Tips on how to maximse day in Santorini

[swcruise]

Hi,

I hope you can help me out here and offer some guidance. We will be in Santorini on RCI's Splendour of the Seas (1,800 passengers) on Wednesday the 19th May from 7am to 5pm From looking at the port schedule, it seems that the MS Musica ( 3,000 passengers) will also be in port from 7am to 3pm

 

I have been looking into the various options open to us for touring that day.

 

There is a ship excursion for 3.5 hours for approx £45 sterling per person. It seems with this that we will be tendered and then bussed to Fire and onto Oia. However, on the return we will have to joining the queues for the cable car and given the amount of cruisers on the island that could be quite lengthy I would imagine - could we be talking 1-2hrs ??

Our other alternative is a DIY day; we dock at 7am and could aim to leave the boat as early as possible. However I notice that the MSC liner docks at the same time, so again can we anticipate long lines for the cable car, could we be waiting an hour or more to ascend ??

 

We are considering spending some time in Fira and then get a taxi to Oia which I understand is mean to be stunning. My folks aren't open to the idea of car hire for the day. Aagin, I have gleaned on these boards that taxis aren't very plentiful so don't want too much stress in returning to the boat. What time should we aim to get a return taxi by and what is the best way to secure a taxi ?

 

If the q's at the cable car are really long, how feasible is it to walk down the path to the boat and how long would it take? I will be travelling with my folks who are 74 & 72 respectively. Their mobility is good, but I wouldn’t want it to phase them, or for them to stumble on the descent.

 

Do the cruiseships delay their departures if there is congestion at the cable cars to ensure all those in the q make it back to the ship ??

I know that is a lot of questions, appreciate any feedback and pointers that you may have. We understand that Santorini is very beautiful and want to experience the island but on balance we would like a relaxing and not too stressful day.

 

 

Thanks in advance. S :)

[pete_coach]

We thought about the same issues. We decided to take the tour. Reason? Well, we figured that with the tour, you are the first ones off the ship, you get a quick overview with someone telling you what you are seeing and the crowds won't be as bad.

 

We got to Oai early and were able to see it without the crowds. They did stop at the obligatory winery (not very good wines in my opinion) and then on to Fira. Once in Fira you were with the crowds. Not much you can do about the crowds, but considering you were up early, you can also lunch early, see things early and, avoid the rush and get on the cable car earlier, if that is your choice (you will have a ticket because it is included in your tour). It is actually quite efficient.

 

Waking down the path is not difficult and many folks do that. You do have to share the path with the donkeys. You can also ride down if you wish...for a price. In my humble opinion, I would wait an hour for the cable car rather than share the path with those smelly donkeys on that poop laden path, but hey, it is an option LOL.

 

Your folks, well, I hope you realize that there is a lot of walking on Santorini itself. It is the only means to see most of both places. What there is to see is along the cliff side and that means wandering along narrow pathways between houses and shops. Also, there are hills and steps. On the way back to the ship, your folks should not try to make it down the donkey path (the donkeys even bump into you). I might suggest that you look for a private guide that has intimate knowledge of the place so that they can get the most out of the visit (I have heard good things about Thira Tours and you can ask them about getting on and off the ship as well as traveling with your parents). If I remember correctly, it is a even challenging walk from where the cars can park to the funicular.

Lastly, this island lives off the tourist dollars and they are somewhat like Disney and can easily handle the crowds. There have been times when there are 3 and even 4 ships in port. They do stagger the ship arrivals and disembarkation as there are only so many tenders to get folks ashore. It is really nothing to worry about.

 

As an aside, I personally liked Oia better than Fira and I liked Mykonos much better than Santorini. I actually liked Rhodes most of all the islands we visited. I think you Folks will like them too and it is easier walking.

[swcruise]

Hi,

 

Thanks for your speedy reply, I did think the path would be too challenging and now you have confirmed this, we will definetely stay clear of it.....

 

Thanks for the pointer to Thira Tours, I have just popped them through an email, so will wait and see what they have on offer.

 

I am doing the advance planning on this day as would like it to be a fun one without any stressy moments which can crop up with large crowds and long q's.

 

Our tour unfortunately doesn't go to Myknonos/Rhodes so I want to get the most out of Santorini as I anticipate it will be more spectacular then Corfu

 

S

[dfwguy62]

Yes, I would not advice walking down the path for your parents. I did the walk (I'm in my 40s) and it wasn't all that bad, but it takes around 15-20 minutes or so and there are a lot of steps and dodging of stuff on the walk. I would not want to risk having my parents (similar age as yours) on the steps.

[tom_uk]

I think doing the excursion would be a good idea. I've been to Santorini three times now and we did the excursion the first time and did it ourselves the other two times. On all three occasions we had good luck as regards other ships: for both of the first two visits our ship was alone there, and on the last visit we were doing 2pm -> 10pm stay, so when we arrived there were only passengers from our ship battling for the cablecar. In your case, however, you'd also have 3000 passengers from Musica to deal with as well as your own ship's. Also - and recognising fully that I am surrendering to national stereotypes here - I'm not sure how rewarding the queueing experience would be with 3,000 mainly Italian passengers from MSC Musica.

 

The good news as regards Musica is that their passengers ought to be out of the way by 2:30 or so; you ought to be able to have a reasonably civilised cablecar ride down at around that time. Then your parents will have time to recover from their visit to this battlefield - no, sorry, 'beauty spot' - before dinner!

 

I blogged from the 2007 cruise and I wrote up an entry about the cablecar capacity and frequency; you can find the post here. And I've also taken a lot of pictures of Santorini; have a look here for a set of further links to the pictures. Unfortunately I can't post these links direct here in Cruise Critic - they're to another cruise forum site, and CC don't allow direct links. But if you find them the 2006 pictures were taken on a morning excursion to Oia and the winery.

[Onessa]

We were the only ship in port in Santorini this past November. We did take the ship's tour -- and sent DH down to get early excursion ticket numbers on the day in port. We were on the first excusion tender off of the ship on the first bus up the hill, across the island to Oia.

 

I have several of the "tourist" shots that I showed to my DH and DD uncropped in Oia. I asked "what's wierd about these photos" -- all your standard issue touristy shots. They both gave up and I noted that in each of them, there were NO people. We spent two hours in Oia then were bussed back to Fira (via the winery). It was my idea of a great tour -- optimized transportation only. The winery was nice, with NO sales spiel.

 

DH and I had done the donkeys up and walked down about 20years ago -- that was more than enough "charm" to last us a lifetime -- so we took the funucilar down.

[swcruise]

Pete_Coach: I have already had a reply from Thira Tours, unfortunately it is a little more then we want to pay, I think private tours probably work out more reasonable then the ship's own if you have 6-8 in a group.

 

Pete_Coach & Dfwguy62: Thanks for the info on the path, my folks definetely won't be taking that as a descent option, it did give my SIL a laugh earlier this evening when she thought I was suggesting this. I think she has a mental picture of them doging donkeys and "poop"....!!

 

Tom_UK: Your analysis is spot on, now that I know the capacity of the cable-cars/funicular, i don't think it would be the start of a great day 2 spend a long time in line waiting to ascend. I loved your photos of the island, tks. It is making me really look forward to the our time in Santorini.

 

Onessa: From the advice given by all, I think we will use the ships tour as our mode of trasnportation, was your cruise also with RCI and do they allow you free time in Oia ?

 

Rgds, S

[pete_coach]

Pete_Coach: I have already had a reply from Thira Tours, unfortunately it is a little more then we want to pay, I think private tours probably work out more reasonable then the ship's own if you have 6-8 in a group.

 

Pete_Coach & Dfwguy62: Thanks for the info on the path, my folks definetely won't be taking that as a descent option, it did give my SIL a laugh earlier this evening when she thought I was suggesting this. I think she has a mental picture of them doging donkeys and "poop"....!!

 

Tom_UK: Your analysis is spot on, now that I know the capacity of the cable-cars/funicular, i don't think it would be the start of a great day 2 spend a long time in line waiting to ascend. I loved your photos of the island, tks. It is making me really look forward to the our time in Santorini.

 

Onessa: From the advice given by all, I think we will use the ships tour as our mode of trasnportation, was your cruise also with RCI and do they allow you free time in Oia ?

 

Rgds, S

Regading the tour cost, I agree. The costs are rather high by our standards and it is not spoken of very much. One option may be to go on the Roll call ofr your cruise and see if there is anyone wishing to split the cost of a 8 or 10person tour. there were a lot of people "hooking up" on our cruise.

It may seem like the ships tour is not to your liking but in essance, it really is just transportation with a bit of an overview while on the bus. The good thing is getting off the ship early and not witht he crowd as well as the cable car ticket. You do get to beat the crowds.

Go to a website called webshots, search for santorini and/or santorini donkeys and you will get some pretty interesting photos of what I was saying.

Enjoy the Island (and the cruise of course).

[OceanJeanie]

We went to Santorini last May on the Crown Princess. We got off early and tried to take a bus to Oia, but there was a crowd, so we just took a taxi. I think it cost about $20, but my husband says more like $10. (one way). We were the first tourists to arrive in Oia, and we took a lot of pictures before the buses of people arrived. We stopped and had a latte, shopped for souvenirs and saw everything we wanted to see in about 2 hours. Then we took a taxi back (no trouble to get) and walked around Fira. We had lunch in one of the many restaurants overlooking the water and ship; a delicious Greek salad. I wanted to walk the path back down to the tendering area, but my traveling partners didn't. The line moved quickly for the cable car, no problems at all.

 

Oia is what you see when you see pictures of Greece...the white buildings and blue domes. Some dwellings are abandoned; the history is quite fascinating, but you'll have to do your own reading if you don't have a tour guide.

 

Enjoy! Jeanie

[anniversay/grad trip]

We were in Santorini last August and it was one of our favorite ports. Car rentals are extremely cheap (around 70e for the day) and it is literally one road from Fira to Oia. It's a lovely drive and you can go at your own pace. Roads are not very busy at all. My only suggestion would be to reserve ahead of time if you don;t drive stick. We were ok because my DH does drive stick but, there were alot of people waiting around for cars to come back from half day rentals that were automatic. We were able to see the entire island (It's not very big) and then return the car and do some shopping. It was a great break from all the walking you do on a Med cruise. Just a thought....

[swcruise]

Pete_Coach: OMG, I had a look at webshots, can't believe I was suggesting walking down, I never appreciated how narrow it is, there must be a lot of incidents of donkeys bumping into people on the path....

 

At this point we are veering towards the ships trip as a transportation means to see the island. Will decide for sure when we meet up over the next few weeks.

 

S

[D4]

Pete_Coach: OMG, I had a look at webshots, can't believe I was suggesting walking down, I never appreciated how narrow it is, there must be a lot of incidents of donkeys bumping into people on the path....

 

At this point we are veering towards the ships trip as a transportation means to see the island. Will decide for sure when we meet up over the next few weeks.

 

S

 

I rode the donkeys up and down in November. I didn't think the path was very narrow, but you're right about donkeys bumping into people on the path. Even though there was plenty of room, my donkey and the others I saw intentionally walked where people were forcing them to move. It might be there way of saying this is donkey territory! The donkey rides were one of my highlights of the trip!

[pete_coach]

I rode the donkeys up and down in November. I didn't think the path was very narrow, but you're right about donkeys bumping into people on the path. Even though there was plenty of room, my donkey and the others I saw intentionally walked where people were forcing them to move. It might be there way of saying this is donkey territory! The donkey rides were one of my highlights of the trip!

We sat in a restaurant watching the donkeys go up and down. A slap on the bum and away they went. They do it on their own, as they have done a thousand times. It was rather funny when some donkeys on their own were going down and donkeys with passengers were coming up and at one of the hairpin turns the donkeys stopped to socialize and mill about. The folks on the donkeys were a bit confounded as to what top do, some got off and walked the rest of the way. LOL.

Also, we could smell the folks that took the donkeys, a distinctive odor clung to the clothes. LOL.

I am glad your donkey ride was a highlight, one of mine was watching folks on them.

[D4]

...Also, we could smell the folks that took the donkeys, a distinctive odor clung to the clothes. LOL.

I am glad your donkey ride was a highlight, one of mine was watching folks on them.

 

I had read about the donkey smell so I was prepared. I brought a special pair of pants for that day. (I was afraid the cruise ship laundry service would overdry my jeans!) I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't any smell, even after riding a donkey down at the end of my day. My guess is it was because it was late November and the temperature was perfect and we were the only ship in port.

 

I bought a beautiful ring on Santorini and it will always remind me of my special donkey day!

[Onessa]

SWCruise - our last cruise was X. On their ship's excursion we had just under two hours on our own in Oia.

 

The excusion had a tourguide describing the island as we traveled from the new port to Oia (opposite sides of the island). After the time in Oia, we stopped at the local co-op type winery for a wine tasting (very low key and pretty well organized - with decent washroom facitlities). The bus then took us to Fira where the guide walked us to the touristy section of town described the sights and where to catch the funucular down. The rest of the day was on our own.

 

We had had a rather bad experience with long lines the other time DH and I were in Santorini, so the ship's excursion guarenteed us a bit less of a hassle on the front-end of the port stop. November was very quiet and I doubt we would have had any problems this time around.

[CruisinManiac]

We went to Santorini last May on the Crown Princess. We got off early and tried to take a bus to Oia, but there was a crowd, so we just took a taxi. I think it cost about $20, but my husband says more like $10. (one way). We were the first tourists to arrive in Oia, and we took a lot of pictures before the buses of people arrived. We stopped and had a latte, shopped for souvenirs and saw everything we wanted to see in about 2 hours. Then we took a taxi back (no trouble to get) and walked around Fira. We had lunch in one of the many restaurants overlooking the water and ship; a delicious Greek salad. I wanted to walk the path back down to the tendering area, but my traveling partners didn't. The line moved quickly for the cable car, no problems at all.

 

Oia is what you see when you see pictures of Greece...the white buildings and blue domes. Some dwellings are abandoned; the history is quite fascinating, but you'll have to do your own reading if you don't have a tour guide.

 

Enjoy! Jeanie

 

Where did you pick up the taxi once you get offthe tender?

[mum1234]

Hi I was wondering if anyone knew how to check to see how many and which ships will be at specific ports (times and dates)....it will be easier to plan our days if we know how crowded the ports will be. Thanks, Emily

[CruisinManiac]

Try this!

 

http://www.cruisett.com/ships.php

[mum1234]

Thanks for the info on the schedule of ships in ports.....We are on the Azamara Journey May 2nd and for some reason they do not have ship line listed.....any thought on that? But it does list the others.....Great guide, thanks again.

[CruisinManiac]

You can check the following site by port, and then look to see which ships are in with yours.

 

http://www.cruisereport.com/PortsOfCallList.aspx

[GREENVIEW1]

Try this!

 

http://www.cruisett.com/ships.php

 

I'm fairly new at this board and will be sailing for the first time on Holland America in September. Thanks for posting this site. It's pretty informative

when trying to plan sightseeing trips in the ports and keeping up with the latest news on your ship/cruise line!!!

[CruisinManiac]

You're welcome!

[mum1234]

Thanks, that second site is perfect. You can always count on great info from CC. Thanks again Emily

[Softball20]

We will be there in late June. This is one of our DIY days (as opposed to the days where we have hired private driver/guide for eight of us; no ship's tours). We were planning on taking the donkeys/cable cars up to Fira exploring a bit, and then getting a cab (or two) to Oia where we will spend the day exploring, eating, drinking, etc. We'll then take a cab back to where we get the cable car - no donkeys on the way down :) In reading about the crowds, is this plan plausible or should I find us a guide/driver in Santorini as well?

[geogal]

Hi Softball20,

 

We were in Santorini last May and are going back again this May. We LOVED Santorini! We did have a stressful day of doing transit on our own, and rather than go into all the details, I'd say don't rely on public transportation, the bus from Oia to Fira was late, and it was very apparent that not everyone was going to be able to get onto the bus when it actually arrived.

 

I would suggest taking a taxi both ways, cost is 15 Euro each way. The taxi stand is just by the bus station in Fira. Get off the cable car at the top, walk inland until you get to the first street with cars, turn right, and walk along the main road about 200 yards. The bus station and taxi stand will be on your left, very obvious.

 

One suggestion I would definitely make would be to coordinate a return pickup with your original taxi driver from Oia back to Fira. The drop off point in Oia is also at the bus station, so it is very centrally located, and you should easily be able to find other cruisers to share your cab back. Last year, there were NO taxis to be found at a very crucial part of the day. It was NOT fun, my DH had a major meltdown, you could practically see the steam coming out of his ears!

 

We spent the whole day wandering around Oia and found it totally charming. This year we are renting a car from Santorini Car Hire, picking it up at the top of the gondola, for a very reasonable price. In addition to going back to Oia, we are heading to the small fishing village of Amoudi below Oia. If you have seen the movie "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" (we rented it last night!), about 1/4 of the movie was filmed in Oia and Amoudi. It will really get you drooling over the beautiful scenery.

 

Enjoy Santorini, try to get an early tender to avoid the crowds, and don't worry about long lines to the gondola, they tend to move fairly quickly.

 

Marcie