Has anyone taken an NCL excursion in Santorini ?

[CCJack]

Our NCL cruise lists about 5 different excursions for Santorini.  The descriptions are very poor in terms of telling you the logistics, and in Santorini the logistics are important.  My understanding is all cruiselines tender their "non excursion" passengers to the old port and then you are on your own to get up the cliff to Fira via cable car,  donkey, or walking the 600 steps.   The "excursion" people are tendered to Anthinios so that they can board buses for their excursion.  My question is, do the NCL excursions all end up at Fira, where you can spend some time on your own and then cable car down or walk down to the old port and tender to the ship, or do some of the excursions return you to Anthinios?    I am considering booking an excursion just to avoid the possible 2 hour wait for the cable car but would still like to see Fira and walk down ourselves after the excursion.   My guess is they all end up at Fira.   Thanks for any insight here.  

 

 

[itsnotjustme]

I was in Santorini in early September (back-to-back cruises).

 

Cruise #1 we took the volcano hike excursion.  The ship tender took us to the old port, where we boarded another boat to go to the volcano island.  The boat returned us to the old port, and we tendered back to the ship.  No donkey trail or cable car involved.

 

Cruise #2 I did the beach excursion.  We tendered to the new port with busses waiting.  At the end, the bus returned us to Fira and gave us a cable car ticket down.  The cable car line was near an hour even though I returned early afternoon, and our ship did not depart until 9PM!

 

To my knowledge, non-excursion passengers tendered to the old port, and had to use the cable car or donkey trail (by donkey or by foot).  I heard people talk of a 2-hour wait for the ride up!

 

Years ago, we rode the donkeys up.  We will not do that again.  The donkeys live a hard abusive life IMHO.

 

Years ago, we walked down.  We won't do that again either.  It was hot, smelly, slippery, and dangerous.  The donkeys don't care where you are standing - they want to walk the edge of the train so it is least steep and will push you out of the way or into the wall.  We witnessed a man slip and fall, scraping up his leg.  The wound was full of donkey crap.

Edited November 1, 2023 by itsnotjustme
Editorial error.

[davencl]

In august we took a NCL excursion.  Dropped us off at new port to take buses on the tour then dropped us off in Fira with ticket for cable car.  There was no line for the cable car going down.

[hernando52]

We took an NCL excursion in late Sept.  We tendered to the new port where we boarded a bus which took us to a winery, Oia, and then back to Fira.  We were given the cable car ticket to go down to the old port to catch a tender back to the ship.  We pretty much had no time to do anything in Fira as we had to get in the very long line for the cable car.  The wait was about an hour and a half.  We were lucky, as shortly after we got back to the ship, Santorini had a power outage which disabled the cable car.  Ship passengers in Fira had to walk down the steep path in the dark to the old port...NCL waited for everyone to return before leaving.

[mcmomny]

In August we took the same excursion as @hernando52 did, but we had no line what so ever when returning to the ship via cable car.  We walked right on.

 

We were the only ship in port that day but the crowds were still crazy everywhere except the cable car!

 

Everything I read before we sailed was that the crowds on the cable car would be hit or miss and we lucked out

[CCJack]

thank you all... these are all great inputs..   A couple questions...

 

itsnotjustme... how was the volcano hike?  We are not on B2B so if we do the volcano we will not go to Fira.   Do you think Fira is a "don't miss" place?   We are on a 9 day cruise with 8 ports so we will be busy and I am fine skipping some towns if necessary.   

 

Another option is the Oia excursion (without winery) and take our chances on the cable car down.   It is listed as a 3 hour excursion that starts at 9 am, so I would assume we would be in Fira at noon with cable car tickets, then we could may be be in line for cable car by 1 pm or so.    There are 3 ships in port that day but one of them does not arrive until 2 pm, so basically a 2 ship day for the morning / early afternoon.  All ships stay until 9 pm.   I am hoping a 1 pm line for cable car down would not be too bad. 

 

 

Edited November 1, 2023 by CCJack

[sanger727]

You can also arrange a Oia tour on your own. There are many tour companies right off the dock in Santorini that will take you by boat to Anthinios, bus then you to Oia. And then they have buses leaving at regular intervals to return to Fira. 

[MoCruiseFan]

Yes I am pretty sure that someone has!

[itsnotjustme]

12 hours ago, CCJack said:

itsnotjustme... how was the volcano hike?  We are not on B2B so if we do the volcano we will not go to Fira.   Do you think Fira is a "don't miss" place? 

We enjoyed the volcano hike.  We are 59 years old, and while it was certainly a good workout, it was not too difficult.  The path is moderately steep, and most of it is packed dirt and loose gravel - you need to watch your step.  After the hike back down, the boat took us to another spot with natural hot springs.  Those who wanted to (I did, my wife did not) swam about 100 meters from the boat to the shoreline where the springs were. 

Volcano Hike

 

Fira is charming but can be way over-crowded taking away the enjoyment of it.  If you have been to many Greek villages, it does not stand out from the others.  IMHO.

 

Another great place is the archaeological ruins at Akrotiri.  Think of it as like Pompei, but far smaller.  Same deal - a town buried in volcanic ash being excavated.  Close to Akrotiri is the Red beach, accessible by a moderate walk then hike including steep rocky slopes harder but shorter than the volcano hike.  We have done Akrotiri on our own using the public bus service from and back to Fira.  Normally there are also excursions here.

 

Akrotiri

 

Red Beach