Avoid Crowds on Greek Cruise
 

My wife and I are starting to plan our vacation to Greece. We would like to do a cruise, but at the same time don't want to be dealing with large tourist crowds. I know cruise probably isn't the best for this. Does anyone have recommendations as to best times of year, cruise lines, etc?

Sure. Go in the fall. We were there twice, in Oct. and Nov. It's less crowded and cheaper too.

We were on an Eastern Mediterranean cruise with Royal Carribean last November, starting at November 7. It was lovely, good weather (sunny and warm, but not hot) and not crowded.

If you want to avoid the crowds, just do not go on cruise ship excursions. Takes a taxi or rental car instead and you will not see any crowd.

You also want smaller ships. Check out Silverseas.

There are smaller ships owned by Variety Cruises which also leases them to different tour companies. One of the ships is named Harmony and has room for around 50 passengers. They have seceral other ships/ yachts too.
The large ships overwhelm the islands. For example, Santorini is a small island and cruise passengers may be line for hours getting on and off the island. There are high cliffs and cruise passengers use a funicular up and down.

That depends on how many ships are in port at the same time and when people disembark. If you are in port on a small ship and say 3 larger ships are in port then its the same. When we were there we were the only ship in port so waits were ok and if you go in the fall there are usually fewer ships in. Summer is when you can have those waits typically

The smaller ships go to ports that the large ships can't access a lot of the time. It is rare to see a large ship when cruising on a small one.

Maybe but if larger ships are in port at a different locations the net effect is still the same. The crowds will be there. I think there are websites that let you know day by day what ships will be in port.

Also consider low season like fall. Cruise traffic is less, weather is better and so are the cruise prices and prices in port.

The ports I refer to without the large ships are not near those ships at all, different places totally.

I know that but if larger ships are in port at the same time then it still crowded at the main tourist sites.

Cheers, Larry.

For example if you take a smaller ship and it ports away from the main dock in say Santorini and you want to take the cable car to the top it's will be busy if several larger ships are in port. Santorini, Rhodos and Mykonos aren't that big so to avoid crowds I think it's best to go in the fall or lower season. We had no problems at all when we were there on larger ships in the month of Oct.

I agree with the places you list but they travel to smaller islands off the tourist radar for wonderful experiences. I have been to Santorini twice, once for four days, never again.

Well its up to the OP I suppose. I looked up that ship you mentioned and its more like a private yacht. This has merits to be sure but then again its not at all like a cruise ship experience. We would never want to do that but to each their own.

For the OP check them out.
http://www.varietycruises.com/englis...yClub_overview

Cheers, Larry.