Explosion in Athens

[sheffield]

I see a building has been blown up in Athens today by people unhappy with the austerity measures that are being put in place there by the Greek government. Do you think if this continues there is a chance tours might be cancelled? We sail on the May 11th sailing of the Equinox and Athens is our second stop.

[Shooraq]

I see a building has been blown up in Athens today by people unhappy with the austerity measures that are being put in place there by the Greek government. Do you think if this continues there is a chance tours might be cancelled? We sail on the May 11th sailing of the Equinox and Athens is our second stop.

 

There have been challenges with Athens over the last few months. If it considered dangerous, then yes, Celebrity could decide to cancel tours in affected areas. But I have a feeling it will work out okay.

 

On another note, please join us on our roll call if you are on our May 11 sailing! http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1388461

[tteettimes]

If you go to the Parthenon-----give Athena my regards :p

[Azulann]

Sheffield,

 

The cruise line will be sure to monitor the situation and if need be they could cancel that port.

From a google search:

The blast was in the early mornng and no one was injured.

But there will be big protests on May Day and they will be having an election in May.

 

I would monitor the news, and only book a ship tour just in case.

[SweetGG]

When are they "not" protesting in Athens :)

And usually confined to the downtown, around Parliament building. Start watching their newspapers online so there are no unsuspected surprises on your cruise.

[uktog]

They have been protesting for years and it does spark up to levels of violence from time to time. An indicator that your trips are pretty likely to go ahead is that other parts of the brand (RCL and Azamara) continued to make stops in Athens and offer their excursion programme when the natives were restless in the late Autumn.

 

If you are not going with a cruiseline excursion or one of the recognised private guides I would exercise some caution as you may be less aware of the areas to avoid

[Suzy Smith]

During the unrest last year, some Celebrity ships called at Athens and others missed out this port, depending on whether strikes had been called on the day the ship was scheduled to dock there. If X decide it is dangerous or it would not be enjoyable for passengers to visit Athens on a particular day they will undoubtedly miss it out again.

 

The austerity measures continue to be a flashpoint and if the trouble escalates you may have to miss Athens, but Celebrity do monitor the situation and their priority is always the safety and comfort of the passengers.

[NewSalt]

The U. S. Department of State has not issued a Travel Warning or a Travel Advisory for Greece at this point.

 

Here's a link to the page on their website pertaining to Greece. You may find it helpful to enrol their STEP program.

 

http://athens.usembassy.gov/warden_messages.html

[Azulann]

i was on the Equinox in Sept and we were in the port for Athens on a Monday. There was a taxi strike that day. It was scheduled ahead of time. It did not include private taxi drivers at the port.

 

We had a ship tour to the Acropolis with three hours of free time in the Plaka.

Our tour guide was amazed at the light traffic that morning. We were at the top of Acropolis by 9:30 and hardly any tourists. There were huge crowds by noon on our way down. I think there were at least five big cruise ships in port when we sailed from port late that afternoon.

 

The shopkeepers we spoke with said to tell tourists not to stay away. Tourism is one of their main source of income. But the austerity measures are having a very serious effect on the people since then.

[TLCOhio]

Have followed and posted lots on the Greece board during the past two years about these "issues" and challenges there. The "good news" is that the cruise ship folks are very alert about monitoring these potential strikes that could affect schedules while in Athens. In some cases, they will adjust the day earlier or later for visiting Athens in order to avoid a problem there that day. Good luck to those planning an Athens visit. Great history, architecture, culture, etc., there. Now is not the first time they have had to consider their options in Greece.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 72,435 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

[ariawoman]

We were on the 10/10/11 Sailing of the Equinox and Athens was a scheduled stop. Celebrity got wind of strikes, and swapped our Athens day with another (i forget which). As it turned out, we still ended up in Athens during a strike, so there wasn't much we could do, but we took the HOHO bus all around the area and wandered about. Couldn't get into the acropolis as it wasn't open nor were other sites.

 

It was a bit of a let down but, what can you do. It's the state of that area right now and we are all taking gambles visiting. I would have been OK if they skipped athens altogether and went to another nearby port - i had read of that occurring but i forget the port I'd read. Want to say it began with a C or K lol.

 

Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I wouldn't book any private excurisions, either ship tour or just DIY in port. You'll still be on vacation on a beautiful ship either way :-)

[ariawoman]

I also wanted to mention that strikes effected our Rhodes, Greece stop, cancelling part of a shore excursion which basically made the tour useless so we canceled the tour and did DIY that port as well, so it's not just Athens that gets impacted by these strikes.

[04soxfan]

We were there last June with a scheduled stop in Athens, when the cabs went on strike. The ship instead went to Crete. Kind of a bummer, but you can't blame Celebrity.

 

We had booked an excursion through X, so we were OK, but I would double check the cancellation clauses on any indepently booked excursions.

 

We has a few other stops in Greece that were completely unaffected, I think most of the demonstrations are in Athens.