Greek Cruise Day 3...

Day Three – Friday

Decent night sleep, and then up for breakfast at the hotel… After which my lovely wife informed me that even though she took almost an hour to choose and try on sandals the day before, the pair that she bought for her daughter were:

• Too Small
• Two Different Sizes

Now I’m not really sure how either (or both) of these could be missed, but whatever… Then I was informed that we had to go back and return them, meaning another 3 mile walk on a morning that I was hoping to do nothing before going to the ship. At least we knew the way by now, and it really wasn’t that bad outside (or I’m starting to get used to it already…)

Took our time getting to the little sandal/leather/whatever shop, and unbelievably the proprietor (who the day before was about as gruff and grumpy as I have seen in Athens…) was cordial and happily made the exchange… an additional 5 euro, but whatever… (I’m finding that I am saying “whatever” quite a bit on this trip… figure that it means that I’m more relaxed than normal, which apparently is good…) Then we just walked around for a bit, had the obligatory few liters of water, and started back to the hotel. On the way back, we went past the National Garden (or something like that…) and decided to walk through… sort of like a (very) mini Central Park in the middle of Athens… Nice though, and we took a few pictures and looked around for a while… Back to the hotel, another shower and a short nap, and then time to get things together for the bus to the boat. As usual, SPI had everything taken care of, exactly on time, and made getting from the hotel to the ship painless.

Got on the Regent around 4 or so, and got unpacked in our cabin… A bit after 5 there was a mandatory make-sure-you-know-where-the-lifeboats-are drill, and right after that the Cooper cocktail hour started in one of the lounges. Very nice to get to see everyone again, and meet some others for the first time… After a few drinks, Ann and I were off to the dining area for a very nice, relaxing meal… Then a short walk around the top deck of the ship and around a few of the floors, and then back in for the evening.

I’ve never been on a cruise before, but after one day, I know that this is something that I will be doing again… First, the accommodations are beautiful… Second, the service is beyond what you get at high end hotels… Third, the fact that food, drinks, and entertainment are all there anytime and any way you want them is almost too good to be true… Room service anytime you want, an in-room movie selection that has great selections (I rented 4 movies and bought one and brought them along on my iPad for the week, and found out all but one were on the list of on-demand in cabin movies… I would have never thought they would be that up to date…) and pretty much anything else that you would want… And there almost always seems to be someone asking if you need anything… I don’t know if it is because the Regent is one of the top of the line cruise ships, or if others are just as nice, but I’m sold on this for a relaxing way of traveling… Off to Delos and Mykonos tomorrow…