Our family of four sailed on the Athena for the second time, leaving on Jan 10 2011 from Fremantle, for an eleven night cruise to Bali.

The cruise was even better than the previous wonderful 7 night trip we did in Jan 2009.

Food and cleanliness was of a high standard. Service was great in the restaurants and bar/lounge areas as well as from the reception/excursion desk/beauty salon and photo shop.

Entertainment was really great, with a range of activities for all ages throughout the day till late at night. The entertainers were of a high standard; including a troupe of very high energy dancers from France, a number of singers, a band, two excellent pianists, a magician and the "Animators" who ran the various quizzes and fun competitions throughout every day.

Despite some fairly rough weather during three days on the northbound run to Bali, the ship handled it well, with only very mild rolling and pitching; due no doubt to good stabilization. The large majority of passengers seemed undisturbed. The rest of the voyage was in good weather.

Excursions in Bali were well priced and very well organised; with local guides and staff from the ship accompanying each group. The local buses used for excursions were modern, clean, air conditioned and the drivers were extremely competent in the heavy Bali traffic.

The electronic accounts system onboard works well, with updates of individual passengers' accounts available at any time throughout the cruise.

Drinks costs are very reasonable on board.

The crew are very hard working, patient, friendly and very helpful. It is obvious that this is a happy ship, tightly run by a multinational crew from more than 20 different countries.

The cabins are of a good standard, each with it's own ensuite, plenty of wardrobe space, very clean and serviced twice a day; including beds made and fresh towels each time.

We were very very sad to disembark at the end of the cruise, having formed a great emotional attachment to this wonderful ship and its crew.

I strongly recommend a cruise on this ship to anyone, young or old. In the future we hope to travel again with Classic International Cruises.

My husband & I did the cruise down to Esperance, Albany & back to fremantle on the Athena this Jan, 2011. We found it a very clean ship, staff very friendly..we saw staff helping the elderly passengers many times by carrying their meals, pushing wheelchairs etc. Food was quite good, some meals excellent, some mediocre but can't complain. We had lovely waiters at our table, always smiling & ready for a joke which I like. The entertainment was great, thanks marcos & team. The staff got to know us and sometimes anticapated what we wanted as they remembered from previous times what we had had. As mentioned in previous reviews drinks very cheap by Perth standards. Weather was a bit rough leaving Albany, not the ships fault ..thought I would be concerned but hardly felt the swell.the old Athena rode the waves like the trouper she is. Yes she is old and a bit of rust is showing here & there but she's a tough old ship with character. Friends went on a cruise (P&O)just before us & they said they had to queue for everything as there was over 1,000 passengers..not so with the Athena, hardly any queuing at all. To sum up...yes I would sail on the Athen again..she's old but good.....

We decided on the cruise with Athena for the 4 nights to Albany and return. My sister was interested in doing a cruise never having had the opportunity. I have been on two cruises with another cruise ship company. We absolutely loved the Athena and would definitely travel on her again. We loved our cabin, the food, entertainment. We had no complaints whatsoever. The crew were great and were very courteous and polite. We did not detect any surliness etc towards us. Look forward to the next time. Thank you ATHENA. Keep up the good work.

We sailed on the old Lady (Athena)from Fremantle to Albany and back.The Crew was tops,the Food was very good and plenty of it.The Cabins are clean and very well serviced while on Board.The Ship sails under the portugiese Flag and the Crew is multiculteral,the same as Australia.I felt at Home.Those People went out of there way to make the passengers happy.The Ship itself has a long History and still has the original Rivetet hull and for its size sails very well.I hope i can sail on the old Lady again. Thanks Athena & Staff

we travelled from perth to esperance and albany from 2 jan to 7 jan 2012.we were given a quad room on floor 1 room 104.it was very hot in there so we asked to check if the air con was working correctly.we did this several times until 2 nights later they moved us with total disrespect.the head of the cleaning crew had informed ulga our cleaner and she was very rude for the remainder of the trip.the last 2 nights I only got one towel so I asked on the last night if I could have another and she said I only have 1 towel because I lost a towel,which I didn't.very rude whenever I asked for something she would say i'm very busy ask reception.not acceptable.anyway the cleaners on the first 2 nights were the best,they were asian and couldnt do enough for us and agreed that the room was too hot and that previous guests had a problem with it also.the bed and pillows in the four rooms my family and friends occupied were all lumpy.we bought a thermometre and our first room was 27 degrees celsius and the rest were around 22 degrees celsius..anyway just got back today and wanted to write this while my mind was fresh and looking forward to a good nights sleep in my 5 year old bed and 1 year old pillow that is 100% better than athenas even for there age.unfortunately too many bad things outwayed the good and I will never cruise with them again my tips would be take youre own pillow and dont go on the first floor it is a lot hotter down there near the engine room and the aircon is weaker. the price of drinks were good considering you had no choice but to buy on the ship and the waiters for dinner were the best cheers

Just came back from Athena on a New Years Eve Cruise for 2010, Fremantle. The ship itself is medium sized and more stability is needed as it was calm sea but when traveling we were bobbing up and down like a cork on the ocean. Our cabin steward was friendly but took a bit to get going, but I could not fault him as he brought ice to our cabin on requested time. Most of the staff were friendly, but a blond haired polish pool waitress was very rude. I asked for a drinks menu using my manners and she threw it at me and muttered under her breath. I guess the lack of staff and long hours account for the behaviour but it's no excuse at all for rudeness, no one forced her to work on the ship. Our suite was the best you could purchase and it was nice. The bed on the other hand was lumpy and hard and not what I would expect when you pay $1500 for 3 nights. The balcony was great as we had a private balcony and I could not fault it. The decor is old and dated and in dire need of a spruce up. But the marble floor and spa bath was a nice touch. The dining room offered great food and the meals were top notch, but the waiter kept giving people at our table the wrong food, they did not order. The service was very rushed and they did not like you hanging around to finish your wine, they gave you the rolling eyes which I found to be very rude. The activities staff were great and they were the best thing on the Athena. I enjoyed the activities and if not for them I am afraid it would have been very bland for activities. The evening shows were good, but they were miming the songs and not singing live and half the show was in an European language which was frustrating. My husband and I did get a laugh when they decided to put on an Aussie Night, considering no dancer or singer was Australian, but they did their best with that. The gift shop staff were very nice and allowed my husband to try out an adaptor first before paying for it, which was very nice of them. The decks were very clean and every morning brasso would fill the air. The food in The Lotus Grill was awful. The bacon was dripping in fat and had little meat on it, just fat rind and the eggs were gluggy and watery. We did not no you could order fried eggs until the last day, when we saw another guest with them, the staff did not tell you anything about that, which was poor on their part. The only decent thing they had for breakfast was the pancakes and they were seldom offered. The lunch in The Grill had very little variety and was bland tasting and the same every day. I found out that they offered cakes and biscuits and sandwiches at afternoon tea so I waited till then to get some well needed nutrition, even though the bread was a bit stale. The young assistant waiter in The Lotus Grill was very sleazy and giving me the eye and he would place my food nicely on the plate but just slammed it anywhere on my husbands plate, which was just so rude. The other thing that made me sick was the waiter who was carrying new clean coffee cups and he sneezed into his hand and then procedded to place the new cups on the bench with the same unclean hand, and the Athena tries to proclaim it's a germ free ship and we should all wash our hands, biggest load of cods wallop I've seen.
The other thing the bugged me was that no one showed us anything in our cabin, we had no idea how to use the sinks or bath as they were European, and we had a handyman come as we thought the sink plug was broken. He treated us like half wits because we had no idea how to use the plugs, again very rude.
I will say the put on a great New Years Eve night and I could not fault them on that night. The other passengers were great and there was a good mix of people on board. All in all I would not rate the Athena highly. We were the top paying passengers but most of the time we were treated like second class citizens, maybe if we were European it might have been different. I would not travel again on the Athena, yes New Years was great, but that can't make up for the rudeness, bland awful Lotus Grill food and service that was in the toilet. My husband and I paid top dollar and expected better treatment, I will stick with Carribean Cruises in the future as they know how to treat top paying passengers. Athena might want to look after their passengers better in the future because they need the Australian market, I would not set foot aboard Athena again unless the service, attitude and food change, not good enough International cruise Lines.

We cruised on MV Athena to Bali and back over Xmas. Read cruise reviews from various sites before we embarked and they were pretty mixed. So took note and decided to give a view of our own. Our review is based around some of the negative feedback we saw on other reviews.

We are a family of 5 with kids aged between 9 and 14. We left all electronic equipment behind but did take Monopoly, Top Trumps and some playing cards.

Ship is starting to show wear and tear - yes, would agree with that, the refresh planned for this summer is due. That said, it's not tatty, the carpets are starting to fade, floors a bit scratched etc.

Cleanliness - the staff are clearly very proud of their ship and are cleaning all day. Yes, you get the smell of Brasso first thing but it fades quickly. They keep what they have spotless.

Staff Attitude and Availability - my executive role takes me to the best hotels in the world. I can say that none of these hotels have staff as friendly, helpful and hard working. There is more than enough of them and you'll never wait for anything. My wife mentioned to a girl cleaning the stairs that she needed another pillow, it was in the room that night. The team pride themselves as being like a big family and it shows. Anybody who has issues with the Athena team must have the highest of expectations.

Enough to do - each day has a variety of well thought through events. Our kids had a whale of a time and were never bored....thats without their beloved I Pods, DVD players, PS3 and Wii etc. The cinema was great and we enjoyed the afternoon and late night movies.

Evening entertainment not very good - simply wonderful. Only down side was that it only lasted 45 minutes, but the whole family loved it. A different performance very night with terrific costumes.

Stability of boat and noise of engine - neither an issue.

Cabin size - we had an inside cabin and there was 5 of us. Definitely a little tight for our size of family.

Smoking policy - we hate smoking but the areas were restricted and it wasn't a big issue. Though we would always prefer a total no smoking environment.

Food - varied, plentiful and superb. Kids, who are very fussy, enjoyed every meal. For kids I would recommend avoiding the main restaurant at lunchtime as it doesn't give the same variety. For dinner, ensure you ask for the kids menu. Waiters were outstanding and the kids loved all of them.

As has been said in many other places, the drinks were very cheap with great special offers every day. The other passengers were great and very friendly, although some of the kids on bored got a little lively towards the last couple of days and that upset some of the OAPs a little.

Anyway, to sum up, we had a fantastic 11 days and if I had to pick one thing which made it, it would be the terrific attitude of the Athena crew. Every singe one of them would drop anything to help you. We would definitely sail on Athena again and would recommend it to anybody. If you are thinking about booking then just do it. Also, if you have sailed on bigger cruise ships, just go with the flow with the Athena family.

The Birches

We travelled on the Athena from Rome to Fremantle.
The cruise was great and the staff were fantastic. As it's a smaller ship the camaraderie and friendliness were evident. Each night after the shows we would sit on the deck and mix with the entertainers and staff.
The captain and crew were very friendly mixing with the crew and asking after our welfare on many occasions.
The dining staff were helpful and always helped others especially the elderly and needy.
The cabin crew helped with all of our needs despite working long hours-as do all of the crew.
There were some unforeseen circumstances such as the dock strike in Athens (which meant that we couldn't stop at Port Said due to itinerary priorities)
Seeing the Suez Canal made up for this although I understand that some of the passengers were dissapointed.
The boat has very good stabilisers and they held up well. The sea near Christmas Island was very rough but the staff kept us well informed.
Overall there were some whingers but they were few and one always has these people.
This cruise is value for money ++++

We have been on many different cruise lines expensive and economical ones.
The only suggestions I would have are to-
1/. Increase vegetarian options on the menu
2/. Have more flexibility with the itinerary so that there are a few more hours available if there are hitches-don't know if this is possible in cruising.

The Athena reflects the times of 'old time cruising'
with good hospitality,value for money,organised tours,and the ability to see different areas eg Dubrovnik and Corfu etc
We loved the Athena very much !:) Thank you Athena staff x:)

We enjoyed a four day cruise to Amsterdam, Brugges and Honfleur. We did actually have a very nice time. The weather was great and the cities visited were lovely and there was plenty of time to look around.

The ship itself has seen better days and is pretty tatty . The decor in most of the ship is very dated. The buffet and the cinema were probably the worst part of the ship (in terms of decor). The cabins are the tiniest we have ever had on a cruise, and the facilities within them very limited, but they were kept clean and tidy.

The crew are made up of 18 different nationalities and the majority of them are a pretty surly lot. I did feel that there was not enough staff and this could be that the crew were doing three or four different jobs and were not very happy about it.

The food was perfectly ok in the main restaurant but the buffet left a lot to be desired. In both restaurants everything was rushed and they whip your plate away as soon as you take the last mouthful. Tea and coffee were only available during meal times, otherwise you had to pay for it.

We only attended one show and it was truly awful. The quizzes were good. The table tennis table was tied up for the whole voyage much like most of the deck chairs and sun loungers.

We deviated from our usual cruise company for this trip but will be firmly staying with them in the future , as there is a world of difference between the two companies.

Cruise from Harwich to Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Cleanliness was reasonable but the aroma of brasso was predominant every day after the brass handrails had been polished. The quality of the food in both restaurants was the worst I’ve experienced of the ten cruises I’ve been on. The Page & Moy staff were, on the whole, quite good and friendly however one member was extremely unhelpful and rude. The standard of the ship’s crew ranged from good to appalling. There were times when I noted some senior members of staff in the Lotus Lounge, during breakfast and lunch, treating senior passengers with total disrespect, expecting them to give way. I found this especially appalling when commonly these elderly passengers were carrying trays of food to a table. These same members of staff seamed to display an unfriendly, aloof attitude towards the passengers almost all of the time. The entertainment was a bit limited, especially on cruise days. The evening entertainment was mediocre and repetitive. I shall not sail on the Athena again.