Easy Cruise or Cheesy Cruise?

Last summer, my mum, sister and aunt came to visit. Since they took the 15 hours flight to Europe, I decided we should get out of little Denmark and see more.

My mum hinted on a cruise. But everytime I think about cruising, I think about lots of old people in a big ship or lots of sleezy love affairs like on the Love Boat. Not that I have a problem with the latter but that, combined with mum on board simply will not work.

After some good hours of googling, I found a small cruise called easyCruise. What attracted me to them was the concept that the ship is smaller and the price range means that younger people can afford it. In addition, the ship docks in a new island on the Aegean sea every morning after breakfast and travel when the guests are sleeping. Guests have the whole day and night on each island.

The ship was to leave the Piraeus port in Athens and then cover Kalymnos, Bodrum, Kos, Paros, Delos, Mykonos and Syros during the 7 days cruise. I have a fascination with Greece. That made this cruise even more attractive to me.

We flew from Copenhagen into Athens. We had 2 hours to get from the airport to the port.

The directions at the port, on how to get on board the ship, were very poor.

We were asked to hurry to the bus which took us to the ship. There, we were asked to turn back to check-in. I started to get nervous that that was how the organisation of the cruise was to be. Kept this to myself to not get my mum into a panic.

We were shown to our cabin which was very basic but had its own bathroom. We always had hot showers and the cleaning service was good. We also opted for a cabin with a window. It was small and as we came to find out, we did not need it since we hardly spent time in the cabin.

The cruise ship was relatively small but neat. There is a small pool which is not conducive if one intends to swim. The two open jacuzzi on the top deck were more popular.

When we were on board, we went to have a drink at the top deck. The ship left the port and the cruise started! We watched the sunset from the deck and wondered what to do for the evening. I had never went on a cruise before! We had dinner and spent the rest of the evening checking out the ship. There was an orientation session conducted by the host. That was a good chance to say Hello to some of the other cruisers. Some were couples and a few young families. And then some students. Overall, a good mix of people.

We also had the choice of whether to sign up for guided excursions on the greek islands or to go about on our own. I opted for the first since I didn't want to spend time organising. :-)

After a good night's sleep, we woke up when there was an announcement on the speakers. We had arrived in Kalymnos. It has about 16,000 residents and is one of the wealthiest of the Greek islands. Known for sponge diving, Kalymnos is a tourist favourite in the summer months.

Our excursion was centered around Pothia, the capital of the island. The first destination of the excursion was Agios Savvas Monastery. The monastry is located on a hill with a nice view over the port. It is dedicated to the patron saint of Kalymnos, Savvas The New.

For a panoromic view of Agios Savvas, click here.