Our Expensive Luxury cabin was well appointed but STUNK of smoke - there was a cigarette burn on one of the bedside tables - so much for non-smoking accomodation.
Although leaving Patras pretty much on time the unpublicised (until we were on board) go slow meant we were over 4 hours late into Ancona and had to drive for 3 hours in the dark arriving at our hotel late evening rather than late afternoon.

Apart for those 2 things - it was great - more of a disappointed winge than a complaint.

I was surprised to see such luxury in the lounges and also the cabin was more than I expected.
Next time I take ANEK lines again.

We ahve used Anek Lines for over twenty years for our visits to Crete,and have always found the experience rewarding ,especially latterly as we have been using 2 berth cabin.The downside of the trip is the early arrival,which means you are'encouraged'to leave the ship before 7 a.m.Service in the Distinguished Class restaurant is good,although the menu is limited,and is the same as the Self Service.Because of a cancellation due to bad weather,our return was on Lato,an older and inferior vessel to Elyros,but no explanation was offered.

Anek Lines?

Firstly the ferry didn't leave from the port in Venice where it was supposed to leave from, but one about 5 km away. We had to follow in a confused convoy to the actual departure point. We left 2 hours late. The boat was packed, crowded and parking the car on board was a stressful matter, not an orderly process. It was obvious the ferry had been overbooked since it only just managed to squeeze all the cars, trucks and people on board. The car were parked jig-saw fashion to make extra space, and literally just inches apart.

Sleeping on this 26 hour journey was almost impossible unless you had booked a cabin. You were not permitted to sleep in the bars and if you did fall asleep, even at 4 am, an irate member of staff would come and wake you up.

On what should have been arrival time at Corfu the ferry by-passed the island and went first to mainland Greece to drop of the heavy goods vehicles, meaning a delay of a further 2 hours before disembarkation in Corfu. Having had no sleep for almost 48 hours I had another 1 hour drive to my island destination. Luckily, it was just an hour.

I discarded my Anek tickets for my return journey. If I was going to have a minimum 6 hour drive to Switzerland, following my return and with no sleep, this was far too risky. I booked my return, despite the additional expense on the Minoan Line ferry, and the trip was far more relaxing, plus despite booking last minute, as a driver, I was allocated somewhere to sleep.

I will not be travelling on Anek Lines ever again. The big difference was that Anek was crewed mainly by Greeks, who were frankly officious and not very friendly or cooperative, whilst the Minoan Line ferry was crewed mainly by Italians who were just great and couldn't do enough to keep you happy.

My overall advice would be, to book on Minoan. Despite being more expensive, the whole experience will provide a much better start and finish for your journey, especially if it'a a holiday and you want to arrive in a good mood. Plus, if you are driving, you will be much safer if you can get a good nights sleep.

Apart the difficulties in deciding if you are in the right place (lack of clear signs) as you approach the port, then only one person checking in the passangers meaning a long queue. Once on board I could enjoy watching Venice slip by, eat and relax.