Mr. Grizb

Yes, I did see that. Hopefully this helps to alleviate the problem.

Remind me what NCLH stands for again? As for the drama, apparently you’d have had to be there…

You’re all probably right that other ships would come in. Unfortunately, as I outlined in my original post, I was not able to visit Santorini due to this problem, and I don’t regret my decision not to go up based on other’s experiences. If it is the port that is dictating the number of tourists, then the way they’re going about it makes it so hard to get up to the town that I would personally be fine skipping the port entirely. Sounds like an unwinnable situation, but I think I may still have a point given the absolutely massive percentage of cruisers that were coming off of Norwegian owned ships.

I may have been unclear in my original post, it is not possible for Norwegian to ensure that there is only one large ship at Santorini on a given day. I am suggesting that they should ensure that there is only one large ship owned by them in the port on a single day.

You are absolutely right that Norwegian could not single-handedly fix the problem. However, I believe they could avoid single-handedly creating it.

Just wanted to share a thought here in case it helps someone down the line. I and my sister recently returned from a 10-day cruise on the Norwegian Viva. We loved the ship and the crew and the specialty dining really surprised me in a positive way. However, there was one thing that Norwegian did that was pretty harmful. Santorini is a town of 15,000 people, and it is heavily dependent on tourism for income. Norwegian docked two large ships in the harbor, with a third Regent ship (a Norwegian subsidiary brand) also in the harbor on the same day. So Norwegian was singularly putting about 9,000 tourists onshore (not including any crew-members who may have chosen to disembark) on a single day. Fortunately, my sister and I knew better than to try to go up to the town, but the pier itself was so overcrowded that there was nowhere to stand, (the port authorities had to delay disembarkation for some time due to this problem) and we heard reports from other cruisers that fights were breaking out among those waiting for the cable car (there are few ways to get to the city from the pier.) I cannot personally corroborate this, but we were informed by more than one fellow cruiser that a passenger who was fighting with another missed his target and struck the man’s toddler, so hopefully the police got involved, but in a crowd that dense it seems likely to me that nothing ended up happening. Obviously Norwegian can’t be responsible for the individual behavior of guests, but single-handedly discharging 9,000 tourists along with crew on a single day into a port with a population of 15,000 seems near criminally irresponsible - remember, other cruise lines are in port also. At the very least this is not consistent with the type of experience that Norwegian seems to suggest you’re going to have at ports of call! Should I have known to expect this? How hard can it be to have only one large ship in a small port on a single day? If you are stopping in Santorini with Norwegian, I recommend you consider booking a shore excursion so that you’ll get to see something without fighting for your life. Other than that we had a great time, eat great people, and would consider cruising with Norwegian again!