Tendering in Mykonos

[aloha_DC]

Hi, we’re sailing on NCL Trieste to Athens in October. Mykonos isn’t marked as atender port on our itinerary but I just learned that it can be? Is there a way to know in advance or is it just totally dependent on what ships get there first? we were just planning to spend the day exploring on our own, there’s no

 crazy Santorini -like  issues with tendering in Mykonos?

 

For Santorini, we booked a ship excursion to Akrotiri, Pyrgos and Oia that I think might avoid the cable car entirely (5 ships in port that  day 😬) and wondering if we should consider something similar for Mykonos? 
 

thanks!

 

ps. I have a similar question about Dubrovnik and Split I asked in the other Med port forum if folks have thoughts on those as well

[Hlitner]

I do not think there is anyway to be sure (tender or dock) prior to your cruise.  I can tell you that getting there first does not always tell the tale as we recently experienced this on an Oceania cruise.  We were first to Mykonos, and tendered (which is actually an advantage for those of us who simply want to get into town).  We looked over to the new port docking area and saw an empty pier.  Several hours later, a Celestyal ship arrived and got the docking spot.  

 

As to Santorini, unless your excursion is one of the few exceptions, nearly all the excursions will drop you in Fira where you must make your own way to the upper cable car station and wait your turn.  Of course there is always the option of walking down the donkey trail or being one of the few brave souls that actually rides a donkey down the trail (on our last visit in April, we saw a cruiser take a very bad fall from a donkey as his foot caught in the stirrup when dismounting).

 

As to Dubrovnik and Split, our own norm is to simply do those ports on our own...but we do understand that many folks want excursions/tours everywhere!  For us, we might book one tour for every 15 ports, as we simply prefer to do our own thing (especially in Europe).

 

Hank

[VMax1700]

I don't think that tendering in Mykonos is necessarily a negative as even if your ship docks it is nearly always necessary to take the water taxi from the dock to the town centre.  

[livetravelcruise07]

You could always look up the Mykonos cruise port online and see what other ships will be in that day. Our ship, Royal Caribbean got to Mykonos at 7 am, so we were docked. Around 10 am we saw NCL come in, but they were tendered. So, from my experience it seems it's a first come, first serve when it comes to docking. 

[aloha_DC]

Thank you all. I’ve now learned how to look up port schedules and learned that our ship is scheduled to be the 4th of 5 arriving that day so guessing we’ll be tendering and we should plan for crowds

[zqvol]

23 hours ago, aloha_DC said:

Thank you all. I’ve now learned how to look up port schedules and learned that our ship is scheduled to be the 4th of 5 arriving that day so guessing we’ll be tendering and we should plan for crowds

Don’t assume that arrival order has anything to do with whether you dock or tender. What is more important is what the harbor master wants, and often ship size. Some of the luxury lines always tender without regard to arrival order. Just check the official port schedule. 

[mskaufman]

We were there last week (on NCL) and tendered.  It was listed that way on the NCL app.

[sbnuggie]

If you look on your cruise confirmation that is emailed to you at the last page they have the itinerary listed and it states what is tendered and what is docked.  But as someone else mentioned ultimately up to the Head Harbor Honcho (may not be the official name).  YMMV