Santorini and timeing issues

[Gabgab]

We are going on NCL cruise to Santorini and my mother and me really want to do a Volcano tour and hot springs. The NCL shore excrusion does not offer the hot springs with there volcano tour so we had to look into other options. Mostly what we are finding out is most trips stay out till past sunset so u can get preet pics from the boat. Well the porblm with that is we have to leave by 6pm. I found one that drops us at the old port at 5pm will that give us enough time to make it to the ship?

 

Also tendering is a major issue it seems like at Santorini and it can take hours to get off the ship and up the stupid cliff.(I think this is a very poor built port, very slow) So will I even make it to the boat at 10:30?

 

Also to make sure I make it to a boat could I pay for one of NCL shore excrusions and take the first tenders out that leave with the tour then go off on my marry way to my real tour? I know this will probaly be expsinve but the last thing I want is to pay for a tour then not even make it to it because I happen to get a bad tender number. I really wish we had more time at this port, it would make everything easier and simpler or NCL do the hot springs but supposly they are afraid of some people will have allergic reactions to it or atleast that what the NCL person siad on the phone to me.

 

Thanks for the help :)

[Susan-M]

I found one that drops us at the old port at 5pm will that give us enough time to make it to the ship?

 

I believe the Old Port is where the cable car is in Fira, which means that your private tour should be dropping you off at the dock where your NCL tenders will return you to your ship, and you will be fine time-wise. On our Celebrity cruise, tenders for those not on ship's excursions went to the cable car - tenders for those on excursions went to a dock (Athinios - see map attached) where buses met the passengers. http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/maps/jpg-2006/1647_santorini.jpg

 

 

will I even make it to the boat at 10:30?

 

Where does your boat tour leave from?

 

Also to make sure I make it to a boat could I pay for one of NCL shore excrusions and take the first tenders out that leave with the tour then go off on my marry way to my real tour?

 

You could do this (I would let your NCL tour guide know so that they don't think that they've lost you) - but again, it's important to make sure that your tender goes to the place where your tour starts.

 

Not sure if you've been to Santorini before, but it's a beautiful island, so if your volcano plans don't work out, I'm sure you will still have a great day there!

[Gabgab]

It starts at fira old port. So that means it starts were it finishs.

 

Thanks for the good news :) We will actaully be able to do this tour. With the tendering at Santorini it just makes me very nervous of missing the boat and we wont be on a NCL offical tour. Thanks for camling my nervous:)

[Susan-M]

You're welcome :) Just to be sure, have you verified with the tour operator and NCL that tender location and tour pick-up/drop-off are all at the cable car dock?

 

The tender ride is only about 5 minutes - and the only delay we experienced there was that we had to wait for all of the ship's excursion people to be tendered ashore before they would take the rest of us to the cable car. (Celebrity's policy .... not sure about other cruise lines?) With priority disembarkation, we were ashore 1 hour after arrival .... and even with regular tendering, hopefully you'll have no trouble making a 10:30 time. Do you have to pre-pay for this tour?