Buying Ferry tickets; boarding the ship; HELP! Part 2

I cannot answer your specific questions but want to point out that all the standard (not premium) cabins I've stayed in on European ferries have been extremely small. I wonder whether you're going to have trouble finding a place to put all your luggage. Ignore this comment if you aren't taking overnight trips.

Mine will all be daytime trips, averaging between 1 hour to 1.5 hours per journey. I am working my way up from Santorini, to Ios, to Naxos, to Mykonos.

I don't have a definitive answer to your question about 12 pieces of luggage, but generally one piece is "a piece of luggage" or a suitcase or a carry on bag or similar. The total is your luggage. Luggage is a collective noun so you don't usually have luggages, the luggage is the whole lot, could be collective for the group but probably they expect the rule to be per person.

So depending on the size of what you're calling "one big luggage per person", 3 pieces each can be carried one in each hand and one on the back, or two stacked and one on the back.

But for 3 weeks in the Greek islands, assuming you rinse things out in the hotel and do a laundry day midway through, for me that's a huge amount. I can put my wife's and my weekly needs in one carry-on and one computer cross body bag.

If you are doing this much humping of the bags you may wish you had packed lighter.

I most certainly can pack that light, but my wife and daughter disagree with Rick's advice to pack light. I already found the laundromat for me in my midpoint island.

This is information about the Champion Jet 3- a pretty new vessel with Seajets, if a far from new vessel in terms of her age- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSC_Champion_Jet_3.

Really very similar to Champion Jet 1 and 2, if not identical.

These Catamarans have a poor record for reliability in UK waters in adverse weather as under UK Maritime Law they are subject to quite strict limits on significant wave height when conveying passengers. I have no idea on Greek maritime law.

That said several of them used to do light ship voyages twice a year UK to Australia to operate in the Australian summer (European winter) and the European Summer (Australian winter).

My own personal point of view of Seajets, from their wheeling and dealing with cruise ships during Covid (and their breaking of promises not to send them for scrapping at Alang) is that I would not sail with them under any circumstances.

They may be (and probably are) perfectly good operationally and safety wise at sea, but ethically I view the Company as being highly dubious.

On that basis my choice would be Blue Star and a Conventional Ship.

• There is no weight control of luggage when you board a ferry, you will have to leave it at the garage deck level before going up to the upper decks where your seats are. That being said, I can't imagine why you would travel with 40kg of luggage and how you manage to move around with that much weight.

• You worry too much about e-tickets.
  If you are afraid of a smartphone breaking down when you board, save them on a second smartphone (and put them on the cloud if you want a plan C). Also, don't buy your tickets too early. Shedules can be changed a few days before departure, if you purchased them with a third party service like ferryhopper it will be more difficult to manage a ticket replacement. Most travelers used to traveling in the Greek Islands buy their tickets on site from ticket sales agencies 2 or 3 days before departure.
  If you do like this you will have a superb paper version that does not run out of battery.

• The Champion Jet3 is not on the Seajets website because it is a new acquisition from Seajets bought from Spanish ferry operator Trasmapi in August 2023.
  She will operate from 1 May to 14 October. Departure from the port of Piraeus at 16:00 for the Syros→Mykonos→ Paros→ Naxos→ Santorini route and vice versa the following day.

• I don't know how Seajets configured it but the Champion Jet 3 can carry between 700 and 900 passengers and 200 cars/trucks, a little less passengers than the Power Jet. Both are considered large catamarans. In most cases when the sea is very rough ( 8Bf wind or more) navigation is prohibited for all ferries. Small catamarans like the Seajet2 or the Superjet may have cancellations with lower wind forces.

• And finally, If you want a pleasant trip, don't take Seajets Ferries but Blue Star Ferries

On the day I need to travel from Ios to Naxos, the Blue Star is not operating between them. And from Naxos to Mykonos, there is no Blue Star.

I got two negative comments about Seajets; can you fill me in with more details? I may have no choice but to use Seajets. My hotels are already booked as non-refundable.

If today you have no other choice than the Seajets, take the Seajets, it's that simple. But it's absolutely pointless to book so early for tickets in August.

Buy your tickets a couple of day or 1 week before the trip and everything will be fine

For future trips, I recommend avoiding non-refundable hotel bookings unless you have absolutely no option (which sometimes is the case when attending special events). Unless you're buying trip insurance, you're leaving yourself open to losing a good bit of money.

I got two negative comments about Seajets; can you fill me in with more details? I may have no choice but to use Seajets.

Others can chime in, but I think it comes down to some disparaging the company, not so much the boats and service, and most warning about "Seajets" as a term for the smaller fast ferries, which in my experience can be fantastic in calm weather and "hell on water confined in a vomitorium" in rough weather. But, all "Seajets" are not created equal, the Champion Jet 3 you mention is a largish car ferry, and as a result will be more stable, not quite as much as one of the large Bluestar, but similar to some of their smaller boats. Much the same, when many say "Bluestar Ferry" they are usually speaking of the largest of their ships. (I am guilty of those same generalizations).

As a previous poster mentioned, if that is the ferry for the day, that is what you go with.

With regards to the vessels there is really not much external deck space, and what there is tends to be taken over by the smokers. It is not designed to be a pleasant space to be for any length of time, especially at full service speed. You are meant to be inside, and I am yet to come across a Catamaran of any size which is particularly luxurious. These Catamarans are functional vessels, to get you from Point A to Point B.
I have quite a lot of experience of this class of vessel in near European waters, and am just not a huge lover of them in marginal conditions, when I find them to be quite rough rides, made worse by being confined inside. That said "vomitoriums" would be way over the top language.
Certainly in near European waters weather cancellations are greater than with conventional ships.

I think I have stated my views on the apparent company ethics and what appears to be the financial structure of the company. This forum is not the place to go into great detail on that. But it is enough for me, personally, to be very deeply wary of Seajets.

Irrespective of subjective views on seakeeping, and the layout of the vessel, it is enough that I would personally structure an itinerary around avoiding them as I myself am unwilling to do business with such a company.
You don't have such an option. And anyway many people have no cause and/or don't want to deep dive into a company set up. I get that.

In terms of getting you from A to B on the dates you need to travel, if they are your choice I am sure they will perform that essential function well.

That seems like a lot of "luggage".

Is this a summer trip? You'll need two pairs of shorts, a bathing suit, some flip flops, and a few shirts. A hat, some sunscreen.

Seriously. When I go to Greece for a month in the summer the backpack weighs maybe 10-12 lbs. My day bag has my laptop, books, and other heavier items and weighs about 12-14 lbs.

Also, is there a website/app in which a person can monitor (track) how a specific boat ride is going regarding delays or is on-time?

This is what I use. You need to know the scheduled timetable (obviously) then compare it on a day by day basis with the actual performance of your vessel-https://www.vesselfinder.com/

There are a number of similar sites out there, all much of a muchness.

None of the sites that I know of actually says directly that the vessel is 3 hours late, or early, for example.

If you punch in Champion Jet 3 you will see that she is currently berthed at Cyprus- so at least that confirms that she exists!

is there a website/app in which a person can monitor (track) how a
specific boat ride is going regarding delays or is on-time?

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:26.4/centery:37.3/zoom:7

Also available on iPhone & Android

You can compare the ship's position with its schedule and see if it is on time or late.

If you have nothing else to do on the islands you can also consult the weather forecasts and marine warnings

https://meteo.gr/cf-en.cfm?city_id=17

http://emy.gr/emy/en/warning/

But maybe you shouldn't worry that much about ferries!

I really don’t know why all the Seajets hate. Last June we took the Champion Jet 3 from Sifnos to Athens and had zero issues. We also took Seajets there and had zero issues. Yes, the water wasn’t completely calm and it’s a catamaran which can feel the waves more than traditional ferry boats, hence the poor reviews. People should know what they’re getting into when booking a catamaran ferry that goes 50 knots on open water. It’s going to be a toss up and hence people recommending the larger and therefore slower ferries. I take a ferry every time I want to go shopping as I live on as island and flights are prohibitively expensive unless one of the seasonal airlines is having a sale.

Regarding luggage everyone will be boarding the ferry pulling their own luggage up a ramp and storing it on large racks on the car deck. Every time you watch people board there are at least a dozen folks who are struggling with too much luggage. And if ferry is running late they will really be herding the mob of people to move faster. This video gives some idea of what it looks like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dYeLDXfB_A

We rode one of those ferries last summer. It was totally fine, but it was a calm morning with glassy seas. Weather is when issues really start to crop up, and of course that can't be predicted.