by Reeju Davis
Back in June of this year, my husband and I randomly came across a great deal for a Mediterranean Cruise for October. It was an eight day cruise with Virgin Cruise Lines starting in Athens, Greece, and ending in Barcelona, Spain. Other islands visited included: Mykonos, Greece; Catania, Sicily, Italy; PalmaDe Mallorca, Spain; and Valencia, Spain. If you don’t have to base your vacations on school closings, and kids’ schedules, October is always such a good time to travel. Places aren’t too crowded, and the weather is generally pleasant.
Well, after pricing the cruise and our flights and pondering on it for a week, we decided to go ahead and book the trip.
For the next few weeks, I will be sharing our cruise and trip experience with you. What we liked, tours we went on, what to be aware of, etc. This week, I would like to share our experience in Athens, Greece and the cruise line itself.
Our cruise started on a Sunday. We decided to leave on Friday and arrive there on Saturday so we could have a day to look around Athens. From Nashville with a connection, flight time to Athens is approximately 13 hours, and it’s usually an overnight trip. So be aware of the time change between the two countries. We left Nashville Friday afternoon, with a connection in Boston, then were in Athens that Saturday morning at 9:40.
One thing I will suggest is (if your budget allows) whenever you are going somewhere for the first time, ask your hotel to arrange an airport transportation to their location. This allows you to avoid the ‘how to get to the hotel’ confusion: i.e., looking for taxis or searching for an Uber. Especially with language issues, a simple task we may be used to here in Nashville, becomes quite frustrating—especially when you’re coming off a nine-plus hour flight. Also remember that even if you get to your destination earlier in the day and before check-in time, always head straight to the hotel first so you can drop off your bags. Even though your room may not be ready, hotels will usually allow you to store your luggage till it is. Calling the hotel ahead of time to confirm this is a great idea as well.
We arrived in Athens Saturday morning at 9:40 am. After collecting our bags and going through customs, we found our driver at the receiving area with our name on a piece of paper. Téléios! (‘perfect’ in Greek). We got to the hotel and checked in, but our room wasn’t ready. So we dropped off the bags, freshened up in some nice restrooms and headed out to start our day! I had pre-purchased tickets to a self-guided tour to see the Parthenon. But before we started, we needed to eat. Although this hotel was within walking distance, we chose to take a taxi from the hotel to the city center so we could have time to eat and then take our tour. While walking around the city, we found this perfect little place to eat. We tried to avoid restaurants where the host was standing outside with the menus, alluring you to come in to eat. Those restaurants are generally very tourist influenced, and expensive. Go towards the alleys and off the main path and you can find plenty of local restaurants with authentic foods and wines. We did just that. After a nice meal, we used our Google map and walked towards the Parthenon.
I was glad we had purchased the tickets ahead of time. All I needed was to show our QR code and we were off on our walk up. The walk is fairly easy, but it is a climb with lots of rocks. We enjoyed our views of the Parthenon and of the city down below—lots of history, and lots of good photo opps! Later that evening we did a food tour of Athens. We found our food tour through Viator. The company we used was Truevoyagers. We got to try some really good local foods.
This was a group tour, so we got to meet other tourists—and we love a good food tour. Guides know so much about the local area and shared so many interesting facts about the city and the food as we moved from restaurant to restaurant. I am vegetarian and my husband has shellfish allergies, but we still ate some great food!
Sunday we took private transportation from the hotel to the cruise terminal. Check process with Virgin was super easy and well organized. We had no issues. We were able to get to our cabin right away.
Now if you’ve cruised before and are expecting that grand entrance where you first get to have a cute picture taken, then are announced as you walk in—be aware that this cruise does not offer either of those two things! After you’re checked in, you go straight to your cabin or to the Galley to eat. There is another night during the cruise when you will have that opportunity to dress up for a picture.
Our cabin was a good size with a hammock on the balcony that was perfect for a quick afternoon nap, and we enjoyed the ‘no buffet lines.’ All eateries walk up and are made to order. There is very little wait time and the food can be delivered to your table. The daily chef’s selection always had great healthy options available. There are little restaurants all throughout the boat. The poke place and the Mediterranean tapas place were my favorites. Dinner options were great too. They had a Italian, Mexican, Steakhouse and Korean BBQ places, all with delicious options each night. They were all able to accommodate my husband’s shellfish allergy. Well, all except the Korean BBQ place. We had an unpleasant experience with them, because they couldn’t accommodate us which was disappointing! I did add that in my post-trip review.
There are lots of places to hang out—outside and in. There are lots of bar options, and two coffee shops. The shows were all very adult orientated, with adult language and situations. There were plenty of trivia game options, comedians and live music happening as well. There is a casino on board too. We aren’t into casinos much, but we did go check it out. There are lots of gaming options and lots of slot machines. We enjoyed our morning walks on the walking path on the top most level of the boat. I did take some yoga classes and my husband used the treadmill in the gym with a beautiful view of the ocean.
The disembarkation process was super easy with no problems at all. We had the option of sending our bags to the terminal the night before or to take them ourselves. We had everything packed and let the ship crew take our bags. We were able to pick them up on the way out without any problems the next morning.
It’s definitely a fun cruise line, with lots happening and lots of options for all. Remember it’s an adult only cruise line, so no kids allowed. There were people of all ages and ethnicities. We had a great time!
