October Cruise Stop

We want to see Ora

I believe you meant to say Oia (EE-ah).

You can take the ship tender to the old port. Take the cable car up to Fira. Depending on the number of ships in port that could take an hour wait. Or you could walk up the stairway. Thats a lot of steps and you will have to be careful not to step in donkey poo or get run over by a donkey. Hitching a ride up on a donkey is not recommended by most Santorini experts on the forum.

Alternatively when you get to the old port there is normally a boat that takes you to Oia a beautiful village at the far end of the island. You still have to get up to the village from the port. Your options is a walk up the stairs but as I recall there are taxis that can take you to the top.

You can likely get up into Oia before the tour buses from your ship arrive.

When you are finished in Oia, take the KTEL bus to Fira. When we did that they sold tickets on the bus. Or you can do the hike along the caldera edge or get a taxi.

When you get to Fira keep in mind that you will be in competition with all the tourists from all the ships in the harbour to get on the cable car back down to the dock. When we did that trip we got back to the cable car 4 hours before ship scheduled departure.

We took a wonderful ship excursion that avoided having to take the donkey or hike up the hill where most shuttle boats take you.
Instead, our shuttle took us to a dock (I think it was east of that main area) and we had a tour of the entire island. It was great. It was worth the extra money since we didn't lose a lot of time waiting in line and having to hike up the hill avoid the donkeys and their manure.

We were there in 2017 and took a boat from the Fira harbour where the ship's tender let us off to Oia. After that, we took a bus back to Fira and then back to the ship after sunset. The harbour had a few companies running shuttle boats between Fira and Oia.

The ship excursions take you to the ferry port where buses pick you up for the tours. Unfortunately since all tours are booked the OP will be doing DIY thus the tender and cable car.

I suppose, once you are on the ship put your name down on a waiting list in case there are cancellations. We actually decided not to take the ship tour we had booked and we were told we would get a full refund if they could re sell our seats. We got the full refund so there is a chance you can still make a ships excursion at the last minute.

hey hey s.k.vega
i posted some tours to check out in\poster claman5 titiled "santorini"
sign up with cruisecritic.com click forums then roll call with your ships name and date.
we did this and posted if people wanted to share tour, we had 4 on one in corfu and one in crete.
i researched what tours were available, emailed them for what we wanted and they emailed what's available to do. corresponded with others and they let us know if interested, shared cost and was a great tour. they got us back to ship on time and we were so happy.
look at greektravel.com
santorini oia and what they do
we did greek island cruise from venice few years back, took cable car up to top, we zigged instead of zagged and walked passageways looking at the neighborhoods, walked back to shops. friend bought large pottery to be shipped back home to california, took 3 months LOL. stopped at mom & pop's restaurant overlooking caldera with great fresh food and bottle of greek wine.
we had a few hours but was packed with people, if you have 4 ships in port that's about 10,000 people. the walk to oia was so so bad,
we decided not to go, watched the time to make sure get down to port then tender to ship and it gets crazy. decide against donkey ride, it's slippery with donkey poo, hoping not to step in any. we had a rough windy ride back to ship.
getyourguide.com
santorini, they have a trip to oia
withlocals.com
santorinidave.com
santorini food tour, you may like this
friends just got back from mediterranean cruise (barcelona/barcelona RT) was NUTS in florence and rome. so many people traveling nowdays, wanting to take their photos social media, instagram, tiktok for a bucket list to post
whatever you decide enjoy your time. on our cruise critic we did a meet up at a venice restaurant with about 12 from cruise and sail away the next day on top deck. was fabulous. plus cabin crawl to see other cabins, slot pull putting money together and find a slot machine and each one got 3-4 pulls to see who wins, had martini tasting at a ship bar. we had so much fun.
aloha

Princess P you are wonderful. (As are all of you) Thank you.