May 22 Santorini Greece

Not much of a story to tell about Santorini since we stayed aboard the ship.  Several reasons for doing so:  Santorini is a tender port, so you have to load into boats to ferry to shore.  The main city, Thera, is on the side of a cliff so you need to get up to the top somehow.  You can take the cable car, a donkey, walk the donkey path, or a ship's excursion which goes to the dock that the buses can access.  You still have to get back down, and that's cable car or donkey/path.  

There were 3 other ships, all with 2K+ pax each drifting around in the caldera. (Santorini is the remains of an exploded volcano.  The water is too deep to anchor so everybody maintains position with their engines.) And, after climbing to the acropolis in Lindos we had sore knees, so no desire to hike around on cobblestones and steep hills.

First stop is off the port of Athenios, where the buses can get down to sea level.

 Here's what the buses have to contend with.  You can see the switch backs above.

 Then we reposition closer to Thera.  If you look at the picture full size you can see the donkey trail switch backs and even the cableway just to the left of the trail.

 Santorini supplies their own tenders.  All the locals get to take part in the cruise ship gravy train.

 Just a pretty picture of a sailboat in the caldera.

 A closeup of the modes of transit up and down.

 The upper end of the cable car run.  At about 3-4pm, with 3 of the ships scheduled to leave about 5pm, the line for the cable car was 1.5 hours long.  Nautica didn't leave until 11pm, so smart Oceania travelers waited until 5pm to get in the 10 minute line.

 Panorama of Santorini

 Same picture as above, but taken just after sunset.  The clouds still have color but the lights are coming on in the buildings.

 Oceania is celebrating 15 years.  This is the standard cocktail napkin used everywhere.  As such it has become the topic of conversation, as one does when conversing in a setting where cocktail napkins are used.  With the help of the Oceania Club Ambassador and the Food and Beverage Director, we've named them all.

But now to the bigger discussion: How and why were they chosen?  Fourteen in total, but four in Japan!  Several are in places that even the Oceania R-class ships can't get to, like Agra, Berlin and Moscow. To be fair, Oceania does offer overland trips to all of the named locations if the ship can't pull right up next to it.  But why so much Japan?  In 2020 the Around The World cruise will visit at least 9 Japanese ports, several of them for the first time.  Perhaps O's marketing department is pushing the Far East.