November 5 06:00
From Chania in Crete,
Arrive at Piraeus Port in Athens by night ferry
I have a romantic imagination about taking a boat. The Nile cruise and the Bosphorus steamship really confirmed the atmosphere of the novels I had read or imagined. The night ferry from Athens to Crete is probably just a ferry.
Although I bought a ticket from the ANEK LINES company, I was arranged to take the BLUE STAR company for the night flight from Chania to Athens. It is said that due to the arrival of the off-season, the number of passengers has decreased, so the two major shipping companies have merged their passenger resources. Today they will take your ship and tomorrow they will take my ship.
(Dark real scene, please forgive me for not editing the picture...)
The night boat we took from Athens to Heraklion was owned by ANEK LINES. Overall, the boat felt relatively new. There were escalators for getting on and off the boat. The reception lobby and cockpit were very bright and comfortable. There is a direct elevator from the lobby reception level on the 7th floor to the 9th floor where our cabin is located, so there is no need to worry about carrying luggage up and down the stairs. But the cabin is small, and it will be very crowded if the two suitcases are spread out. The two beds are about the size of a massage bed. There is a bedside table and a dresser. Although the bathroom is small, the layout and accessories are complete, and the bath towels are dry and fresh.
From Chania to Athens, we were arranged to take the BLUE STAR ship.
In fact, at first, I probably thought Blue’s was the biggest and most established, and I originally wanted to book with them. But their web page is not easy to use and the information cannot be selected. Anek's website is very clear and the booking process is smooth.
From Blue's experience, I feel that his boat is older. Although it can't be seen from the outside, once you get inside, it feels less spacious than Anek's. There is an escalator going up. But after arriving upstream, you don't directly enter the reception hall. Instead, you need to walk through a long and narrow cabin corridor before walking to a small reception hall. Then, like Anek, after getting the cabin key, the waiter will help us carry our luggage and guide us to the cabin. There is a flight of stairs from the reception hall to the cabin, and there is no elevator. The area of the cabin is one-third and nearly one-half larger than Anek's (could this be the area saved from the public area?) The bathroom layout is similar, and the bed sheets and bath towels are also dry and fresh. However, the bedside table and dresser in the room are relatively old. There are only two plugs, one of which is broken.
Another bad experience of BLUE STAR is that when we arrived in Hong Kong early the next morning, an announcement was made to urge people to get off the ship to the reception hall, but they were not allowed to disembark for a long time, causing a crowd of people to crowd into the reception hall. and stairwell. What's worse is that the down escalator doesn't open, so many floors of stairs! So many people! So much luggage! ...Let the passengers carry such heavy loads downstairs one by one!
The two of us waited until the others were almost gone before carrying our luggage and heading down step by step. It's about five or six floors up, carrying a big suitcase, it's so overwhelming, my arm has been hurting for two days!
Speaking of service, when we got to the last flight of stairs, the guy in blue uniform standing at the exit of the ship probably looked up and saw me, a little girl carrying a big box with a look of despair, walking three steps at a time. He ran up and took my box. Although the previous experience was not very good, I should still be grateful in the end.
Maybe there are not many domestic tourists going to Crete, and there is very little Chinese transportation information on the Internet. Generally speaking, when traveling from Athens to Crete, I still recommend taking the night boat. Arrive at night and arrive in the morning, which not only saves time but also makes it easier to arrange your itinerary. And the hull is large, so I can sleep peacefully at night.
In addition, I prefer the ship of ANEK LINES. In addition to the above reasons, it is also because when arriving at the port of Heraklion in Crete from Athens, you can see the morning light of the harbor from the deck, which is really intoxicating!