Piraeus Embarkation- access to port and gate security

This was briefly brought up on another cruise line board.

We have an arrival into Athens airport at 9:00am. Our boarding documentation will say our cruise ship boarding time is 1:00pm. Our plan was to get to the terminal at 11:00 (ish) and just hang out until they let us board.

It was mentioned that we would not be allowed into the port by the gate security until our official boarding time of 1:00. And that people were turned away and not let in.

Would like to know if this is definitely what will happen. If so, then we will just wait at the airport and get to the port later.

thanks for any help.

We sailed on Carnival Vista from Piraeus in 2016 and had no issues arriving at the port before the official boarding time. I don't recall Port security checking our documents for the official boarding time but they did check that we were at the correct terminal and boarding the right ship - it's a big port.

Thanks for the information. Hopefully this will be the same with us, and we can enter the port/terminal and wait to board.

Our flight arrives in Athens at 6;30 am, and we do not expect to be able to board our ship until the afternoon. We thought of seeing if we could arrange a half day casual tour of the Athens to Piraeus area, and possibly get breakfast somewhere. Does anyone have any suggestions about tour operators who could do this?

Last year I don’t recall any port security stopping our taxi from entering the port to drop us off. They can’t possibly check everyone boarding pass at gate.

Plato you could take the coastal route around cape sounion and stop at temple of Poseidon. I’m sure the driver would know where to stop for breakfast. We did the opposite leaving ship. I used JG Athens Tours (John’s yellow cab), price was reasonable and van was very clean and comfortable.

Our flight arrives in Athens at 6;30 am, and we do not expect to be able to board our ship until the afternoon. We thought of seeing if we could arrange a half day casual tour of the Athens to Piraeus area, and possibly get breakfast somewhere. Does anyone have any suggestions about tour operators who could do this?

We used Private Greece Tours for pick up at the airport and our transfer was to our central hotel. The following day the same drive, Elis, picked us up at our hotel and took us on a half day tour to Cape Sounio to see the Temple of Poseidon. You could do the same half day tour when you arrive into Athens. The company was great, the driver was friendly and informative and we were at Pireaus Port for about 1:00 p.m. when the boarding started. We also had time to include a stop for food - for you it could be breakfast, for us it was for lunch. E-mail Nikos Loukas at nikosloukas1@gmail.com for information and pricing. He was very equitable to deal with and you won't be disappointed in this tour, if you choose to do it. You can tell Nikos that I gave you his name.

Barb Singer

Thanks for the recommendation for Private Greek Tours. We have booked a half day tour/transfer Airport to Piraeus via Cape Sounion.