Athens

[Shelley G]

I have noticed that on my Holy Land cruise on the Constellation departing on October 25th, that no excursions for Athens have yet been posted. With the terrible economic situation in Greece and all the demonstrations and civil unrest, do you suppose that Celebrity is thinking of cancelling Athens?

Shelley

[ariawoman]

I have noticed that on my Holy Land cruise on the Constellation departing on October 25th, that no excursions for Athens have yet been posted. With the terrible economic situation in Greece and all the demonstrations and civil unrest, do you suppose that Celebrity is thinking of cancelling Athens?

Shelley

 

Not sure, last I checked my 10/10 on Equinox had plenty of Athens tours listed. I didn't check yesterday/today however, so maybe it's changed.

[CathyCruises]

I am really hoping that they substitute Istanbul for Athens on our 11/4 cruise!! It was great to see the Acropolis but I could spend days in Istanbul despite having been there twice already.

[greeneg]

We have the same situation on our September 7 Constellation sailing from Amsterdam which stops in Athens, also no listed shore excursions ( last checked yesterday). It's been that way for a while, and while I suspect that the recent demonstrations don't help anything, my take is that the Greek Economy is so unstable that X just hasn't been able to work anything out with the locals.

 

Perhaps we'll get lucky and they'll substitute Ephesus or Santorini for Athens.

[celebritydave]

I have an Azamara cruise that ends in Athens and we were planning on spending a few days there before flying out. The cruise isn't until November, so I hope things settle down before then.

 

Athens is on my bucket list, so I would hate to miss it. I wonder what they would do for an alternate port to end the cruise at?

[Gonzo70]

I just checked Athens for the September 27, 2011 Holy Land cruise on Silhouette and there are 12 excursions currently showing as available. Definitely going to monitor the situation though.

[LJJQ]

We have been to Athens twice and there were demonstrations downtown but never restricted our touring. We used the ships tour and also used the Greek taxi . We had a wonderful time with the Greek Taxi We went all over Athens and he took us to great place to eat. Would use him again!

 

 

http://www.*************

[Loracpin2]

We're on the November 7 Equinox. Having been to Athens twice, I'd be very happy if Celebrity substituted Piraeus with Santorini, Mykonos or Rhodes. But I'm very sure that those who have never been to Athens, would be very disappointed.

[tty206]

We are on the July 8 equinox sailing and all of the Athens shore excursions are still listed on the Celebrity website

[Azulann]

We have booked a ship tour for Athens on our Equinox med cruise for Sept, 2011. so far everything is a go.

[Presto2]

We haven't heard much about the unrest in Athens at all and on our newspaper web sites I had to hunt for news of unrest. :confused::confused:

 

How things are at the minute in Europe I think you could find unrest and riots everywhere in any country and at any time -------------- don't worry too much about Athens. Its the home of democracy ..................:rolleyes:

[Dr. Pam]

We are on the July 8 equinox sailing and all of the Athens shore excursions are still listed on the Celebrity website

 

We, as well are on this sailing aboard the Equinox in July. I AM CONCERNED...i just finished watching some BBC clips and CNN Europe clips and the situation in Greece is escalating. One British newscaster likened the country as not IF it topples over but WHEN! The austerity measures that were put in place last year were not fully addressed, the country still needs a cash infusion that must come from out of country banks that are already stuffed with Greece's IOU notes, the Greek people are protesting because they don't want to be squeezed anymore...I am very worried about the bigger picture for this country which may have a ripple effect on other countries like Portugal and Ireland. THis is serious scary. Our cruise is just a holiday.....I do not wish to enter a country when there is a chance of civil unrest. I hope that Celebrity watches these boards, because I for one would would rather forego Athens...even for a ship day than possibly be caught up in possible chaos just

to see some sites. Better safe than sorry!

[CathyCruises]

We haven't heard much about the unrest in Athens at all and on our newspaper web sites I had to hunt for news of unrest. :confused::confused:

 

How things are at the minute in Europe I think you could find unrest and riots everywhere in any country and at any time -------------- don't worry too much about Athens. Its the home of democracy ..................:rolleyes:

 

I am not sure where you live or how well you follow international news, no disparaging meant, but this is BIG news daily here in the states and especially as relates to financial news. Very hard to believe that it is not a well-known situation anywhere on the globe.

 

And it doesn't have anything to do with democracy, it has to do with MONEY!!!:eek:

[Minoushka]

WE are on SILHOUETTE in Aug and I have NO plans to go to Athens THe city is HIGHLY polluted and the poor Parthenon is YELLOw instead of its original white because of the VERY high pollution You can hardly breathe there the diesel stench is so strong!!!

If we go I'll hang around the ship or walk around the port If there is ANY sign of someting so-so I will not get off the ship

I do believe that CELEBRITY cannot change plans that quickly if there were a problem so I would expect a seaday

I too would have preferred a day in Istanbul but it cannot work out on this one as Athens is our second to last stop and we will have been to EPHESUS

 

If this keeps up Med Cruises are going to be even more restricted .....POOR WORLD is such a mess !!!

[CathyCruises]

That's not true. We were supposed to go to Tunis and Morocco on a Med cruise a few years ago and I got a call as we left the house that the itinerary had been changed because of some unrest at those ports. So they CAN change on short notice--and I am not sure why you couldn't go to Istanbul if you had been to Ephesus????

[Minoushka]

That's not true. We were supposed to go to Tunis and Morocco on a Med cruise a few years ago and I got a call as we left the house that the itinerary had been changed because of some unrest at those ports. So they CAN change on short notice--and I am not sure why you couldn't go to Istanbul if you had been to Ephesus????

 

we are going to Ephesus on our way to Israel and going back to Athens I believe it would be a big detour But hey if Celebrity can do it I'm all for it!!!

[CathyCruises]

I am not sure where you live or how well you follow international news, no disparaging meant, but this is BIG news daily here in the states and especially as relates to financial news. Very hard to believe that it is not a well-known situation anywhere on the globe.

 

And it doesn't have anything to do with democracy, it has to do with MONEY!!!:eek:

 

Case in point: this just popped up as one of the top news articles on MSNBC.com http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43427742/ns/business-world_business/ "Greek Debt Tsunami Could Reach US Shores"

[Shelley G]

I spoke to someone at Shore Ex today. She had no idea why the excursions for my cruise were not listed. She said she hadn't heard about any change in itinerary at this time. The crisis in Greece is big news here in Canada.

Shelley

[Clipper1021]

we are on the holy land tour 09/15 and booked our excursions in both Athens and Mykonos about 4-6 weeks ago.

I'm hoping things are good to go there--we have already lost EGYPT which is very disappointing for me:mad::( ESPECIALLY since Princess has reinstated it back in April!

I hope if they CAN'T go there they at least give us a NEW port--I don't want to stay longer in one of the ports (like they did to us for Egypt) and I don't want another sea day. we go all that way--I want to see lots of new places

[greeneg]

I spoke to someone at Shore Ex today. She had no idea why the excursions for my cruise were not listed. She said she hadn't heard about any change in itinerary at this time. The crisis in Greece is big news here in Canada.

Shelley

 

Usually the people who are most concerned ( in this Miami's Shore Excursions Office) are the last to know any decisions. This is called management.

 

It well be that the Cruise Line is expected to put some sort of deposit or the like down up front when the tours are reserved ( if you book them before sailing, remember that they collect them from you up front also), and the concern is that if the Greek Economy collapses totally, there will be no excursions and no refunds to the Cruise Line. Just speculation on my part, but it seems plausible to me.