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Santorini - private tour or ship tour to Oia

BaseballMomof4

By BaseballMomof4,
in Greece Ports

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Peteymil

Peteymil

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Where the tender drops you off is a small docking area, nothing else. There is another port where there is bus access if you don’t want to take the cable car. If you take a cruise ship excursion, that should be where the tender takes you. Otherwise, there are companies at the tender dock that you can pay a fee to. They will boat you to the other dock, bus you to oia, then have return buses available for thira. But either way, you’ll have to wait in a long line to cable car back down. If you wish to avoid the cable car all together, I wouldn’t even bother getting off. The dock area is nothing.

 

 

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On Celebrity, for the ships excursion, the tender took us right to the other dock and then bus up to Oia. However, on the way back we did not have to take the cable car. They busses took us right back down to the water and then we took the ferry back to the boat. It was something new they were trying to alleviate the back ups at the cable car. Very stress free.

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hal2008

hal2008

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Some points:

 

a) In general, ship tours never make sense from value-for-money point of view. There are exceptions though. Excursion to far off location with known potential for delay might be a candidate for ship tour. Similarly, when time in port is limited, ability to get off the ship early could be worth the premium. On oyr ship time difference between first to get off the ship on ship tours vs first to get off without tender tickets (those who decided not to get up at 5 am to stand 75 minutes in line - yes, Never again Norwegian - was 2 hours 30 minutes.

 

b) Look at other thread for details about pros/cons of boat to Ammoiudi pier (which seats below Oia), bus to Oia and chaotic return bus scenario and usual misreprenentations/outright lies of that particular operator

 

c) Walking down steps. We did it. Will not do it again or recommend anyone doing it. DOnkey poop or occassional incoming donkeys are minor problems. Bigger risk is slipping on those occassionally encountered blackish stones (even on bone dry hot days). Bit too much risk. Better to stand in cable car lines. No one has ever reported missing cruise because their cable car line was too long. (if your ship is first to leave, just arrive that much early)

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Bayside Cruiser

Bayside Cruiser

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We were on this cruise late April/early May and booked a private tour from https://www.katakolon-express.com/. We were very happy with the tour and the guide. We had a private tender therefore did not have to wait in line for the cable car going up. The tour started with Oia which was great as we were there before other tours and it wasn't very crowded. With a private tour you can decide where you spend most time and Oia is definitely worth every minute.

 

 

 

Sounds ideal. There are only 3 of us so will contact them to see if they can do this for us. Don’t really want to do a larger group as Oia is definitely a bucket list visit and we’d rather just work to our own timetable.

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mmsoko

mmsoko

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July 7 Venice-Rome Celebrity Constellation-On this cruise with my wife- Just arranged for semi private tour in Santorini to try to avoid crowds. Check out Greektraveling.com “The Oia experience with boat right off dock to Oia then walk around independently for a couple hours then mini bus tour to winery with tasting, pictures at vistas then back to Fira by our ship. Tour company well reviewed and price

88 Euro per person, We need minimum 6 people for tour to go.

 

 

 

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Is the website address correct?

Was not able to locate them

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JMP1973

JMP1973

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Walking down 588 steps in Santorini... With 3 ships in port, there was over an hour wait so we elected to walk down...

here is a video

 

Bring water with you as it was quite warm, even in May.

 

Enjoy Santorini!

 

Thanks for the great video....gives me a good idea of what Santorini is like. Much appreciated!

 

Jackie

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budster

budster

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We just booked this cruise today. We had to cancel our cruise for November as I just had foot surgery. This itinerary looks so exciting. First time for Greece for us. Love all the planning! :D

Ruth Ann & Bill

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Hatteras51

Hatteras51

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On Celebrity, for the ships excursion, the tender took us right to the other dock and then bus up to Oia. However, on the way back we did not have to take the cable car. They busses took us right back down to the water and then we took the ferry back to the boat. It was something new they were trying to alleviate the back ups at the cable car. Very stress free.

 

Do you know what the excursion was called? I'm trying to find this on their website. I'm very interested in finding an excursion with a ferry back to the boat, instead of the cable car. I haven't booked yet, but this will definitely sway my decision.

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Peteymil

Peteymil

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Do you know what the excursion was called? I'm trying to find this on their website. I'm very interested in finding an excursion with a ferry back to the boat, instead of the cable car. I haven't booked yet, but this will definitely sway my decision.

It was the Oia on your own excursion. However it never said that we were going to take the ferry back to the boat, it was just a new option that they decided to try to see if it would alleviate problems of people getting back. At this point I would not think that it’s guaranteed that you would have that opportunity. It’s just a possibility that they would offer this like they did for us.

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