Carnival for Europe--will we regret it?

[ninjacat123]

3 minutes ago, Joanne G. said:

I did the same thing for Edinburgh - booked a ridiculously expensive "on your own" excursion simply to have priority getting off the ship, even though a public bus is available for a fraction of the cost.  I hope your excursion in Santorini is like one a friend and I did years ago - excursion in the morning and time on our own in the afternoon, returning to the ship by the cable car.   

 

That is the one we booked!  Tendered to the "new port" Athenios then bussed to the top and taken to Oia for time "on our own" (didn't say how long but I'm guessing 2 hours?) then bussed back to Fira.  We plan on lunch at Volkan on the Rocks, a 6 minute walk from the cable car.  I'm hoping that being at the cable car by 3pm will be enough time to get back to the ship.  Time-wise do you think this is reasonable end of October? TIA!

[backbiter]

1 hour ago, ninjacat123 said:

DH and I are booked on Pride this October out of Rome.  The tender issue was my concern specifically in Santorini.  After much chatting on the Greece Port of Call boards, I decided to bite the bullet and purchase a Carnival excursion to get us to Oia, which was our goal. Like previous posters have said, non priority passengers may never get to the port due to tendering.

This was exactly our decision last September, also on the Pride. We rarely purchase Carnival excursions and are always willing to DIY, but we made a rare exception for Santorini, and were very happy to have done so. It's a remarkable place.

Edited March 26, 2023 by backbiter

[Joanne G.]

10 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

That is the one we booked!  Tendered to the "new port" Athenios then bussed to the top and taken to Oia for time "on our own" (didn't say how long but I'm guessing 2 hours?) then bussed back to Fira.  We plan on lunch at Volkan on the Rocks, a 6 minute walk from the cable car.  I'm hoping that being at the cable car by 3pm will be enough time to get back to the ship.  Time-wise do you think this is reasonable end of October? TIA!

It sounds reasonable.   Check out if other ships will be in port the same day, and if so, how many and what time are they sailing.  That will give you an idea of how many people will be lining up for the cable cars.   We were lucky - only our ship in port that day.   Late October, you might also be lucky.   The cable car ride is short, and I presume the tenders will going back and forth continuously for the short ride to the ship.

 

There is the option of walking down instead of taking the cable cars, but the reported donkey poop made that distinctly unappealing to us!  

 

Have a great time.  Santorini is off-the-charts beautiful.   You can't take a bad picture there LOL.