Please help me figure out timing on my Santorini day!

[Milhouse]

9 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

What ever happened to Santorini limiting the number of ships and/or cruise passengers per day?  (she asks, rhetorically.....)

We had five large ships in port a few days ago and it was crowded like nuts in Fira and Oia as were the buses to and from.  7:00am MSC Opera, 8:00am Costa Pacifica, 9:00am Celebrity Constellation, 1:30pm Norwegian Gem, and 4:30pm Celestyal Olympia.  We've only been in Santorini during the fall shoulder season with maybe one other ship in port.  This experience made us agree that we don't want to visit Santorini during high season.  

 

On a positive note, fortunately Athenios was not out of commission on our day and we were able to jump on Connie's first tender at 9am (and it left with quite a few empty seats?!?, even though they called tender tix 1-4 initially.  Be ready to go people!)  We were in the cable car queue by 9:15am starting about by the ATM just past the tents. We got to the ticket booth by 9:30am.  And were up in Fira by 9:40am.

 

[soniam]

We have a Celebrity excursion in July, Island Drive and Village Oia, 4-5 hours. It appears to pick us up and drop us off at Athenios port. However, it does visit Fira last. Anyone familiar with this excursion?

 

If we wanted to visit Oia more on our own afterward, how would we get back to the ship without going to Fira? I know about the transportation between Fira and Oia, ie taxi, shuttles, buses. There are 5 ships in port that day.

 

Thanks

[Milhouse]

17 hours ago, soniam said:

If we wanted to visit Oia more on our own afterward, how would we get back to the ship without going to Fira? I know about the transportation between Fira and Oia, ie taxi, shuttles, buses. There are 5 ships in port that day.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the all tenders to get back to the Celebrity ship are at the base of Fira, not Athenios port.  If not going directly through Fira (and down the cable car / donkey path), I'm guessing you'd have to walk down to the harbour in Oia and take a water taxi back to the harbour at the base of Fira where the tenders are(??).

 

EDIT:  If there are tenders at Athenios port, maybe you can hire a water taxi from Oia?

Edited June 26, 2023 by Milhouse

[soniam]

1 minute ago, Milhouse said:

 

If I'm not mistaken, the all tenders to get back to the Celebrity ship are at the base of Fira, not Athenios port.  If not going directly through Fira (and down the cable car / donkey path), I'm guessing you'd have to walk down to the harbour in Oia and take a water taxi back to the harbour at the base of Fira where the tenders are(??).

 

This excursion specifically says that it returns to Athenios where a tender returns you to the ship. I confirmed with someone who took the excursion that this is what happened. I think they have started doing this some but only for ship excursions.

 

So, there are water taxis from Amoudi (Oia port/harbor) that go to Skala (old town/Fira port)? Do you have to reserve them in advance, or are they just there offering rides for a price? Thanks

[Milhouse]

Thanks for correcting me!

Sorry, I just saw and was offerred a water taxi ride in Fira's port to Oia and just made the leap that they would go in the opposite direction.  Cannot say definitively if they will in Oia waiting for pax to go back.  

[AmateurCruiser01]

Also ended up on Santorini on June 17 when four large ships were in port. All excursions going to Athenios port from our ship were cancelled, so there ended up being a 2-3 hour line for the cable car to Fira. We ended up doing the Transfer to Oia boat ride from the old port dock which was exactly as advertised (boat to Oia bay, transfer to Oia town, then hourly transfer back to Fira). 30 EUR/p was money well spent to skip the cable car line and visit Oia, which was gorgeous but crowded.

Edited June 26, 2023 by AmateurCruiser01

[kwokpot]

1 hour ago, AmateurCruiser01 said:

Also ended up on Santorini on June 17 when four large ships were in port. All excursions going to Athenios port from our ship were cancelled, so there ended up being a 2-3 hour line for the cable car to Fira. We ended up doing the Transfer to Oia boat ride from the old port dock which was exactly as advertised (boat to Oia bay, transfer to Oia town, then hourly transfer back to Fira). 30 EUR/p was money well spent to skip the cable car line and visit Oia, which was gorgeous but crowded.

What time do you get on the boat to Oia? Wasn't there tons of people doing the same thing? We're going to Santorini on the a tuesday, July 25th and will be there from 1:00-11:00, and there will be f ships that day. I'm not sure whether to do the ship's Oia on your own ($64/pp) or do what you did and go with what's available at the port below Fira. I know it's cheaper but I'm just concerned about scheduling and finding available seats on a boat taxi since we dock at 1:00pm. Thank you for any insight you have based on your experience!

[soniam]

2 hours ago, AmateurCruiser01 said:

Also ended up on Santorini on June 17 when four large ships were in port. All excursions going to Athenios port from our ship were cancelled, so there ended up being a 2-3 hour line for the cable car to Fira. We ended up doing the Transfer to Oia boat ride from the old port dock which was exactly as advertised (boat to Oia bay, transfer to Oia town, then hourly transfer back to Fira). 30 EUR/p was money well spent to skip the cable car line and visit Oia, which was gorgeous but crowded.

 

That's definitely something we will consider if we decide to visit Oia more after going back to the ship or if our excursion is cancelled. How did you get back to the old port from Fira? Was the cable car line insane?

[ninjacat123]

On 6/26/2023 at 6:53 PM, AmateurCruiser01 said:

Also ended up on Santorini on June 17 when four large ships were in port. All excursions going to Athenios port from our ship were cancelled, so there ended up being a 2-3 hour line for the cable car to Fira. We ended up doing the Transfer to Oia boat ride from the old port dock which was exactly as advertised (boat to Oia bay, transfer to Oia town, then hourly transfer back to Fira). 30 EUR/p was money well spent to skip the cable car line and visit Oia, which was gorgeous but crowded.

Did the ship give a reason to why all Athenios excursions were cancelled?  I have an excursion booked through my ship and trying to cover all my bases.  TIA!

[soniam]

13 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

Did the ship give a reason to why all Athenios excursions were cancelled?  I have an excursion booked through my ship and trying to cover all my bases.  TIA!

 

It was probably just due to high seas or weather, but I am not the person who posted.

[fishiecrackers]

18 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

Did the ship give a reason to why all Athenios excursions were cancelled?  I have an excursion booked through my ship and trying to cover all my bases.  TIA!

Yes, it was choppy water out to Athenios. On RC, Athenios excursions weren't cancelled, but rerouted through Fira.

[mapleleaves]

15 hours ago, fishiecrackers said:

Yes, it was choppy water out to Athenios. On RC, Athenios excursions weren't cancelled, but rerouted through Fira.

So I've been curious about how your day turned out .... what did you do? and how was the cable car return? 

 

[fishiecrackers]

On 6/29/2023 at 1:45 PM, mapleleaves said:

So I've been curious about how your day turned out .... what did you do? and how was the cable car return? 

 

So we were on Royal and they give you a number for your tender. Our excursion was rerouted to the cable car but we were #2. However, it's mostly how aggressive your guide is in pushing your group to the cable car, and ours really wasn't. She also wasn't holding up her sign a lot so it was stressful. After tendering, it took us two hours of straight pushing through crowds to get to the top (where the guide was again not holding up the sign so we had no idea where/how to find her bc we were at the back). We were supposed to meet at I think 7:15am? But had to sit there forever while they figured out what to do. I think we got off the tender at about 8:30am and finally up to the top at 10:30am. So it was super stressful. We were only left with about an hour in Oia, which was a bummer. 

 

Then we did do our private tour in the afternoon but we cut it short because the day had been so exhausting and stressful. When we got back to the cable car line there were Disney employees there who said it was probably about a 1.5 hour wait for the cable car line, or a 30-45 min. walk down at a "leisurely pace." We all had appropriate footwear and are able-bodied, so we chose to walk. It only took 20 mins and the walk down was a breeze, no big deal at all. Way better than the line which was snaking around this courtyard and then down an alley as far as the eye could see.

 

Here's the crowds while waiting to go UP. Honestly would've been better off taking the speedboat at this point but would've lost over $300 on the excursion.

 

[mapleleaves]

@fishiecrackers.....  Oh my !  And I thought my experience was bad. Sorry to hear this. 

Did the afternoon excursion make up for the rough start ? Hope so.

 

[ninjacat123]

@fishiecrackers good to know about the walk down the donkey path!  Did you find it slippery?  I am able bodied as well but don't want to break anything. Was the path clear enough of donkey poo that your shoes stayed poo free?  TIA!

[AmateurCruiser01]

On 6/26/2023 at 6:00 PM, kwokpot said:

What time do you get on the boat to Oia? Wasn't there tons of people doing the same thing? We're going to Santorini on the a tuesday, July 25th and will be there from 1:00-11:00, and there will be f ships that day. I'm not sure whether to do the ship's Oia on your own ($64/pp) or do what you did and go with what's available at the port below Fira. I know it's cheaper but I'm just concerned about scheduling and finding available seats on a boat taxi since we dock at 1:00pm. Thank you for any insight you have based on your experience!

We only got on the tender at 10am because they shut down the port prior to that, we got on the Oia speedboat at around 11. There was a short line at the ticket office (with the sign "Transfer to Oia" at the end of the dock), but it's nothing like the long cable car line we walked past. Once we got the tickets we were able to get on the first available boat which didn't take very long to arrive. We suspect not as many people knew about this option since it was not advertised by any crew members (to sell more excursions I guess!)

There was a bus at the end of the boat ride that took us up to Oia town. We ended up exploring Oia for 2 hours before getting on the hourly bus ride back (at the same point where they drop you off).

Also, they do take credit cards but it seems like they would much rather have cash, so just be prepared for that.

On 6/26/2023 at 6:20 PM, soniam said:

 

That's definitely something we will consider if we decide to visit Oia more after going back to the ship or if our excursion is cancelled. How did you get back to the old port from Fira? Was the cable car line insane?

We ended up walking down which went better than I expected. The line was 1-2 hours long as the other poster mentioned.

On 6/28/2023 at 5:24 AM, ninjacat123 said:

Did the ship give a reason to why all Athenios excursions were cancelled?  I have an excursion booked through my ship and trying to cover all my bases.  TIA!

It was weather related, choppy seas on the way to Athenios I suppose. We noticed the occasional choppiness on the boat ride to Oia but nothing major.

On 6/30/2023 at 5:30 PM, fishiecrackers said:

So we were on Royal and they give you a number for your tender. Our excursion was rerouted to the cable car but we were #2. However, it's mostly how aggressive your guide is in pushing your group to the cable car, and ours really wasn't. She also wasn't holding up her sign a lot so it was stressful. After tendering, it took us two hours of straight pushing through crowds to get to the top (where the guide was again not holding up the sign so we had no idea where/how to find her bc we were at the back). We were supposed to meet at I think 7:15am? But had to sit there forever while they figured out what to do. I think we got off the tender at about 8:30am and finally up to the top at 10:30am. So it was super stressful. We were only left with about an hour in Oia, which was a bummer. 

 

Then we did do our private tour in the afternoon but we cut it short because the day had been so exhausting and stressful. When we got back to the cable car line there were Disney employees there who said it was probably about a 1.5 hour wait for the cable car line, or a 30-45 min. walk down at a "leisurely pace." We all had appropriate footwear and are able-bodied, so we chose to walk. It only took 20 mins and the walk down was a breeze, no big deal at all. Way better than the line which was snaking around this courtyard and then down an alley as far as the eye could see.

 

Here's the crowds while waiting to go UP. Honestly would've been better off taking the speedboat at this point but would've lost over $300 on the excursion.

 

Thanks for sharing! Sorry to hear about your experience, seems like the speedboat we took was the way to go especially when multiple ships are in port.

Edited July 4, 2023 by AmateurCruiser01

[fishiecrackers]

On 6/30/2023 at 5:08 PM, mapleleaves said:

@fishiecrackers.....  Oh my !  And I thought my experience was bad. Sorry to hear this. 

Did the afternoon excursion make up for the rough start ? Hope so.

 

Sort of, but we were just honestly really tired and worn out by that point. We had a stop in Megalochori that I absolutely loved, but I wanted to spend a bit of time at the beach and one of my kids wasn't feeling well, and I wanted to go up to the top of the monastery, but it was socked in with clouds. If I had to guess, being completely honest, my kids would've preferred going back to the boat, and my husband and I thought that Megalochori was an absolute highlight of Santorini and made the afternoon trip worth the extra time and money.

 

On 7/1/2023 at 5:28 AM, ninjacat123 said:

@fishiecrackers good to know about the walk down the donkey path!  Did you find it slippery?  I am able bodied as well but don't want to break anything. Was the path clear enough of donkey poo that your shoes stayed poo free?  TIA!

It was not slippery to me, not any more than any of the polished marble surfaces we'd been walking on all week all over Italy - haha. We were prepared for a possible walk either way and all had sneakers on though. Saw some people in sandals and they were for sure struggling. Our shoes did have poo residue on them but not so much that it ruined the shoes or anything. I wore them again on the trip. I will say that enough people must have walked down that it made our whole hallway smell like donkey poop for a good half a day. My biggest fear was getting kicked, but we just tried to stay away from the donkeys or quickly move past.