Jade Santorini on Adriatic Itinerary -- A bit of a mess

[Regguy]

Just got back from the Jade Adriatic itinerary. Jade appears to run two alternating itineraries out of Venice for much of the summer, with one dedicated primarily to the Greek islands and one with two Croatia stops. We took the latter. This cruise was initially intended to stop at Ephesus, but Santorini was subbed in several months ago in light of the current situation in Turkey.

 

From people who were on our cruise and were doing a back to back, the Santorini stop on the Greek islands itinerary sounds like it was lovely. For us, it was a mess, though I have a few thoughts on ways to make it tolerable for others who might have this itinerary. The problem for us -- and I assume given the schedules in the Adriatic generally that it will continue to be a problem throughout the summer -- is that there were four ships in port and ours was the last to arrive. In fact, our tender was pushed back to 10:00 to avoid congestion of the locally contracted tender boats. In actuality, the first tenders were closer to 10:30 and all the excursions were pushed back to 10:30. This was the worst possible situation.

 

By 11:30, which is when we got there, Oia was overrun. Traffic was congested for the buses to get to the parking spots, and so much valuable time was spent waiting for a complicated jigsaw puzzle of cars unraveling to get out of the way that our "free" time in Oia was only about 1 hour and 15 minutes. 15 of the minutes were spent walking too and from the meeting point, and the hour was spent shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of others, dodging picture taking opportunities and looking for a three-foot square section to call your own.

 

Fira was the same by the time we got there, and the cable car line to get back down was so long that it seemed almost as though I could see the curvature of the Earth as I looked down it. We ended up walking down, and the footpaths were very crowded, with people, donkeys and donkey poop -- I got pinned once against the wall by a line of donkeys and the whole thing was crummy. Plus it's hot.

 

It's a beautiful place, but if Jade is going to arrive last, you're always going to be a step behind the crowds. If I had it to do over again, I would have done it on my own, and would have taken advantage of the fact that the late arrival means that Jade leaves an hour or so later than the last of the other cruise ships. I would have waited on the ship until noon or maybe even a bit later and then taken the cable car up, and a taxi or something over to Oia -- hopefully by then it would be less congested. And then I'd plan for the cable car to clear out and to try to get one of the last tenders to Jade.

 

NCL should really consider doing some afternoon excursions. Otherwise, the island just is not designed in its main areas for 10,000 people trying to get to the same areas in a 4-hour window. It seemed like a beautiful place, but I've really never been so relieved as I was to get back to the ship.

[lanceholt]

Sounds like you took an excursion, perhaps? We were in Santorini a couple of years ago on the Jade and it was crowded then too...it is one of the world's most beautiful places. We took the tram up and down....long line each way but it moved quickly both times. We walked to the bus station and for a few Euro we rode the bus to Oia and back to Fira. Oia was very crowded but so is much of Europe and we just walked with the flow.

[Cruising Golfer]

Sounds like you took an excursion, perhaps? We were in Santorini a couple of years ago on the Jade and it was crowded then too...it is one of the world's most beautiful places. We took the tram up and down....long line each way but it moved quickly both times. We walked to the bus station and for a few Euro we rode the bus to Oia and back to Fira. Oia was very crowded but so is much of Europe and we just walked with the flow.

 

We did Oia on our own also. It was wonderful, crowded but we stopped and had a nice lunch and just watched the world go by. I guess it's what you make of it, some people just don't get it... :cool:

[Regguy]

Yes, we did the Oia on your own excursion (can't remember exactly the name). It's basically a priority tender to the port where buses can pick you on the far side of the island, a bus ride to Oia, free time, and then a ride to Fira with a ticket for the cable car ride down. It's essentially transportation, with a guide on the bus who gives you a little information about the island.

 

I expected crowds, for sure, but this was worse than just crowded. It was sort of a perfect storm of bad timing given the Jade's arrival, and so while it should be possible for a DIY tour to take advantage of the Jade's slightly later departure, the excursion time put us one step behind everyone and so we were always in the most densely packed areas at exactly the wrong time.

[littlelulu01]

I know the time of arrival/departure is not ideal with so many other ships in port but I think part of what you experienced was the excursion you took. I did the exact same one last year with the 2pm arrival and only a couple other ships in port.

 

Everyone who didn't have an excursion simply tendered to port and went about their day. I paid for the $70pp trip to Oia, bus to Fira and cable car ticket down to tenders. The people who did DIY or other ships excursions all raved about how easy, quick and uncrowded it was.

 

We arrived at 2pm. Our excursion was one of the last called from theater. We then boarded in groups ours was number 23 meaning the 23rd bus for this excursion. By the time we got to Oia it was after 3 pm and our bus back to Fira was at 4. We had less than an hour there. Since the excursion advertising says an hour i went to shore excursions and said something. They were really nice about it and said they just needed to verify our actual time in Oia so it's important to remember bus number. After verifying that we were actually there much less than an hour the excursion folks refunded us half the cost. I thought that was fair and a nice gesture but would have much rather the time in Oia.

 

We didn't experience the lines down for cable car you did because we were not there with 10k other people. But the excursion itself isn't the best one for getting to spend any amount of time in Oia regardless of how many other ships in port. The tender took us over to the other port and then bus back ate up time.

 

The other thing I felt bad about was that many people who had a little more trouble walking seemed to be on our bus, presumably booked for greater ease. They had a heck of a time getting from bus drop off back to cable car. I think it was billed as a level 2 activity but this year I think it's a level 3. There were many people grumpy about this. We had to help at the end otherwise the people who had canes would not have been able to get up the rocky hills from bus to Fira.

[whimsy7]

kudos to Norwegian Jade on our Adriatic cruise in May...

they switched the day that we would have been in Santorini with 3 other equally large ships to the next day when we were the only large ship there (with two smaller ships).

it still was crowded at the upper cable car station when we made our return trip to the ship.

this time, we opted to walk down the fragrant and often slippery path to catch the tender back to the ship. this walk is not advisable for people who do not like large animals (like donkeys) who walk wherever they want to walk - resulting in being squashed against the walls and having to push them away....