Louis Hellenic Cruises - Greek Islands

[kooka]

Hi, We've been on " La Perla" (Aug/2005} and quite frankly it was just OK. The ship is about 30yrs old and it is in need of being scraped. Not pretty,no updates .it may be alright if your not really interested in luxury.If you've been on the newer cruise ,You will be definitely disappointed.

[A Sixth?]

I don't need the air that's offered through Scair Transit in their new brochure for 2006.

 

Just want a deal on the cruise for the Serenade, any advise?

[cjc04]

I am an attorney and have been contacted by a disgruntled customer regarding Homeric Tours and Louis Hellenic Cruises. I read on this board a comment by "ehonderich" which stated that louis hellenic cruises was being sued by 7 lawyers in 7 countries. Does anyone have any information regarding these lawsuits or know of any other lawsuits against either Homeric Tours or Louis Hellenic Cruises?

[herb]

In Feb. we were contemplating a Greek Island cruise, then our plans changed and we booked a land vacation for Jan, and a Scandinavian cruise for the summer.

 

Just today the idea of a Greek cruise popped into my head again and I decided to check this thread if there was anything new happening since my original post. Talk about WOW!!

 

Actually it's interesting how opinions about Louis Cruiselines has changed since I first asked the question. It seems that SLOWLY they are trying to iron things out.

 

It seems that all the "top" tour operators (Globus, Homeric, Tourline Intl.etc.) are choosing Louis Cruises for their tours. Wondering if it's by choice or whether there is any other choice for a cruise/land tour of the islands given to these operators.

 

I will continue to wait and see how and if things improve with Louis. I might give it a shot for myself and my wife... she's dying to see the Greek isles.

[herb]

Just noticed... with over 10,000 views is it possible that Louis Cruises gets their own "page" versus being included in the "other cruiseline" category?

[jetset]

Well I had booked a land tour through Grand European and then decided to add on their Island Cruise and they also use Louis Cruise Lines.

 

Seems that as of today....12/29...they have cancelled all their island cruises for this year. Odd!!! Then Globus is saying they are all booked for their island cruises and Insight says the same but if you call the London office they will put you on a list!!!

 

Sounds to me like much is going on.....and I hope the companies are "talking " to the powers at Louis and getting things put together. I dont need 5 stars...but give me basic cleanliness and basic good food!

 

I have done a lot of research and out of every 10 comments I read only about 1 is sorta favorable. And I also hear that 7 different countries are also suing them. Verrrrry interesting!! Also sad...This was my 2nd try at getting to Greece. Last time everything was cancelled due to 9/11 and now this!!! But they do have the monopoly of the cruises to the islands I want to see....and there is no other choice right now! Anybody want to start a cruise line?? :):)

[Hot Hockett]

Alright can someone please help me. I am 14 (15 in like a week) and i am going on a italian-greek trip from EF Tours. The information our "host/director" person gave us was very vague. This is exactly what it says: Day Ten thru Thirteen: We will cruise the mediterranean and various Greek islands and dock in Kusadasi, Patmos and Rhodes on Asia minor-Turkey. Now, i've done so much research i am concinced that we are on the Louis Hellenic Cruise Line. And from what i can see, i think we are on the La perla. If anyone else knows of another boat with this itinerary, please tell me otherwise. even though we can't book tours and im sure that we already have some booked, does anyone think this is a good cruise and do you know if it is accomodating to some high school sophmores? i hear everyones replies using beer and unfortunantly we are not in the category. Thanks to nyone who can get anything on this. BTW, if a host is reading this, i think Louis Cruise Line needs its own link instead of other, there are quite alot of views

[dgk_kos]

Alright can someone please help me. I am 14 (15 in like a week) and i am going on a italian-greek trip from EF Tours. The information our "host/director" person gave us was very vague. This is exactly what it says: Day Ten thru Thirteen: We will cruise the mediterranean and various Greek islands and dock in Kusadasi, Patmos and Rhodes on Asia minor-Turkey. Now, i've done so much research i am concinced that we are on the Louis Hellenic Cruise Line. And from what i can see, i think we are on the La perla.

 

There is also another ship, the MV AEGEAN 1 of GOLDEN STAR CRUISES that operates the same 3 day and 4 day cruises.

And of course Rhodes and Patmos are Greek islands and they are not at asia minor

[Hot Hockett]

well i checked the EF Tours site and my itinerary and it says is was on Royal Olympia cruise lines. Im pretty sure they wen't bankrupt, correct? The host is calling EF today to get everything straightened out but i was just curious

[herb]

Royal Olympia cruises went out of business quite some time ago!! That tour website definitely needs some updating :D

[Hot Hockett]

yeah when i called my director i was talking to her son, my friend, and i was like yeah royal olympia went out of business and he was kind of scared and she still hasn't called us back so i await to find out

[erandhawa]

I am heading to greece in July for my honeymoon, we really wanted to do an island cruise and i've been scared by the posts about the perla, by reading it seems like its getting better slowly but still skeptical if i should book or find another cruise line.

Any suggestions, i haven't been able to find any large cruise lines out there, if anyone knows of an alternative or if the conditions of perla have improved it would be helpful.

I read someone took a smaller cruise with their son, that seems nice but we were looking forward to something that had onboard entertainment as well.

[LHT28]

Any suggestions, i haven't been able to find any large cruise lines out there, if anyone knows of an alternative or if the conditions of perla have improved it would be helpful.

I read someone took a smaller cruise with their son, that seems nice but we were looking forward to something that had onboard entertainment as well.

 

How about a sailing cruise?

Try Windstar cruises or Starclipper cruises

There are also several of the mainstream cruiselines that include Greece in the Med cruises.

[A Sixth?]

Still toying with the idea of going for four days on the Perla, May 29th - June 2nd 2006. The port stops seem very short. Anyone who's been there care to comment?

[dgk_kos]

Louis cruise lines, bought a new ship, the BIRKA PRINCESS.

The ship will operate 3 and 4 day cruises from Pireaus Greece begining at April.

[herb]

Louis cruise lines, bought a new ship, the BIRKA PRINCESS.

The ship will operate 3 and 4 day cruises from Pireaus Greece begining at April.

 

Interesting news. Now I need to see if I can find out which ship the Birka Princess used to be and read up on that.

 

Well, so far I found this picture...

 

[A Sixth?]

Well, we were going to do a Star Clipper cruise when we are in Greece but had a change of heart, cancelling that largely because it departs Athens but disembarks in Istanbul. We don't want to add a travel day and we're not interested in visiting Istanbul for a variety of reasons.

 

We are now booked and down-payment made for a four day on the Perla.

 

Didn't get too much recent feed back that was all that positive here but found another "Cruise Critic" type BB with descriptions of the Louis Line ships, along with some user reviews.

 

Maybe this will help you herb if you haven't already found it

 

http://www.cruiseserver.net/travelpa...ines/louis.asp

 

We have sailed on a lot of odd ball and older cruise lines and frankly had a ball on all of them, so the fact that the Perla's a bit past her prime shouldn't bother us. We did spring for a better outside category than we may have usually though! :D

[dougnewmanatsea]

Now I need to see if I can find out which ship the Birka Princess used to be

The BIRKA PRINCESS used to be... The BIRKA PRINCESS ;) ! She has never been anything else.

 

She was built in Finland in 1986 for Birka Line, a company based in the Åland Islands (an autonomous Swedish-speaking region of Finland), for service between Stockholm and Mariehamn, Åland. The Stockholm-Mariehamn service was mainly used as a short overnight cruise, but initially she also had the capacity to carry 80 cars which made her a cruise ferry.

 

In 1999 she received a major refit at Lloyd Werft which significantly upgraded her public areas, added some new cabins, and eliminated her car capacity turning her into a pure cruise ship. She still ran on the Stockholm-Mariehamn service but now exclusively as a cruise ship.

 

In 2004, Birka introduced a new ship, BIRKA PARADISE and became a two-ship operation. (This was actually planned long ago - the ship that is now NCL's NORWEGIAN MAJESTY was supposed to be BIRKA QUEEN, a running-mate for BIRKA PRINCESS.) However, the market for short cruises on the Baltic has declined and as a result Birka decided to sell the older BIRKA PRINCESS and go back to a one-ship operation.

 

With their newfound near-monopoly from Piraeus, Louis clearly needed to upgrade their fleet, so this represented a perfect opportunity.

 

You can view lots of photos of BIRKA PRINCESS here... The page is in Swedish but the photos need no translation. To see interior photos, click on "Inredning 1", and then on "Nasta" at the bottom of each page to move to the next page.

 

While not a lavish vessel, she is much more modern than the other ships currently employed by Louis in Greece and, having been specially designed for short cruises, she should serve this purpose well.

[herb]

thank you so much for the link Doug! :)

 

Seems like a nice ship. Looking forward to hearing more about this ship. Interested in the accomodations offered as well.

[A Sixth?]

.....With their newfound near-monopoly from Piraeus, Louis clearly needed to upgrade their fleet, so this represented a perfect opportunity. ........

While not a lavish vessel, she is much more modern than the other ships currently employed by Louis in Greece and, having been specially designed for short cruises, she should serve this purpose well.

 

Thanks Doug!

 

What's the rumour then? Is she going to replace the Perla on 3 & 4 day Aegean cruises out of Athens? I could only buy a category guarantee for my cruise this May, they couldn't tell me what cabin or even deck I'd be on. Maybe this was because we'll be on the new (to them at least) BIRKA PRINCESS ?

[dougnewmanatsea]

Looking forward to hearing more about this ship.

Unfortunately, you probably won't hear much more for a while... Unless you speak Swedish ;) !

 

I saw her in Stockholm in August and she looked like she was in good shape externally, anyway.

 

Interested in the accomodations offered as well.

I believe they offer three types: small, smaller, and smallest ;) .

 

Seriously, do not expect large cabins on this ship (except maybe a few suites, I forget if she even has any). She was designed with the expectations that passengers wouldn't be spending more than one night in their cabins, therefore they will be very small.

 

The Birka web site used to have deck plans and photos but the Swedes are really on top of things - I went on their site the day they sold her and all the information about the ship (except a press release announcing her sale) was already gone. And of course Louis haven't got anything on her yet.

 

At the time I wrote my previous post, I didn't have the time to search The Internet Archive to see if the old Birka pages were there... Which I just did now. The good news is, they are. The bad news is, none of the images (deck plans, etc.) will load. So we're back where we started again!

 

So unfortunately I can't find much more information for now. If I do come across anything else, I will certainly post it here.

 

What's the rumour then? Is she going to replace the Perla on 3 & 4 day Aegean cruises out of Athens?

Apparently when she enters service, she will be operating 3- and 4-day cruises from Piraeus, but I do not know whether she will be replacing PERLA.

 

As I recall, last year they used as many as three ships - PERLA, CORAL, and CALYPSO - on this route. Right now the Louis web site only lists PERLA doing cruises from Piraeus in 2006. I know CORAL and CALYPSO are both being deployed elsewhere so it is possible that BIRKA PRINCESS (which is larger than the present ships) might replace these two and run alongside PERLA.

 

At any rate this is just speculation at the moment, I have not heard anything other than she will be doing 3- and 4-day cruises from Piraeus. That's as far as it goes.

 

I could only buy a category guarantee for my cruise this May, they couldn't tell me what cabin or even deck I'd be on.

I imagine they did not know at the time what ship they would be using. I doubt they already knew they were buying BIRKA PRINCESS, though they may well have already been negotiating for her.

 

It is important to realize that they have a tendency to move ships between routes in order to satisfy the level of demand at any particular moment... It may be that they do not want to assign cabins because they simply do not know which ship they will be using. This is also the way Royal Olympic worked, and before them, Epirotiki... Moving ships around was very commonplace. It is just the way it works in this particular market.

 

At this point, in February, it is really very difficult to know what ship will be operating a given departure sometime in the summer... Given their past track record I would say that there is a fair chance that you might not wind up on PERLA even though that is what you booked. And that would be the case even if they had not bought a new ship.

[A Sixth?]

Thanks for the input Doug.

 

I'm not a picky guy, and choose the Louis guys despite their 2 star reputation and older boats because:

 

A) I'm in Greece for free (won a trip!) so why not add a cruise

B) The itinerary looked neat

C) They leave and return to the same port (Athens)

D) They're relatively cheap

E) I don't expect too much from the ship (which ever it turns out to be), just the islands, so can't be disappointed!

 

I'll let everyone know how it went when I get back in mid June

 

Don

[suziern]

Thanks, Doug, for the information. We are supposed to be going on the Perla through Friendly Planet Travel's Athens and Greek Island Tour May 24th. I would be interested to know when the Birka Princess will start running for them. If you find out any timeframes, please let us know. We will be doing a 3 night itinerary.

[dgk_kos]

I think that Louis will use the PERLA for the seven day cruises from Pireaus and the BIRKA PRINCESS for the three and four day cruises.

The reason is that with the BIRKA PRINCESS capacity of 1500 passengers, they will have the same capacity as they had last year when they used two ships, the PERLA and CALYPSO.

Before the purchase of BIRKA PRINCESS they told me that they may use the SERENADE on seven day cruises as they did by the end of last season with very bad reviews because SERANADE was not at a good condition.

So LOUIS will probably have the following:

PERLA on 7 day cruises from Pireaus

BIRKA PRINCESS on 3 & 4 day cruise from Pireaus

CORAL on 7 day cruises from Genova

CALYPSO on 10 & 11 day cruises from Dover

SAPPHIRE on 10 & 11 day cruises from Genova

SERENADE and AUSONIA from Cyprus.

[A Sixth?]

I think that Louis will use the PERLA for the seven day cruises from Pireaus and the BIRKA PRINCESS for the three and four day cruises......

 

Well that's great! I'm on one of those four day cruises, and looking forward to it no matter what boat I sail. But it would be nice to be on the newer Brisk Princess for sure!

 

I see that you're on Kos. maybe you can answer a question I asked on the "Europe" CC section. Here's the question just as I posted it.:

 

Greek ferry boats. Anyone knowledgeable on the seat differences?

 

I am looking at extending my Greece trip and after a four day cruise, doing the ferry boat routes between islands, but am confused between the different classes of seat and cabin fares they offer.

 

Anyone "been there - done that" and care to try to unravel the differences between "AIR SEATS LOUNG1,2.3,4,5" type tickets, Economy, business class, and cabins.

 

Also dgk_kos, what Islands would you recommend I visit when I'm spending my final week after the Louis cruise ends on Friday morning, ferrying around from Island to island so that I can be back to fly out of Athens Saturday morning, eight days later.

 

Don