We are up early (what a surprise!) and out walking along the harbor for our daily exercise. This time we go all the way around to the other side of the harbor, past the restaurant where we ate last night and up to a little park type area with the ubiquitously designed Piraeus letter sign. Everyplace has one – it is obviously a must for any city.

On the way we pass even more dilapidated houses in need of rehab – can you tell we are obsessed with these things?

Then stopped for a cappuccino at one of the cafes on the water front, before returning to the apartment to get ready for our embarkation.

Our taxi comes at the appropriate time, and after some discussion and confusion (everybody expects you to go out of Terminal A) we direct him to the correct terminal, only to find…well…check in isn’t until 2pm. This had been a conversation everyone was having on Cruise Critic – normally check in would start around 11am, but for some reason it is 2pm here and the Cruise Critic folks were all up in arms. Everyone was saying, and rightly so, that 2pm was totally ridiculous as the ship hasn’t been in-service since early this year and she’s been here in Piraeus for 3 days preparing for the “inaugural” restart voyage. We’re hoping for the best, but planning for the delay, which means we pack everything we can in the big cases so as to lightened our backpacks as much as possible if we have to cool our heels for a few hours. And of course we have restaurants picked out near by for lunch – so – options abound!  

As we didn’t know what would happen, and had to check out of the apartment by 11am anyway, we arrived at the pier very early. And, yep, it’s 2pm. Bummer. Well, at least there were port people there who explained it was a Piraeus requirement to wait until 2pm (hmmmm….) but we could drop our bags and then return a little after 2pm to begin the process. Yeah, we’ll be here at 2, thank you very much!

This is why contingency planning is so important! We shouldered our packs, and off we went to wander around – take pictures of the Lion statue (the symbol of Piraeus as we saw yesterday at the museum) that greets each ship at the entrance to the harbor. Had a cappuccino at a little cafe right up the street from the pier, then went back into the more central area of town to check out a seafood market/restaurant we had read about. Unfortunately, it was more market than restaurant. Actually more take away, but we had no where to take anything – and there was one table out on the sidewalk which didn’t seem to be used for anything but a place to pile boxes and smoke cigarettes. Moving on.

Heading back in the direction of the pier, just up on the hillside, not on the water front, we ended up at Gianni’s Fish House which is a family owned place, started in 1983. Originally from the island of Simi, they specialize in traditional island preparations, which sound as yummy as the eventually look when we order our beet salads (I really wanted some beets, but oh my, not this many!), seafood soup, and then Simi style shrimp (a specialty) which end up being little shell on fried shrimp that you just eat whole. Shells included. They were delicious! These little crunching, tasty morsels that were sort of addictive, like popcorn. Yum. And then mussels for Ed. Oh, and of course the obligatory complimentary dessert you always seem to get at Greek restaurants. We are totally stuffed! And we’re getting on a cruise ship? It is salad for me….going forward.

After that feast, we were happy to have to walk back to the terminal, even if it was all down hill. Phew. Once there, we got the “get out of COVID testing” pass by showing our test results and commenced our wait in a very hot and humid, unairconditioned tent until our group was called. Ugh. Once called though, check-in was a breeze. And all normal, were greeted by and met the captain, found a few staff we’ve sailed with previously – many from what we call the “COVID-cruise” on the Quest back in March 2020 – hit our room, got our bags pretty quickly, hit the laundry room – yes, laundry!!! Might as well get everything fresh and clean while we can – because, I mean to tell you, it’s hot here and we’ve already sweated through a shirt a day so far.  We need laundry! And of course, while we were waiting for the cycle to finish, we went upstairs to the Sunset bar deck for a drink, grabbing an apple to cure my fresh fruit craving…and all is well back aboard the Journey.

Not much has changed here really. Except that we are still sort of under COVID protocol (yes, masks in public areas) so there are no chef’s tables on this leg of the cruise which is odd – it’s so hugely popular, we just assumed they would schedule them. It is either a new chef or it is COVID related since normally chef’s tables are one long table with 14 people. But when we were on our November cruise on Quest, they did chef’s tables as separate tables in the Aqualina dining room. Oh well, who knows. We’re just hoping they resume that on the next leg.

We do our normal thing – head off to the gym in the afternoon, hit the main dining room for dinner – which of course I can barely eat because I’m still so stuffed from lunch! Then to the showroom for the typical first night show – a little preview of what is to come. But here’s the thing – we keep watching the Steven Millet, Cruise Director, because we sailed with him on our COVID-Quest, but he does not even remotely look the same! When we last saw him he had really, really long silky gorgeous blonde hair, always done up in a man bun, unless he was off duty or playing a part (Neptune when we crossed the equator).  Now? He has super short hair, and it is dyed white!  I really didn’t even recognize him!   

And that concludes is our first evening aboard. We’re off to wander then nightcap on the balcony as we sail toward Mykonos.