Quite major changes for calls to Santorini.

[edinburgher]

In a few quiet moments today  I was browsing cruise news in general and picked up on  some recent  Santorini  news  which will impact cruise passengers.

I  thought some of it might have already been reported by fellow  members, but as it has not, here goes.

 

1)  Passenger numbers waiting at the old dock. to either board the cable car up to Fira, or who are waiting in line for tenders back to their ships are now limited to 500, --total, not per ship.  Once that number is reached, cruise ships must reduce the number of tenders until numbers are sufficiently low enough  for them to increase again.  This will have the effect of slowing down tender access for cruise ship passengers TO Santorini, also tender access back to their ships. In addition to "cruise news" websites, this was reported on a recent CC "live from" post where the member quoted from a Princess flyer distributed to all passengers prior to their Santorini call.

 

2) Cruise lines can no longer set up water stations at the old dock for their passengers waiting for tenders to return to their ships.Given the sometimes very high temperatures on Santorini, especially in summer, passengers should carry water with them.

 

3)  A 10 euro pp disembarkation tax will be payable by each passenger, initially in Santorini, but expected to extend to other ports such as Mykonos which could follow by the end of this year.

Edited September 5 by edinburgher

[VMax1700]

If there are 500 passengers waiting for tenders back to the ship why would the authorities reduce the number of tenders?  It would make more sense to require an increase in number of empty tenders servicing the dock to remove the waiting passengers.

[edinburgher]

40 minutes ago, VMax1700 said:

If there are 500 passengers waiting for tenders back to the ship why would the authorities reduce the number of tenders? 

I believe that is a question only the authorities could answer.

Edited September 5 by edinburgher

[VMax1700]

13 minutes ago, edinburgher said:

I believe that is a question only the authorities could answer.

Sorry, it was a rhetorical question, with head scratching involved.

 

[edinburgher]

13 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

Sorry, it was a rhetorical question, with head scratching involved.

Having given your question some thought,  Ihinking that you forgot, or did not know, that ship calls to Santorini are staggered, meaning they do not all arrive and depart at the same times.

 

They arrive and depart at different times of the dayfrom early morning  up until very late evening, meaning those which arrive early morning may leave around mid afternoon or early evening and those arriving mid afternoon may leave quite late in the evening. Those on more typical  day timings might arrive mid morning and leave late pm or very early evening.

 

As a result,  tenders from some of  the various ships will usually be running almost continuously throughout the day, with passengers from one or two ships being taken ashore and passengers from a different one or two returning to their ships depending on their timings.

[VMax1700]

50 minutes ago, edinburgher said:

Having given your question some thought,  Ihinking that you forgot, or did not know, that ship calls to Santorini are staggered, meaning they do not all arrive and depart at the same times.

 

They arrive and depart at different times of the dayfrom early morning  up until very late evening, meaning those which arrive early morning may leave around mid afternoon or early evening and those arriving mid afternoon may leave quite late in the evening. Those on more typical  day timings might arrive mid morning and leave late pm or very early evening.

 

As a result,  tenders from some of  the various ships will usually be running almost continuously throughout the day, with passengers from one or two ships being taken ashore and passengers from a different one or two returning to their ships depending on their timings.

Been there a few times but stayed onboard the last few!

I am aware of the staggered arrivals, but was thinking more if the safety aspect with 500 cruisers waiting on the dock.  Slowing the tenders will not help reduce those numbers but sending empty tenders would reduce numbers on dock and slow arrival numbers too.

But, not our problemo!

[edinburgher]

1 hour ago, VMax1700 said:

was thinking more if the safety aspect with 500 cruisers waiting on the dock.

Not our problem indeed!  But not all of that 500 will be waiting for tenders as  a good proportion of them will be waiting in line for the cable car.

[hoopslover]

On 9/6/2024 at 3:55 AM, edinburgher said:

Having given your question some thought,  Ihinking that you forgot, or did not know, that ship calls to Santorini are staggered, meaning they do not all arrive and depart at the same times.

 

They arrive and depart at different times of the dayfrom early morning  up until very late evening, meaning those which arrive early morning may leave around mid afternoon or early evening and those arriving mid afternoon may leave quite late in the evening. Those on more typical  day timings might arrive mid morning and leave late pm or very early evening.

 

As a result,  tenders from some of  the various ships will usually be running almost continuously throughout the day, with passengers from one or two ships being taken ashore and passengers from a different one or two returning to their ships depending on their timings.

We were just there in May and indeed they were staggered throughout the day.  We arrived at 1 pm and departed at 10 pm.  The line for the cable car down was 90 minutes at 6 pm.

Next year we will be in Santorini on July 3 and I just checked cruisemapper and there are 7 ships in port with all of them arriving at 7 or 8 am and all of them leaving between 8 pm and 10 pm.  

We are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. We may have to stay on the ship.  No more cable cars or stairs for us.

 

[SummmerInKefalonia]

https://www.newsit.gr/oikonomia/xristika/krouaziera-sta-20-eyro-ana-epivati-to-neo-telos-kata-tin-high-season/4174510/

 

20€ will be the extra fee per pax in Santorini and Mykonos in high season (summer months).

A little less it will be in the other months.

Also an increase in passenger tax will be to other greek ports based on their call numbers.

[edinburgher]

13 hours ago, hoopslover said:

Next year we will be in Santorini on July 3 and I just checked cruisemapper and there are 7 ships in port with all of them arriving at 7 or 8 am and all of them leaving between 8 pm and 10 pm.  

We are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. We may have to stay on the ship.  No more cable cars or stairs for us.

In recent years, Santorini (and Mykonos to an extent) have gone from being eagerly anticipated visits to  visits which fill prospective cruise passengers with trepidation. My understanding is that Sun Princess pulled out of a few calls this summer due to the negative experience of their guests when there are too many ships in on the same day leading to long wait lines for the cable car and overcrowding in Thira and Oia.. And of course they actually do want their passengers to enjoy port calls. The proposed new rules may cause some to rethink their dates and either miss completely or go when on dates when  fewer ships are expected..

 

I blame the increase in the number of ship calls, also the sheer size of them as they carry several thousand passengers.

 

We only called there twice, but we noticed the difference in numbers and the longer cable car lines between the first and the second visit only a few short years later.

 

Unlikely to return,  but should we, we would probably stay onboard.😉

[edinburgher]

3 hours ago, SummmerInKefalonia said:

https://www.newsit.gr/oikonomia/xristika/krouaziera-sta-20-eyro-ana-epivati-to-neo-telos-kata-tin-high-season/4174510/

 

20€ will be the extra fee per pax in Santorini and Mykonos in high season (summer months).

A little less it will be in the other months.

Also an increase in passenger tax will be to other greek ports based on their call numbers.

More expensive than Venice.

[edinburgher]

On 9/9/2024 at 4:51 AM, 9265359 said:

and most particularly one family group who had hired a professional photographer where they and the family were trying to usher everyone out of the way whilst they took their time with some fancy shot.

My own take on that is that the photographer was more at fault than the family, especially if he/she was local and new the challenges those shots would create. He/she should have arranged a different, quieter location eslsewhere on the island.

[2blueyam]

The photographer can recommend another location, but that doesn't mean the people shelling out the big bucks for the professional photographer will listen. They want their perfect shot with this in the background because they saw it on someone else's Instagram feed or Christmas card and nothing else will do. Never mind the other folks stayed on the Island and got up before dawn to get that shot before it got crowded.

[erby2283]

I was just there September 11th - all I can say is that one and done is good enough for me!

 

We booked a ship excursion bc I knew going up the cable car would be a nightmare.  Well, the seas were apparently too rough to take us to Athinios so we all had to take the cable car up (I already knew I'd have to take it back but we weren't supposed to have to take it going up). While waiting in line, friends who were still on the ship said their excursions had been canceled and they had stopped (for the moment) tendering people until the lines went down.  It took us about an hour to get up.  Then a 10 minute walk to where the busses had to be re-routed - which was fine for me but one in our group has difficulty walking and it was not fun for her.  Then we got to Oia - luckily only 6 other buses were there at that point but it was so crowded when we left.  We got back to Fira and ate lunch and decided to just get in line to get back to the ship (4 hours before departure) which is where the real nightmare begins.  People constantly cutting in line - this all could be managed with some ropes so people knew where the lines started/ended.  People were getting angry and shouting.  It's just not fun.  I literally don't see the need to go back.

Edited October 3 by erby2283

[Hlitner]

I assume something may have been lost in the translation.  We would assume that the 500 person waiting limit would only apply to folks waiting to go up the cable car (which can only move about 600 persons per hour).  All the tenders to the old port are shore-based so the local authorities will need to coordinate with their own shore-based company,

 

At the old port, there are a number of locally owned/operated cafes, restaurants and shops.  Not allowing the cruise lines to provide water (free or otherwise) simply means that folks who are thirsty will need to buy drinks from the local vendors...not a big problem.

 

As to the 10 Euro Per Person tax,  one would assume this will be handled by the ships and might become part of the taxes/fees paid by everyone.  Logistically this should not be a difficult issue and will certainly raise a lot more money for the local authorities.  Unfortunately, these kind of tourist taxes (we already see this in Venice) does little to nothing to reduce the number of visitors.  Both Santorini and Mykonos have failed, miserably, at controlling the number and timing of cruise ships on any given day.   Although there are already some restrictions, it does not seem to have solved the overtourism problem.

 

One irony about the proposed policy is that by limiting the number of daily cruisers they would also be limiting the tax revenue (from that 10 Euro tax).  It will be interesting to see how greed impacts the ultimate rules.

 

Hank