Day 19 - Saturday 12th September (Part B) - Summary of our boat cruise

Suzy had been planning to go on a cruise of the Greek islands for more than 20 years and this was supposed to be the culmination of those dreams. In the last few months, she had investigated various options including different cruise operators and different groups of islands.

At some stage, she came across a company that cruises the Cyclades Islands (on the south-east side of Greece) in an old-fashioned timber yacht. This seemed very attractive except that there was some doubt about whether the cruise would go ahead because of strong winds in that area at the time of year we had planned to go.

So she investigated their cruise in the Ionian Islands (on the south-west of Greece) because there was more chance that such a cruise would run during that time period. The brochures looked promising and so we booked it - for what was supposed to be the cruise of a lifetime.

What we got was a big disappointment despite the fact that we got to see some of the islands in the Ionian area. The cruise operators had promised to take us to seven different islands with swim stops along the way.

In the end, we got to less than half of these islands and they did not fulfil many other promises they had made. These included minor promises such as an onboard safe to store our passports and lessons every day to teach us the Greek language.

The cabins were totally inadequate. How could you describe a bed that is 116cm wide as a double bed - let alone expect two people to sleep in it. The remainder of the cabin was not big enough for two people to get dressed at the same time. The ensuite bathroom was miniscule. Not to mention the third-world Greek procedures for onboard toilets.

Apparently the boat had broken down the previous week and had been stranded at one of the islands for several days. Why did they continue with our cruise and why didn't they find another boat that wasn't going to break down repeatedly?

What we got was something ressembling Fawlty Towers:

• Basil Fawlty was represented by our captain who stumbled from one crisis to the next while abusing his staff (verbally). The captain gave us very little information about what was going on (announcements consisted of just two or three sentences). He smiled nicely for us but screamed at his crew on the deck or at the table next to us in the dining room (very unprofesional). In defence of Basil Fawlty (being an Englishman), he would have been much more polite.
• Our cruise director took on the role of Manuel - bumbling from one incompetent crisis to the next with no understanding of how to relate to his paying customers.
• Polly was represented by several attractive young ladies who did their best to look after us in the midst of the mayhem happening around us.
• There was no Sybil unfortunately to bring some order and sanity to the situation.
• We were the unwitting hotel guests (as in Fawlty Towers) to the drama around us. However this episode of Fawlty Towers wasn't just 30 minutes, it lasted for a week.

Our reaction to the crew changed as the week progressed. There were three stages:

• Bemusement about the behaviour of our hosts. Were these people for real or were they just weird or perhaps it was just a cultural difference?
• Anger at the series of blunders and their ongoing incompetence.
• Rolling-on-the-floor hysteria (or in this case, rolling-on-the-deck hysteria) at every subsequent blunder or inappropriate response. This was more like an audience reaction to Fawlty Towers.

In the end, we did manage to have a good week despite the cruise operators and their Fawlty Towers crew. Partly because of the people we met onboard from all over the world and partly because of the magnificent beauty of this part of the world.

Our travel agent tells us that the cruise operator has offered to refund part of the cost of the cruise. The travel agent thinks we should get a full refund. We are waiting to see how this develops.