Well, this port was one of the primary reasons I choose this itinerary. I have wanted to go to Santorini as long as I can remember. I had read that it is too crowded, etc., but I didn’t care. Santorini was on my bucket list.

I found out that the Irish pub on the ship, served breakfast and no one was ever there for breakfast. So that is where I ate most mornings, to start my day off peacefully. The coffee on the ship (and in Rome) could put “hair on your teeth” as Buzz would have said so I figured out to order half a cup of coffee and hot water then I still had to add 2 creamers and 2 sugars to be able to get it down. There was a Starbucks on board so I did treat myself a couple of times to a Caramel Macchiato!

The tenders were leaving for Santorini at 9am. I booked all of my excursions (this time) through NCL. They guarantee that the ship will not leave if problems are encountered. I needed that safety net for my first cruise. We tendered to a bus that went up this crazy road!!

We traveled to Pyrgos which is in the middle of the island. We had a little walking tour then ate lunch at a Greek Buffet complete with dancers and plate smashing. I was surprised how hard that plate was to smash!!

Then back into the bus and over to Oia which is the picturesque place you usually see from Santorini. On the way to Oia, the landscape was bone dry and dead. They said they were in the middle of a drought. When we got to Oia and pulled into the bus parking, there had to be 20 buses there and a wall of people making their way up to the town.

This was the biggest disappointment to me. You couldn’t see anything because there were so many people. And you were on the top of the hill looking down so all you could see were the back of a bunch of buildings!! I had to stand in a 20 minute line just to get to see over the hill and down towards the water. This was not what I had in mind at all. I figured I would have to come back to Santorini and stay over to be able to wander the streets and get the feel of the place. And we only had less than an hour there, which turned out to be fine because there was nothing to see, just shops and restaurants on the main walkway.

Back to the bus and to Fira to shop a little and catch the cable car back to the port. We were told by our tour guide that if we got to the cable car by 7 we would be sure to get back to the tenders in time. So I shopped a bit and headed to the cable car. There was a line so I followed to the end…about a 20 minute walk!!! It was ridiculous!!! I could see that lots of people had the NCL bus stickers on their clothing so I knew I wasn’t alone but the amount of people was insane! So then we found out that there had been a big storm (some said yesterday, some said 4 days ago) and the stairs that you can walk up or down or take the donkeys was CLOSED. So everyone had to take the cable car down. And it can only transport 600 people (one way) per hour and there were thousands of people in line (I kid you not) After a while, an NCL head honcho went up and down the line and assured everyone that the ship will wait and they will keep the dining room open late for us. Everyone felt better but still….my back was still killing me and the people around me in line were so nice. I would go ahead and find a place to sit and wait until the line would catch up to me and I would get back in line for a bit then do it again. We were in that line for 2 1/2 hours!!!!! For the last push, I went and sat on a bench near the entrance and I must have looked really pitiful because a staff member came up to me and asked if I was alone and she took me to the head of the line, probably saving me an extra 20 minutes in line!!

Santorini is being loved to death!!!