Santorini

[Susan-M]

I still am not sure where this leaves me with five ships in port. The recommendations seem to be based upon visits when there were fewer ships in port

 

I've read recommendations on other threads that taking a ship's tour is one way to get onto the island quickly and avoid the crowds of Fira when there are several ships in port on the same day. It's a beautiful island and although a ship's tour wouldn't be my first choice (we rented a car on a less busy day) it would be preferable to missing the island altogether. I agree that you are faced with a difficult situation if you want to do it on your own, with 5 ships in port and arrival times for all 5 being between 7 & 8 a.m., and departure time for 3 ships, including yours, at 5 p.m.

 

Perhaps it's worth posting another thread.... "Santorini with 5 ships in port :confused: " to see if you can get more specific answers.

[kdowneymd]

Yes, I think you are right I am going to need to fine tune this and try andpost on other boards as well, Thanks

[Jade13]

 

I have heard of one alternative, and that is that there may be boats - small local boats, that is - that go from the small harbour below Oia to the almost-as-small harbour below Fira (which is where the tenders call for the trip back to the ship). I can't promise that this information is true, and I don't have any information at all about prices, but I've come across a mention of it somewhere. .

 

Does anyone have information on this?

[Susan-M]

Does anyone have information on this?

 

The bay below Oia is called Amoudi and well worth a visit if you have time when you are in Oia ... it's a hike back up on foot, but we went down by car when it wasn't too busy and were able to find parking down there.

 

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2043/1669860196_d8d660e477.jpg%3Fv%3D0&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/62106917%40N00/1669860196/&h=387&w=500&sz=163&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=MtCD4KKVp3W1wM:&tbnh=101&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Damoudi%2Bbay%2Bphoto%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us

 

We had dinner down there and spent some time exploring along a path. We didn't see much in the way of boating activity, but we may have missed seeing a 'commuter' boat.

 

If you don't get an answer here, I would ask on tripadvisor ... there are destination experts there that are very familiar with the island and would probably be able to answer your question. http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g189433-i245-Santorini_Cyclades.html

[cruisinlivin]

walking or donkeys and from what I've heard wait for the cable car.

 

Walking down will take a while, but it is possible.

 

Keep in mind the donkeys use the same path so closed toe shoes are probably advisable. I wouldn't recommend flip flops for the whole town. The cobbles are uneven, stairs are high and low in spots.... sturdier shoes would help.

[cruisinlivin]

Thank-you for the replies. If anyone has any other ideas of how to beat the crowds, I would appreciate them

 

We were just in Santorini and noticed that some of the ships let their excursion customers off at the ferry dock and then cruised over to moor off the town dock for tendering.

 

If you consider renting a car, (which we did because it was reasonable... it got us out of town on ship days..... and we got to see far more of the island with easy driving) picking it up at the ferry dock would be very easy. Maybe with a document that you rented a car for pickup at the ferry dock the ship might let you off there too. This would speed up your touring considerably and you would enjoy it more. In a day you could easily see the best of the beaches, the winery, Oia and end in Santorini. The rental company would probably accept dropping the car off there, they seem very flexible with their business.

 

If for any reason the ship decided not to dock at the ferry dock the rental company would probably work out details for you to pick it up in town or Oia.

 

It will be unbelieveable with 5 ships in. Neither Firo not Oia are that big.

 

There is a walking path from one end of the Caldera to the other right along the edge, it is great for terrific pictures.

 

It is an awesome place! :cool:

[einsteinsmom]

Well, we had 6 or seven ships the day we were in port. They were smaller ships and they did arrive at different times of the morning. I assume they were leaving at different times as well.

I would recommend getting off the ship asap, to try and get up the cable car early. Once you are up, people do spread out some. The little streets with all the shops were crowded. You could go one or two streets off the main drag and find some quiet.

We were a group of 10 and we used the donkeys, cable cars, and walking between us all. The walking is ok, just can be a bit hairy when a group of donkeys goes by(both ways, in the AM they are coming down empty to pick up more people, in the PM they are going up empty to pick up people, they move more quickly when empty!) The riding was fine, some of the donkeys have minds of their own! You will have to walk the last bit uphill and a last bit downhill in the afternoon...behind all of the parked donkeys.

We returned to the cable car and the line was not too bad at 3ish for us. Again, as the ships were arriving at all different times, I think their departures were different as well.

Cruise Cal, did not have any other ships listed for our date. They must not have all the lines on their lists!

A private tour is always a good option as well, great for finding the not so crowded spots and they are used to the cruise crowds and know where and when to go to avoid them!

Kristy

[jdvmd]

When we were on the Millenium two years ago, our captain switched our Athens and our Santorini days because there were going to be so many ships in Santorini on that particular day. We enjoyed it all by ourselves. Thought that was a great thing on the captain's part. We were concerned about our private driver that we had scheduled for Athens but the ship called the company directly and told them that we were switching days. They did this for everyone. So keep your fingers crossed. The captain didn't announce until the day before.

[highworth]

I agree with a couple of the previous posters...taking the donkeys will cause you to talk about it for years!! We took them on the way down and laughed the whole time...it was a bit hair raising at times...the donkeys are pretty big, the path is steep and the donkeys seemed to get annoyed when meeting the groups coming the other way!