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After leaving Delphi, we continued on to the port in Patras, where we boarded the cruise ship that would be our home for the next nine nights. The MV Athena is a small ship (total capacity is just 50 passengers), and was built for Overseas Adventure Travels to use for their small ship cruises around the Mediterranean. It was specifically designed to carry two tour groups at a time, and our trip was no exception. Our tour group of 19 was joined by another group of 19, for a total of 38 passengers on board, with two OAT trip leaders. On the ship, we became one big group and socialized and ate our meals together. However, on shore, we traveled as separate groups with our individual trip leaders, which made our local tours more manageable size-wise.
Our breakfasts and lunches on board were served buffet-style, but dinner was sit down service, typically with four courses. We all tried to sit with different people at each meal so we could get to know everyone on board over the course of the cruise. House wine and beer was included with the cruise, and there were plenty of other opportunities across the trip to sample local liqueurs and wines, so that I probably drank more than I should have over the course of the trip! All good fun, though.
The ship's crew were incredible, learning all of our names by the end of the first day on board, and provided great service, always with a smile (and often a joke). And they worked with our trip leaders to help them facilitate a range of activities on board, from lectures on the history of the Balkan region, to a "Name that Tune" competition and a disco night.
We left port shortly after boarding in Patras and sailed through our first dinner on board, reaching our first port destination at Corfu while we were having breakfast the next morning. There was a little bit of a swell on the sea that night, and the ship rolled from side-to-side most of the way up the Greek coast, which didn't bother us much, but some of our fellow travelers definitely weren't comfortable with the motion. Luckily, most of the rest of the cruise was smoother than this. And that first night, leaving Patras, we sailed out into an absolutely gorgeous sunset, an excellent omen of the great weather we were going to enjoy for the next several days.
The ship's crew were incredible, learning all of our names by the end of the first day on board, and provided great service, always with a smile (and often a joke). And they worked with our trip leaders to help them facilitate a range of activities on board, from lectures on the history of the Balkan region, to a "Name that Tune" competition and a disco night.
We left port shortly after boarding in Patras and sailed through our first dinner on board, reaching our first port destination at Corfu while we were having breakfast the next morning. There was a little bit of a swell on the sea that night, and the ship rolled from side-to-side most of the way up the Greek coast, which didn't bother us much, but some of our fellow travelers definitely weren't comfortable with the motion. Luckily, most of the rest of the cruise was smoother than this. And that first night, leaving Patras, we sailed out into an absolutely gorgeous sunset, an excellent omen of the great weather we were going to enjoy for the next several days.
