Cruise of the Kings

[1] The Greek Consul in Naples of the time, Tylpados, also revealed to the French news outlet Combat that "several engagements" were hoped to be announced by the end of the cruise.

[4] However, King Paul's oldest daughter Princess Sophia and Prince Juan Carlos of Spain first met on the cruise and they would marry eight years later.

[5] Eugenidis' Agamemnon first departed on 23 August 1954 from the French port of Marseille, where Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and her family boarded the yacht as the first royals to participate.

After they had boarded, the Agamemnon made numerous stops, including in Olympia, Heraklion, Rhodes, Santorini, Mykonos, Skiathos, Sounion and then Athens, via the port of Faliro.

[6] Over the next two days, the yacht first stopped in Corfu, where the Italian royals departed, and then in Naples, where the rest of the guests left to return to their home countries.

In her memoirs, Frederica noted that the growth in cruises around Greece led to "hotels and other land-based services and facilities" growing in revenue and generating more tourist money for the country.

[8][9] Francis of Bavaria, a participant, reports in his memoirs the anecdote that the queens of Greece, the Netherlands , Italy and Romania went ashore in a harbor in the middle of a crowd of nephews and nieces, and a waiting journalist called out to them: "What is the purpose of this trip?

However, a few days before the cruise was scheduled to begin, the Suez Crisis became apparent as the President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, attempted to nationalise the canal, resulting in its closure by the British government.

As a result, Frederica and Paul decided to alter the event from a cruise to a stay in Mon Repos, the royal residence in Corfu.