The Athens Port Authority requires any guest that did not embark the yacht in Greece to disembark and meet with Passport Control officers at 7am in the port terminal in Piraeus. That means our disembarkation day starts with a 4:40am alarm so that we have time to take showers and have breakfast before disembarkation.

The crew prepared a full breakfast buffet for us that opened at 6:30am and we had plenty of time to enjoy breakfast before finally saying goodbye to Emerald Kaia. We walked down the gangway and into the port terminal where we met with Immigration officers. The whole process went smoothly and soon we were being escorted through the terminal and out to our motor coach for the drive to the Athens airport.

Rickee and I had prepared ourselves for a very long and miserable day standing in line at the Athens airport based on a previous experience after disembarking a Silversea cruise. On that cruise, we stood in line at the airport for more than two hours just to get to the ticket counter.

Today was just the opposite. When we arrived at the Delta ticket counter to check in for our flight to Boston, we were the first in line. This most likely happened because we were there at 8:15am for a 1:15pm flight! We had booked in Delta Comfort+, which is Economy class with a little extra legroom. We were hoping for an opportunity to upgrade to Delta Premium Select, which is their version of Premium Economy, offering larger seats, better dining options and more legroom. When we asked the ticket counter agent if any upgrades were available, she told us that she had two seats in Premium Select, but that the seats were not together. But, she mentioned that she also had two seats in Delta One (first/business class). What’s weird is the cost to upgrade to the Delta One seats was less than the upgrade for Premium Select! And the cost to upgrade was a fraction of what the seats normally sell for. I could not get my credit card out fast enough!

Our Delta One upgraded seats got us access to the Swissport Lounge, which Delta contracts with in Athens. The lounge was a bit of a disappointment, but it was practically empty when we arrived and certainly better than spending three hours in Gen Pop at the Athens airport.

We boarded our flight on time at 1:15pm. The Delta One “suites” were comfortable and roomy with an 18” entertainment screen, a fully-reclining seat that makes into a lay-flat bed, mattress pad, duvet, pillow and a sliding door for additional privacy. We had two meal services, which were good, not great. The flight attendant service also was good, not great. Still, is was a much more comfortable experience than we would have had back in the catacombs of Economy class. My biggest complaint was with the complimentary WiFi, which I struggled with. I was only able to get it to work for about 2 hours out of the 10-hour flight. The IFE system was good with a decent selection of movies and TV shows, but no Live TV broadcasts.

*Delta One “Suite” on ATH-BOS A330-200 Neo*

Our flight landed in Boston a little ahead os schedule, around 5pm Boston time. We had two hours to cleat Customs, recheck our luggage, go through Security again, and make our connection to the next flight to Dallas-Ft. Worth. This flight was on a smaller Airbus A220 and, to our surprise, was not even half full. I cannot remember the last time we were on a flight with so few passengers. Once again, we booked Delta Comfort+ so we could have exit row seats with more legroom. Both exit rows were completely empty so I had a whole row to myself with no seat in front of me.

This flight departed Boston Logan on time and was a very smooth flight right up until we were about to land at DFW. A major storm system had moved over the airport and, for a period of time, the Captain said we might have to divert to Austin. ATC wanted him to stay in a holding pattern until the storm passed, but the aircraft did not have enough fuel for that.

ATC finally instructed him to land at DFW, albeit about 45 minutes later than scheduled. When we landed, there was heavy rain and serious lightning in the area. That meant our plane ended up sitting on the tarmac for over an hour waiting for the ground crew and baggage handlers to be able to get back to work. We did not get to our house until after midnight. Needless to say, we were exhausted.

This was a great adventure and we really enjoyed our time on Emerald Kaia. Watch our YouTube channel for a full review of the yacht coming soon.

Day 6 - Disembarkation

Day 5 - At Sea