Santorini Disembarkation

[Rustee]

The process of Disembarking at Santorini is that all ship excursion passengers get off first to land where the tour buses are located and then the ship is repositioned to allow the DIY passengers to get off at another landing site to access the cable car. Is this correct. If this is the case the last ship excursion on our cruise departs at 09:15 meaning it may be another 2 hours before you land at the cable car stop depending on what tender you get on to reach shore. Like to hear from cruisers who have done this and how long did this process take. Ship excursions do have an advantage.

 

Thankyou

[puppycanducruise]

I'm trying to remember.

I know that some tenders went to the area where the buses are. And some tenders went to the area near the base of the cable cars. But I don't recall the ship re-positioning. I think some tenders went to one area, and some to the other.

We did not book an excursion, and were at the shore before 10 (and we were not on the first tender).

[Mtn2Sea]

From what I remember, some excursions left early, the ship then repositioned to Fira, where the cable car is located, and other excursions then left. When we rented a car to go off on our own, we arranged to meet the agent at 10 AM at the top. We made the time, but just barely.

Edited January 12, 2014 by Mtn2Sea

[CruiserBruce]

The process of Disembarking at Santorini is that all ship excursion passengers get off first to land where the tour buses are located and then the ship is repositioned to allow the DIY passengers to get off at another landing site to access the cable car. Is this correct. If this is the case the last ship excursion on our cruise departs at 09:15 meaning it may be another 2 hours before you land at the cable car stop depending on what tender you get on to reach shore. Like to hear from cruisers who have done this and how long did this process take. Ship excursions do have an advantage.

 

Thankyou

 

This is generally correct, except I think your times are off. I don't think it will be 2 hours before you land at the cable car line. First, if you are seeing a 9:15 departure for the latest tour, that doesn't mean it won't leave the ship until then. It could easily go ashore much sooner than that.

 

Second, the common procedure is for two tender docks to be down and being used, and there to be many larger tenders (local tenders are used at Santorini) operating. We were on the first tender to the cable car landing, and we were ashore by 8:30.

Edited January 12, 2014 by CruiserBruce

[KirkNC]

The process of Disembarking at Santorini is that all ship excursion passengers get off first to land where the tour buses are located and then the ship is repositioned to allow the DIY passengers to get off at another landing site to access the cable car. Is this correct. If this is the case the last ship excursion on our cruise departs at 09:15 meaning it may be another 2 hours before you land at the cable car stop depending on what tender you get on to reach shore. Like to hear from cruisers who have done this and how long did this process take. Ship excursions do have an advantage.

 

Thankyou

 

I think you have it right except I would start the clock from the time the ship arrives on site. It took I us 2.5 hours from that time but part of that was due to our inexperience at the time. The key to doing it under two hours is getting early tender tickets, that's where we failed.

[kazu]

This is generally correct, except I think your times are off. I don't think it will be 2 hours before you land at the cable car line. First, if you are seeing a 9:15 departure for the latest tour, that doesn't mean it won't leave the ship until then. It could easily go ashore much sooner than that.

 

Second, the common procedure is for two tender docks to be down and being used, and there to be many larger tenders (local tenders are used at Santorini) operating. We were on the first tender to the cable car landing, and we were ashore by 8:30.

 

Agree with CruiserBruce. We had a private tour in Santorini (fantastic by the way - we went places where the tour buses couldn't go) and were off and meeting our guides by 9:00 am.

[KirkNC]

This is generally correct, except I think your times are off. I don't think it will be 2 hours before you land at the cable car line. First, if you are seeing a 9:15 departure for the latest tour, that doesn't mean it won't leave the ship until then. It could easily go ashore much sooner than that.

 

Second, the common procedure is for two tender docks to be down and being used, and there to be many larger tenders (local tenders are used at Santorini) operating. We were on the first tender to the cable car landing, and we were ashore by 8:30.

 

That was not our experience, they off loaded all the excursions first and while there are larger tenders, it still took almost one hour to get the excursions folks off. This can be further delayed depending on other ships there as some of the tenders can be servicing those ships. After we off loaded the excursion folks, we repositioned and started offloading the steerage passengers. By that time it was 1:15 after we arrived. Our fatal mistake was not getting on the first tender like you did :(.

[fionan]

Will they let you get off the boat with the excursion passengers? I've holidayed in Santorini - it sounds like the excursion passengers disembark at the ferry port which is only about a mile or two out of Fira - in the opposite direction from Oia. There just isn't anywhere else along the crater that has boat docks and flat space for parking buses. If your independent plans involve a car (self drive, taxi or guide with car) then you could arrange pick-up at the ferry port. There is a public bus into Fira, but I think it just matches the ferry times (only a couple each day).

 

Many of the water based excursions for land tourists also depart from the ferry port - the tourist hotels are mostly on the flat side of the island with the beaches - so you could also pick up an independent water tour from here.

 

Unless of course it is a service call stop and you can only get off if you have a tour ticket.