Santorini

[SleepyDeb]

We're going on the May 30 Med cruise to Greece. Santorini is a stop that I was very much looking forward to until I started hearing and reading about massively long waits for the Cable Cars (up to 2 hours each way) in the heat. I've looked up how many ships will be in Santorini that day and its 2: the Disney Dream and the Margaritaville Beachcomber, which holds about 3500.

I have medical issues that will prevent me from standing in the sun and/or heat for 2 hours. I was so nervous about this that I booked the Best of Santorini Port Adventure bc its the only one that includes transportation to and from the tender, no Cable Car needed. It looks like a nice excursion, but it is expensive and I'd prefer something else. There are are several that include transportation from the tender, but you have to take the Cable Car back down.

Any opinions on whether only 2 ships will make the Cable Car wait reasonable (say, 20 mins)? We'll be there June 4. I know the weather is likely to be not crazy hot, but last year I know there was a bad heat wave in early June.

I've had the experience of people trying to be encouraging and telling me that "I can do it" even though it will be hard. I appreciate the attempt at being helpful, but the last time I took that advice I ended up in tears and all but carried up the "easy path" by the tour guide in St Thomas. I'm learning to accept that, in my mid 60's, I have limits and I need to respect them.

 

[Donna3271]

Sorry to hear this. We are on that cruise too. I booked our excursion through Disney praying they have some autonomy to skip the cable car line.

See you on the ship. It will all work out! Sending you hugs.

 

[imbelle]

The cable car wait might not be as bad if you are willing to get off the ship with the first tender. For reference, we were in Santorini on a July day with at least two ships (I see a possible third in my pictures) in port. We were on the 3rd tender for our ship, hitting land at 8:30 am. I'd say that we waited less than a half an hour for the cable car. But later we heard from another passenger that by 9am the cable car line was an hour and a half long. We came back to the ship fairly early (6pm, our ship departed port at 9pm) and I don't remember there being a long line for the cable car coming down at that time. So timing is everything with the cable cars.

Obviously, if you're on an organized excursion you don't have control over your debarkation/embarkation times. So if it's important to you to not wait in a long line, you might want to consider the non-cable car excursion as an investment in your vacation experience rather than risking a situation that will cause you discomfort and distress.

 

[ladyofthetramp]

We did the med the same time of year as you are doing-with the stop at Santorini. Yes- if you are first off the ship with the tender, you do not wait for the cable car and it is fine. But even at that time of year, the weather, the sun-very, very warm. We did a private excursion-had a wonderful time, but lost track of time. The line to get down was very long. We ended up walking down. Very warm-hot. Given what you have said, I would not recommend. About 2 dozen dcl cruisers needed medical attention due to heat and trying to walk down. Keep the excursion you have booked. See Santorini-don't miss it-so beautiful!

 

[princesscinderella]

We did Santorini this past summer and I don’t think you will have a problem to take the cable car back with only 2 ships in port. We only waited about 5 minutes when we were the only ship on the island so if there’s only one other ship in port it shouldn’t make it too bad as people will go back at various times. We did a 4 hour excursion in the morning that left from the other tender stop where you get on a bus so we didn’t have any waiting time in the morning our excursion group got on the tender all together. We headed back down the cable car about 90 minutes before all aboard. A lot of the little shops all start looking the same with the same jewelry or Greek clothing after a while so we were ready to get back without a worry.

I highly recommend this place for lunch. They were so nice and their garden patio was so beautiful too. They gave us a tour of their 100s of years old wine cellar caves carved into the mountain. It’s not right on the main little tourist steps/path area and just down a side street so it felt less touristy. https://www.pelicankipos.com/

 

[o&smom]

I would do the port adventure. We did one that just had transportation at the beginning and cable car at the end. We stood in line for almost two hours, leaving right after lunch...a time that you would think would not be busy. We heard it only got worse from there with departure around 7:00.

 

[KatieKepic]

Honestly, I would keep the PA, find another excursion option that avoids the cable car back down or stay on the ship (and I really hate telling people to stay on the ship). We did Santorini in June 2024. We were early off the ship and had viturally no wait for the cable cars up but coming down was another story. We did a private excursion and when we headed back to the cable car area, the line was crazy long. We ended up walking down. For us, we were fine but with your medical issues I would not recommend. We were late leaving Santorini because so many needed medical assistance. Santorini was beautiful but if we ever went back, it wouldn't be by cruies ship. Between the cable car issues and that many people being there all at once, I don't feel like we enjoyed it as much as we would have if we hadn't gone by cruise ship.