October 30 – Athens, Greece
As I’m sure everyone can relate to, the cruise ends way too early. Disembarkation is uneventful other than the glitch that we could have embarked much earlier with our white luggage tags, but they failed to announce them. Oh well. Limo transfer to the Hotel Grande Bretagne is supplied by the hotel as yet another AMEX amenity. Luckily, we get there before the large rush of disembarking cruisers as a result of a number of cruise ships finishing up their cruse on the same day, and quickly check in. Another AMEX amenity upgrades us to a suite overlooking Syntagma Square.

The hotel has been completely restored with beautiful veneered wood doors opening into all the rooms of the hotel. Our suite was smaller by a fair amount than the one at the Hotel de Paris, but was furnished beautifully with crystal chandeliers in each room. My wife made me take photos as she fell in love with them and wants to furnish our bedroom with a similar one (another “whatever you want, sweetheart” moment). One quirky thing about the room is that you have to put your card in a slot in order to turn on any of the lights. Obviously, an energy saving approach, but I’m not used to having to expend mental energy in order to figure out how to turn on lights.

We spend part of the day walking around the area near the square. One treat is that we arrived on Sunday and were fortunate enough to see the pomp and circumstance of the Sunday changing of the guard along with a marching band that marched up to the Parliament Building. I felt a little embarrassed for the guards in their uniforms comprised of a foustanela (pleated skirt), and their sarouchi shoes with pom poms at the end. The hotel is located right smack dab in the center of the shopping district, but, since it was Sunday, all the stores were closed and my wife was unable to shop till she dropped (thank you, Lord).

After seeing what there was to see, we went back to the hotel room where my wife took a nap and I tried to watch TV, which wasn’t very easy. After about 15 minutes, I finally figured out how to get a TV channel to catch up on the news, but the TV kept shutting itself off about every 20 minutes. I’m starting to get worn out figuring out how to do the simplest things in our room.

We ate dinner that night at the GB grill, the hotel’s restaurant, again, complements of American Express. We started the meal with a half bottle of the 1990 Krug champagne. Wow! My wife is the champagne drinker in the household, but even I was impressed with this one. For the entrée, I splurged (and I mean, splurged) for a half bottle of 1999 Domaine de la Romanee Conti La Tache. This was infanticide, but it was a splurge, after all.


October 31 - Tour of the countryside
We awoke and went down for a full breakfast buffet, again complements of AMEX. Then on to a full day in Greece with George, the Famous Taxi Driver of Greece as our guide. I cannot say enough nice things about George. He is disarmingly charming and quite passionate and knowledgeable about all things Greece. The day turned very cool and overcast, but it did not stop us from touring a number of ruins peppered throughout the Greek countryside. We ate lunch in an interesting restaurant obviously built to accommodate the large numbers of tourists passing through during the height of tourist season, but very good nonetheless. Again, the house wine was nothing spectacular (a simple rosé) , but was perfect with the meal. One of the walls was filled up with celebrities including Jackie O and G.W. Bush, Sr.. George (the taxi driver, not GW) was full of stories about some of the folks he has limoed around including Linda Grey of Dallas fame (he said he was enchanted with her).

We discussed all things Greek, including wines, olive oil, and figs. After we had talked about all things olives, he took a detour to a small olive oil pressing coop and filled a one liter Seven Up bottle with freshly pressed, extra virgin olive oil. I’m talking extra, extra, extra here. Then, on the way back, he pulled over in a small town, knocked on the door of a wizened old man who had a fig tree in his front yard, and tore off a number of cuttings for me to take back with me ( I have a number of fig trees already, but nothing that produces figs of the size you see in the Mediterranean), which, amazingly enough, made it back through customs and are planted in my holding bed for planting out next spring as I write this. We will see if they survive the winter here.

We finished the daylong tour and were headed back to Athens when the rains that had been threatening all day long finally started coming down. In the end, not an inexpensive tour, but all in all, quite worth it. We will tour with George again someday, that’s for certain as there are a number of sites still to see in this beautiful country.

Neither of us were very hungry that evening, so we sat at the bar and had an evening cocktail with a very good selection of olives and nuts including pistachios covered with cumin powder and cashews, among others, gratis of the bar. Time to get back to food and wine reality. I am indeed coming back with several bottles of wine. As a result, this is a rather long winded essay as I remember more than I thought I would.

November 1 – Athens to Vicksburg
Another gratis breakfast buffet and then we took a limo to the airport for our flight back through JFK, Atlanta, and Jackson. The front of the bus is the only way to fly. A completely uneventful flight (other than my wife being addressed as “Yo, mama” numerous times by the international screener at JFK) and subsequent return to reality.

A few final thoughts.

1. American Express is a very, very good thing, saving us several thousand dollars overall and making the vacation a lot more enjoyable. We even received a Tiffany crystal plate as an additional thank you a few days ago.
2. Despite a few problems, Silversea provides one of the most enjoyable cruising experiences out there.
3. Private tours, although more expensive, are one of the best ways to experience the countryside.
4. Ask and you shall receive. As per an earlier post here at Cruise Critic, I talked to the onboard cruise something or other (I forget the official title) about receiving the 5% credit for previously booked future cruises. A week after getting back, our American Express account was credited $1220. Kudos, Silversea.
5. Stay away from Aniko if you are on the Silver Shadow.
6. Avoid Charles DeGaulle airport for any travel if at all possible.
7. Checking e-mail once a day is not cheap but neither is it outrageous.
8. Don’t buy a lot of French wine before a Mediterranean cruise.
9. I am continually amazed at how universal the English language has become.

ptero, great snapshot, thanks for taking the time...r/wes

Thanks for the review - we were at same hotel that Sunday and yes rooms were lovely and we had view over Parliament and saw the marching etc - we used amex points for the one night - I am guessing you booked through amex and received the limo transfer and b'fast?? Joanna

Thanks for the great post Pter..
We also have enjoyed Greece with Famous George at the wheel.
And great choice on the vino..
La Tache ...tres magnifique!

What a wonderful review - the wine sounded amazing. Thank you for all the details!

Masaki

PS: "Black Hawk Down" - a movie that Orlando Bloom has been in where he doesn't handle a sword (I'm pretty sure about that)

Joanna,

Yes, we booked through AMEX, although I am finding out it is not always a requirement to book through AMEX travel in order to receive many of the benefits. It is definitely not necessary to book the cruise through AMEX in order to get the free early embarkation, $500 onboard credit, and Dom Perignon. We have another Silversea cruise on December 6 from Singapore to Sydney that was booked through vacationstogo (at a %50 discount rather than the %30 stated on the Silversea website) and we will receive all the benefits.

The travel benefits are really quite amazing.

Thanks for the info - I get lazy about researching benefts so it is helpful for the reminder -

Just now reading your reviews. They were great. From the Voyager we could see your ship docked next to ours. I wish we had planned in advance to try to tour each other'ships either of those last 2 days, since we were in the same ports. Probably saw your group at Euphesus, but hard to tell one from another. I agree, I thought it was the highlight of the trip.
I think I need to take lessons from you on how to get all the benefits from the AMEX card. You really know how to work that thing!

Me too! We have AmEx cards (including Platinum) but we've never gotten all the perks you're getting. Tell us how....(good to know you don't have to use AmEx Travel in order to get them).

and tell us how to get around that once a year money back from them too ( without using Amex travel).. that would be nice!

pterostyrax, thanks so much for the wonderfully detailed review, I enjoyed it very much!

Those are some hefty perks with amex,The $500 shipboard credit usually applies to Amex Black Card Centurion members, which has a $2500.00 annual fee.

Frank

Frank - where've you been? Don't be a stranger. ;)

Masaki

Hello Masaki:

I just finished getting out of Rehab from 007
Drank way to much, but loved every minute of it, should be back in action now.

Talk to you soon

Frank

Cruiser



Hello Masaki:

I just finished getting out of Rehab from 007
Drank way to much, but loved every minute of it, should be back in action now.

Talk to you soon

Frank

Hi Frank.......

Hello Joanna:

Hope all is well

Frank

LOL! :)

Masaki

Sorry to take so long in replying to some of the questions, but we just got back from the Singapore to Sydney cruise aboard the Silver Shadow. More on the cruise later, but it was in most respects an almost perfect cruise. At least, it is hard to imagine a better one.

Regarding platinum AMEX amenities, breakfast is always included as part of the Fine Hotel and Resorts program, room upgrades upon availability at checkin for many hotels, and an extra amenity for many hotels that ranges from fruit to spa credits to free dinners (up to a certain allowance per person that varies with the hotel). Cruise amenities vary depending upon the cruiseline, but for Silversea include a $300 onboard ship credit and bottle of Dom Perignon.

Centurion extras include 2 nights for 1 at all Mandarin Oriental hotels, upgrades at time of booking for Mandarin Oriental, Ritz-Carlton, Peninsula, Orient Express, and most of the Aman hotels plus, for some hotels, an extra Centurion benefit ranging from spa credits to a complimentary lunch and/or dinner. Sometimes, several additional benefits are available. For example, the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans used to give a confirmed room upgrade at time of reservation, free lunch, free dinner, and free afternoon tea, which we have taken advantage of many times before Katrina and, hopefully, many times in the future.

As far as Centurion cruise benefits, as someone else mentioned the onboard credit is increased to $500 and either early or late embarkation is also thrown in (along with a 1996 Dom Perignon on our latest cruise as per the platinum benefit).

Hi Frank: Wish you'd say hi more often - I talk to Carla more than you - but that's ok too!!!! Joanna