Royal Caribbean - Santorini - Akrotiri Ruins and Oia Village Tour

[JAKE3337]

Has anyone done this tour with RCCL? We don't normally like to do ship excursions but I can't find any do it on our own threads to to go to the Akrotiri Ruins, Oia and Fira.

 

I'm just wondering with the ships tour, do you have enough time at the ruins and Oai before they bring you back to Fira. It says it is a 4 1/2 hour tour. We would rather do it on our own if possible.

 

We are in port Sept 20 from 8am - 8pm. I think there may be a couple of others ships in that day as well.

 

Thanks

Angela

[yvet]

We are on another ship but planning (and going to) doing it on our own.

 

We are going to rent a car and then drive to those places and have our own time there.

 

There are some posts about renting a car in Santorini on this board...

[Sunny AZ Girl]

We may be renting a car(s) also for our group of 8. I would personally not take a ship tour as this port sounds pretty doable on your own or with a private guide. The only advantages I see to taking a ship tour is that it is a tender port and you would be among the first off the ship and you won't have to watch the clock so carefully to make sure you get back to the ship on time. But, the time you will probably lose waiting for the bus to fill, waiting for stragglers, long restroom breaks, etc will make up for all of that. So, if your port time is very limited it may be worth it. Otherwise, not. We are fortunate in that we will be on the Jewel OTS and have a nice long day in port (7AM - 5PM).:)

[bluedolph1n]

We used Gold Street Travel for our Santorini tour. Went to Akrotiri Ruins, Pyrgos, Oia, Ferostefani (not sure if I pronounce it right) . You can say if you want to stay somewhere longer or not. We did also Oia last, the cruise excursions left Oia then, and it was more quiet. We heard from people who where there in the morning, it was very busy. It was also less expensive then a cruise excursion.

[journeymore]

We used Gold Street Travel for our Santorini tour. Went to Akrotiri Ruins, Pyrgos, Oia, Ferostefani (not sure if I pronounce it right) . You can say if you want to stay somewhere longer or not. We did also Oia last, the cruise excursions left Oia then, and it was more quiet. We heard from people who where there in the morning, it was very busy. It was also less expensive then a cruise excursion.

 

If you don't mind sharing, how many people in your group and what was the cost. Thanks

[dutchclogs]

We have just returned from Celebrity Constellation.

If you have a fair bit of obc I would consider a ships excursion for ease of tendering. The excursions tender to a different port and were earlier than the regular tenders though I understand from others the tendering went very smoothly.

As others say, it would pay to do some research as to how many other ships are in port and timing. For info, cruise friends wanted to book the Akrotiri excavations excursion and were disappointed to have it cancelled due to lack of interest. The on board concierge however was very helpful in making own travel arrangements.

You may also want to approach other private companies for example, The Travel Insiders and Olympic Transfer.

Happy planning!

[steve ch]

Has anyone done this tour with RCCL? We don't normally like to do ship excursions but I can't find any do it on our own threads to to go to the Akrotiri Ruins, Oia and Fira.

 

I'm just wondering with the ships tour, do you have enough time at the ruins and Oai before they bring you back to Fira. It says it is a 4 1/2 hour tour. We would rather do it on our own if possible.

 

We are in port Sept 20 from 8am - 8pm. I think there may be a couple of others ships in that day as well.

 

Thanks

Angela

 

I'm there on the next day with Celebrity Reflection. I booked the ship's tour to Akrotiri simply because you get off much quicker. The tenders to the tour bus jetty go first. The ship then has to reposition before the tenders start taking passengers to the bottom of the cable car, where you have to queue before getting up to Fira.

 

I would guess you would be half way through the Akrotiri tour before you even get up to Fira on your own.

[bluedolph1n]

If your ship is in in the morning, take one of the first tenders, and go up as soon as possible. We did that, and we had almost no waiting time. When you arrive in the afternoon it is different, with more ships you have a long line.

We did our tour with 7 people. For 5 hours it was 55 euros per person.

Edited August 21, 2016 by bluedolph1n