Athens Acropolis Excursion: An Awe Inspiring Cruise Finale
Why are we in Athens?
Back in April, 2025 we traveled to Europe for the first time. Hesitant as we were to travel by land, figuring out transportation and hotels, we instead booked a cruise aboard the Celebrity Apex taking us from Barcelona, Spain, through the Strait of Gibraltar stopping in Lisbon and then Porto, Portugal, with one more stop in La Coruña, Spain before ending in Southampton England. In addition to those ports, we spent two amazing days touring Barcelona before boarding, and two more whirlwind days in London after disembarking. Everything we experienced is in our collection of Celebrity Apex Barcelona to Southampton (2025) trip reports.
Not long after we came home, a familiar itch to cruise Europe returned, and we began researching Celebrity’s 2026 itineraries. One particular sailing stood out: it departed Barcelona once again, this time sailing east with ports in Valletta (Malta), Kusadasi (Turkey), and the Greek islands of Mykonos and Santorini before ending in Piraeus (Athens). While we are all about the destinations, it was also incredibly cool that this cruise would be aboard Celebrity’s shiny new Edge-class ship, the Xcel, which had not yet launched when we booked. Who knew back then that the Xcel would be ready early and we’d have the opportunity to sail on her preview cruise – certainly not us.
Well we’ve just come back from that 2026 sailing from Barcelona to Athens, and this post is all about our Disembarkation Day and an Athens Acropolis excursion. If you haven’t already done so, check out our Mediterranean Cruise Sea Days trip report to read about Bora brunch, Bazaar festivals, trivia, and Captain Kirk’s Rock Show.
Disembarkation Day, An Internal Monologue
Sadness. We have to leave. We have to get off the ship and go to the airport and fly home. We have to get up really early, get off the ship and go to the airport and fly a million hours home.
Oh, wait. I missed something in between the whole get-off-the-ship and airport deal. What was it? Let’s take stock of the situation.
This is Athens. Well, actually it’s Piraeus, but Athens is like right over there <vaguely waves off to the right>, probably five miles away. So for all intents and purposes this is Athens. There’s stuff to see in Athens. Old stuff. Really old and pretty famous stuff. Stuff we learned about as kids.
Oh, right.
Let’s start again.
We have to get up really early, get off the ship for an excursion, and then go to the airport and fly a million hours home.
That excursion is going to bring us to the Acropolis. That Acropolis. The one with the Parthenon. Cool.
We still have to be up at 5:30 AM though. Yuck.
Disembarkation
We were up not-so-bright but early, with only an hour and a half before we’d need to meet at The Club for our final excursion. The ship was already docked, and almost ready to swap us for some shiny, new passengers heading back from whence we came (Barcelona).
Our luggage was already gone, having been snatched from outside our stateroom the night before and on its way to the Piraeus cruise terminal. The Seven Seas Splendor sat in port nearby, its passengers and crew likely going through the same ritual.
Because I needed me some breakfast and coffee to function, I solo’d the Oceanview Cafe for a light breakfast and coffee while Rona got ready. She would rely on granola bars and whatever coffee the airport would furnish later that day.
By 7 AM, we and our carry-ons stood in The Club awaiting our marching orders. The excursion we’d booked was called Destination Highlight: Acropolis Visit and Airport Transfer. This half-day tour would take us and all our bags from the cruise port to and around Athens before stopping at the Acropolis. After that, we’d be off to the airport.
We had bought the Athens Acropolis excursion 9 months before the sailing for $200 for both of us, and the price gradually and consistently increased from then on. It was available to guests who had a flight after 3 PM.
After a short wait, we were given our tour and bus number plus a numbered sticker to identify us once we stuck it on. One of the crew then led our group to the ship exit. We swiped our SeaPass card for the last time this sailing and headed down the gangway and into the cruise terminal. Immigration was quick, likely due to the excessive time spent at Barcelona airport getting our faces and fingerprints into the EES eight days prior.
Our bags would not automatically be brought to the bus — it was on us to fetch them from the baggage hall and wheel them all out to the bus. Fortunately, our bags were easy enough to find in the luggage lineup. The walk out of the cruise terminal and to our bus was easy enough and the bus driver loaded our bags.
We weren’t sure if we would have a guided tour at the Acropolis since the description did not mention it. However, our minds were quickly set at ease when our tour guide introduced herself to each of us as we boarded the bus and by 7:30 AM, the tour was on its way through Piraeus toward Athens.
Ancient Stuff in Athens
During the 45-minute drive to the Acropolis, our tour guide described how the entire excursion would be organized, especially during the Acropolis visit, where we would spend about two hours exploring. She also highlighted various landmarks we drove past and would do so again later on the journey to the airport.
Eventually the bus parked in a designated tourist bus lot and let us out. We followed our tour guide across the street and up a steady incline along a wide pathway to the ticketing area, where she secured the group’s admission. Once we were through the turnstiles, the climb became more pronounced, involving ancient, uneven marble steps.
And then there it all was. Led by our tour guide, we first looked down into the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a grand Roman stone theater.
We passed through the Beulé Gate and immediately saw the Temple of Athena Nike on the high cliff.
Next came the steep zig-zag climb toward and through the Propylaea columns to a flat summit.
And on that summit loomed the Parthenon, larger than life and right out of middle school social studies. Rona and I looked at each other with the same thought — we honestly could not believe we were here.
Off to the left (north) stood the Erechtheion. The southern porch of this ancient Greek temple has a striking feature. Its roof is supported, not by stone columns, but rather by six beautiful stone statues of women known as the Caryatids.
Our tour guide gave us some time to ourselves to wander about the Parthenon, which we did. A few selfies and photo exchanges with other tourists later, we found ourselves standing along the edge of Acropolis Hill on the south side of the Parthenon.
Down at the bottom of the hill was the Theatre of Dionysus, the birthplace of European theater and drama, where masterpieces from Sophocles and Euripides were performed over 2,400 years ago.
To the left of that were two massive, freestanding columns of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, with the actual temple completely hidden by a metal scaffolding tower, as part of a multi-year structural preservation and renovation.
We did return to the designated meet-up area at the Acropolis Viewing Point beside an area of raw, exposed limestone bedrock of Acropolis Hill. Apparently you’re not to climb on that limestone because, while we were waiting for everyone to meet, a woman emerged out of thin air blowing a whistle. She loudly shooed some teenagers off the bedrock, before withdrawing back to the ancient realm from whence she must have come.
Our tour regrouped and headed back out along the south side of the Parthenon, and ultimately back down off the Acropolis.
It had become far more crowded now, and having arrived as early as we did wound up being a really good thing. It felt somewhat crowded during our tour, but nothing like this. Though, there was a cat that did not seem to care.
Lines for the restrooms within the site had excessively snaked along the pedestrian paths, so our tour guide suggested restrooms in the parking lot where we’d meet the bus or some nearby cafes, in which you just had to buy a coffee. We opted for the tour bus parking lot restrooms, which were clean.
The tourist bus parking lot was pretty busy — the buses can only load and unload passengers and then have to vacate. So we had to wait a little for our ride, but it did return, and soon our group was traveling along some congested roads in Athens. As the tour description indicated, we did drive past all sorts of famous sites on the way to the Acropolis and on the way to the airport. The catch is that the bus doesn’t stop, so you only get a quick glimpse of the sights depending on which side you’re on.
Honestly, we didn’t care. For us, the Athens Acropolis excursion was all about the Parthenon and everything else on the Acropolis, as well as getting transportation to the airport.
Return Journey
The bus dropped us off at Athens International Airport departure doors around 11:30 AM. We’d have a whole lot of sitting-around-time since our nonstop flight home on Emirates was not for another six hours. Emirates was entirely new to us, but we did learn that in Athens they do not accept checked bags until three hours before departure. So, we would be dragging all our luggage around what turned out to be an insanely busy airport.
With much standing around and staring at a slightly incomprehensible airport map on my phone, we found a Starbucks tucked away and ordered Americanized caffeine and breakfast sandwiches. There was a tiny bit of space to sit, though not with much room for our luggage, so we stayed long enough to finish what we’d bought.
Eventually we found Cultivos Coffee fairly close to some security checkpoints. I forked over more money for more coffee and a bottle of water so we could camp out at one of the many available tables until it was closer to bag check time. The airport was total madness mid-day, especially near the security checkpoints, so I’m glad we found an out-of-the-way spot where our bags wouldn’t be in people’s way. The coffee was not Americanized here, but was good and strong.
Fast forward to after checking our bags and quickly going through security. We were funneled directly into the sprawling Hellenic Duty Free Shops area, and of course bought a bunch of Greek chocolate to bring home. More importantly, we needed real food, and found a place called Ergon Greek Cuisine.
Ergon has a table-service side, so we grabbed a seat and both of us ordered chicken souvlaki with french fries on pita, and a couple of crispy Coke Zeros in small glass bottles. Honestly? It was super tasty, easily our best meal of the day, though the bar was low. With a typical small European gratuity, this was $71 all in. Airport prices, huh?
We won’t add much else about the rest of the day, with an exception granted to Emirates. First, this flight was way cheaper than a morning nonstop flight on United. The price and time alone won our business. But the flight and service? Wow.
We had a nice 2-seat window configuration in the “way back” of this Boeing 777 for the 10 ½-hour flight. The seats were surprisingly comfortable, with decent legroom. The inflight entertainment system was insanely good, and the food… Wow. There were two main meals, with extremely large trays overflowing with an abundance of good food. Alcoholic beverages are included. The bathrooms had wood paneling. What? All you U.S.-based airlines should be ashamed.
And that’s it. We ate, we might have dozed. We read and watched all the movies and TV shows. We stowed our tray tables and returned our seatbacks to their upright and locked position. According to our watches, we somehow landed in New Jersey only 4 hours after we left Greece. Science!
Our two dogs were happy to see us.
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