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Summer 2024 Santorini port cancellation - port capacity enforced?

chinita415

By chinita415,
in Greece Ports

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VMax1700 "Live from...." Rare

VMax1700

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, edinburgher said:

But that may not be the situation at all unless you have evidence of that?

 

At the time they confirmed they had a slot, they were possibly the first or second to confirm  and unaware of how many other ships might request the same date AFTER after their own confirmation  only later  discovering just how many others also booked the same date.

 

Given that an overcrowded port call could bring disappointment and possible upset to so many, voluntarily withdrawing in favour of a different port  is maybe the better decision.

No evidence at all.  My point was just that it does appear that the lines can offer for sale ports of call which may or may not happen.  Someone needs to grasp the nettle and devise a way of allocating the overcrowded ports.  

I agree that voluntary withdrawal to avoid the port is better than having disappointed cruisers, but why is it necessary to voluntarily withdraw?  Even the voluntary withdrawal leads to disappointment as mentioned by OP.  

Perhaps CLIA should become involved?

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edinburgher

edinburgher

Posted
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1 minute ago, VMax1700 said:

Someone needs to grasp the nettle and devise a way of allocating the overcrowded ports

i absolutely agree.  And maybe cruiselines could stop building bigger and bigger ships as the number onboard isn't helping in smaller places either as pax numbers can completely swamp a town causing disruption to residents and creating animosity towards larger ships.

 

As an example, only a few days ago MSC Virtuosa arrived into Lerwick, Shetland  which has an approximate population of 7000 residents.  It is the largest ever to visit Lerwick and  can accommodate up to 6334 pax and 1704 crew, more than the number of local residents.

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VMax1700 "Live from...." Rare

VMax1700

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, edinburgher said:

As an example, only a few days ago MSC Virtuosa arrived into Lerwick, Shetland  which has an approximate population of 7000 residents.  It is the largest ever to visit Lerwick and  can accommodate up to 6334 pax and 1704 crew, more than the number of local residents.

It is in Cobh today! 😱 Usually we would go to Cobh (15 minutes from our home) to see the ship and chat with cruisers, but today......no thanks!  It is docking in the town centre and will overpower the sea front.  At least Lerwick is a tender port and the 'bulk' of the ship would have not been so noticeable.  

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edinburgher

edinburgher

Posted
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3 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

It is docking in the town centre and will overpower the sea fron

I totally agree that ships holding that number of pax can easily swamp smaller towns.  Hoping that even bigger ships  will never be considered!😉

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RavenCruiser

RavenCruiser

Posted
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We were just on the Divina from May17-24 that included a Santorini port call.  We booked a ship excursion that originated and terminated at the new port as I was determined to avoid the cable car/donkey path situation.  The excursion visited Akrotiri,Oia,and Fira.  Davina was one of five ships in that day.  Only other one I remember is Epic but I know the capacity of all five ships was at least 12-13K

 

One thing I learned from going through the new port is that in addition to the cruise ships there is a constant parade of very large ferries bringing in additional people and cargo, all adding to the congestion. 

 

My overall assessment based on my experience is I am one and done with Santorini and I would have been quite pleased if that port were dropped in favor of another, or even just a sea day.  We enjoyed Akrotiri but the towns are ridiculously overcrowded and congested.  In many places it was similar to exiting an NFL stadium at the final gun.  And given the sweat inducing temperature we experienced I couldn't possibly imagine how miserable it would be at the peak of Summer.

 

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edinburgher

edinburgher

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 5/28/2024 at 12:54 AM, chinita415 said:

I am not so confident I will get to go

.  Have you read post #25 above?

You may be relieved if you do not go, your mother also as it will be unlikely to  meet her expectations for her "bucket list" experience and she could end up remembering Santorini for all the wrong reasons.

 

 

And you mentioned you would be in Paris during the Olympic Games and that would be another disappointment (your post #9).  If you can cencel your accommodation booking without penalty, it may be that you would have a more positive experience in a different city in France as Paris will have more visitors than usual and there will be road closures and diversions to help move participants and officials to the venues  by the fastest routes.

 

Friends returned from a Paris break on Monday and mentioned that there are already some closures and diversions as the city prepares new signage and road markings.. Their airport taxi driver mentioned they were expecting up to a million extra visitors and that he was already having difficulty keeping track of the various road closures and diversions as works have begun..

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chinita415

chinita415

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RavenCruiser - I was supposed to be on your sailing. I am learning about that excursion you took which is bus and tender both ways. That is the all day 8 hours Best Of Santorini one correct? 
 

edinburgher - I knew full well it would be crowded when I rescheduled to August with Olympics. My mom and I have been to Paris a number of times already and we won’t stay in the city because it is stupid expensive. We are staying near Disneyland and will take RER in for a day to show the kids the city. If we do get to go to Santorini, we will likely do a photo shoot at Imerovigli which should be less crowded than Oia or Fira.

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edinburgher

edinburgher

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, chinita415 said:

We are staying near Disneyland and will take RER in for a day to show the kids the city. If we do get to go to Santorini, we will likely do a photo shoot at Imerovigli which should be less crowded than Oia or Fira.

Sounds like a plan.  Wishing you well with the various challenges you may encounter.😀

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chinita415

chinita415

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Posted (edited)

Read about landslides mitigations from another social media platform. This makes sense why they are now actually trying to limit numbers. Still crossing my fingers and toes we get to go.

 

So just like Alaska last summer we are affected by local landslides. What are the chances?

 

 

https://neoskosmos.com/en/2024/05/27/news/greece/controlled-access-measures-enforced-on-santorini-and-therasia-to-prevent-landslide-risks-throughout-the-tourist-season/

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AlaskaGoer

AlaskaGoer

Posted
Posted
On 6/3/2024 at 3:41 PM, chinita415 said:

Read about landslides mitigations from another social media platform. This makes sense why they are now actually trying to limit numbers. Still crossing my fingers and toes we get to go.

 

So just like Alaska last summer we are affected by local landslides. What are the chances?

 

 

https://neoskosmos.com/en/2024/05/27/news/greece/controlled-access-measures-enforced-on-santorini-and-therasia-to-prevent-landslide-risks-throughout-the-tourist-season/

 

"

  • Controlled Disembarkation in Fira Bay: Implementing controlled disembarkation procedures to prevent overcrowding."

 

Curious on what that will mean.

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chinita415

chinita415

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2 hours ago, AlaskaGoer said:

Interesting enough, I checked cruise mapper to see if there were any changes to the amount of ships docking.

 

For our day it's now 1 less. 

When are you scheduled to be there and on what ship? People on MSC Davina made it there this past 2 weeks. I am trying to figure out what numbers are acceptable and it seems there have been days with 10-11k allowed. So far my sailing still has Santorini but people are finding out a month ahead on MSC Davina which is calling there weekly.

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AlaskaGoer

AlaskaGoer

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Posted
3 minutes ago, chinita415 said:

When are you scheduled to be there and on what ship? People on MSC Davina made it there this past 2 weeks. I am trying to figure out what numbers are acceptable and it seems there have been days with 10-11k allowed. So far my sailing still has Santorini but people are finding out a month ahead on MSC Davina which is calling there weekly.

Epic and in a week.

 

There was a 2pm ship that is no longer listed. 

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AlaskaGoer

AlaskaGoer

Posted
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8 hours ago, chinita415 said:

Never mind looks like you are there June 10th. What is the actual pax count if not 3075?

 

https://www.ncl.com/cruise-ship/Epic?cid=PS_DIG_NA_BRP_GOO_NA_NA_NA_NA_NA_NAM&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwmYCzBhA6EiwAxFwfgOwuYzBC56iWmSV72kws8h7z74jRRFFJAr_9nFuowS8_rEqpXeXvixoCHNkQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

4k? Not sure how booked the Epic is tho.

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Hambagahle

Hambagahle

Posted
Posted
On 5/29/2024 at 5:47 PM, erby2283 said:

We are slated to stop on September 11th and there are 6 ships in port with an estimated 8,199 projected passengers. We are the 5th ship to arrive that morning and the 2nd ship to leave. 🫢  We've already booked a ship excursion to avoid the cable car up and just plan to head back extremely early to try and avoid the lines at the cable car.  But we also plan to know it will be a cluster f - so just trying to keep that in mind so we know what we're getting into. 

As I understand it even if you are on a ship's excursion on Santorini at the end the bus will drop you slightly below Fira.  You will then - on your own - walk up to Fira and get in the queue for the cable car.  Ship's excursions do not bring people back to the ship.

We have been to Santorini before.  A long time ago, way before the cable car was built.  We took donkeys up and walked back down.  These days I feel like doing neither so we will just stay on board.  Too bad - I would have liked to have visited Akrotiri but not under these conditions.   (My take on it is the people in Santorini want to force travellers to walk through Fira (shop etc) and then use their very out-dated cable car...)

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trulaker9

trulaker9

Posted
Posted

Cruising in July on the Sun Princess and the Santorini port of call was swapped to Chania over a month ago, so it seems Princess is definitely making a concerted effort to swap out of the Santorini stops.  When I had checked the docking schedules for our stop in July there was going to be 8-10k pax on that day as there was an RCI Oasis ship also docking.

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2blueyam

2blueyam

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We were in Santorini for 2 days as part of a land-based tour of Greece in April 2023. We arrived by ferry from Heraklion and flew back to Athens. The one day we ventured into town during the mid-day it was unbearably crowded. There were only smaller cruise ships in port totaling about 3k passengers. I can't imagine 8k+. If we ever are on a cruise that stops at Santorini, we would likely not get off the ship and just enjoy the view from the water, which we really didn't get to see from inside the ferry, as we had to be downstairs in the hold ready to disembark as we sailed in.

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chinita415

chinita415

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Interesting new announcement. Still wondering about implementation. Glad they mentioned Glacier Bay. How did Venice do it?

 

So far my cruise still has Santorini on it. With us MSC Davina, Sun Princess, Odyssey of the Sea, and small Silver Whisper bringing that to 11k pax. At least my ship is first in at 7am so I will try for earliest tender tickets (apparently I have to queue up at 6am since I don’t have status I don’t think at Silver. Going down I have to just resign to waiting. Wish me luck we don’t get cancelled and bake if we do make it there.

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