Aegean Odyssey Review

4.0 / 5.0
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An amazing experience!

Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on Aegean Odyssey
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Cruising Ginger
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: May 2011

I was a little hesitant to book this cruise since there had been no Cruise Critic reviews on the ship since November 2010 and they weren't all that positive. However, since Sicily is one of my favorite places in all of the world (and I have seen a good part of it!) and the ship spent almost a week in Sicily in the various ports, I decided to throw caution to the wind and book it anyway. Am I glad that I did!!

I flew into Athens and spent my pre-cruise night at an inexpensive hotel in Piraeus. The only good thing that I can say about the hotel that I booked was that it offered a free shuttle service to the port. Hotel check-out time was 12 noon so I got to the cruise ship pier about 1215PM. The information that I had gotten from Voyages to Antiquity said that embarkation did not begin until 2PM and boy, were they spot on. Most cruise lines say embarkation begins at a certain time but they always let people on early. Not this ship! At exactly 2PM they opened the check-in desks and there was no line so I was checked-in and on the ship in about 5 minutes. I was handed a red rose (for which there was a bud vase in my cabin), escorted to my obstructed view cabin by a smiling Filipino steward and my luggage arrived shortly after that. I headed down to the Terrace Cafe for a buffet lunch and then explored the ship.

The Aegean Odyssey is a very small (11,563 tons) "boutique style" 40-year old ship. If the ship is full it holds 350 people. There were only about 200 passengers on our sailing so there were never any lines and the service was top drawer. It has 6 passenger decks and 2 dining venues - the main dining room called the Marco Polo Restaurant, down in the bowels of the ship on the lowest passenger desk as is the norm with many older ships, and the Terrace Cafe, a delightful buffet restaurant on the Promenade Deck where I took most of my meals. Breakfast is always a buffet served at the Terrace Cafe. Generally one can have lunch and dinner served in the Marco Polo Restaurant or at the buffet at the Terrace Cafe. There were a few times when the Marco Polo was closed for lunch and a buffet lunch was the only option. There is no room service. There are no set dinner times at the Marco Polo and there never seemed to be a wait for a table when one wanted to eat dinner there.

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