Date: April 30, 2004
Cities: Pireas, Mykonos
We woke a little after 4:00 to leave at 5:55, slightly ahead of
schedule and before the Globus tour which was also headed to the MTS
Triton from Nafplio. Because ouf our early start, traffic was light and the trip was quick. We grabbed our luggage and said goodbye to Paris, and then we
went through the port security and boarded the ship. Jane had a little
tussle with a police officer about her film, finally winning when she conveyed
the idea that 1600 ISO film was indeed "special film," not to be X-rayed.
Triton's capacity is about 700, but Allan
heard someone say there were only about 500 aboard this trip. We had the
mandatory life jacket drill, ending in the lounge rather than the deck
by the lifeboats. We were uncertain whether that was supposed to inspire
confidence.
There was a buffet lunch by the pool at 11:45 after the drill, and
a sit-down lunch at 12:15. We went to the buffet, where they
had a very wide selection of good food. Afterwards Jane went and snoozed with the Elmira crowd on the top
deck while Allan joined Eirini, Heidi, and six others for lunch
(yes, again) in the dining room.
Allan says it is important to compare the options available before
deciding which is the best one. The dining room lunch had table
service, but there were fewer selections and the seating and feeding took
well over an hour. We discussed couples with different last names over
lunch. Greece makes it harder for a wife to take a husband's name
than not, lately.
After lunch, Allan went up to find the swimsuit clad college kids
packing in after sunbathing on the top deck, since the clouds had
rolled in. Jane was already asleep in our cabin. Allan lay on the top
deck for a while before heading down, where Jane caught him and
dragged him into the informational meeting for passengers.
The information person said that the ship frequently
arrived 30 minutes early in Mykonos, so Allan told everyone it was a
good idea to be in the lounge at 16:45 instead of 17:15 as originally
planned. We didn't dock until 17:15, but we were still running a
little early and we got to debark as the third group. Allan knew he'd
lost his credibility about times, but this was the time it mattered,
since we wanted to be back for dinner aboard ship.
For dinner we had buffet again, since it offered more options. The
next day we would have to do sit-down and we suspected there would be
toddlers present. No one from our group missed the boat, intentionally
or otherwise.
|