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Old 21 Jan 25, 05:21 PM  
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amy56
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Cruising to Santorini

Hi all,

We are booked on Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the seas in September, one of the main reasons we chose this cruise was to visit Santorini.

I’ve been reading lots about it, and there are lot of people talking about the huge queues to get on the cable cars. I had been thinking of either booking a tour, but now am considering purchasing the RCI key, as one of the perks is to be able to be on the early tender boat and hopefully beat the huge queues.

Has anyone any experience of visiting Santorini from a cruise ship, particularly interested if you’ve been on Royal Caribbean.

I’ve read that people wait hours in the morning to get a tender boat and then are in the biggest queues for the cable cars. So I’m thinking the Key might be the way to go to get off the ship early - anyone had the key?

Many thanks for any info 👍
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Old 21 Jan 25, 05:44 PM  
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Beth_Disney
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It's not so much the queue to go up, the bottle neck tends to be coming down. I'd read stories of people queueing in the heat for 2 hours to come down when there are a few big ships in port.

We were cruising with Azamara and got an organised excursion to Oia. There's a tender port slightly round the bay that is used for excursions and you get picked up by coach for the trip. We didn't hang around in Fira after the trip had a quick look around and joined the queue at 1pm. We queued for 10 mins! We spoke to a few people and most had chosen not to get off at Santorini due to the cable car queues but it's definitely a beautiful place to see. It is very busy in the narrow streets as people just stop and try and get the perfect photo for their social media!

Edited at 05:46 PM.
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Old 21 Jan 25, 06:16 PM  
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cheekydeeky
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We are also on the Explorer in September- well, 30 August to be precise.

I had read exactly the same and also had friends who did this cruise last year so we’ve opted for a RCI water taxi to Oia excursion. It’s £££ but with an 8am departure I’m hoping we can beat the crowds and get a relatively early cable car (the thought of which terrifies me) down and beat the crowds 🤞.
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Old 21 Jan 25, 07:22 PM  
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JAF
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We were warned about the cable car being busy and did disembark as soon as we could to get to the cable car. We were lucky and did not have to wait too long. A lot of people were using the donkeys but we were not keen. We decided to walk back down due to the length of the queues but that was a mistake as the path is steep and very slippery and covered in donkey poop. The donkeys are also constantly going up and down the hill and it was a pretty unpleasant experience.
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Old 21 Jan 25, 09:29 PM  
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richard29
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We found that the queues although seemed long, actually moved quite quickly.
No queues to come back down.

We booked a tour, but had to meet them at the top cable car stop.

We also got off our ship as early as possible, but another ship was in and already disembarking before we could.
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Old 22 Jan 25, 07:42 AM  
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disney_l81
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Honestly Santorini was on my bucket list from years, but my goodness what a disappointment. So jam packed if your unlucky enough to be in on a day with other ships. People everywhere with phones and blooming selfie sticks shoving them everywhere. I personally did not enjoy at all. Perhaps if I ever visit again it won't be on a cruise ship. We visited in October 2023, and had thought it may be a little quieter.

I would check to see if there are other ships In on the day you go, and if so how many.
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Old 22 Jan 25, 02:44 PM  
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Cj25
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P&O have recently been cancelling future stops at Santorini.
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Old 23 Jan 25, 02:45 PM  
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amy56
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Thank you so much everyone that’s all really helpful ❤️


Originally Posted by cheekydeeky View Post
We are also on the Explorer in September- well, 30 August to be precise.

I had read exactly the same and also had friends who did this cruise last year so we’ve opted for a RCI water taxi to Oia excursion. It’s £££ but with an 8am departure I’m hoping we can beat the crowds and get a relatively early cable car (the thought of which terrifies me) down and beat the crowds 🤞.
We are actually on the same cruise! 👍 I’ve just booked the village of Oia tour on your own now. Decided I couldn’t justify paying for the Key (it would have been over £800 for the four of us) & this tour is £200. Hopefully it won’t be too busy (there are three cruise ships in port but we arrive first & are the biggest I think).

Now to decide what we do in Athens! 😂


Have you arranged transfers to and from Ravenna yet? I’m a bit unsure what to do at the minute as Ryan Air changed our flight home so we don’t leave Venice until 11.30pm, so I’m debating what to do that day now.

Edited at 02:46 PM.
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Old 23 Jan 25, 03:27 PM  
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disney_l81
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We love Athens too- I'm guessing you will dock in Piraeus? It's super easy to take the metro from Piraeus to Athens- we really enjoyed the acropolis and the museum was very interesting, we also did a walking tour through viator which we also enjoyed.
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Old 23 Jan 25, 05:36 PM  
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amy56
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Originally Posted by disney_l81 View Post
We love Athens too- I'm guessing you will dock in Piraeus? It's super easy to take the metro from Piraeus to Athens- we really enjoyed the acropolis and the museum was very interesting, we also did a walking tour through viator which we also enjoyed.
Yes Piraeus - that’s great news to hear. 👍 I was thinking that we would DIY. Did you get your tickets to the Acropolis before you went? Was that part of the Viator tour? I’m hoping to get to Plaka too, so don’t want to spend ages queueing for tickets if I can get them beforehand.
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