Santorini Removed from Itinerary

[kiefaber455]

Of all the ports we were looking forward to going to on our Sunsets and Adriatic Gems cruise, Santorini was #1 on the list.

For some reason, HAL has removed it and replaced it with Nafplion. Has anyone ever been there?

Really disappointed.

[OlsSalt]

This link gives you insights - and how the local population feels about cruise ships. The growth of cruising overall, as well as the sheer size of ships, is getting to be its own worst enemy. Hope we find a middle ground, but some places are just too darn small to absorb the current impacts:

 

https://santorinidave.com/santorini-cruise-ship-ban

[BermudaBound2014]

34 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

This link gives you insights - and how the local population feels about cruise ships. The growth of cruising overall, as well as the sheer size of ships, is getting to be its own worst enemy. Hope we find a middle ground, but some places are just too darn small to absorb the current impacts:

 

https://santorinidave.com/santorini-cruise-ship-ban

Unfortunately, It’s not just Santorini. There is a growing disdain toward cruise ships globally as sustainable tourism is gaining momentum. Here on Maui, a recent article published about the return of cruising gathered over 350 comments with the vast majority negative toward both cruise ships and it’s passengers.  The world perception  towards cruising is changing quickly. 
 

To the OP, I’m sorry you will miss Santorini. I hope you can visit by land one day. 

 

 

 

 

[Nang]

it is not just your cruise affected, other HAL cruises have had it removed as well. Venice is another port that that is being "removed" as is Monaco although they are at least accessible from other stops. A number of HAL cruises have had the Venice stop moved to Trieste, about a 2 hour drive away.

[aliaschief]

We arrive, maybe take  a local tour but do not shop or spend much. Is that the problem? Or are ships just getting so large the industry and locality just cannot absorb?

[ski ww]

On the day that the Oosterdam was suppose to stop in Santorini there were 6 cruise ships in port. It would not of been a fun day with those kinds of crowds. Santorini has been on our bucket list for a long time, but I'm glad we changed ports, maybe another time. 

[MAVIP]

And......Nafplion in itself is a very nice town in the Peleponnesus with quite a few possibilities for interesting excursions to historic sites in the neighbourhood too. Enjoy!

 

[terrydtx]

Our 14 night Oosterdam cruise in August not only lost Santorini which was switched to a second Mykonos stop, we lost Sauda Crete that was replaced with a sea day. Santorini and Crete were our 2 top reasons for booking. Nafplion would have much preferred to the second stop in Mykonos. We also got moved from a Venice departure to Trieste. So far no explanations from HAL about why we lost Sauda Crete. The day we were supposed to be in Sauda we were only 1 of 3 ships scheduled that day so over crowding shouldn't have been an issue.  We had a private jeep tour booked in Sauda and so far we have not been able to get a refund. I can understand the problems in Santorini, but still not pleased with the changes. Our cruise is also the only Oosterdam one to lose Sauda.

Edited April 20, 2022 by terrydtx

[12cruise2]

I've noticed that I believe HAL advertises most itineraries that were the ones used before covid and are used to "sell" the cruise.  Then once final payment is received, up through the sailing itself, ports are substituted. . . . Follow the money in that it may be that HAL was aware that changes would be made, but chose to wait til closer to sailing time to announce them.  Santorini is a great advertising tool. . . . .

As an aside, we had one experience on Princess with going to Bali--all of a sudden the Bali stop was deleted and replaced with Kota Kinabalu a month or two before the cruise.  We had been really looking forward to Bali.  Turns out we spoke with a seasoned traveler on the trip who told us Bali had been advertised in the itinerary for 7 years as a port and had NEVER ended up being a stop.  We all complained in our evals and they finally stopped advertising Bali.

[Homosassa]

Have you ever seen the depiction of Dante's Circle of Hell?

 

The day we were in Santorini, I felt that a new circle had been added for cruise ship passengers as we trudged shoulder to shoulder through the narrow passage ways of the towns and watched the passengers that decided to take the donkey path down to the tender landing.

 

I can under stand why cruise ship numbers may be limited.

 

https://www.florenceinferno.com/the-map-of-hell/

[Sir PMP]

10 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

This link gives you insights - and how the local population feels about cruise ships. The growth of cruising overall, as well as the sheer size of ships, is getting to be its own worst enemy. Hope we find a middle ground, but some places are just too darn small to absorb the current impacts:

 

https://santorinidave.com/santorini-cruise-ship-ban

Good for the people of Santorini, this will happen more and more.

[Sir PMP]

9 hours ago, BermudaBound2014 said:

Unfortunately, It’s not just Santorini. There is a growing disdain toward cruise ships globally as sustainable tourism is gaining momentum. Here on Maui, a recent article published about the return of cruising gathered over 350 comments with the vast majority negative toward both cruise ships and it’s passengers.  The world perception  towards cruising is changing quickly. 
 

To the OP, I’m sorry you will miss Santorini. I hope you can visit by land one day. 

 

 

 

 

Solution: small ships..

[Homosassa]

20 minutes ago, Sir PMP said:

Solution: small ships..

We were on a relatively small ship (Viking Ocean) the day we visited.

 

We were one of the first ships into port and Viking had arranged for us  to tender to the one dock area where buses could travel down to pick us up and whisk us to Oia before the crowds.  It was delightful for about forty five minutes before the hordes descended (ascended?).  Couldn't move, had to push through those  who were coming up the narrow stairs from the bus drop off

 

Fira was a nightmare (we were provided tickets for the cable car back down). We cut short our time on shore and went back to the ship.

 

At least we missed the cattle chute experience that the line for the cable car becomes later in the day.

 

Botticelli's Map of Dante's Hell was the visual that was in my  mind while on shore.

 

If we ever return on a cruise ship, Santorini will be a stay on board day.

[terrydtx]

1 hour ago, Homosassa said:

We were on a relatively small ship (Viking Ocean) the day we visited.

 

We were one of the first ships into port and Viking had arranged for us  to tender to the one dock area where buses could travel down to pick us up and whisk us to Oia before the crowds.  It was delightful for about forty five minutes before the hordes descended (ascended?).  Couldn't move, had to push through those  who were coming up the narrow stairs from the bus drop off

 

Fira was a nightmare (we were provided tickets for the cable car back down). We cut short our time on shore and went back to the ship.

 

At least we missed the cattle chute experience that the line for the cable car becomes later in the day.

 

Botticelli's Map of Dante's Hell was the visual that was in my  mind while on shore.

 

If we ever return on a cruise ship, Santorini will be a stay on board day.

I am beginning to see a pattern here from many CC members, Santorini shouldn't be visited in the summer cruise season. We have a cruise next year that ends in Athens from Amsterdam the end of September. We are going to spend about a week in Athens and we are thinking that we might just fly over to Santorini for the day.

[OlsSalt]

2 hours ago, Sir PMP said:

Solution: small ships..

 

My first "cruise ship" visiting the Greek Islands, Ephesus and Dubrovnik in the late 1960's - Chandris Fantasia -  $90 for 11 days - How many passengers? Unknown, but it sure looks small.

 

(NB: Former Duke of York - 500 passengers)

 

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by OlsSalt

[MAVIP]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

I am beginning to see a pattern here from many CC members, Santorini shouldn't be visited in the summer cruise season. We have a cruise next year that ends in Athens from Amsterdam the end of September. We are going to spend about a week in Athens and we are thinking that we might just fly over to Santorini for the day.

For an absolutely ridiculous price of € 69 flight from AMS to Santorini.....

[MISTER 67]

51 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

 

My first "cruise ship" visiting the Greek Islands, Ephesus and Dubrovnik in the late 1960's - Chandris Fantasia -  $90 for 11 days - How many passengers? Unknown, but it sure looks small.

 

(NB: Former Duke of York - 500 passengers)

 

 

$90.00 for 11 days was one heck of a deal even for the 1960s.

[OlsSalt]

1 hour ago, MISTER 67 said:

$90.00 for 11 days was one heck of a deal even for the 1960s.

 

Bunk beds, below the water line, most forward cabin and I recall hearing everything the ship would slosh and bump into while cutting the waves - was the bathroom down the hall? - probably.

 

But the food was good, the passengers mainly British were a very jolly bunch - fantastic itinerary and a precious time to be seeing all those sights before they got crowded.  The dilemma of course - who gets to be lucky enough to see "uncrowded" venues. 

 

Dubrovnik was still behind the Iron Curtain in Tito's Yugoslavia and very broken and run down - I remember thinking, if they just added a few cafes and cleaned things up they had a pretty nifty tourist attraction. 

 

Ephesus was wide open for wild wandering on your own.  And don't even ask what Lindos was like on the island of Rhodes. Just remote, haunting and gorgeous.

 

Keeping in mind, this was still back in the "Europe on $5 a Day" days, and often we could.  

Edited April 20, 2022 by OlsSalt

[Sir PMP]

1 hour ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Bunk beds, below the water line, most forward cabin and I recall hearing everything the ship would slosh and bump into while cutting the waves - was the bathroom down the hall? - probably.

 

But the food was good, the passengers mainly British were a very jolly bunch - fantastic itinerary and a precious time to be seeing all those sights before they got crowded.  The dilemma of course - who gets to be lucky enough to see "uncrowded" venues. 

 

Dubrovnik was still behind the Iron Curtain in Tito's Yugoslavia and very broken and run down - I remember thinking, if they just added a few cafes and cleaned things up they had a pretty nifty tourist attraction. 

 

Ephesus was wide open for wild wandering on your own.  And don't even ask what Lindos was like on the island of Rhodes. Just remote, haunting and gorgeous.

 

Keeping in mind, this was still back in the "Europe on $5 a Day" days, and often we could.  

The good old days..

[ontheweb]

6 hours ago, Sir PMP said:

Solution: small ships..

Unfortunately, the major cruise lines are going in the opposite direction when it comes to ship size.

[MISTER 67]

2 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Bunk beds, below the water line, most forward cabin and I recall hearing everything the ship would slosh and bump into while cutting the waves - was the bathroom down the hall? - probably.

 

But the food was good, the passengers mainly British were a very jolly bunch - fantastic itinerary and a precious time to be seeing all those sights before they got crowded.  The dilemma of course - who gets to be lucky enough to see "uncrowded" venues. 

 

Dubrovnik was still behind the Iron Curtain in Tito's Yugoslavia and very broken and run down - I remember thinking, if they just added a few cafes and cleaned things up they had a pretty nifty tourist attraction. 

 

Ephesus was wide open for wild wandering on your own.  And don't even ask what Lindos was like on the island of Rhodes. Just remote, haunting and gorgeous.

 

Keeping in mind, this was still back in the "Europe on $5 a Day" days, and often we could.  

We had bunk beds on the old Carla Costa but not below the waterline, that's where we drew the line.

Edited April 20, 2022 by MISTER 67

[syesmar]

18 hours ago, kiefaber455 said:

...For some reason, HAL has removed it and replaced it with Nafplion. Has anyone ever been there? Really disappointed.

So sorry to hear about your cancellation! I know you must feel disappointed. 

I've not been in port at Nafplion, but we did an excursion out of Piraeus in 2011 that went to places not far from Nafplion: Corinth Canal, Ancient Corinth, Acrocorinth, Mycenae, and Nemea (I organized it through our roll call). It was an absolutely fabulous excursion! Take heart, there's still wonderful sites to explore.

 

I wish you all the best!

Edited April 20, 2022 by syesmar

[Sir PMP]

51 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Unfortunately, the major cruise lines are going in the opposite direction when it comes to ship size.

That's why  cruise lines like MSC, Royal C., Norwegian, Hal, Princess, Carnival etc. should be banned from these beautiful islands and cities.

[Homosassa]

4 hours ago, OlsSalt said:

 

Bunk beds, below the water line, most forward cabin and I recall hearing everything the ship would slosh and bump into while cutting the waves - was the bathroom down the hall? - probably.

 

 

Our first cruise was on the Chandris Britanis.

 

We had an "outside" cabin, that is the cabin was against the hull at the water line. It was also the most forward cabin. We could hear the water rushing along the ship.

 

Yes, our bathrooms were down the hall. One for men, one for women. Each contained two bathtubs, four showers and six toilet stalls.

 

Fantastic Greek food on board.

[OlsSalt]

1 minute ago, Homosassa said:

Our first cruise was on the Chandris Britanis.

 

We had an "outside" cabin, that is the cabin was against the hull at the water line. It was also the most forward cabin. We could hear the water rushing along the ship.

 

Yes, our bathrooms were down the hall. One for men, one for women. Each contained two bathtubs, four showers and six toilet stalls.

 

Fantastic Greek food on board.

 

We even had the flaming Baked Alaska parade in those days on the last night - I remember the dining stewards trying to fan out the flames, when the crepe paper ceiling decorations caught fire. Little did I know at the time, how terribly tragic that could have been. Some traditions are better off left dead.

 

Yes, the Greek appetizers were fantastic. Though one night we stayed up for the "midnight buffet" which I  think it were just apples and velveeta cheese sandwiches.