Royal Caribbean tours in Santorini

[celoplyr]

I'm traveling with some people on a Holy Land Cruise next year on the Odyssey and we are going to Santorini- which I'm super excited about.  However, looking at the port of call boards, and everything else, it mentions that you have to take the cable car (or donkey or walk) up and down the mountain.  However, I see buses on google maps. So... for an RCL excursion specifically, do they load up the buses and you can avoid the cable car? Or is it still the cable car up and down the mountain? If it's excursion dependent, can you help me figure out which excursions to look for, or how to tell the difference?

 

The people I'm going with are threatening to stay on the ship because of everything they've heard about this cable car, so I'd be willing to do a ship excursion (at almost any price) to get them to experience Santorini at least once in their life!

[chmusar]

Santorini is a tender port , the tenders got to a different area to drop you off ( they are run by a local company so very efficient) you then get the bus from there, when you return you will be at the top where the cable car is ( which if you have a RC tour they will provide you with a ticket one way only)

 

Or you could walk down its not to bad but very smelly due to Donkey crap everywhere . 

 

If you are looking for a good restaurant on the harbour try Lombranos , i booked a table using facebook messenger the morning we arrived it was great

 

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g189433-d12498845-Reviews-Lombranos-Santorini_Cyclades_South_Aegean.html

 

 

[rockmom]

Honestly, the bus ride was more terrifying than the cable car back down, lol.  Our driver seemed to have the need for speed on the curving roads carved into the cliffside.  But yes, as chmusar says above, you tender in, and if you're booked on a Royal excursion you get on a bus, but get dropped off up top at the cable car entry and given a ticket for the ride down. 

[celoplyr]

Ah, thanks guys.  Maybe I just don't tell them, right? I can totally play dumb.

 

They're my parents, so they're older.  Mobility is good, but the walk down would tax that ability in ways that would not be healthy. They're scared of heights, have never done a furnicular, hate waiting, and this is the number one issue we have (so far) on a 2 week cruise. But it's Santorini and we love photography.  We have to get off the ship and see it!

[vegas7df]

The excursion we took last week, we took the bus up and back down. We did not have to take the cable car or walk down. 

[celoplyr]

On 10/28/2022 at 2:38 PM, vegas7df said:

The excursion we took last week, we took the bus up and back down. We did not have to take the cable car or walk down. 

Oh, what excursion was that? That's perfect (and I think I picked one that would do that, if it's a possibility)

[dani negreanu]

On 10/28/2022 at 9:33 PM, celoplyr said:

have never done a funicular,

 

It's not a funicular (i.e. the capsule "hanging" in the air), it is a cable car which runs on tracks.

 

And I'm very curious about the excursion which takes you down with the bus......😕

[firstsailor]

I had a ton of stress about the cable car lines and it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I was with a group of 42 and 16 of them booked a private tour through Royal once onboard because they had a private tour booked and it was canceled last minute (through a different vendor) They had a great time. 

[Norwich Cruiser]

27 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

It's not a funicular (i.e. the capsule "hanging" in the air), it is a cable car which runs on tracks.

 

And I'm very curious about the excursion which takes you down with the bus......😕

So am I ?????

[MommaBear55]

We did the Oia and Fira tours with a stop at a winery. The busses cannot get near the towns, they drop you at the bottom of a steep hill and you have to walk up. My traveling companion wasn't able to walk this. 

[Ashland]

When we were there in 2019 we booked a private tour with Santorini Travel Tours it included a jet boat from the dock then a bus up to Oia then on to Fira we then took the cable car down...much easier than we thought. This was a great roll call tour some went on to a winery once we got to Fira but we decided to spen that time in Fira instead...good decision for us as we aren't wine drinkers and had no interest in the winery.

[bonsai3s]

3 hours ago, Norwich Cruiser said:

So am I ?????

Same here...

[celoplyr]

21 hours ago, dani negreanu said:

 

It's not a funicular (i.e. the capsule "hanging" in the air), it is a cable car which runs on tracks.

 

And I'm very curious about the excursion which takes you down with the bus......😕

Actually a cable car wouldn't be as bad as I thought. I thought it was a car on a cable... like a furnicular. So we will ok either way!

[vegas7df]

On 10/30/2022 at 3:57 PM, celoplyr said:

Oh, what excursion was that? That's perfect (and I think I picked one that would do that, if it's a possibility)

Island of Santorini and Village of Oia was the name of the tour