Cruise lines with ships calling in Greece this week are making changes to avoid the fires that have flared up across the country.
Cruisecritic.com reports that the Costa Serena, in the midst of a seven-night cruise of the Eastern Mediterranean, will head to Mykonos today instead of Katakolon -- a port town that's near one of the fires. Another Costa ship, the Mediterranea, will head to Corfu Wednesday instead of Katakolon. A spokesman for Carnival said the line is waiting to make a decision about the Carnival Freedom's upcoming call at Katakolon.
Katakolon is a gateway to the famed ruins of Olympia, a popular excursion for cruisers that has been threatened by fires this week. On Saturday the flames crept to within two miles of the ancient site, but Cruisecritic.com says the birthplace of the Olympics and its new museum appears to have been saved from destruction.
The fires across Greece are so massive that they're even affecting passengers on ships miles off the coast. United Kingdom's Express and Star reports today that passengers on the Ocean Village woke up this morning "swathed in clouds of rancid smoke" -- sparking fears the ship was on fire. The ship was nearly 10 miles off the coast at the time, the paper says.
Even ships that have gone ahead with port calls at Katakolon, such as Oceania's Nautica, which visited the port over the weekend, haven't been able to run tours to Olympia due to the fire danger, notes cruisecritic.