I did notice that the tenders that were used on our cruise were operated by the Santorini authorities & not the ships lifeboat tenders. I actually went back on an afternoon tender without queuing for a little stroll around the old port & to see the extent of the queues to go up. That’s when we saw that there were local vendors selling tours by boat to Oia, transport to Fira & cable car return.
Our tender did not take us to Fira port, it was another port where our buses waited for us to take us to Oia. Our trip was the first that left the ship & we were there at 8:45. The shops were just opening & our tender was the first of the day. We had 90 minutes in Oia before transport to Fira.