Embarkation Day - Pacific Princess - Piraeus, Greece

November 15, 2011
Fotis has sent a colleague, Chris to pick us up from the Hotel Apollo and deposit us at the ship. He has a private tour to Delphi which of course pays him more money than our small E30 transport, so we are happy he has a full day ahead. He has instructed Chris to call him so he can talk with Tony and wish us bon voyage and thank me again for the referrals I had sent for fellow passengers to use him for touring and transport. We have promised to let him know what day next year we will be in Athens so he can take us to Delphi for the day. I will post on the Cruise Critic boards and see if we can fill a few 17 passenger buses for him and his colleagues.

The weather today is a little clearer than yesterday. There are small patches of blue sky trying to peep thru all the clouds, and it looks as if it wouldn’t take much coaxing to make the rain start in earnest again.
The trip from Athens to Pireaus is uneventful except for the really cute shoes I spotted in a store window. Chris offered to park so I could shop but Tony was quick to refuse and “thank” him for offering. Dominick chimed in with the fact that I had lots of shoes already, but I explained that a girl can never have too many shoes. And I quoted him Eleanor Roosevelt who is credited with saying, “Give a girl the right pair of shoes and she can conquer the world.” Don’t cha’ just love it?
Our arrival is timed for around noon and we are able to get through check-in and drop off our totes in the room and head for the dining room by about 1:15. Princess has begun closing the dining room for lunch on all port days to save money so we will take advantage of today because on this leg we will only have three sea days that they will actually serve a dining room
lunch. The rest of the time we will be forced to use the buffet or to eat in port. We are not great fans of the buffet on any ship. Our attitude is, if we wanted to serve ourselves and jockey for position to do so we can do that at home.
This ship is set up differently than the larger Princess ships, with only one dining room, no open dining, and two fixed dinner seatings. We are in the first seating which begins at 6 pm. But before this we will start our unpacking, meet our cabin steward, tour the ship, attend muster drill, and
settle into our home for the next 31 days.
Our Stewardess is Milagros, from Philippines. She has worked the ships for 20 years and has been with Princess for 16. She has just returned from leave where she spent 3 months with her 4 year old granddaughter so we share stories and she is very pleased that we have brought Dominick for her to spoil.
Dominick has already drawn the attentions of passengers and crew alike and has had to explain his presence, his homework assignments, and the fact that he is traveling for 31 days at the age of 11. The little girls in the spa have embarrassed him with attention. Not that he didn’t love it but he was a little flushed at all the attention. He is very adaptable and interacts with adults easily, joking and showing his terrific sense of humor.

We are shown to our dinner table and get acquainted with our tablemates for at least the next 12 days. Klaus is a German living in Canada. He is very formal with his speech and seems to feel more comfortable talking with Tony and Dominick than with me. We learn he is an only child, has never married and has been left quite well off by his parents. He has homes in both Germany and Canada. He travels extensively and plans to spend all the money to keep the “government” from getting it. He is an engineer and we assume retired since he is quite a bit older than us. He wears his father’s shoes. I know this sounds crazy but it seems his father never wanted to travel and he worked very hard and made a lot of money and then died without ever having enjoyed the fruits of his labor. So Klaus wears his shoes when traveling and tells his father, “Okay, you have been here and here and here.” I think it is very sentimental of him. So he has won a place in my heart.

Our other companions are a couple from Australia. They are Lloyd and Cheryl. She is a year younger than us and he is a few years older. They have 5 daughters and are raising their 8 year old grandson. They are very outgoing and I know we will enjoy their company. However, they leave us in Rome since they have already been traveling for almost a month.
Our service staff are two young men from Philippines, Timothy is our waiter and Starskey is his assistant. We all make the instant connection but are told Hutch abandoned ship. They are instantly taken with Dominick or “Dom” as
they insist on calling him. They both make sure that he has all he wants as is typical of the Asian culture where children are indulged greatly.
　
We will arrive in Patmos first thing tomorrow and we have no specific plans. We will await the weather report before making our way ashore