Santorini Greece/Oia

[MLP12]

Can someone please give some advise on how to best enjoy Santorini/Oia.  I booked a tour through the ship,  but it looks like we will still have either extensive walking or use the cable cars to get back to the ship. The tour states you go by ferry and then board a bus to Oia with return to Fira .  I have read so many horror stories about large crowds, long lines, etc., I'm thinking about cancelling the tour because my husband has some issues walking long distances.  Is it as bad as I've read?  Is it worth getting off the ship to see?  I guess I'd really like to hear someone else's perspective who has actually visited there.  

[Biker19]

7 minutes ago, MLP12 said:

Is it as bad as I've read? 

It all depends on how many ships are there and the timing of the excursion return, but yes, the lines for the cable car can be long.

[Ethanol95]

18 minutes ago, MLP12 said:

Can someone please give some advise on how to best enjoy Santorini/Oia.  I booked a tour through the ship,  but it looks like we will still have either extensive walking or use the cable cars to get back to the ship. The tour states you go by ferry and then board a bus to Oia with return to Fira .  I have read so many horror stories about large crowds, long lines, etc., I'm thinking about cancelling the tour because my husband has some issues walking long distances.  Is it as bad as I've read?  Is it worth getting off the ship to see?  I guess I'd really like to hear someone else's perspective who has actually visited there.  

Just visited yesterday! Important things to note when considering whether to cancel your tour to Oia. Yes as Biker has mentioned, check how many ships are in port. A normal day is 3-4 cruise ships. With that amount of passengers, queues will not be terrible, though you still have to queue. A bad day is above 5 cruise ships. Lines will be very long for the cable car. 

 

We were the 2nd or 3rd tender off the ship and when we arrived at Fira (where the cable car starts from), the queue was already snaking. We waited about half an hour to 40 minutes to get to the front. My tip is to try to be on the first tender if you do want to continue to see Oia. Oia is lovely and beautiful, Oia is also where to best see the 3 blue domed churches, but it will be crowded with narrow walkways at times. We docked when there were only 3 ships tendered that day and already crowds were an inconvenience at times. 

 

My advice is if there are fewer ships in port the day you are at Santorini then go for the experience. The views are breathtaking and it is easily now my family's favorite port in the Mediterranean. 

 

With mobility issues, I saw a young teenage girl brought by her father in a wheelchair all the way up the mountain. So if she can do it in a wheelchair, I'm sure it's possible for you too. Just maybe travel less and see Oia on your own instead of with a tour group. 

[Cruise5life]

The important thing is to know the times all the ships are there.   
Im booked to do santorini next year.   There are 4 ships in port that day.   
But our ship is the last ship in port so we will be along in port after 6pm.   And we leave at 11pm.    So the like 5 hours being the only ship there.   So lines should be minimal after 5pm. 

[bonsai3s]

4 hours ago, MLP12 said:

Can someone please give some advise on how to best enjoy Santorini/Oia.  I booked a tour through the ship,  but it looks like we will still have either extensive walking or use the cable cars to get back to the ship. The tour states you go by ferry and then board a bus to Oia with return to Fira .  I have read so many horror stories about large crowds, long lines, etc., I'm thinking about cancelling the tour because my husband has some issues walking long distances.  Is it as bad as I've read?  Is it worth getting off the ship to see?  I guess I'd really like to hear someone else's perspective who has actually visited there.  

Santorini is truly magical and yes, with breathtaking views. It is important to know how many ships will be there and what time you arrive.

 

There is really no way around walking...both Oia and Fira are navigated by walking up and down stairs/steps and narrow alleys. 

 

With your booked tour, you will have priority tender and you would only have to deal with the cable car once...on the way down.  Your tender will take you to your ferry...the ferry will take you below Oia...then a short bus ride up to Oia.  After Oia, you'll take another bus (approx. 30 minutes) back to Fira.

 

You'll have time to walk around Fira...then ride the cable car back down the hill...then tender back to the ship.

 

* Yes, there can be long queues for the cable car...or you could get lucky and no queue.  Is it worth it?...IMHO, yes.

 

* You can read our DIY experience in the Santorini Forum.

[LibertyBella]

Santorini is a stunning landscape!  Arriving there is very scenic.  We especially wanted to visit Akrotiri (ancient city buried by the volcano eruption), thought to perhaps be the origin of the story of Atlantis. A bus met us right off the ship and we headed out to the archaeological site.  We also did a stop at Oia, quite congested, and the famous view involves a long line up and only a brief photo opportunity. Shopping is fun but pricey. I am not sure that I really HAD to see Oia--it is a pretty village but I like the historic sites better.

 

Are you also going to Mykonos?  There are a lot of architectural similarities there to see, and it may be less stressful to navigate.

 

I find almost all places in Greece involve a fair bit of walking, and many of the walkways are narrow and not flat, or have cobblestones.

 

We had plenty of time to walk around Fira, go to the prehistoric museum and eat lunch, but we did line up for about forty-five minutes (very hot) to get the cable car down, although it was the very end of the day.  We are in very good shape, and could probably run down the steps if we had to, but we heard they were full of donkey poo, so that was not appealing. The cable car was fast and relaxing.

 

If you really want to get off the ship, then plan on getting back on early before the crowds so the cable car line is less.

 

Have a great visit!

[Biker19]

15 hours ago, Ethanol95 said:

My tip is to try to be on the first tender if you do want to continue to see Oia.

The OP's tour starts with a ferry ride (from the tender landing spot), so no issue with the cable car going up - it's only the end of the tour cable car down that will be the issue. They are also on a ship tour, so they'll likely be on a dedicated likely early tender.

[KiwiGal117]

Check out the Greece Ports forum, here:

 

Greece Ports - Cruise Critic Community

 

There are lots of discussions of how best to do Fira/Oia.  We settled on the "Oia on Your Own" tour, and we are thinking about arranging for a private car transport back to Fira later in the day as the tour is only about 3 hours long.  We don't seem to be able to escape the cable car though, and we are in port with 3 other ships.😒

[Cruise5life]

5 minutes ago, KiwiGal117 said:

Check out the Greece Ports forum, here:

 

Greece Ports - Cruise Critic Community

 

There are lots of discussions of how best to do Fira/Oia.  We settled on the "Oia on Your Own" tour, and we are thinking about arranging for a private car transport back to Fira later in the day as the tour is only about 3 hours long.  We don't seem to be able to escape the cable car though, and we are in port with 3 other ships.😒

But when do you leave port ?   We are in port with 4 ships.  But they all leave by 6pm and we are there till 11pm 

so don’t think the cable car lines should be bad for us.    🤞

[KiwiGal117]

Unfortunately, we have two ships leaving at 7pm, ours departs at 8pm and the last for the day leaves at 9pm, so I don't think that there is going to be a point after 5pm where you're not waiting in a long line for the cable car, which holds 600 passengers an hour each way...

In your case, I think you'll be fine as plenty of time between the last departure and yours.

[Homosassa]

I have been to Santorini on a ship's excursion (another more upscale line on a ship with a passenger capacity of 930 passengers) and here is how the excursion went and would probably be consistent with your excursion once on shore:

 

Check carefully on where the ferry ashore takes you.  Is it actually a ferry to the Athinos ferry terminal or basically a tender that takes you to a quay where buses can make it down the cliff side to pick up excursion passengers.

 

That quay is small and only tenders from a single ship can be handled at a time (road on the cliff face is narrow and parking for buses limited), so it will depend on where your ship is in the rotation for the tenders and buses.

 

The later in the day, the more Oia and Thira will have a strong resemblance to the famous woodcutting of Dante's seven circles of hell as people trudge up and down the narrow stairs and passages.

 

In Oia, the buses will let you off at a parking lot at the foot of the stairs leading up to Oia. While there is an area with benches and cafes after the first flight of stairs, there is no place to stop for the rest of the climb (can't stop on the arrow stairs because of the mass of people trying to get up the flight.  If you are trying to come back down to the buses, you will need to push (literally) through the people climbing up.

 

Once pass the church on the main square (will be closed to the swarm of tourist, once is stuck in the additional very narrow passages and stairs through the rest of the village.(Reference again the Dante woodcutting for conditions).

 

Upon the return to Fira, your excursion bus will drop you at a square about a fast fifteen minute uphill walk to the cable car. The streets in the lower part of the walk will be wider than in Oia. However, the entrance to the cable car facility is once again off a narrow passage.  Once at the entrance to the cable car, the passage will narrow to single file an in non-crowded conditions, will take one to two minutes to negotiate.  The cable cars can  hold four - six passengers per car, six cars in a group for a total of  passengers,  a maximum of thirty six passengers in a trip either up or down. 

 

The cable cars are not in continues motion, the group of six goes down as the group of six cars at the bottom come up. To load, travel either up or down and unload  and reload means a group leaves a stop approximately every ten minutes. That means approximately  360 passengers are transported in one direction each hour, thus the lines of one to two hours at times.

 

Once we were dropped at Fira (and our ship was first in line for the transportation to the bus quay which meant we were at Oia before the swarms of other tourists; those conditions lasted for about twenty minutes), I was so done with the overcrowded atmosphere, we just walked uphill to the cable car and returned to the ship. No line in early afternoon.

 

Santorini is a been there, done that port for me and I would not get off the ship  should a cruise call there again.

 

If you decide to go ashore, I would only do it by a ship excursion that includes dedicated tenders to a bus or other transportation pier which doesn't include trying to take the cable car up to a Fira and a walk out to a transportation pick up location. 

 

https://www.openculture.com/2018/06/visualizing-dantes-hell.html

[sgmn]

 I'm in my late 60s, not particularly fit, my knees are a bit dodgy, but we have done Oia on our own and have walked down the steps three times over the last 10 years  and not had any issues.  I found the steps to be shallow and wide.  I would suggest that anyone worried about them, goggle steps in Santorini and click on images to get a better idea of what they are like.

I agree they are not suitable for anyone with mobility issues. 

 

 Check out the times of your visit and how many other ships are in port, it will make a difference as others have said.    On our last visit there was only us and one other smaller ship and no lines for the cable car.  If you're in port early, try to get to Oia as soon as possible as the streets are narrow and it gets very crowded. 

[mapleleaves]

According to cruisemapper there are 2 other ships in port with you; 

MSC is 7am-4pm,  Celebrity is 8am-10pm.  RCI is 1pm-11pm.

 

By taking the ships excursion you'll avoid the cable car lines so getting to Oia will be much easier.  ( I had a 2hr wait ! ).  And by the time you reach Oia around 2pm,  the MSC pax will already be gone as they needed to get to the cable cars in Fira and return to their ship. Not to say that Oia won't be crowded but at least those few thousand will be gone!

Your return to the ship could be a bit tricky though. With 2 ships leaving around the same time, the cable cars will be busy in the evening.  BUT, given the heat, you probably aren't going to linger too long in Fira after thee excursion, Maybe return to the ship when you're dropped off; have dinner onboard and enjoy the sunset from there?  

 

After getting our photos of the blue domes and beautiful views, we stopped at a cafe/bar for a drink, We then decided to go back to the ship for dinner and enjoy the sunset from the deck.  We got to the cable car around 7pm and there was NO line ! Perhaps everyone was sitting in a restaurant waiting for the sunset? 

 

I didn't think Fira was particularly hilly as we walked around, but the surfaces are uneven.  We saw lots of people with walking sticks. Perhaps buy a pair of trekking poles from your husband ??

 

Good luck. Have a great cruise !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[roomba920]

On 7/3/2023 at 4:49 PM, MLP12 said:

Can someone please give some advise on how to best enjoy Santorini/Oia.  I booked a tour through the ship,  but it looks like we will still have either extensive walking or use the cable cars to get back to the ship. The tour states you go by ferry and then board a bus to Oia with return to Fira .  I have read so many horror stories about large crowds, long lines, etc., I'm thinking about cancelling the tour because my husband has some issues walking long distances.  Is it as bad as I've read?  Is it worth getting off the ship to see?  I guess I'd really like to hear someone else's perspective who has actually visited there.  

When on NCL tours were tendered to a different port than where the cable cars are located. Buses meet you there.

[Vineyard View]

Wow. I have always wanted to go to Santorini. We are looking at a trip next year end of May mix looked at cruise timetables for the port. The ship we are looking to is 1200 pax. There are three other ships in port that day. Total would be almost 9800 pax not counting tourists on ships. Kinda sounds like a nightmare to me. Pretty disappointed but I sure can’t impact that. It’s all part of making the decision to sail that itinerary or another

[marazul]

10 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Wow. I have always wanted to go to Santorini. We are looking at a trip next year end of May mix looked at cruise timetables for the port. The ship we are looking to is 1200 pax. There are three other ships in port that day. Total would be almost 9800 pax not counting tourists on ships. Kinda sounds like a nightmare to me. Pretty disappointed but I sure can’t impact that. It’s all part of making the decision to sail that itinerary or another

Sail an itinerary without Santorini. Fly there for a couple of days before or after your cruise. It's a 30 minute flight. Rent a car. There are lots of hotels at all price ranges. It's the only way to avoid the crowds and enjoy the island.

[majmaj4]

I have read there is a limit of 8000 cruise ship passengers.  But that is still a lot.

[marazul]

7 minutes ago, majmaj4 said:

I have read there is a limit of 8000 cruise ship passengers.  But that is still a lot.

In theory, not in practice.

[Vineyard View]

Over 9600 pax on 5/27/24

 

Thank you for the suggestion marazul. Still pondering between the two itineraries, but that is sound advice. I suppose Santorini would be much like Venice was for us this May. Delightful during the mornings and then again starting mi-late afternoon and evenings. 

 

[edinburgher]

On 7/4/2023 at 3:24 PM, KiwiGal117 said:

We don't seem to be able to escape the cable car though, and we are in port with 3 other ships.😒

If you have no mobility issues, you could walk down the path and avoid the cable car- or take a donkey ride if you can bear the thought of the poor beast.

Edited July 7, 2023 by edinburgher

[marazul]

2 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Over 9600 pax on 5/27/24

 

Thank you for the suggestion marazul. Still pondering between the two itineraries, but that is sound advice. I suppose Santorini would be much like Venice was for us this May. Delightful during the mornings and then again starting mi-late afternoon and evenings. 

 

That's right.  During the day you can go to Akrotiri, beaches, Pyrgos, etc.  

[MLP12]

Are there many steps to get up to the cable car when going back to the cruise ship?

[budmeister]

There seem to be 11,000 passengers in Santorini on my day (Sept. 14th.) That is going with the  high passenger count of the range for each ship. 4000 don't get in till 4:00 pm, the rest early am. They leave at 8,9,10,and 11 pm. Any thoughts on cable car waits to get back to the ship around  6 pm? I booked the ship excursion to get to Oia just to get that transportation set, but we won't have any time there before our sailing excursion.

 

We have a catamaran sail that ends at 3:00 near or in Fira. It seems like to will be too late to visit Oia. 

Thoughts on Oia around 3:30-5:30pm? Will  Fira be entertaining for a couple of hours, do you think? I am starting to think that it will be so crowded we will miss seeing Oia and Fira and end up going back to the ship.

 

I am interested in anyone's  thoughts. The late departure times seem like a wild card to me.

 

 

[sasandy]

Some things to consider.....

1. Is this a "one chance in a lifetime" trip? Would you regret it if you didn't go on the excursion?

2. Can he use a cane, or a walker? Some canes have a fold down seat (weight limits for this) that can be used for a rest. Some walkers also have a fold down seat. 

3. I have read some reviews say that watching the sunset from the ship is better than being on shore looking out. The sunset can really light up the cliff and houses. Maybe this is good enough?

4. Go to websites other than the cruiseline for reviews of the excursion. I often go to Tripadv. to look things up. Once on the review page you can search key words like steps or long walk.

5. Does he have the ability to strengthen his legs by the trip? Before I went to Hawaii I had an exercise routine that included 100 squats. Really helped.

6. Best way to tell is watch youtube videos of this specific excursion.

Edited July 15, 2023 by sasandy

[We-R-Off]

On 7/7/2023 at 5:57 PM, edinburgher said:

If you have no mobility issues, you could walk down the path and avoid the cable car- or take a donkey ride if you can bear the thought of the poor beast.

We were in Santorini when Greece reopened post Corona. We were on the only Ferry from Crete that  docked for the day. NO CRUISE SHIPS !!!! it was amazing. We are in our 70s & I would consider myself fit, however, I found the pathways & steps not so easy.  My husband found it quite challenging & there were passageways that I did myself whilst he waited for me.  Our trip included return by bus to our Ferry but I think this is a different port than our tender will depart.  We are visiting September 1st with 4 cruise ships in port.  Can we get back to the ship tender without cable car if we do Oia on our own? 

I'm looking for an alternative idea for the day, ideally independent travel without Oia & possibly less crowded.

We are departing at 21:00