Conflicting Info about Santorini

[twoatsea]

I've found either conflicting info here on CC or I have misunderstood; so I would like some clarification, please. We will be on RCCL Spendour of the Seas; Nov. 12, 2008; 7am-5pm; Costa Atlantica also in port 8am-4pm; total passengers in port=4,676.

 

1. Do the ships (our ship) anchor in & tender from 2 ports or one? There is one port with a road for land vehicles & one without a road but with cable cars. Do the ships anchor at the road port, tender in the ship's tour passengers, leave & then anchor at the other port for the other passengers?

 

Or, do the ships anchor at one port, tender everyone, and the ship's tour passenger go in one direction to the road port & the other passengers go in another direction to the cable car port?

 

2. For passengers wanting to hire a private driver, can they slip into the tenders for the ship's tour passengers & go to the road port? Or, are the occupants of the tenders carefully monitored & that would not be allowed?

 

3. How long do you think it takes to get off the RCCL ship, ascend on the cable car, & make it to Fira for a rental car or private driver/tour?

 

4. Since the Costa ship leaves at 4pm, what time do you think we need to be back to the cable cars in order not to miss the ship due to crowds? I think RCCL requires at least 30 minutes before the sail time, which it sails at 5pm. Obviously we cannot all be at the cable cars at 4pm trying to make it before 4:30pm!

 

Sorry to be so picky about this all, but I'm trying to decide whether to take a ship's tour or do on own. And timing means a great deal in making the decision.

 

Thanks

[High C's]

I've found either conflicting info here on CC or I have misunderstood; so I would like some clarification, please. We will be on RCCL Spendour of the Seas; Nov. 12, 2008; 7am-5pm; Costa Atlantica also in port 8am-4pm; total passengers in port=4,676.

 

1. Do the ships (our ship) anchor in & tender from 2 ports or one? There is one port with a road for land vehicles & one without a road but with cable cars. Do the ships anchor at the road port, tender in the ship's tour passengers, leave & then anchor at the other port for the other passengers?

 

Or, do the ships anchor at one port, tender everyone, and the ship's tour passenger go in one direction to the road port & the other passengers go in another direction to the cable car port?

 

2. For passengers wanting to hire a private driver, can they slip into the tenders for the ship's tour passengers & go to the road port? Or, are the occupants of the tenders carefully monitored & that would not be allowed?

 

3. How long do you think it takes to get off the RCCL ship, ascend on the cable car, & make it to Fira for a rental car or private driver/tour?

 

4. Since the Costa ship leaves at 4pm, what time do you think we need to be back to the cable cars in order not to miss the ship due to crowds? I think RCCL requires at least 30 minutes before the sail time, which it sails at 5pm. Obviously we cannot all be at the cable cars at 4pm trying to make it before 4:30pm!

 

Sorry to be so picky about this all, but I'm trying to decide whether to take a ship's tour or do on own. And timing means a great deal in making the decision.

 

Thanks

 

The passengers on ship excursions are tendered to one location, and EVERYONE else to another location (where the cable cars/donkeys are). Only those on a ship's excursion are allowed access to the tenders for the separate dock, and it is strictly monitored. In order to rent a car, you have to make your way up the cliff in Fira and go from there.

 

I would assume it would take about 1/2 hour to tender off the ship and get up the cliff in perfect conditions (ie no lines). This is possible if you are able to get on one of the first tenders.

 

The time it will take for getting back down from Fira is totally subjective to how many people are in line ahead of you. I would leave yourself at least one hour extra (ie if you need to be back on board by 4:30, I would look to line up at at least 3 to give you time to get down the cliff and line up again at the bottom for the tender). This can be moved back or ahead depending on the line for the cable car. That is something you will have to determine at the time.

[tom_uk]

Good questions. I'll try to give you some answers.

 

1. Tendering/port locations. In my experience (two visits on Galaxy) the ship anchors in the middle of the caldera, quite near to the small quayside at the bottom of the cable car. That's where passengers *not* on excursions get tendered to. In addition there's another port some miles away around the caldera, and that's where passengers on excursions get tendered to. That's because there is, as you guessed, a road down to that harbour for the coaches to come down.

 

2. I don't know the answer to this one. However, on the two visits I've made the excursions ended at Fira town, not back at the harbour with the road; excursion passengers were given cable car tickets to get down to the harbour without the road.

 

3. This will mainly depend on the queue for the cable car.

 

4. Queues for the cable car back down can be very lengthy, I'm afraid.

[margbem]

We are going on the same cruise as you, on Splendour, in September. We have booked an island tour with a company, given them our arrival time, as in the RCI brochure, and they have given us a meeting time of 10am at the top of the cable car. I then trust them to take us back to the cable car when they know they should(!). There are 2 other ships in port that day, one leaves at lunchtime and the other leaves an hour after ours. Hope this helps.

[susietb]

We were in Santorini last summer when there were several ships in port. As long as there is a line at the top of the cable car station, the ship's tenders wait until everyone is down, so no reason to panic.

[Travelgrrl]

I would be panicking if all the ship's excursion passengers were back on board and it was sailaway time. They have no obligation to wait in any port, and one can be left behind anywhere.

 

I agree with the poster that says be at the cable car line by about 3 or 3:30.

[agabbymama]

I have booked an EZ Santorini tour through Grand Princess. I would look at the tours offered by RCCL and see what the verbage says. For my tour, we have the choice of either getting off the coach in Fira, and riding the cable car down, or staying on the coach and going back to the dock we tendered to.

 

I don't do cable cars or donkey rides, so wanted an alternative to that, so when I saw we had the choice, that's the tour I went for.

[twoatsea]

So many great replies; thank you everyone! From this thread & the other one that is going, I feel you folks are correct - the ship anchors once - makes more sense to me. Therefore, that eliminates the faster land arrival by the ship's tours. So, we are just going to tour the island on our own, which we prefer - which means we must brave the cable cars both ways!

 

agabbymama, I checked RCCL & it provides land transport only going in. After touring Oia, the tour ends in Fira, and each tour passenger is given a cable car ticket to use when they choose.

 

Susietb & Travelgrrl - Thankfully we are overly cautious about returning to the ship; which is one reason why I posted. So, since the other ship leaves at 4pm & a large # of those folks will probably be at the cable cars by 2:30-3pm, & many of our ship's folks will be in line at 3-4pm (our ship leaves at 5pm), & as some on here have posted that the cable car line going down can get lengthy, we have decided to return to the cable cars by 2-2:30pm. Actually, arriving in port at 7am, getting off at the head of the line, & touring until 2pm will probably be more time on our feet than we want anyway. So, that will be a good day for us.

 

Thanks again everyone. With your great responses, we have actually made a decision to tour on our own & what time to return to the cable cars. You folks did your good deed! :)

 

Now, onward to Santorini! :cool: Cable cars, here we come! :eek:

[cruiserdavey]

Just back from Splendor yesterday. There were 4 ships in Santorini on the day we were there. We had #1 tender tickets and the cable car line was at least 1 hr. We walked up. A little tiring and bizarre dodging the donkeys but a good story when we got home. The walk is about 45 minutes and fairly intense. Have fun.

[sammiedawg]

You will enjoy touring on your own. Get on the first tender for non tour passengers and get up to Fira, find the bus or a taxi and head to Oia. Save Fira touring for the end of the day.

 

As others said, no cruise ship dock on Santorini

There are 2 locations for cruise ships to tender their passengers to. This confused us until our private tour guide told us there is an old port ( below Fira for independents ) and a new port where cruise ship tours are tendered to get on buses.

 

When we were there, the cable car afternoon line was quite long but it moved fast, we were in line 2 hours before the last tender and had no problems getting back. There were 2 large ships in port and a couple small European ships.

[Toronto Maple Leaf Fan]

We also just got off the Splendor this past Saturday. We had #1 tender tickets and were on the first tender for none cruiseship tours. Our finding was that they called tender tickets 1-5 at the same time so make sure you are down on the tender deck by 8:30 or sooner to make sure you do get on the first tender out.

 

When we got to the dock, as the previous poster stated, the cable car line was at least 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours long....very disappointing BUT you can always walk up with the donkeys. It truely was a smelly but experience to say the least. It took our family 45 minutes of walking. It was HOT but it was better than just standing in a very long line. In my opinion, children under 10 years might struggle to do the walk. It is a true workout and the donkeys do not move for you. Our private tour started at 10:00 and we did make it on time. Our tour guide had other parties with other guides and he informed us that they wait as they are aware of the situation.

 

If you start walking and find it is too much for you, after the first switchback, there are donkey owners? that will offer you rides for a slightly greater fee. This way, you can avoid standing in the donkey ride line which appeared to be about `an hour wait also. If you do walk, DO NOT get in the donkey ride. Stay to the left side of the line and walk right up to the front of the line and "dive in". You literally have to jump in when the donkeys stop! It really was an experience we will never forget!

 

Our family divided on the way down the hill. The cable car line went out the building and along the street to the first street that it comes too. It took about 35 minutes of waiting. The two that walked down the hill (they said it was extremely easy and there were few donkeys) were about 20 people ahead of us in the tender line.

 

Hope this helps and enjoy Santorini. It is a beautiful Island.

 

Kim

[twoatsea]

Interesting that your lines were so long. I'm hoping we will not experience that since we will be the only ship until the 1 other ship arrives 1 hour later.

 

My guys (DH & adult DS) have advised me - no donkeys, & no donkey doo! :eek: Looks like it will be the cable car!

 

Thanks for your help.

[Culater]

On HAL, we arrived at just before 8AM. The tenders first took all the people on tours to the port where the buses were waiting to take you up the hill and on to your destinations. I believe that all the tours on HAL ended in Fira and then you had the choice to get down the hill via cable car, donkey or foot (trip down was included in the tour price with a voucher). At 9:30 the tenders started taking all those not on tours to Fira where they could take the cable car or donkey (or walk) up the hill. I overheard someon later saying the wait was almost nothing and he had the town practically to himself. It's when all the tours start emptying into Fira, it really gets crowded. We rode donkeys down the hill as the line to the cable car was more than one hour wait time. I think I heard some people say they waited over 1 and 1/2 hours. So allow yourself enough time. Actually by foot is not so bad down hill taking probably less than 30 minutes. But the donkey doo doo and the smell might get to you.

[Culater]

I read on another post to make sure that you check other cruise lines which might not be on the site you are checking to see what ships will be in port on the day you arrive. Especially check for MSC and Louis cruise lines. I saw both of those when we were in port and the ships were large. We had a very crowded day, there were about 6 ships in town. Whatever, the island is beautiful and don't miss Oia.

[neil5054]

Just got back from cruise and was in Santorini last week. We went on our own and got off the ship to tender about 8:30 or so. the line to the cable car took 40 mins, but we had at least 4 ships in dock. I imagine if you wait until after 9:30-10am it would be fine. But it was very hot, so we didn't want to walk up or down. But I would possibly walk down the donkey trail. I heard that riding down was hairy for the faint at heart. We walked 5 mins to the public bus and took it to Oia (every 1/2 hour). Oia is great. Unfortunately, by the time we got back to Thira it was 2:30 and we didn't have a lot of time before heading back to the ship. After 3 the line for the cable car got very long.