Rare VMax1700 Posted May 30 #26 Share Posted May 30 15 minutes ago, edinburgher said: But that may not be the situation at all unless you have evidence of that? At the time they confirmed they had a slot, they were possibly the first or second to confirm and unaware of how many other ships might request the same date AFTER after their own confirmation only later discovering just how many others also booked the same date. Given that an overcrowded port call could bring disappointment and possible upset to so many, voluntarily withdrawing in favour of a different port is maybe the better decision. No evidence at all. My point was just that it does appear that the lines can offer for sale ports of call which may or may not happen. Someone needs to grasp the nettle and devise a way of allocating the overcrowded ports. I agree that voluntary withdrawal to avoid the port is better than having disappointed cruisers, but why is it necessary to voluntarily withdraw? Even the voluntary withdrawal leads to disappointment as mentioned by OP. Perhaps CLIA should become involved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edinburgher Posted May 30 #27 Share Posted May 30 1 minute ago, VMax1700 said: Someone needs to grasp the nettle and devise a way of allocating the overcrowded ports i absolutely agree. And maybe cruiselines could stop building bigger and bigger ships as the number onboard isn't helping in smaller places either as pax numbers can completely swamp a town causing disruption to residents and creating animosity towards larger ships. As an example, only a few days ago MSC Virtuosa arrived into Lerwick, Shetland which has an approximate population of 7000 residents. It is the largest ever to visit Lerwick and can accommodate up to 6334 pax and 1704 crew, more than the number of local residents. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare VMax1700 Posted May 30 #28 Share Posted May 30 1 hour ago, edinburgher said: As an example, only a few days ago MSC Virtuosa arrived into Lerwick, Shetland which has an approximate population of 7000 residents. It is the largest ever to visit Lerwick and can accommodate up to 6334 pax and 1704 crew, more than the number of local residents. It is in Cobh today! 😱 Usually we would go to Cobh (15 minutes from our home) to see the ship and chat with cruisers, but today......no thanks! It is docking in the town centre and will overpower the sea front. At least Lerwick is a tender port and the 'bulk' of the ship would have not been so noticeable. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edinburgher Posted May 30 #29 Share Posted May 30 3 hours ago, VMax1700 said: It is docking in the town centre and will overpower the sea fron I totally agree that ships holding that number of pax can easily swamp smaller towns. Hoping that even bigger ships will never be considered!😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare RavenCruiser Posted May 30 #30 Share Posted May 30 We were just on the Divina from May17-24 that included a Santorini port call. We booked a ship excursion that originated and terminated at the new port as I was determined to avoid the cable car/donkey path situation. The excursion visited Akrotiri,Oia,and Fira. Davina was one of five ships in that day. Only other one I remember is Epic but I know the capacity of all five ships was at least 12-13K One thing I learned from going through the new port is that in addition to the cruise ships there is a constant parade of very large ferries bringing in additional people and cargo, all adding to the congestion. My overall assessment based on my experience is I am one and done with Santorini and I would have been quite pleased if that port were dropped in favor of another, or even just a sea day. We enjoyed Akrotiri but the towns are ridiculously overcrowded and congested. In many places it was similar to exiting an NFL stadium at the final gun. And given the sweat inducing temperature we experienced I couldn't possibly imagine how miserable it would be at the peak of Summer. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edinburgher Posted May 30 #31 Share Posted May 30 (edited) On 5/28/2024 at 12:54 AM, chinita415 said: I am not so confident I will get to go . Have you read post #25 above? You may be relieved if you do not go, your mother also as it will be unlikely to meet her expectations for her "bucket list" experience and she could end up remembering Santorini for all the wrong reasons. And you mentioned you would be in Paris during the Olympic Games and that would be another disappointment (your post #9). If you can cencel your accommodation booking without penalty, it may be that you would have a more positive experience in a different city in France as Paris will have more visitors than usual and there will be road closures and diversions to help move participants and officials to the venues by the fastest routes. Friends returned from a Paris break on Monday and mentioned that there are already some closures and diversions as the city prepares new signage and road markings.. Their airport taxi driver mentioned they were expecting up to a million extra visitors and that he was already having difficulty keeping track of the various road closures and diversions as works have begun.. Edited May 30 by edinburgher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinita415 Posted May 31 Author #32 Share Posted May 31 RavenCruiser - I was supposed to be on your sailing. I am learning about that excursion you took which is bus and tender both ways. That is the all day 8 hours Best Of Santorini one correct? edinburgher - I knew full well it would be crowded when I rescheduled to August with Olympics. My mom and I have been to Paris a number of times already and we won’t stay in the city because it is stupid expensive. We are staying near Disneyland and will take RER in for a day to show the kids the city. If we do get to go to Santorini, we will likely do a photo shoot at Imerovigli which should be less crowded than Oia or Fira. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edinburgher Posted June 1 #33 Share Posted June 1 15 hours ago, chinita415 said: We are staying near Disneyland and will take RER in for a day to show the kids the city. If we do get to go to Santorini, we will likely do a photo shoot at Imerovigli which should be less crowded than Oia or Fira. Sounds like a plan. Wishing you well with the various challenges you may encounter.😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinita415 Posted June 3 Author #34 Share Posted June 3 (edited) Read about landslides mitigations from another social media platform. This makes sense why they are now actually trying to limit numbers. Still crossing my fingers and toes we get to go. So just like Alaska last summer we are affected by local landslides. What are the chances? https://neoskosmos.com/en/2024/05/27/news/greece/controlled-access-measures-enforced-on-santorini-and-therasia-to-prevent-landslide-risks-throughout-the-tourist-season/ Edited June 3 by chinita415 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlaskaGoer Posted June 5 #35 Share Posted June 5 On 6/3/2024 at 3:41 PM, chinita415 said: Read about landslides mitigations from another social media platform. This makes sense why they are now actually trying to limit numbers. Still crossing my fingers and toes we get to go. So just like Alaska last summer we are affected by local landslides. What are the chances? https://neoskosmos.com/en/2024/05/27/news/greece/controlled-access-measures-enforced-on-santorini-and-therasia-to-prevent-landslide-risks-throughout-the-tourist-season/ " Controlled Disembarkation in Fira Bay: Implementing controlled disembarkation procedures to prevent overcrowding." Curious on what that will mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlaskaGoer Posted June 5 #36 Share Posted June 5 Interesting enough, I checked cruise mapper to see if there were any changes to the amount of ships docking. For our day it's now 1 less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinita415 Posted June 5 Author #37 Share Posted June 5 2 hours ago, AlaskaGoer said: Interesting enough, I checked cruise mapper to see if there were any changes to the amount of ships docking. For our day it's now 1 less. When are you scheduled to be there and on what ship? People on MSC Davina made it there this past 2 weeks. I am trying to figure out what numbers are acceptable and it seems there have been days with 10-11k allowed. So far my sailing still has Santorini but people are finding out a month ahead on MSC Davina which is calling there weekly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinita415 Posted June 5 Author #38 Share Posted June 5 This appears to be the official port schedule so I am checking here instead of CruiseMapper etc which are aggregate sites. https://www.santoriniports.gov.gr/en/cruise 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlaskaGoer Posted June 5 #39 Share Posted June 5 3 minutes ago, chinita415 said: When are you scheduled to be there and on what ship? People on MSC Davina made it there this past 2 weeks. I am trying to figure out what numbers are acceptable and it seems there have been days with 10-11k allowed. So far my sailing still has Santorini but people are finding out a month ahead on MSC Davina which is calling there weekly. Epic and in a week. There was a 2pm ship that is no longer listed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlaskaGoer Posted June 5 #40 Share Posted June 5 5 minutes ago, chinita415 said: This appears to be the official port schedule so I am checking here instead of CruiseMapper etc which are aggregate sites. https://www.santoriniports.gov.gr/en/cruise Might be official, but it's about 2k to 3k short on passenger numbers for the Epic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinita415 Posted June 5 Author #41 Share Posted June 5 24 minutes ago, AlaskaGoer said: Epic and in a week. There was a 2pm ship that is no longer listed. Are you there June 11th? If so it was the new Sun Princess that pulled out and made news. https://www.cruisehive.com/princess-cruises-ship-cancels-port-visits-due-to-congestion/128358 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinita415 Posted June 5 Author #42 Share Posted June 5 2 minutes ago, chinita415 said: Are you there June 11th? If so it was the new Sun Princess that pulled out and made news. https://www.cruisehive.com/princess-cruises-ship-cancels-port-visits-due-to-congestion/128358 Never mind looks like you are there June 10th. What is the actual pax count if not 3075? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlaskaGoer Posted June 5 #43 Share Posted June 5 8 hours ago, chinita415 said: Never mind looks like you are there June 10th. What is the actual pax count if not 3075? https://www.ncl.com/cruise-ship/Epic?cid=PS_DIG_NA_BRP_GOO_NA_NA_NA_NA_NA_NAM&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwmYCzBhA6EiwAxFwfgOwuYzBC56iWmSV72kws8h7z74jRRFFJAr_9nFuowS8_rEqpXeXvixoCHNkQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds 4k? Not sure how booked the Epic is tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hambagahle Posted June 6 #44 Share Posted June 6 On 5/29/2024 at 5:47 PM, erby2283 said: We are slated to stop on September 11th and there are 6 ships in port with an estimated 8,199 projected passengers. We are the 5th ship to arrive that morning and the 2nd ship to leave. 🫢 We've already booked a ship excursion to avoid the cable car up and just plan to head back extremely early to try and avoid the lines at the cable car. But we also plan to know it will be a cluster f - so just trying to keep that in mind so we know what we're getting into. As I understand it even if you are on a ship's excursion on Santorini at the end the bus will drop you slightly below Fira. You will then - on your own - walk up to Fira and get in the queue for the cable car. Ship's excursions do not bring people back to the ship. We have been to Santorini before. A long time ago, way before the cable car was built. We took donkeys up and walked back down. These days I feel like doing neither so we will just stay on board. Too bad - I would have liked to have visited Akrotiri but not under these conditions. (My take on it is the people in Santorini want to force travellers to walk through Fira (shop etc) and then use their very out-dated cable car...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trulaker9 Posted June 9 #45 Share Posted June 9 Cruising in July on the Sun Princess and the Santorini port of call was swapped to Chania over a month ago, so it seems Princess is definitely making a concerted effort to swap out of the Santorini stops. When I had checked the docking schedules for our stop in July there was going to be 8-10k pax on that day as there was an RCI Oasis ship also docking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2blueyam Posted June 12 #46 Share Posted June 12 We were in Santorini for 2 days as part of a land-based tour of Greece in April 2023. We arrived by ferry from Heraklion and flew back to Athens. The one day we ventured into town during the mid-day it was unbearably crowded. There were only smaller cruise ships in port totaling about 3k passengers. I can't imagine 8k+. If we ever are on a cruise that stops at Santorini, we would likely not get off the ship and just enjoy the view from the water, which we really didn't get to see from inside the ferry, as we had to be downstairs in the hold ready to disembark as we sailed in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare VMax1700 Posted June 15 #47 Share Posted June 15 https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/report-greek-prime-minster-says-time-has-come-to-restrict-cruise-ships The time has come to limit cruise ships starting next year. Santorini and Mykonos first as they are most affected, so says the Prime Minister of Greece 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare marazul Posted June 15 #48 Share Posted June 15 Here is an interesting article on overcrowding and limiting cruise ships. https://www.businessinsider.com/greece-restricting-cruise-ship-santorini-mykonos-tourist-compaints-2024-6p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinita415 Posted June 16 Author #49 Share Posted June 16 Interesting new announcement. Still wondering about implementation. Glad they mentioned Glacier Bay. How did Venice do it? So far my cruise still has Santorini on it. With us MSC Davina, Sun Princess, Odyssey of the Sea, and small Silver Whisper bringing that to 11k pax. At least my ship is first in at 7am so I will try for earliest tender tickets (apparently I have to queue up at 6am since I don’t have status I don’t think at Silver. Going down I have to just resign to waiting. Wish me luck we don’t get cancelled and bake if we do make it there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinita415 Posted June 16 Author #50 Share Posted June 16 On 6/15/2024 at 1:19 PM, marazul said: Here is an interesting article on overcrowding and limiting cruise ships. https://www.businessinsider.com/greece-restricting-cruise-ship-santorini-mykonos-tourist-compaints-2024-6p Lol us peasant cruise passengers infringing on those who can over night there. 😅 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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