With Wednesday being a holiday (The Assumption), we had no trouble getting to the port at Piraeus in good time. The four of us – and more importantly all of our luggage – miraculously fit in one taxi. The fare was 20 euros and we were dropped right in the middle of the chaos!! People everywhere!! And luggage!!
We filled out our health forms, attached our baggage tags, and handed off our luggage to the capable crew. We were also informed that the Turkish visas that you could arrange on board were going to cost over DOUBLE the actual cost. Needless to say, we could think of a better use for the 100 euros we would collectively save, so we walked out of the port for about 5 minutes to the closest bar with WiFi!!! So for the price of 3 small beers, we were already coming out on top with our e-visas all arranged! We planned to use our chill morning in Crete the next day to find an internet cafe to print them out.
Then it was back to the mayhem to go through security and finally board the Holland America Noordam. We had been upgraded to a VA category deluxe verandah stateroom and I goes without saying that it is sooooo nice to have natural light! The staterooms are bigger than our rooms in Athens!! Carlos and I are in 8001 with Javi and Virginia next door in 8003. We are all the way forward and just about as high as you can be….in fact our neighbour to the left is the Captain!! We can see into the bridge!
Our luggage was already delivered (as well as our introductory bucket of beer that turned out to just be beer without the bucket – not as fun!) Day 3 and we still haven’t had a chance to chill on the balcony with one! Shocking, I know! We had some lunch and then made our way to our muster station for the lifeboat drill. And finally we were on our way!
It was just about at his time that the Captain made an announcement to give details on our route and timing. Through the din, I swore I heard him say that we were en route to Rhodes. And I of course could have sworn that we were en route to Crete!!! We scurried back to the cabin and sure enough there was a notice with the info pile that they had to swap our Rhodes and Crete ports due to operational reasons. It was kind of all the same to us since we hadn’t booked anything in either, but we were quite looking forward to a relaxing day in Iraklion.
As we sailed away, we enjoyed a beer by the aft pool and when we reached open sea, we headed back to the cabins to unpacked and get ready for dinner at 8 pm. Our meal was amazing! The appetizers and soups/salads are pretty small (thank goodness!) But then the main dish comes out and you wish they were even smaller – or that you hadn’t eaten quite so much bread! The roasted pork chop with cherry and raisin sauce was the clear highlight!
After dinner we were just completely exhausted so went straight to bed. The bed is so comfortable and has lots of pillows! And for being in the upper forward section of the ship, it is remarkably smooth sailing.