Tips for Crete and Santorini please

[MGenny]

Hello. This will be our first time in Greece. We have a Celestyal Discovery cruise with very short port times. (I know, not ideal, but we will make the best of it.) two questions if you all have advice:

 

1. at Heraklion, Crete. We cannot take the ship’s planned excursion because that is Sunday and we have to go to Mass first. How much time would it take to catch a taxi from the dock, go tour the Minoan ruins / Knossos palace ourselves, and get back to the ship? Wondering if this is doable on our own without being rushed. Willing to spend money on taxi instead of bus if it’s more reliable. 
 

2. Santorini. Boat docs at 1630 and leaves at 2100. Extremely short! I figure we can’t see both Fira and Oia in this time frame. Which would be better? Option One: Take the cable car up to Fira, explore on our own, and make sure we get in line for the Cable car back down with ample time? OR Option Two: book the ship’s excursion to Oia town, as it says there will be plenty of time to explore Oia on foot? 
 

Thanks everyone! 

Edited September 16 by MGenny

[Over from NZ]

9 hours ago, MGenny said:

Hello. This will be our first time in Greece. We have a Celestyal Discovery cruise with very short port times. (I know, not ideal, but we will make the best of it.) two questions if you all have advice:

 

1. at Heraklion, Crete. We cannot take the ship’s planned excursion because that is Sunday and we have to go to Mass first. How much time would it take to catch a taxi from the dock, go tour the Minoan ruins / Knossos palace ourselves, and get back to the ship? Wondering if this is doable on our own without being rushed. Willing to spend money on taxi instead of bus if it’s more reliable. 
 

2. Santorini. Boat docs at 1630 and leaves at 2100. Extremely short! I figure we can’t see both Fira and Oia in this time frame. Which would be better? Option One: Take the cable car up to Fira, explore on our own, and make sure we get in line for the Cable car back down with ample time? OR Option Two: book the ship’s excursion to Oia town, as it says there will be plenty of time to explore Oia on foot? 
 

Thanks everyone! 

Last year we were docked at Heraklion at 9am. We had an excursion pre-booked direct to pick us up at 9.30am to take us to Knossos. We met the other couple we had arranged to join us at 9am and walked off the ship straight away.. so had plenty of time. The taxi/tour company dropped us off in the Town after Knossos and we looked around and wandered back to the ship when we were done. Easy. Their details below if it helps. 

 

High Quality Private Transfer Services in 

Heraklion, Chania, Rethymnon, Lasithi 

Main Base: Heraklion Airport Nikos Kazantzakis

Main Office: Spinalongas Street, Kokkini Hani 71500

Website: www.heraklioncab.com

Email: info@heraklioncab.com , reservation@heraklioncab.com 

Mobile phone: +306942601228 

(WhatsApp, Viber & iMessage)

 

[Gwendy]

The hoho bus runs from near the port in Crete to Konossos.  We found it very reliable, ie bus there and waiting when we wanted to go back.  If you have time, the city/town centre is quite appealing. Lots of small shops   We had a lovely lunch at a small restaurant near the square.

[MGenny]

4 hours ago, Over from NZ said:

Last year we were docked at Heraklion at 9am. We had an excursion pre-booked direct to pick us up at 9.30am to take us to Knossos. We met the other couple we had arranged to join us at 9am and walked off the ship straight away.. so had plenty of time. The taxi/tour company dropped us off in the Town after Knossos and we looked around and wandered back to the ship when we were done. Easy. Their details below if it helps. 

 

High Quality Private Transfer Services in 

Heraklion, Chania, Rethymnon, Lasithi 

Main Base: Heraklion Airport Nikos Kazantzakis

Main Office: Spinalongas Street, Kokkini Hani 71500

Website: www.heraklioncab.com

Email: info@heraklioncab.com , reservation@heraklioncab.com 

Mobile phone: +306942601228 

(WhatsApp, Viber & iMessage)

 

Thank you. May I ask, how long did that whole process take? We will only have four hours in port. We can probably get off the boat about 8 am, and it departs again at Noon. If we used the same service that you did, and met our driver at 8:30, could we get all of that in and be back by Noon? Or, if we skipped the city sights at the end, could we at least just go see the palace and come right back? Did the driver just wait for you while you toured the palace on your own? Thanks again! I appreciate your help! 

[Gwendy]

11 hours ago, MGenny said:

Thank you. May I ask, how long did that whole process take? We will only have four hours in port. We can probably get off the boat about 8 am, and it departs again at Noon. If we used the same service that you did, and met our driver at 8:30, could we get all of that in and be back by Noon? Or, if we skipped the city sights at the end, could we at least just go see the palace and come right back? Did the driver just wait for you while you toured the palace on your own? Thanks again! I appreciate your help! 

It’s the ruins of the ancient palace, there is a lot of walking on sometimes uneven ground.  The painting of the Minotaur bull was the highlight for me.

[CCJack]

On 9/16/2024 at 4:36 PM, MGenny said:

Option Two: book the ship’s excursion to Oia town, as it says there will be plenty of time to explore Oia on foot? 

We did this and it was a good choice I thought.   Oia was more crowded than Fira but it is also very beautiful.   We faced long cable car lines in Fira on the return so we walked down which wasn't a bad walk at all IMO.

 

Do you know how many ships in port and their times?   That is worth knowing for planning purposes.

 

[MGenny]

Yes. Unfortunately four ships. The other three arrive at 8 am, and ours is the only one that arrives later, at 4:30 pm with 1300 passangers. So, I figure there won’t be too many people for the cable cars on the way UP to Fira. By the time we would want to go back down around 7-8 pm, the only two ships left will be ours and another one with 1700 passengers. However, that other one will have docked at 8 am, so hopefully some of their people will have already gone back to the ship for dinner. What do you think?

[CCJack]

30 minutes ago, MGenny said:

Yes. Unfortunately four ships. The other three arrive at 8 am, and ours is the only one that arrives later, at 4:30 pm with 1300 passangers. So, I figure there won’t be too many people for the cable cars on the way UP to Fira. By the time we would want to go back down around 7-8 pm, the only two ships left will be ours and another one with 1700 passengers. However, that other one will have docked at 8 am, so hopefully some of their people will have already gone back to the ship for dinner. What do you think?

I agree, you may be fortunate with the cable car times.  However, check cruise port schedule before your trip, our ship changed  itinerary times several times, so one of those other ships could change.   One reason we didn't want to wait in the cable car line down, is that it looked like a miserable line to wait in.  2 pm, blazing heat, no shade and the line was packed tight.   7 pm might be much less miserable even if you have to wait some.

[MGenny]

1 hour ago, CCJack said:

I agree, you may be fortunate with the cable car times.  However, check cruise port schedule before your trip, our ship changed  itinerary times several times, so one of those other ships could change.   One reason we didn't want to wait in the cable car line down, is that it looked like a miserable line to wait in.  2 pm, blazing heat, no shade and the line was packed tight.   7 pm might be much less miserable even if you have to wait some.

Plus, sunset is 7 pm. If we try to walk down the donkey hill after dark we could get into a real mess 🙂 

[Over from NZ]

On 9/17/2024 at 10:49 PM, MGenny said:

Thank you. May I ask, how long did that whole process take? We will only have four hours in port. We can probably get off the boat about 8 am, and it departs again at Noon. If we used the same service that you did, and met our driver at 8:30, could we get all of that in and be back by Noon? Or, if we skipped the city sights at the end, could we at least just go see the palace and come right back? Did the driver just wait for you while you toured the palace on your own? Thanks again! I appreciate your help! 

Jeepers. That's 2 ports so far that they're only giving you a few hours at port. Almost got to wonder if it's worth doing that cruise if the ports are all so short?

 

Drop them an e-mail and they can advise on times etc. They waited for us outside. It's not that far from the port. You'd manage it with just the 4-hours (but I still can't see the point of taking a cruise that's offering such short port stops). 

[Over from NZ]

I'd also suggest that it's worth considering getting a guide. We did Knossos ourselves.. and then the following day did Ephesus with a guide. Both were enjoyable and glad we went.. but one was just a very old (yet interesting) set of buildings/ruins.. and the other was given meaning and understanding via the guide and was significantly more interesting and fun! Completely changes it if you have an understanding of what you're looking at. 

[MGenny]

The cruise is part of a larger religious group pilgrimage including the cruise and also some on land. We already have a private group tour set for Ephesus and Patmos since those sites are holy sites. We are on our own with the other stops. I agree that if the purpose of the trip were pure relaxation, we would have scheduled a longer cruise. Basically, Santorini and Crete are bonus stops, so, we will just see what we see what happens. Even just to be on the island and see it for a an hour or two to get a taste is all we are expecting, but we also want to maximize the time we do have. We can come back on a different trip to spend more time. 

[pinkhatlady]

Has anyone encountered protests againt tourist in Santorini? I heard about it on the news.