Golden Star Cruises - Aegean 1 -- Greeks Islands

[Quebec1]

Anyone have informations about this cruise line ? We planned to go with "Louis" but after reviewing all comments about them, we are now interested by the Aegean 1. Advertising looks good ;) but is it real ?

 

What bother me is that no one have post comments on this line/cruise. :confused:

 

We will be in Greece mid-september, so we still have time to decide :)

 

 

Thanks for your comments

[dougnewmanatsea]

Golden Star Cruises has just been bought out by Louis Hellenic Cruises.

 

Louis now has a monopoly on this market.

[Grace Land]

We cancelled our trip on Louis Hellenic and went with Viking Yacht Cruises. I posted an inquiry two weeks ago for information on Aegean One. No one replied.

 

We leave tomorrow (June 17) for Italy and then on to Athens and a 7-day cruise on Viking Yacht m/s H&B. I'll let you know how it went when we get back.

 

Grace

[dougnewmanatsea]

Grace - I do not consider Viking Yacht Cruises or any other similar company (and they are definitely not the only ones) to be in the same market as Louis or the now-defunct Golden Star and Royal Olympia.

 

The market I'm referring to is, IMHO, restricted to full-service "large-ship" (well, not that large, but much larger than a yacht).

 

While something like a Viking Yacht might be suitable for you, I supect that for many prospective Louis passengers, it would not be.

 

I will be very interested to hear your about experience though - we do not get too many people here on CC reporting back about the very small ships like these!

[theduffys]

Grace, Count me as someone who can't wait to read your review. We will be taking two granddaughters on some sort of a Greek cruise next August and began our research with Louis lines. After reading so many disappointing reviews about them here, I started looking at other options and found Viking.

[Grace Land]

Grace, Count me as someone who can't wait to read your review. We will be taking two granddaughters on some sort of a Greek cruise next August and began our research with Louis lines. After reading so many disappointing reviews about them here, I started looking at other options and found Viking.

 

Well, I'm not sure how to respond to Doug. True, Viking is not a large cruise ship. However, since Louis seems to have the monopoly on this market and they really don't deliver what most people expect from a large ship, what else can we do but look for other options?

 

First of all, I went with my 12-year-old son. We had a wonderful time! The ship had only 15 people the week we went (July 1-8). With only 20 cabins, that's less than half full. However, we truly enjoyed the intimacy of such a small group.

 

The food was EXCELLENT!!!!!!!! All Greek, all the time! There are two meals a day onboard, which allows for either lunch or dinner on the island. The meals on the ship were at LEAST as good as the meals on the islands. We had grilled octopus, every kind of meat known to man (almost), fresh fruit and vegetables, wonderful salads, stuffed vine leaves, aubergines every which kind of way, I mean it was just incredible. When I read that these larger ships' food was "okay," I am SOOO glad we changed our plans because we got the real thing regarding food.

 

The crew of 9 were all Greek. I take that back. The chef was from Izmir, Turkey. The music was Greek. The cabins were larger than many of the 4 star hotels we stayed in in Italy the week before. The shower was quite large and did not leak. The beds were on the hard side, but I like that. I have to say that the back problems I had been dealing with in Italy disappeared while sleeping on the H&B.

 

For the grandparents, the crew (and the other guests) were wonderful to my son. The chef and the chief steward showed him card tricks (Harry brought a deck of cards he bought in Athens with him). The attention everyone gets is so individual.

 

On the last morning as we were headed back to Athens, we stopped at Cape Sounion and swam beneath the Temple of Poseidon. The Captain snorkled off and when he returned he had a huge bag full of sea urchins! Another crew member cut them open, cleaned them, squirted some lemon juice inside and poured it into our mouths. If you weren't game for that technique, you could just pick the meat out and taste it. What a treat and what a great story Harry has to tell his friends.

 

Here are some of the areas to watch out for though:

 

1) The excursions were somewhat reasonable -- less than Louis, I know. However, they were kind of hit and miss. Don't waste money on the Paros tour by bus. If you want to go to another city, take a taxi or bus. However, the dinner and dancing with the (Pirate) Captain that night is a must do! The restaurant is excellent and the dancing fun. Also, in Kythnos, skip the tour to the hot water springs. The beach isn't that nice and there's just not a lot there. I think it would be better if they didn't spend too much time in Kythnos, actually. Delos is EXCELLENT if you're interested in the history of this facinating island and the ruins, etc. We were (interested) and we weren't disappointed. Our guide was terrific. She made the place come alive for us. Also, when we were in Mykonos we saw all three Louis Hellenic cruise ships there (Perla, Calypso, and Coral). While those people were standing in line to get on a bus, etc. we just walked off our ship and into whatever transportation we chose. They arranged a car rental agency to come directly to our boat to take us to get a car. Four of us shared the cost of the rental and enjoyed the freedom immensely. Driving in Mykonos is fine. Our cruise director told us which islands were okay to drive in and which were not.

 

2) Prices for the bar are extremely reasonable. HOWEVER, the drinks are not very cold. They do have ice, though.

 

3) The published information says that you say overnight in Santorini. That is not correct. The ship leaves at around 7:00 PM, which means you do NOT see the famous sunset. That was very disappointing to me.

 

4) The m/s H&B is NOT a sailing vessel. They have sails, but they were NEVER used. All pictures show the ship with the sails up. Not gonna happen.

 

So, if you can live with the above situation, you'll love this cruise. It's nice to spend an entire day on each island instead of just 4 hours. And it's also nice not to be in a crowd wherever you go. Take some Dramamine along for the times when the sea is a bit rough. That only happened twice the week we were out.

 

Oh, the airconditioning works great in the cabins, too.

 

If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. Now that I have written this "review" I'll probably not check back as often. If you want to know how to reach me via email, give me yours I guess.

 

Now that I've been through the Greek Islands this way, I don't think I would want to go on a larger ship -- especially if the amenities aren't very nice.

 

By the way, I fell in love with Greece. It was the best food, consistently, I have ever had.

 

Enjoy your trip whatever you decide to do.

 

Grace

[dougnewmanatsea]

Grace - sounds like a lovely trip.

 

I would like to visit the Greek Isles (been to Athens, but not to any of the islands) and this sounds like a unique and, suprisingly, not witheringly expensive way to do it (in many countries, yacht cruises like this are astronomically priced).

 

The one place in Greece outside of Athens that I have been to (except the port of Piraeus), is Cape Sunion. It is one of the most gorgeous places I have been to, anywhere.

 

Oh yes, I love Greek food too - great stuff. We were only in Athens for a day (off the gargantuan GRAND PRINCESS - complete opposite of a yacht like yours!) but the food we had there - a huge buffet in a very nice hotel owned by the Chandris family (who, ironically, own part of Royal Caribbean by way of having founded Celebrity which merged with RCI in the late '90s) - was the best we had the whole trip. I'm also lucky to be near some rather good Greek restaurants at home (big Greek population in New York) so can get my fix of fairly authentic Greek food about once a month that way :) .

[Grace Land]

Doug:

 

I envy your proximity to good Greek restaurants! Now that I know Greek food isn't confined to Mousaka and baklava (please excuse the spelling), I am a complete nut over it. I brought home Greek olive oil, balsamic vinegar, artichokes, olive speads and pates, sun-dried tomatoes, and some kind of green bean-looking thing that they serve with Ouzo (which I do NOT like), but which also goes very nicely in salads. And, of course, a cook book.

 

My husband is from NYC and we go back periodically. Could you recommend a couple of authentic Greek restaurants for us? Are we allowed to give out our email addresses? I don't want to take up space here talking about restaurants.

 

Thanks,

Grace

[dougnewmanatsea]

My husband is from NYC and we go back periodically. Could you recommend a couple of authentic Greek restaurants for us?

Sorry, not in NYC - I'm on Long Island.

 

However I am sure that there are real Greek restaurants in NYC, I just don't personally know any of them so I can't give any recommendations.

 

You are allowed to give out your e-mail address if you like.

[GoingPlaces]

Grace,

 

My family and I have booked this trip with our 11 and 13 year old sons and hope we have as wonderful a time as you did. I have some other questions for you...

 

Did you book directly with the ship or thru another agency? we booked I think directly with the owners, the FGroup. The price we paid was much less than the posted rates.

 

how much were the shore excursions? Did they offer one to the hot springs at NeakAmeni where you can get in the mud baths? I too am disappointed to hear that the ship leaves Santorini before sunset! :(

 

How were the crew with your son? Was he able to ask questions of them? our sons both have an interest in sailing and would like to be able to have that access to the crew.

 

Were there other children on board? Our kids are on an unusual schedule and we are going in October, so I doubt there will be others.

 

Was the clientele mostly American? How were you treated in the port towns? did you ever feel like you needed to play down the fact that you were an American?

 

Did the people in the ports speak English? This is the first trip my husband and I have made where one of us doesn't speak the language.

 

Feel free to email me directly at mbtorrence@yahoo.com

 

Thank you for responding!

 

Beth

 

First of all, I went with my 12-year-old son. We had a wonderful time! The ship had only 15 people the week we went (July 1-8). With only 20 cabins, that's less than half full. However, we truly enjoyed the intimacy of such a small group.

[alwayssingin]

We cruised on the Aegean I last year (which I understand from reading is now a part of the Louis line). It was an old ship. Bare bones and nothing special. The food was marginal (see below for special seasoning one night!). The entertainment wasn't very entertaining.

 

Back to the food. One night our waiter was serving my husband his pasta, and his sweat was dripping onto his plate! :eek:

 

The only excursion we purchased from the ship was to the Ancient City of Ephesus. Very well organized and informative. On Patmos we hired a taxi and he took us up the the Grotto, dropped us off, then came back to pick us up later. We had plenty of time and didn't have to pay him until he returned us to the dock. I don't recall what amount we agreed on, but it was much cheaper than booking an excursion, and we were able to beat the tour buses up the mountain. There were also couples who paired up and saved even more $$.

 

We also hired a taxi in Rhodes to take us to the Valley of Butterflies. There weren't a whole lot of butterflies, but it was a nice hike (we took the downhill route). Our taxi driver was very informative and gave us history of the area, answered questions, etc. Again, I can't remember what price we agreed on, but definitely worth it and cheaper than booking through the cruise line.