Efficient use of time in Athens and advice on middle of night arrival plse.

Yes, book a car online... will cost you 60€+.

The driver/guide thing is a dilemma. If u are going on a cruise and staying at Electra Palace I'm guessing you re not impoverished. However, hiring a "taxi guide" which many people promote (like"george the taxi driver", an oversold service -- it has a fleet of guys who all say their name is george) .. is NOT gettting a Guide. Only licensed guides can go on site, so what he will do is basically drive u from one ruin to another, telling you stories on the way, and wait outside.

One way to go is to contact athenswalkingtours.com. They have a list of good walks led by HIGHLY qualified guides, but of course, there are 20 people or so. HOWEVER, this outfit can set up a CUSTOMIZED tour for you 4, even involving drive from site to site where appropriate. Another way to go is to contact licensed guides who work "freelance" in Athens.

Here is a site listing MANY guides... unless they say another place, like Olympia, I believe they all work in Athens. For some weird reason, this site is only in Greek, GErman and French (this link is in French) but is easy to understand.
http://www.tourist-guides.gr/guides.aspx?lang=fr&id=76
Pick some that list English and have E-mails. Write to them and describe what you want and the exact date(s) and ask what they charge. Your basics: 4 people in their 70s, can't walk a whole lot, you want to see the chief ancient sites on the 6-part ticket: Acropolis and Parthenon, the ancient Agora, maybe roman Agora (I think you can do the Temple of Zeus on your own, nothing to say about it, and I don't know if u want to do the cemetery Kerameikos). Also want someone to take u thru the highlights of a museum?? Do u want to see the site of the 1984 Olympics (beautiful bldgs), the historic 1896 Olympic stadium? Tell her when u want to be picked up (for Acropolis, best to get there by 8:30 to beat the bus-tour crowds). Ask HER for a proposed itinerary and cost.

Do this for 4 or 5; you have the time. Then you'll be able to compare.

At least it'll be close to what time you might normally go to bed at and seems as though George sounds like a great guy to get in touch with - http://www.athensguide.com/airport.html

You'll see a reference to him under TAXI heading and I'd reckon he'll be able to fill you in on having a guide.
The Acropolis and all that is right close to the heart of Athens and not too big a walk if you want to do it yourself, but just depends on where the Electra is.

We, too , spent three days in Athens in mid-October before a cruise (Oceania) a couple years ago. And ... we arrived at about the same wee hours of the morning time as you did, due to a missed connection in Amsterdam. We easily took a taxi from the airport to our lodging ... did not arrange it in advance.

It was our first time in Athens, and we had arranged for a very nice two-bedroom penthouse condo apartment. Whenever I am in a city for more than a day or two, I like to have an apartment. So much nicer to have space to move about (especially if sleep patterns are a bit disjointed for the first couple days), and especially wonderful to have a kitchen for morning coffee and breakfast. And usually the rentals seem to be quite a bit less expensive than the better hotels.

We did not hire a guide ... rather used good guide books to figure out what we wanted to see and where we wanted to dine. We used the public transportation system with no problems at all (even getting ourselves and our bags to the port on the day our ship left), and had a great time exploring the city.

October was such a good time to be there ... the weather was perfect (light sweater)and there were no hoards of tourists.

Bushranger, George has been tirelessly promoted by Matt Barrett's site you will never speak to the actual George, as I said he now runs a taxi fleet of dozens of taxis,where all the drivers claim to be George. And of course this outfit will never recommend using a licensed guide.