Getaway - Piraeus to Athens Airport transfer question

[Kvnfla11]

6 hours ago, Jack Durden said:

I was on the Getaway that disembarked at Piraeus on June 25.  The ship was scheduled to arrive by 5:30 AM, which it did, actually a little early, we were off the ship at about 7:15 (there was no security, other than a scanning of our cards).  We met our driver and were at the airport by 8:15.  Plenty of time to have a quick breakfast and get through security, we then had about an hour wait before we could board for our 10:40 flight.  

This is the great recent info I needed. Thank you Jack

[Gatorj]

• Lot's of people either recently off of this cruise or about to embark.  Can anyone please post Dailies if possible?  Thanks!

[MarkusToe]

Looks like there is no NCL offering for direct transfer to ATH....

[iwingy]

Reporting live from Athens International Airport.
 

Norwegian Getaway was scheduled to arrive at 7 am as per the cruise booking confirmation and officially posted itinerary.

 

We docked around 5:45 am. Breakfast is open from 5:30 in the Garden Cafe.

 

Here is our timeline:

6:15-6:30 breakfast 

6:35 left the cabin and went to forward staircase deck 4 (we had asked the security personnel the day before who scanned us onto the ship when returning in our last port where the Athens disembarkation would be, as front office was not helpful on this matter) and were sent up to deck 6 to wait

*the crowd was already sizable on deck 6, some folks had international flights as early as 9 am, next time I would go downstairs earlier, probably around 6:15 am

**during all this time we were texting with our driver booked via Welcome Pickups (massive kudos to this thread for the recommendation!)

6:45 disembarkation started and we walked to deck 4 using the stairs, beating most of the crowd who stayed to wait for the elevators, we also ran from the ship to the terminal building and through the terminal building 

6:50 we were ashore - there is no passport control in port, you just walk out, and we carried our backpacks

6:51 we were inside a car with our incredibly efficient driver 

7:35 we were in line at the Turkish Airlines check-in counter to weigh carryons and get our boarding passes

*bear in mind that this is Sunday early morning traffic, or lack of thereof to be precise 

8:00 done with the check-in counter 

8:18 at the gate 

*passport control and security screening was fast and efficient, minimal waiting times 

 

After getting a visual on the gate we went to one of the lounges, and  this is where I’m typing this update for you folks. 

 

So 10:30 am flight departure on a Sunday is totally doable under the following conditions:

- with a posted ship arrival of 7 am

- you can book a transfer in advance

- you can stay on top of the situation while on the ship in the morning

- you can move quickly and do not have major mobility issues

And, the big IF - assuming the ship arrives as planned.

 

We still have 1.5 hours until boarding our flight to Istanbul. 

[edited for typos]

Edited August 11 by iwingy
typos

[iwingy]

And a PSA - never fly Turkish, they bumped us to a tomorrow flight from Istanbul to LA due to overbooking, despite the fact that we paid for the extra fee seats upon booking 8+ months ago, have a small child traveling with us, and checked in 24 hours in advance as soon as the checkin opened online. No explanation on the logic of who gets bumped and not even an apology. 
 

We plan to stay at the hotel airside to avoid having to wake up at 4 am tomorrow for the very slow IST security screening to get back into the airport. And we plan to get our 1,800 euro in compensation (600 per person) for the disrupted itinerary and 18+ hour delay getting home as per this super handy Reddit thread (reddit.com/r/travel/s/9uUukDW0F2) although it will probably take weeks/months…

 

Overall, we have had a great cruise, Greece is gorgeous!! 

[iwingy]

On 8/9/2024 at 9:02 AM, MarkusToe said:

Looks like there is no NCL offering for direct transfer to ATH....

on the Getaway you could book one onboard for flights departing after 12:30 PM

[Kvnfla11]

6 hours ago, iwingy said:

Reporting live from Athens International Airport.
 

Norwegian Getaway was scheduled to arrive at 7 am as per the cruise booking confirmation and officially posted itinerary.

 

We docked around 5:45 am. Breakfast is open from 5:30 in the Garden Cafe.

 

Here is our timeline:

6:15-6:30 breakfast 

6:35 left the cabin and went to forward staircase deck 4 (we had asked the security personnel the day before who scanned us onto the ship when returning in our last port where the Athens disembarkation would be, as front office was not helpful on this matter) and were sent up to deck 6 to wait

*the crowd was already sizable on deck 6, some folks had international flights as early as 9 am, next time I would go downstairs earlier, probably around 6:15 am

**during all this time we were texting with our driver booked via Welcome Pickups (massive kudos to this thread for the recommendation!)

6:45 disembarkation started and we walked to deck 4 using the stairs, beating most of the crowd who stayed to wait for the elevators, we also ran from the ship to the terminal building and through the terminal building 

6:50 we were ashore - there is no passport control in port, you just walk out, and we carried our backpacks

6:51 we were inside a car with our incredibly efficient driver 

7:35 we were in line at the Turkish Airlines check-in counter to weigh carryons and get our boarding passes

*bear in mind that this is Sunday early morning traffic, or lack of thereof to be precise 

8:00 done with the check-in counter 

8:18 at the gate 

*passport control and security screening was fast and efficient, minimal waiting times 

 

After getting a visual on the gate we went to one of the lounges, and  this is where I’m typing this update for you folks. 

 

So 10:30 am flight departure on a Sunday is totally doable under the following conditions:

- with a posted ship arrival of 7 am

- you can book a transfer in advance

- you can stay on top of the situation while on the ship in the morning

- you can move quickly and do not have major mobility issues

And, the big IF - assuming the ship arrives as planned.

 

We still have 1.5 hours until boarding our flight to Istanbul. 

[edited for typos]

Thank you very much iwingy! This is great data and a great writeup.