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Sun Princess stopping at Santorini now?


colsky
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We're on the Sun Princess in a little over 3 weeks.  It is scheduled to stop at Santorini on 13th August. Cruisemapper is confirming this, it looks like its the first time the Sun will have stopped there in a while.

 

We have a Princess excursion booked there, I've never been before, so I'm looking forward to it.

 

The Sun Princess facebook group is still getting a number of posts suggesting they have heard that it won't be stopping in Santorini this year, which is worrying me.

 

I am naively thinking that if they are going to move the 13th August stop there, then they would have done it already!

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1 minute ago, colsky said:

We're on the Sun Princess in a little over 3 weeks.  It is scheduled to stop at Santorini on 13th August. Cruisemapper is confirming this, it looks like its the first time the Sun will have stopped there in a while.

 

We have a Princess excursion booked there, I've never been before, so I'm looking forward to it.

 

The Sun Princess facebook group is still getting a number of posts suggesting they have heard that it won't be stopping in Santorini this year, which is worrying me.

 

I am naively thinking that if they are going to move the 13th August stop there, then they would have done it already!

I hope you get to go. We were on the 6/8 sailing and China was a subpar substitution.

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Sounds like bigger changes in store for 2025 cruises.  Princess removed “some” of the Port calls this summer for Sun Princess.  
 

Here’s one article.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/greece-cruise-ship-cap-santorini-mykonos-b2563943.html#
 

Really hope you get to stop there.  We love Santorini and Rhodes.  Totally different Greek islands.

 

 

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39 minutes ago, Globaler said:

I hope you get to go. We were on the 6/8 sailing and China was a subpar substitution.

I wish it had been China! It was Chiana. 

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Posted (edited)

Our Santorini stop is still scheduled for 13 August 2024.

 

According to the port schedule there will be approx' 12,000 passengers able to disembark that day!😲 

Edited by Esprit
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12 minutes ago, Esprit said:

Our Santorini stop is still scheduled for 13 August 2024.

 

According to the port schedule there will be approx' 12,000 passengers able to disembark that day!😲 

That’s crazy for such a small island.  Hope you get in early.

 

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Per cruisemapper, this is Santorini's schedule for 13 August:


Silversea Cruises  Silver Whisper    08:00    22:00
MSC Cruises  MSC Divina    08:00    18:00
Princess Cruises Sun Princess    09:00    22:00
Royal Caribbean Cruises Odyssey Of The Seas    13:00    23:00

 

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51 minutes ago, colsky said:

Per cruisemapper, this is Santorini's schedule for 13 August:


Silversea Cruises  Silver Whisper    08:00    22:00
MSC Cruises  MSC Divina    08:00    18:00
Princess Cruises Sun Princess    09:00    22:00
Royal Caribbean Cruises Odyssey Of The Seas    13:00    23:00

 

Hopefully the spacing of the ship arrivals and departures will ease the queue for the cable car. I've done the 588 steps up and down twice before. I'd do them again, but DW will definitely not! 🙄 

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2 hours ago, Globaler said:

I wish it had been China! It was Chiana. 

You are getting closer. I believe you mean Chania. The port in Crete, Greece. I don’t want to even mention how it is actually pronounced. A Greek friend of mine has really given me a hard time about how I say it…. 😉

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2 hours ago, PapaGoose said:

You are getting closer. I believe you mean Chania. The port in Crete, Greece. I don’t want to even mention how it is actually pronounced. A Greek friend of mine has really given me a hard time about how I say it…. 😉

So how does your Greek friend say it? I've heard it so many ways.

 

Our Italian captain says it with a hard K, like Kawn-ee-ah, others omit the C like Hawn-ee-ah and without any other knowledge I say Chawn-ee-ah. Another variation for the end uses "ya" instead of ee-ah.

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47 minutes ago, beg3yrs said:

So how does your Greek friend say it? I've heard it so many ways.

 

Our Italian captain says it with a hard K, like Kawn-ee-ah, others omit the C like Hawn-ee-ah and without any other knowledge I say Chawn-ee-ah. Another variation for the end uses "ya" instead of ee-ah.

He says it with the “h” beginning. Hahn-yah. He claims the Greek spelling uses an “X” at the beginning which has that “H” sound. 
 

We will be there next May while doing a 14 day Mediterranean cruise on the Sun Princess so I’ll find out how the locals pronounce it. Nothing like first hand experience!

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22 minutes ago, PapaGoose said:

He says it with the “h” beginning. Hahn-yah. He claims the Greek spelling uses an “X” at the beginning which has that “H” sound. 
 

We will be there next May while doing a 14 day Mediterranean cruise on the Sun Princess so I’ll find out how the locals pronounce it. Nothing like first hand experience!

Thanks, that's one of the pronunciations I heard. I will use that.

 

Be sure to visit the waterfront in the sailboat harbor. It's full of nice little tavernas. We had a wonderful lunch there. Fresh sea bass, calamari, greek fries and grilled veggies. Of course a bottle of wine followed by complimentary baklava and ouzo.

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Posted (edited)

We had one of the absolute *best* meals we've ever had at the Venetsanos Winery .  It was included in a private tour that we did with a local. Venetsanos winery is located in Megalochori, right above the port of Athinios, overlooking the caldera of Santorini.  If you get the opportunity to go here plan on a meal, either lunch or dinner.  I don't know if reservations are required...if so our tour guide probably arranged this ahead of time.

 

20210828_164658.jpg

 

20210828_164703.jpg

 

20210828_164950.jpg

Edited by Rick&Jeannie
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20 hours ago, Esprit said:

Our Santorini stop is still scheduled for 13 August 2024.

 

According to the port schedule there will be approx' 12,000 passengers able to disembark that day!😲 

Our tour "Oia & Fira on your own" with Princess was removed from our schedule yesterday and also a couple of other guests too. They're still showing tour options but not this one!

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Posted (edited)

Next June we are scheduled to call into Santorini and as of today, these are the ships listed to call on that day.  Add to that the number of passengers on Majestic at 3560 and you're looking at just over 22,900.  And that number does not include crew.  

 

Star Flyer - 170

MSC Divina - 3502 - 4202

Marella Explorer - 1924 - 2681

Costa Fansinoca - 3014 - 3617

Norwegian Pearl - 2394 - 2873

Odyssey of the Seas - 3844 - 4805

Total = 14848 - 19348

Edited by Anubi
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We are still scheduled to stop in early September. If we stop, there will probably be 14,000 passengers dropped off that day and potentially up to 16,000. The Sun is the last ship to get in. I was extremely disappointed to learn we might miss Santorini, but the more I read I’m beginning to think it might be a good thing. 

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My Princess App is showing a scheduled stop on 13 August at 9 am, leaving at 10 pm. There are also 23 excursions available to book.

Shame for those currently on the Sun as it's bound for Chania (Crete) on the ship webcam instead of Santorini. 

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6 minutes ago, Esprit said:

My Princess App is showing a scheduled stop on 13 August at 9 am, leaving at 10 pm. There are also 23 excursions available to book.

Shame for those currently on the Sun as it's bound for Chania (Crete) on the ship webcam instead of Santorini. 

This has routinely been changed at the last minute. 

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While we've been to Santorini twice now, I personally would jump at the chance to go again.  However, with what @Anubi has posted above regarding the number of ships that are scheduled...I don't know.  It was crowded (IMO) the times we went but I don't think there was only 3 ships there at the time.  I can't imagine trying to get up the mountain on the cable car with that many people trying.  The first time I think we stood in line about 30 minutes.  The second was closer to 1.25 hours...and it was HOT!

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We had Santorini and Kotor cancelled very late in the game. It was very disappointing and I probably would not have booked that cruise had I known ahead of time that we were not going to either port.

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I can’t imagine Santorini with that many ships. I visited in April on the Sun and booked a non Princess tour so it would only be necessary to take the cable car one direction. 
In the end, we walked back down, which I don’t recommend. The cable car lines to get back to the ship are very long and it’s very hot so be prepared. 

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2 minutes ago, Jadn13 said:

I can’t imagine Santorini with that many ships. I visited in April on the Sun and booked a non Princess tour so it would only be necessary to take the cable car one direction. 
In the end, we walked back down, which I don’t recommend. The cable car lines to get back to the ship are very long and it’s very hot so be prepared. 

IF we stop we are planning to take the water taxi to Oia, explore it for a while then the public bus to Fira. Since the Sun is the last ship in port that day, I’m nervous about how long to get the water taxi, if even available. And I know the cable car line will be long. The other three ships leave 2 to 4 hours before the Sun, but we don’t want to get back to the ship too late. 

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We board in 18 days and so far it shows we're still on for Santorini, was informed a few months back about the kotor to bar change so if there was going to be a change would have hoped that the same would have happened, we booked an excursion through princess, have been to Santorini before but the couple we're traveling with have not so keeping our fingers crossed 😀.

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26 minutes ago, macaws2 said:

We board in 18 days and so far it shows we're still on for Santorini, was informed a few months back about the kotor to bar change so if there was going to be a change would have hoped that the same would have happened, we booked an excursion through princess, have been to Santorini before but the couple we're traveling with have not so keeping our fingers crossed 😀.


If you are scheduled for August 13 you might make it. Fewer ships in port that day. 

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