To sail or not to sail…how to cope with bad reviews
The phrase “a sinking feeling” is an ironic but fitting way to describe the emotions we felt reading the reviews of the Greek sailing trip we’d just booked. We’d resigned ourselves to watching our £200-pound deposit fall from our grasp like Leonardo de Caprio letting go of Kate Winslet’s hand at the end of Titanic and sinking to the murky depths. For us, though, it wasn’t the cold North Atlantic Ocean our loot was heading to it was the depths of the dreamy Ionian Sea.
As deeply experienced, canny travelers this was an embarrassing and basic error. We’ve learned over the years to read between the lines of “holiday experience reviews”. We know how to suss out the professional moaner/attention seeker and only use these observations as one small factor in our decision-making process. They are, however, useful indicators and for some unknown reason on this occasion we didn’t look at any. Imagine how stupid we felt when we read reviews including the following:
“Never use this company.” “We had a terrible experience.”
We tried and failed to get our deposit back and since this was our 30th wedding anniversary treat we decided to cut our losses. When you pay for a holiday a big chunk of that money is spent on the excitement and anticipation leading up to it and we were full of dread. Then the phone went. It was Theodorus and he explained that COVID had caused them extreme problems as the fleet was stuck in port for months (and like a car, boat engines are not designed to be idle) and all the maintenance companies went out of business so it was impossible to repair things. This meant they had to draft in replacement boats which were a much lower standard. He said the standard of the first few trips post COVID were far below the desired level but they had worked tirelessly to improve the situation. He was so confident we would not be disappointed that he offered for us to withhold payment until the day we boarded so we could see for ourselves the standard and quality.
We were hugely impressed he’d made to effort to call and in the end decided to go for it because his rationale made sense and I don’t like losing 200 quid. (I was born in Yorkshire). We decided to pay in full in advance and the total cost was just under £1,000. At this price we were not expecting an ultra-luxurious experience and the trip ended up exceeding our expectations.
Boat Trip itself
I’m not sure what the Greek is for “we call a spade a spade” but that was the opening vibe of this trip which I didn’t mind at all. We left Corfu Town on a small gullet which is a traditional wooden fishing boat. The cabins were “compact”, the itinerary was fun, the food was glorious and the multinational passengers were a delight to spend time with. In the opening briefing Captain Lampros didn’t shy away from reprimanding those passengers who were not paying attention and just talking amongst themselves., I didn’t in any way feel he was doing a PR job to get a big tip at the end of the trip…that came later! We are not seasoned or fussy cruisers so could cope with being the last to choose a cabin and happily accepted the fact that food would not be served at the table but passengers would help themselves.
Saturday – Corfu port overnight
Sunday – Corfu town to Blue Lagoon with a swim to a cave then an overnight stop at Sivota Beach on the Greek mainland. This is a pretty town with lots of shops with beautiful gift shops.
Monday – Sivota to Arilla Beach (swim stop) to Parga on mainland Greece. Our engineer saved a young crew with James Blunt at the helm from crashing their small hired yacht as they moored near the rocks and got in a tangle with their anchor. A water taxi took us from our boat into Parga.
Tuesday – Parga to Gaios on Paxos. Gaios is a pretty town with a channel like a river and a stony beach close to the centre of town. There are plenty of restaurants next to the water and lots of expensive looking yachts moored all along the front.
Wednesday – Gaios to Voutoumi on Antipaxos – We went ashore in a tender and into a big cave where people had left piles of the white stones. There was a beautiful sandy beach.
Then to Lakka on Paxos. We went ashore via tender for a stroll and a beer. Then back on board for Captain’s dinner consisting of beautiful seafood and salads.
Thursday Lakka to Plataria back on the Greek mainland. We moored on rocks but a gangplank gave access to shore. There is a sweeping port with a sandy beach. We watched a beautiful sunset with silhouettes of yachts making for spectacular photos.
Friday – Back to Corfu town with a swim stop en route at Lefkimi ready to disembark on the Saturday.
The Captain’s Table.
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I’m not a fan of the big cruise ships and scorn the Facebook “Smug Shots” of people onboard some monstrous vessel sipping cocktails. The classic photo of the family dressed to the nines thrilled at getting their shot at the captain’s table particularly amuses me. This “honour” has never been on my travelling bucket list. However, on our Greek adventure, I experienced an organic version of The Captain’s Table that turned out to be a revelation. Early on in our voyage we were having dinner at Sivota when along strolled our captain. He waved, sat down at our table for a chat and then ordered some food! It seemed he’d invited himself to dinner and we were delighted to find out more about our deadpan skipper. I learned about his wife and teenage daughter who he didn’t see from April to October. He gave us a stark insight into how one single complaint to the company he works for can make his life extremely difficult. The ratings passengers give at the end of a cruise can make or break someone’s career. The tips are a huge part of the crew’s final pay packet. Having heard all, I admired him even more for the fact that he was quite blunt at first with his passengers when he was imparting important information. As the days passed by, most of the passengers grew to understand and like his authentic personality!