The last of our Trifecta of Fall 2022 trips. This cruise, was paid for partially with left-over perks from Covid cancellations. Due to our up-coming work projects, we had to bunch all our trips into a 5 weeks span.

Because we were flying into Athens, Greece, we had to have a Covid test. We like doing the virtual test over the computer. Once that was out of the way, we headed to the airport. We ran into a friend who is now a pilot…small world. It would be a 38 hour journey to catch our cruise ship, but since we were flying on points, we were okay, with the long lay-overs.

We had a 4 hour lay-over in Dallas and then a 9 hour flight to London. We grabbed some snacks in Dallas and then were given a late dinner on the plane…we are truly motivated by food!!

It was a red-eye flight to London and we passed the time, sleeping, watching movies, and watching our progress.

We were given breakfast before we landed in London and then had to take a shuttle to the terminal.

It was a 6 hour lay-over in London, so we found the Harry Potter store and did some Christmas shopping.

We had a late flight leaving London, arriving in Athens, Greece at 2:00am. We stayed in the secure baggage claim area until 6:00am, when we moved into the foyer of the airport.

We found “breakfast”, checked in with the cruise shuttle and waited…

After 38 hours, we were ecstatic to be at the cruise port!!

The Cruise line, NCL, will always ask if you want to make an offer on unsold balcony cabins. We are cheap travelers so we have never had a balcony. This time, Jim offered the minimum price ($125 USD) and it was accepted. We got our first ever balcony cabin!!! It only took 28 cruises…lol. While we were waiting to leave the port, we watched the ship traffic.

It had been an adventure, just getting to Athens. It was nice to have a few hours to relax.

An awesome sunset is a great way to start a cruise.

Our week was jammed packed, with not much time for lounging, so much to see and do…can you say excited!!