 By Senior Travel Planner Meghan Umlauf My family and I recently took a Royal Caribbean cruise of the Greek Isles that left from Civitavecchia, Italy - Santorini was our first port of call after a glorious day at sea! I have shared more about our pre-stay in Rome in my post “Rome in a Day and a Half” Santorini holds a special place in my heart as it is where my husband and I got engaged over 20 years ago - at sunset in the small village of Oia - known for its spectacular sunset views. So much of our reason for this trip was for this port of call!! The cruise itinerary listed our time in port as 1pm - 10pm, thus leading me to believe that this would allow us all to witness yet another phenomenal viewing atop a rooftop on this magical island… sadly this was not the case. None of the ship’s excursions really had exactly what we were looking for so knowing that my husband and I had been able to get around this island ourselves fairly easily in our 20’s and after doing some online research I decided we could navigate our time there again on our own! Prior to getting on the ship we decided that we would get the bus from Fira, head to the black sand beach that Santorini is known for, and then head to Oia to walk around, have dinner and watch the sunset. This isn’t really a cautionary tale - more of a “be flexible” one… I will tell you the ending here - we had a fantastic time, but our day didn't go at all as planned and I learned some things along the way to share with you, to help you plan better before you head there!  Getting on the Tender Tendering Into Port Santorini is a volcano - the part you see is the island and the rest of it is under the ocean - Fira is the name of the village where the port is and the ships do not “dock” here due to the rising ridge of the volcano Fira is built on… all ships anchor and passengers are brought to the port area by tender, then you either head to another area of the island by boat - or need to take the gondola’s OR walk (please don’t take the Donkey’s) UP to the village area of Fira. From here you can find the buses to the other areas of the island. While I am a frequent cruiser, I haven’t tendered into a port in a long time - so I hadn’t factored in that not everyone can leave the ship at the same time, so we wouldn’t be getting off at 1pm! The tenders can only hold so many people, and on this ship those on Royal Caribbeans excursions were prioritized, and the rest of us were told to get a tender time by getting in line in the theatre at 8am, the morning we were due to arrive! I wish I had known this prior to sailing as I most likely would have booked an excursion with Royal (so their loss). We also learned that the last tender in Fira would be at 9pm… with the sunsetting around 8:40p - there would be NO WAY to get from Oia back to Fira and down to the tenders by 9pm. Again an important detail to have when planning your day! Once we learned these 2 things (by watching the port talks they play frequently on the stateroom tv’s) we decided to adjust our expectations, and save the beach for another port in Greece and just head to Oia to walk around and have a late lunch… as I mentioned once we tendered to the port area we had 2 options - go up via cable car and take a bus OR take a boat to Armeni (the Port below Oia) and a short bus ride to Oia. We managed to get a tender time of about 3pm - we actually got to the exit point on the ship around 2:30pm and they let us go with that group… wish we had known that, we would have tried to get off earlier!
 The Port of Armeni with Oia above Town of Oia Whew - we made it! Definitely don’t rush this part - walking around this town is amazing and nothing like we have here in america. The views are amazing - the buildings built into the side of the cliff’s are amazing - the sidewalks are amazing (they are made of marble!) - just wander the street and find a taverna to sit and eat/drink/people watch - you won’t be disappointed! As I mentioned my husband and I got engaged here - 20 years ago - so of course we both tried to figure out what rooftop it was that we were on when he proposed, and then which restaurant did we eat at afterwards… so we clearly underestimated the amount of change and development that happens in 20 years… almost every rooftop was now blocked off by “private” signs and owned by a resort hotel… there were many restaurants that looked like the one we ate at - and in the end, my sweet husband who wanted to reenact our proposal in the same spot, simply got down on one knee in the middle of the street!  We found a taverna on the “outskirts” of the town… just a bit outside of the hustle and bustle (again there were 5 cruise ships in port this day - so there were ALOT of people) and while it wasn't the swankiest looking place - it looked more traditional to me, and in reading the menu posted in front (as they all have them) it had all the greek favorites that we wanted! This was the best meal we had the entire trip! In general you cannot go wrong with ordering a greek salad (you’ve never eaten a tomato until you’ve had a greek one), souvlaki (greek seasoned pork or chicken skewers), and Tzatziki (cucumber and garlic greek yogurt dip) with bread (have to order bread to get it) or to put on the meat! This very basic meal will give you a taste of greek eating! There are many other delicious greek food of course - but almost every restaurant will have these things and they will be good!  The view walking to the Gondolas in Fira Back to Fira After a bit more wandering the streets of Oia, we headed back to the bus to Fira. Be sure to note where the buses will be to pick you up - the town can be very confusing and you can get turned around very easily - best bet is to take pictures of a few things around you, so you can get help if needed! Again - the bus drops you about a mile away from the gondolas/walkways back down to the port and then once you are there - the line for the gondolas looks long as it winds through most of the town - really we waited (well really my husband and son waited - my daughter and I shopped) for about 30 minutes to pay for and get on the gondolas down. From here it was fairly clear where to get our tender back to the cruise ship. We had thought that maybe we could make it back on the ship for sunset - but we ended up watching the sun go down from the tender… still a magical view of a simply stunning sunset!
To learn more about this cruise, in addition to “Rome in a day and a half” you can read my take on the Jewel of the Seas compared to Disney Cruise line’s Magic in “Sailing Royal Caribbean in Greece… a Disney Cruise Line comparison” Also read here all about our next Port - Mykonos!
Been to Santorini lately? Tell us your thoughts below in the comments! |
Check out some of our trip reports, tips and tricks and different Disney experiences in out blog!
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