Question about Line-Ups at Santorini Cable Car

[europe10]

I have a question about going DOWN the cable car at Santorini. Our Celebrity ship appears to be the ONLY ship leaving Santorini at 10pm when we are there in July. For people who have done this in the past, how long should the line-ups be if we are the only ship in harbour and we are going down at 8:30-9:30pm? If the line-ups are long, how can we tell if they are TOO long? I have included a map so if someone can give me "reference ponts" as to what constitues a LONG line-up and what constitutes a REGULAR line-up. http://www.skymap.gr/default.asp?Ele...411&Category=0 Thanks

[kestrel]

When we were in Santorini, our cruise ship was also the only ship there. The line was very short when we rode the cable car up. However, the line in the afternoon for going down was really long. So we walked down instead.

 

Since Santorini is a tendered port, I will suggest that you don't wait until too late -- though I wouldn't mind to be left behind in Santorini ;) It's my favorite port of our Med cruise.

[Hlitner]

Since you are the only ship and will be there late, you probably should be in-line to go back down at least 45 min before the last tender. When you walk by the upper cable car station it is easy to take a glance and get a reading on the queues. The untold truth is that most of the cruise ships will have a representative at the top of the cable car monitoring the situation (they do not advertise this fact and you should not rely on it).

 

Hank

[tom_uk]

The untold truth is that most of the cruise ships will have a representative at the top of the cable car monitoring the situation (they do not advertise this fact and you should not rely on it).

 

The day we were last on Santorini (on Solstice), MSC Musica was there and was due to leave at 2pm. By the time we arrived at the top cablecar station at about 2:15 there was a huge queue, including a number of clearly worried Italians for the cablecars down. I'm sure I also saw a couple of MSC officers. At any rate, it was close to 3 o'clock before Musica sailed away.

 

But as Hank says, you can't rely on that happening.

[texancruzer]

We were also on Solstice with a port stop of 2pm - 10 pm and we were the only ship in port that night (the other ship in port had already left) We ate a nice dinner at a restaurant very near the cable car line and watched it grow as the evening progressed. When we got in line we were all the way back to the bottom left corner of the China Restaurant. Quite long. But it moved pretty fast. We did not wait until late opting to get in line somewhere around 8:00. We ended up enjoying quite a sunset as we went down in the cable car and tendered out to the ship around 8:40(ish):D

[anniversay/grad trip]

I am not sure how many other ships were in port when we were there last August, but the ride up the line snaked all the way past all the little shops and I thought it was going to take forever to get up. But, I would say we were at the top and on the main strip in about half an hour. Going down we got there about 2 hours before our ship sailed because I was worried that with the tendering process we might be cutting it tight. The line looked enormous when we arrived and again snaked around all the little shops before you got to the cable car entrance. It did take a little longer to get down, but we were back on the ship (including a 10 min wait for our tender) in about 40 mins or so.