Louis Hellenic Cruises - Greek Islands

[peskymac]

My husband and I are doing the three day Greek Island/Turkey cruise on the Sea Diamond leaving Oct. 20. This being our first cruise, the information we've gotten from this thread has been invaluable - thank you!

 

We have not booked any of the ship-organized port trips, and I'm not sure we will. If anything, perhaps the Ephesus trip.

 

Quick question for anyone who knows: can a U.S. citizen get a temporary visa for Turkey at the port on the day of docking, or is that something I should take care of well in advance through the Consulate?

 

Any other advice for a first time cruiser would be both welcome and appreciated. In the meantime, I'm going to go haunt the forums for first time cruisers!

[travel genie]

A sixth!!!

I cannot wait to hear from you and your full report~!!!!

I am so excited to go to greece but so worried about ship expierence, we are a young group of 20 somethings, were there people our age on this trip? VISAS???? Do i need to get one? Doesnt ship get one for us?

[A Sixth?]

Still working on my report, but saw the posts asking about visas for Turkey.

 

No, you don't need to do anything. The Louis Cruise people take everyone's passports upon boarding and return them when the cruise ends.

 

There were very diverse ages, from young kids and teen, 20 somethings and all the way up to what I will cautiously call "well aged".

 

I am fighting a bad cold.... I'll try to post stuff in the next day or two

[peskymac]

The nice people at Louis Cruise Lines got back to me about the visa requirements - if the cruise was ending at Kusadasi, you'd need a visa...since the cruise departs and embarks at Pireaus, no visa needed. I don't really understand why that would be, but as long as I know that I don't need to futz around with visa paperwork, I'm happy!

[Gypsy Queen]

We were actually on the May 22 sailing, but had the same experience you did. Cabins were miniscule and tours started way too early and were way too rushed. Food was edible, but not gourmet. Unfortunately the shore excursion timing did not allow a lot of time for sampling local cuisine in the tavernas on the islands. The cruise experience aside, we did have a wonderful time, and the Greek people are wonderful and welcoming. We returned home absolutely exhausted, but we did get to see a lot of different places. I can't say enough nice things about Central Holidays, but I'm sure most tour companies did just as good a job. I know we had Grand Circle, Contiki for the younger crowd, Globus, Trafalgar and a number of other tour groups on our ship, I still have to upload the pictures of the cabins and bath. That should be a real eye opener.

[A Sixth?]

We took the Sea Diamond on a four day cruise of the Aegean out of Piraeus (Athens) Monday May 29th thru June 1st 2006th. We booked the Sea Diamond for its itinerary of six ports of call, Mykonos, Patmos, Kusadasi Turkey, Rhodes, Crete and Santorini. We used our regular travel agent to arrange the details, knowing that the “cruise” was not going to be of the same calibre as the NCL, Princess, Carnival or even other discount lines we’ve sailed with in the past. The Louis Hellenic Cruise line is well known on the internet for being a bit basic, but we held out hope maybe the addition of the new Sea Diamond would impress us.

 

Well, we weren’t pleasantly surprised by the Sea Diamond, so we got what we expected; basic transportation from island to island.

 

The problems with the ship and the cruise company aren’t vacation ruining, more frustrating really.

 

To begin with, they want you to board between 9:00 am and 10:30am, for a sailing scheduled for 11:00. The line up at 9:10 when we arrived was truly unbelievable.

It took us 90 minutes to get aboard. And after all the planning and having a cabin assignment, the ticket ladies screwed up our boarding pass and assignment. We had arranged to leave the ship early in Santorini but somehow they failed to read our tickets and had us leaving in Mykonos. To make a long, sad story short, it involved another 45 minutes in line at the Information (Pursers) desk and we lost our mid-ship exterior cabin for one all the way at the stern over the engine room. It was the noisiest cabin I have ever endured.

 

Tip #1, cabins with nothing below them on the deck layout chart (on decks 4 and 5 towards the stern) are LOUD. Worse still are any cabins on deck 3. This is the exit/entrance deck for all the stops and tenders. It’s a zoo down there.

 

The cabins are “special”. The overall dimensions are 8 feet wide, by 10 feet deep. About the size of a standard jail cell in North America! (The jail will feel bigger because the washroom isn’t enclosed). The functional living space after the hanging locker, desk and washroom compartment are subtracted from the 80 sq. ft. is about the same as 1-2/3rd sheets of plywood.

 

Tip #2, Bring minimal luggage aboard and it’ll feel okay. You will be living out of your suitcase during the cruise.

 

The beds cannot be pushed together, there is no in-room safe, TV or dresser. The head has no separate shower stall, just an intimate curtain to keep the water from soaking everything in sight. (By the end of the cruise I felt I was getting so close to my curtain I’d take it out for a drink and some dancing before retiring back to the room to shower.)

 

 

The water from the shower the first few days took two or so minutes to get warm, and by the end of the trip was hot right away for about two minutes before going cold. The first day the ventilation was blowing so hard that some of the rooms near us had their vent deflectors actually blow out of the ceiling and hit the floor. I stuffed paper into ours, but alas, it was not enough. I came down with a nasty cold within a day or two, which dogged me for the next two weeks touring Greece.

 

Also, they were having laundry issues. I suspect that there isn’t enough capacity to wash all those bath towels for 1500 people. We rarely had all our towels, and the Room Stewart apologized for it. He was run ragged.

 

Another odd shortage was that they ran out of paper towels for the rest rooms and were substituting Kleenex on the second last day. All part of learning the ropes on just the forth week running the boat I guess.

 

Tip # 2.5 If you like using a face cloth, make an exception to Rule 2 and bring one. There aren’t any face cloths in Greece.

 

The ship’s public places are actually quite attractive. The bars are nicely decorated and were never crowded. Prices were moderate, drink of the Day 4.00 Euros, bar drinks 3.50 Euros, Heineken and like beers 3.50 Euros, Martinis 4.50 Euros.

 

 

The sun chairs are plentiful, possible more per passenger ratio than any ship I’ve sailed. The pool is small, we never used it, but many people seemed to enjoy it. The shopping facility was huge for a smaller ship. Anything you purchase including liquor may be consumed in your room. They just ask you not to BYOB it on public decks. A 1-litre bottle of rum was 11 Euros, cheap for Greece.

 

 

The dining room was another lesson in Louis Line-ups. There was not enough staff for the number of people being seated. Not one meal was without a missed item, maybe they’d forget our coffee, maybe the soup. It became a game to see what would go missing. That said, the food was okay, not great and not bad… just okay. I had only one thing I sent back, very under-cooked chicken wings.

 

Dress in the dining rooms was decidedly casual, even on formal night. I’d brought a dinner jacket and tie despite traveling with just carry-on luggage for our three weeks in Greece, and wished I hadn’t. I was among a small minority wearing a tie at dinner.

 

Tip #3, for formal , review tip #2. Pack light and forget the jacket. A tie IMHO is plenty.

 

Mykonos town is not walkable from the cruise ship pier. Those few who attempted to walk it risked life and limb. There were bus transfers for sale for 6.00 Euros PP, and we were glad we bought them when we saw the narrow sidewalk free road. That said nobody ever asked for tickets from passengers, the busses just filled up and made the five-minute trip back and forth. We didn’t meet anyone who was asked to show his or her tickets. Still….

 

Tip #4, if you are docked at Mykonos you need to take the ship’s bus transfer to get to town or you will die.

 

The first dinner aboard is open / freestyle seating. We liked that and just wandered to the dining room when we were finished with Mykonos. The food was pretty good, all in all, and the company was excellent.

[A Sixth?]

After the first night there is an early and late seating for dinner. Because of the mess we had boarding we hadn’t been assigned a seating for dinner. For some reason staying with open seating wasn’t in the cards, but the maitre’d took care of us and sat us alone as a couple. Once again it was obvious that the waiters and staff were run off their collective hooves. My guess was that there just isn’t enough staff to cope with the 1500 or so passengers they pile on the Sea Diamond. Wine arrives in the middle of the main course, coffee order forgotten, but all that was evened out when singing staff showed up at meal’s end with an anniversary cake (the cruise and trip to Greece were all part of our 25th anniversary celebration). We were impressed with the character of the staff.

We only did two ship organised shore tours; in Kusadasi we’d booked the tour of Ancient Ephesus for 51.00 Euros and in Crete a tour of Knossos Palace and museum for 57.00 Euros.

The Ephesus tour was good because the site is incredible. The end of our tour included a trip to our guide’s family Turkish Rug store…. We wished we’d just bolted after the bus got back to town, trying to get away from the hard sell was like a trip to the dentist, painful but necessary.

Our Knossos tour was an endless line up. We lined up for early breakfast, we lined up to get on the bus, we lined up to get into the site, we lined up to see the parts and areas within the sight (mainly views of people trying to see the site) and then we lined up for the museum, the bus again and the bus line up to reboard. I estimate over half the tour was line-ups and bus time. Never again.

A sample of other tour prices is as follows:

Patmos is a very small island and there were three ship tours offered 29.00 Euros for either a beach ½ day or a scenic tour. 43.00 Euros got you a tour of the St Johns Monastery. We were docked from 06:30 to 10:30 so elected to pass on any tour but there isn’t much to see in town, especially after Mykonos. We spoke with a number of people who rented cars or scooters to tour the island and they seemed to enjoy their self guided adventures very much. Unlike Mykonos, it’s an easy and safe walk right off the ship to do a bit of shopping or exploring.

Rhodes has several tours ranging from 43.00 –46.00 Euros for city tours of Rhodes and either Lindos or Philerimos or a 69.00 Euro lunch day at the beach. All a tad steep, so we just did our own thing exploring this fascinating walled city.

At first I thought the pace of the trip looked crazy when I saw it on paper, but in practise, it works to a large extent. More time in Santorini would be nice for those not leaving there as we wisely did.

Tip # 5, do your own thing in most of the islands, save maybe Ephesus which would cost as much to do on your own.

We only caught one complete show, Greek dances…. cute, and a bit of a Cabaret type show, I’m not a Broadway guy. Entertainment is low key.

We left the ship at Santorini. It took easily 1 ½ hours for the tenders to get people off to tour the place, depositing them at the base of Fira, the main town and where the famous cable car / donkey rides wait to whisk tourists to the top of the Calderas and town. Be careful if you are getting off here with your luggage. They don’t make it clear that a special tender will be taking passengers, who are not returning, to the port dock. This is where the ferrys come and go, so it’s where there’s easy access to cabs and busses to your hotel. We almost missed the special tender, and if we had, we would have had the added expense and pain of lining up with our bags to catch the gondola to town.

To call the Sea Diamond a Cruise Ship is a bit of a stretch in a way. She lived most of her life as a ferryboat somewhere up in Finland, where happy passengers would spend maybe a single night aboard. In fact, the Greek ferries have cabins, which are as big and bigger as those on the Sea Diamond.

We had a good time, the Greek islands are truly wonderful, but IMHO the ship is missing crew in order to make her run smoothly. The memories I have of the boat are of line-ups, and our tiny cabin. If we’d paid half or a third what our cruise cost (over $ 1,800.00 CAN for the two of us) it would be an easier pill to swallow.

So, in closing, Tip #6 is that if you are pressed for time and really want to visit a bunch of islands in a short period of time, keep your expectations low, smile a lot and you’ll have fun too. If you have the time, the Greek Ferry system is a far better way to see Greece by water.

[A Sixth?]

The store

 

Aft deck (there are sneeky sitting areas on the lower areas under here, accessable only from the outside)

 

 

Like here

 

 

 

The Perla Buffett

 

 

 

That's all for the ship.

 

Port reports later

 

[Hot Hockett]

We'll here I go. I'm leaving for Europe today (in like 6 hours) and we're taking a cruise on the last 3 days (24-27?). Still not sure which ship/cruise line I'm on since this is a pre-organized trip. It is just 7 teenagers and 1 chaperone, whom I think is really brave. Anyhow, I'm 99% sure we are taking the sea diamond. I don't expect much as a regualr carnival curise, but hey, I'd like to have fun. The comment that A Sixth made about it being the size of a ferry, that interested me. We are taking a ferry from Italy to Greece so I guess I would judge the room size off of that. Thank you for the great review and I will attempt to get a review up myself, but I have so many other things to do when I get home. See you when I get back!

[Steve007NY]

Sixth.... now I'm really confused. You label the buffet picture as The Perla Buffet...but you ARE talking about the Sea Diamond, right?

 

Anyone with details on the Perla? We have run-of-ship oceanview cabin, but haven't seen much of anyone posting about that ship.

 

anyone?

 

Steve

[herb]

great reveiw of the ship Sea Diamond along with the pictures give everyone a real "feel" for the ship. Although the cabins are very small, just by looking at the ship everything seems to be kept quite clean and orderly. We'll be looking into that cruise in the future if all goes well.

 

I have a feeling that the name of the buffet is Perla.... just a coincidence that the other ship is called Perla.

Maybe I'm mistaken

[A Sixth?]

Sixth.... now I'm really confused. You label the buffet picture as The Perla Buffet...but you ARE talking about the Sea Diamond, right?

 

Anyone with details on the Perla? We have run-of-ship oceanview cabin, but haven't seen much of anyone posting about that ship.

 

anyone?

 

Steve

 

 

Steve, the name of the buffett restaurant on the Sea Diamond is the "Perla Buffett"

 

 

[Steve007NY]

Surprising that no one has said anything about the ship on here for ages!!

 

Are we the only suckers who booked it? (8/27 out of Istanbul)

 

Steve and John

[travel genie]

A Sixth!

Sorry your under the weather. Thank you for taking the time to write your review. I found it very helpful, it makes it easier to know what to expect.

I have been on many cruises and realize that this will be quite a downgrade, my travel companians are lucky though since this is the first cruise like expierence...i hope all go well, i booked everything for us and i dont want them to kill me for it. I warned them about the bathrooms and small cabins...i hope we have fun!! :o

Thanks again for your info!!

[travel genie]

Hi A sixth?

I failed to ask just out of curiosity..what cabin category did you book?

[A Sixth?]

Hi A sixth?

I failed to ask just out of curiosity..what cabin category did you book?

 

When we booked we were booking the Perla... there was no Sea Diamond

 

We booked a category A outside.

[suziern]

A sixth,

 

Our cabin (on the Sea Diamond) looked exactly like yours and we booked category TB for the Perla, a deluxe outside cabin. Either we got cheated or you got an upgrade! Do you know if you got an upgrade? Which deck were you on? We were on the Patmos deck.

 

Suzie

[A Sixth?]

A sixth,

 

Our cabin (on the Sea Diamond) looked exactly like yours and we booked category TB for the Perla, a deluxe outside cabin. Either we got cheated or you got an upgrade! Do you know if you got an upgrade? Which deck were you on? We were on the Patmos deck.

 

Suzie

 

Deck five, Patmos deck, cabin 5056. It was no upgrade believe me.

 

The only decent sized cabins (and it's relative, they are small) on the Sea Diamond are outsides on Mykonos (deck 6), Delos (deck 8) and the Crete decks (That's the ninth) Only some of the cabins on those decks are bigger, very few in fact.

 

Don't fret too much Suzie, the cabins aren't great; but the Islands are. That's why we went (are going). Forwarned is a good thing IMHO, don't sweat the small cabin and you will have a great time.

 

We still did.

[A Sixth?]

Surprising that no one has said anything about the ship on here for ages!!

 

Are we the only suckers who booked it? (8/27 out of Istanbul)

 

Steve and John

 

We met a few passengers who were on the Perla 7 day cruises as we travelled. The Sea Diamond and Perla basically do the exact same ports when the SD is on the 4 day tours. They just tender at Mykonos while the SD docks.

 

They had nothing but smiles and good things to say about the Perla. none seemed to know anything about the negative reports on her and all were having a great time.

 

Again, the places you'll be visiting will make anything the Caribbean has to offer taste like Vanilla.

[suziern]

A sixth,

 

We've already returned from our trip, we loved it and agree that the ship's condition didn't take away from our trip. However, I am fretting that we paid 300 dollars for an upgrade when we got the same cabin and deck as you did by booking category A. I'll have to call the travel agent.

 

Thanks,

Suzie

[oldsaltnewcruise]

A sixth:

Great review. Love the pictures and would love to see more if you have them posted somewhere already. We are heading out on, I believe, the sea diamond 10-14 July as part of a high school trip with EF Tours. We weren't expecting much but after early reviews of the Perla nearly scared us off we are glad we stuck with it. :)

[travel genie]

:) Hey I Am On The Same Cruise As You!!!

[oldsaltnewcruise]

Well since I am on a package with EFTours I am assuming that we are on the Sea Diamond but I think it is a good assumption.

 

So yes we are on the same cruise.

 

We start in Italy on 3 July and make our way to Greece for a few days before the cruise. By time the cruise starts we will be very happy to be in one place. Finally.

[A Sixth?]

I was just checking out the "events at sea" web pages (to see why the new Crown Princess, my next cruise, left port late recently) and see that the Sea Diamond is mentioned for a "situation" on June 16th, shortly after our trip ending June 1st on her.

 

Anyone here there on the 16th? Love to hear how they handled the situation.

 

http://www.cruisejunkie.com/events.html

[BettyNL]

We're thinking of taking an Athens tour with a four-day Sea Diamond cruise; we are being charged $200 pp extra to "upgrade" to outside (minimum category with port hole windows) It seems from what I read here, we'll still get the same size cabin as inside, right?

 

Obviously, this trip will be for the Greek Isles so I don't intend on spending much time either inside OR looking at the scenery through windows......... AND a small cabin really makes my husband happy: I'll have to take fewer clothes as well as limiting souvenir shopping :eek:

 

A SIXTH: Thanks for the "events at sea" link as well as the fabulous "Carribean is Vanilla" comparison:D