this was the best meal on the cruise – maybe the entire trip. The meal began with mushroom pastry appetizer, to a Greek salad, to Salmon with potatoes and vegetables, and ended with a chocolate éclair. The food was excellent – the down side was we didn’t finish eating until well after 10:00, which is just late.
I ended the day washing some clothes in the sink (part of the plan for traveling light) and tried to sleep a little after midnight. We were still on California time so we did not sleep well at all and we were exhausted.
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