Jayestravellingadventures

14th August 2025 – 21st August 2025.

I set off with my best friend (Amber) on a 7 night fly cruise from Malta. Our ports of call were; Santorini, Piraeus, Souda Bay, Kusadasi and Malta. It was my first time in these ports and Ambers first time cruising, here is how we got on.

We had a very early train as our flight from Gatwick was at 9am. Once at the airport the check in process was extremely straight forward and easy… YES I got the heavy sticker again! But thankfully I wasn’t charged as it was a chartered flight. As quick as we checked in, we were up in the air and on Enter Air. Have you heard of that airline? Soon we landed in Malta and headed onto the coach transfer to the ship.

Boarding was effortless as we hopped off the coach and completed all the safety checks we were given the stamp to board the ship. Once our feet were inside Azura we went to our muster station to be scanned in. (Muster station is a designed assembly point for passengers and crews to gather in an event of an emergency). I gave Amber a brief tour of the ship before heading to our cabin.

Soon enough we wet sail and enjoyed our first full day onboard. The first sea-day is perfect to get comfortable with the ship, unpack and soak up the weather. There was music by the pool, competitions and friendships we had started to make. It was our first celebration night which meant it was time to throw on our finest gowns.

First stop was Santorini where we had to get a tender to the island. (A tender is a lifeboat or smaller vessel used to transport passengers from the ship to the shore). We had an excursion booked which was Wine tasting and city tour. At Santo Wines we tried their locally produced wine and some lovely nibbles. Of course I had to buy red wine for my collection.

We went to the village of Oia and its was stunning… busy… but stunning!! After some time walking around, shopping and trying the local ice creams, we met back up with our tour bus to head back to the ship. We then ended our day with a silent disco on the top deck.

Our next port was Piraeus, Athens. Here we had an excursion booked but it was for the afternoon which meant we had the morning to explore. We started off walking before realising there was not much in the area other than a deceased cat (I’m still traumatized). We arranged a taxi to take us into the city centre who was extremely friendly and full of local knowledge. We done some shopping, seeing picturesque buildings and landmarks, before heading back to the ship to meet our tour guide.

Once on the coach we headed to take pictures of the Acropolis before heading to the city centre… Yes that’s right, we headed back to where we just came from. As we already saw most of it we went to a nice local café, got some food and caught up with our families. After the allotted time given we met back up with the coach and made our way back to Azura.

The next port was Souda Bay, however I will give you a break from reading this thrilling piece and post a second part next week. To not miss out on any future posts, make sure you are subscribed to receive notifications on when I upload.

If you have any cruises booked or you have cruise previously, then order your very own personalized cruise map. Head over to The Cruise Maps: Satellite Precision Customised Cruise Maps and use the code Jayestravellingadventures for 10% off!! Id love to see your maps by tagging us or sending them via our Instagram account!