Our recent cruise actually started with a flight from Heathrow to Athens via British Airways. We were offered a couple of flights which were not direct but this was not an option we wanted to take. Fortunately there was an option to go from London Heathrow direct, and at very reasonable times. Although this means that we had to drive down to stay overnight at the Comfort Hotel, (where they offer cruise-parking and have a regular shuttle bus service to the airport) this is preferable to flying to Paris or elsewhere to catch a connection. The hotel also offer to print Boarding Cards for anyone checking in online, but if you take advantage of that you perhaps need to check that the whole of the barcode is printed (ours wasn't, but the very nice Bag Drop man just printed us a new ones, with no charge).

It had been a while since we flew with BA, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised. We had a surprising good complementary meal, with wine to go with it and other drinks were also available. The seats we had were very comfortable, although we did pay the extra cost to select our seats early. Our flight was delayed by almost an hour, but we seemed to make up most of this and we arrived in Athens only a little later than we expected. We were met very efficiently by the Azamara staff, who accompanied us to our waiting coaches and we were soon on our way.

We stayed at the Hilton Hotel in Athens and had dinner on the rooftop garden terrace Galaxy Restaurant, which we booked online before we left home. Even though we felt that the food and drinks were expensive, it did set the holiday mood as we ate our meal looking out over Athens and the Acropolis. Read more