A new bridge allows you to glide gracefully in an unhurried manner, above and across the traffic fighting itself around the port of Piraeus (Pireos) - Athens’s port – as you cross from the Metro suburban railway station to the port enclosure.

You can arrive less shaken and stirred, the readier to relax on your ferry to the island of your choice.
Gone and banished is the need to steel yourself to sprinting with hefty luggage, in front of aggressive drivers bent on casting you aside as they race around the port while you humbly, try to cross the road.

The new bridge, complete with elevators (“lifts” for the Queen’s subjects) spans the main road from the Metro station to the port area.

Starting by at least June 17 this year, a new “Flying Dolphin” mega-sized Catamaran will come into service offering a 4.5 hour travel time from Chania to Piraeus and vice versa. This is a new route for Hellas Flying Dolphins.

Planned schedule is:

Piraeus-Chania departure at 15.45 hours, arriving Chania at 20.15 hours
Chania-Piraeus departure at 20.45 hours, arriving Piraeus at 01.15 hours (why couldn’t it be at a more civilized time of day, I ask? )

But look at the improvements, the coming of age of travel in Greece…..decent travel times ( and judging by the similar services already existing….higher standards of service).

There will be Economy, Business and VIP class (sign me up for VIP now…) sections.

The daily sailings will accommodate over 800 passengers and 150+ cars.

Prices have not been announced yet…

Check at www.dolphins.gr or our friends at www.ferries.gr in a week or two, for prices.

Of course the guide to Crete http://www.cretetravel.com will have more info as soon as we receive it…or prize it out of Hellas Flying Dolphins! Hi boys…!

We travelled on the Blue Star 2 ferry on Friday, July 2.

First impression: it is a new ship, with good, clean, air conditioned areas and nice cafe/restaurants.
BUSY! the Economy class was crowded, which meant that those “air-seats” (pullman seats) were all occupied very quickly. Very soon the rest of the seating areas (including cafes and restaurants) were all full.
The partly-covered deck on the top floor was unappealing and very hot (sailing was at 16:00).

We changed to a cabin (after a long wait at the reception desk – only 1 person serving the many poeple who had requests for cabins), which was of course much more comfortable.
Tip: If you are sailing at a non-busy time (outside July/August and weekends), you might be fine without a cabin – otherwise, it is strongly recommended.

If you can travel at a quieter time, do so; you will also be able to enjoy the sea voyage more. E.g. the cafes have wonderful floor-to-ceiling windows that frame the sea views and we would have enjoyed sitting and gazing at the view, or reading a book during the trip.
But on this trip, everything was full, a little too smoky and the TVs (as on all ships) in the corners were too loud.

The cabins are clean and comfortable, without being exceptional.

The food on the ferry offered a decent variety, an a la carte restaurant, as well as a self service restaurant and snack bars. Drinks and snacks tried were good.
[Note: the price for a small bottle of mineral water was 0.50 euros on the boat, equal to the indicated price on the bottle. There has been a government campaign to keep prices down and it appears to be working. The price is the same as in shops/kiosks in Syntagma and around the Acropolis]

The disembarkation process left something to be desired.
Tip: ignore the calls to surrender your cabin key early and don’t move from your seat too soon. There is a long queue as people start moving towards the reception and exits.
You\’d be better off waiting and be one of the last to disembark, if you don’t want to stand crammed in corridors for half and hour (or more).

Blue Star vs ANEK?
If the Venizelos ferry was still running this route, we would prefer it for style, atmosphere and service.
But the other ANEK ships are old… so we would opt for Blue Star but:
-take a cabin (with window preferably)
-board EARLY
-disembark LATE