Avoid using Orbit Travel in Mykonos
 

In early June, I booked my own Santorini/Crete Fly Cat 4 business class seats online and was going to to Mykonos/Santorini, but remembered that in April I had chosen Orbit to do that. I contacted Orbit to reconfirm that they had already purchased my Mykonos/Santorini Fly Cat 4 tickets. They wrote back that my tickets had been issued.

Imagine my surprise to find a message upon my arrival in Mykonos that they had forgotten to book me. They had obviously lied that the tickets had been issued. I had brought copies of my correspondence with me too. A representative came to my hotel, but really no explanation was satisfactory. I could have done it myself and should have. Luckily on our day of departure we cleared a waiting list and got our tickets.

My advice, when the schedule comes out and you know your dates, book your ferry tickets online. Bring the confirmation to Hellenic Seaways offices in Greece and they will print out your boarding tickets. They are small, so be careful to keep them safe.

And travel light if you are using the ferries

Could you please explain what a "Fly Cat 4" business seat is? I am totally mystified. Perhaps it is because I never use Orbitz (I assume that is what you are referring to) for travel.

Dukey, no, it may be Orbit, not Orbitz. If you Google, you'll pull up several travel agencies named Orbit, in different countries. No clue which one the OP meant.

Sorry, just realized that "Orbit" must be some sort of (local) travel agency...my apologies.

What is all the fuzz about? You finally got your boat.

Is that all you remember from your trip in Greece? How was the Grande Bretagne in Athens? And the Apollonia Bay Hotel in Mykonos?

I will have a full trip report to post is a few days about my extraordinary trip to Greece. Great advice was gleaned from many posters here and many pitfalls were avoided. The reason for my first post is to advise people that it is easy to book your ferry tickets online and then just pick them up from a local Hellenic Seaways office with the email confirmation. You don't need any travel agent to do them. And it was Orbit travel in Greece, specifically their Paros office (though I thought it was Mykonos), not Orbitz. They did book the hotel and that went smoothly. It is good to use local agents since if there is any problems, well, there they are.

The Grande Bretagne in Athens was perfect. Though next time I put my train tickets in the safe since the maid tossed them (another lesson to learn). We decompressed up at the pool in the afternoon and enjoyed a lovely dinner on the rooftop at sunset. It is first-come, first served for the best view tables, so you may want to go a little earlier than you planned to get a good seat with Acropolis view. Even go to the bar for a drink, it is worth it. We used athenswalkingtours.com for a 3 hour walking tour of the area. I highly recommend using them. They book no more than 8 people, but nobody had signed up for our day so we had our own private tour! At 29 Euros per person, it is a great deal. The tour guide was a wealth of information and we stopped and rested along the way. We used Despina, who I recommend. Great dinner at Platanos, where a lot of locals eat. It is located in the Plaka. Not touristy. Lunch at Thanassis was okay. That place in Monistraki area is very touristy.

Also, to the other poster 'Fly Cat 4" is short-hand for Hellenic Seaways Flying Cat 4 that goes from Crete/Mykonos/Paros/Santorini in the Cyclades. You book online through Danae.It is a high speed catamaran that is like an airplane inside. Business class gets you an assigned seat, it is upstairs. Economy is a free-for-all for seats.

Looking forward to the trip report!