Hop In Sightseeing - Epirotiki Cruises, Hydraiki Naval Company, And Pleasure Cruises
Misleading advertising in its day cruise brochures Attica

International tourists visiting Athens for the Olympic Games, may be tempted to squeeze in a day cruise around some of the nearby Greek islands. I did just that, selecting a cruise from a brochure provided by my hotel. The tour company was called Hop In Sightseeing (www.hopin.com) whose marketing slogan is More than you expect.

I'd suggest A lot less than you expect' would be more appropriate!

The cruise I chose was to Aegina, Poros and Hydra. The price was 95 euros per person which was a special August price', an increase of 15 euros on the usual 80 euros for the Olympic Games (that was nothing compared to the profiteering gong on across Athens for the Games but that's another story).

The brochure showed a luxury cruise ship with a photograph of a couple relaxing on deck in sun lounges. On arrival at the port I found the boat much smaller and older than the one on the brochure, and there were definitely no sun lounges on any of the two outside decks on which to relax. My guess was that there were about 600 passengers on the boat. It would be an exaggeration to say they were packed in like sardines, but there wasn't a lot of room to move. Anyhow, that's not my gripe with this cruise I would have been happy to put up with the slightly cramped conditions and old boat if the tour company had delivered what they advertised in their brochure.

The brochure stated that the boat would leave at 8.15 am, return at 7.00 pm and have approximately two and half hours ashore on each of the three islands. It actually left at 8.30 am, returned at 5.40 pm, and we had 45 minutes on Hydra, 10 minutes on Poros, and one hour and 15 minutes on Aegina (the least interesting of the three islands).

The brochure also said the cruise included swimming, entertainment and lunch. Well, if you count a man dressing up as a Greek cleaning lady and playing a violin with a feather duster as entertainment, then I suppose you could say the tour company delivered on two out of three (but note the brochure only says lunch that doesn't mean you get anything to drink with lunch if you want water or coffee you have to pay extra). I'd taken a change of clothes to enjoy a swim, given that the brochure had advertised swimming, but unless I was expected to jump off the dockside in one of the harbours where we were berthed, there was nowhere that passengers could have swam.

When I first boarded the boat in Piraeus (Athen's port) I was given another brochure describing the cruise in more detail.in that brochure it said of Poros: During the free time in the port, you will be able to enjoy a walk through the narrow streets and up to the highest point for a panoramic view from the clock tower. I would suggest that be amended to read: During the free time in port, if you run through the narrow streets and up the steps to the clock tower at the highest point, you may just make it back to the boat in ten minutes if you don't have a heart attack in the heat on the way.

We arrived in Poros at 1.25 pm and many passengers thought the announcement on the crackly PA system was telling them to be back at the boat at 25 minutes past two o'clock.in fact, the announcement was telling them to be back at 25 minutes TO two o'clock. The many empty seats at the second sitting of lunch was evidence of the number of passengers who got left behind. One elderly American passenger was panicking because his friends had been left behind on Poros and he couldn't remember the name of the hotel that they were staying at in Athens!

On the way back to Athens, I complained to the purser about the short time spent on each island. Her response was that the schedule was set by the Olympic Games. I asked what the Olympic Games had to do with a cruise schedule, and she just shrugged her shoulders.

The next day I phoned the tour company to complain. They told me that they only acted as an agent for the cruise company, so any changes in schedule were not their responsibility, and suggested I call the cruise company. However, the brochure provided by the cruise company conveniently did not list their telephone number. It had three names printed on it Epirotiki Cruises, Hydraiki Naval Company, and Pleasure Cruises. I could have made the effort to look up their phone numbers on the Internet, but at that stage I'd lost interest in complaining anymore. I was tired of being ripped off left, right and centre in the week I'd been in Athens, and was just looking forward to getting out of the place.

I shall end on a positive note though. I enjoyed my visit to Hydra - all 45 minutes of it! It looked a very interesting place and I wish I had had more time to explore its colourful backstreets and relax in one of its harbourside cafes. My advice to anyone who has a day to spare whilst in Athens, and would like to see something of the nearby islands, would be to take a ferry or hydrofoil direct to Hydra, spend the day there, and then take a ferry or hydrofoil back to Athens. The ferries take two and a half to three and a half hours each way, depending on which other islands they stop off at on the way (and you will see as much of them as you do on a day cruise), whilst the direct hydrofoils do the trip in about one and a half hours each way. There's not much to see on Poros or Aegina that you can't see at Hydra, and Hydra is more relaxing to walk around because there are no cars on the island (only donkeys). You'll find that the cost of the ferry or hydrofoil tickets and lunch in Hydra to be a lot less than the cruise I went on and you'll have a much more enjoyable and rewarding day.

David
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

Company: Hop In Sightseeing - Epirotiki Cruises, Hydraiki Naval Company, And Pleasure Cruises
Country: Greece
City: Athens

  <     >