Ferries

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Ferries

Postby Pink » 29 Jun 2017, 09:06

Hi Can I just say how much I am enjoying all the posts I am reading I feel I know my way around Symi already.I was just wondering if anyone had flown from Manchester at 8 am on a wednesday in September and if we will be in time for the last ferry around 3.30pm from Rhodes or will we have a LONG LONG wait untill the Morning ferry on Thursday.

Thanks in advance xx
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Re: Ferries

Postby Allan » 29 Jun 2017, 11:05

Hello Pink and welcome to Symi Chat.

Sadly, I think it's unlikely you'll get to Rhodes in time for the 3.30 ferry. In principle, it IS possible but everything would have to work perfectly and given the number of variables involved that isn't very likely. The flight would have to be on time or early, the Rhodes baggage handlers would need to work unusually fast and your bags would have to be the first off the belt just to have a chance of being out of the airport by 14.45. Then you need a taxi driver willing to get you to the harbour fast and I wouldn't recommend asking the driver to get there quickly, I did that once and had the most terrifying ride of my life! Exhilarating, but very, very scary. And I missed the ferry anyway. :D

You didn't say whether you are travelling independently or with a package tour company. If you are independent then save yourself the stress, book a hotel room on Rhodes and relax when you get there. If you are on a package holiday the company won't attempt to get you to the afternoon ferry with such a tight schedule and will have already arranged accommodation on Rhodes for you.

Once you are settled in Rhodes and freed from your baggage you can have a wander around and I think you'll find it isn't such a bad place to spend a few hours and one night. Sure, it's not Symi and probably not somewhere you would choose to spend a fortnight's holiday (I certainly wouldn't!) but it's not all that bad.
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Re: Ferries

Postby Pink » 29 Jun 2017, 11:30

Thanks Alan

Was supposed to be landing at 1.20 AM on Thursday and was dreading being stranded for 7 hours until first ferry but flights have been changed which we thaught would be for the better . We are travelling with Olympic so will we find out when we get there where we are staying or would they be able to tell me if I rang them, We like Rhodes but CANT wait to get to Symi it looks AMAZING .

Thanks
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Re: Ferries

Postby Andy W » 29 Jun 2017, 14:21

The Wednesday afternoon ferry leaves at 3pm, not 3.30pm. I don't know who told you it was 3.30pm but I'd double check everything else they told you to be on the safe side.
As a result you've a vanishingly small chance of catching it since the 08:00 Olympic charter flight on Enter Air from Manchester isn't due into Rhodes until 14:10. You have to get off the plane, be transported by bus to the terminal, go through immigration, wait for your baggage, and find the Olympic rep. That alone can take 50 minutes. By then the boat is sailing merrily away. In practice Olympic Holidays don't expect anyone on this flight to reach Symi the same day, they won't have ferry tickets ready for you to travel on Wednesday, there won't be a transfer to the port arranged for Wednesday, there will be nobody on Symi to meet you, and your room there may not be ready. They will however have arranged a room for the night on Rhodes, transport to get you to it, more transport to get you to the port on Thursday morning, ferry tickets for Thursday, and everything will be ready for you on Symi. So you could go with the flow as Allan suggests and relax because even Rhodes is a great place to be.

Alternatively you could talk to Olympic about changing your flight to the Thomson one at 07:00 from Manchester, or the Monarch one at 06:15 from Manchester. You should have enough time to make the ferry on either of these, especially the Monarch flight, and if it is arranged through the tour operator they should, if you nag them a bit, put the transfer, ticket, and Symi end arrangements in place.
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Re: Ferries

Postby Pink » 29 Jun 2017, 16:15

Thanks Andy

Im sure we will enjoy Rhodes just for 1 night at least we will be less tired when we eventually arrive in Symi and i,m sure it will be MORE than worth the wait I guess you have to expect this kind of thing when you go somewhere that isnt on the mainland
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Re: Ferries

Postby Gemma1 » 30 Jun 2017, 07:47

Pink wrote:Thanks Alan

Was supposed to be landing at 1.20 AM on Thursday and was dreading being stranded for 7 hours until first ferry but flights have been changed which we thaught would be for the better . We are travelling with Olympic so will we find out when we get there where we are staying or would they be able to tell me if I rang them, We like Rhodes but CANT wait to get to Symi it looks AMAZING .

Thanks


From experience after travelling with Olympic for many years, I wouldn't bother ringing them to find out where you are staying on Rhodes as it will depend where they have rooms available on the day. When I've had to spend the night on Rhodes they've put me up in Pefkos and Faliraki (twice) though I know that Kojak ended up in the Kassandra in Ixia this year and they do seem to use that hotel quite a lot, I was taken there to wait for the transfer to the airport last year and spent a few hours there on a previous holiday. Alternatively, you could book your own hotel in Rhodes Town and make your own way to the ferry - though you'd need to tell Olympic when you land of course. Personally I just go with the flow as none of the accommodation I've ended up in has been that bad and it's somewhere to get a night's sleep before arriving on beautiful Symi the following morning :D
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Re: Ferries

Postby Andy W » 30 Jun 2017, 08:26

Ah it appears that Olympic Holidays have told quite a few people there is a 3.30pm ferry from Rhodes on a Wednesday. I'm afraid that's par for the course with their call-centre - either the resort staff supplying the information are exceptionally careless, or the call centre staff have reading difficulties. Always worth independently checking anything they tell you. It isn't at all unusual for regular customers of theirs to have a better idea than the staff.
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Re: Ferries

Postby Jan » 30 Jun 2017, 10:14

It's not just Olympic whose staff are badly briefed.

Friends returned to Symi in May after a break of nearly a decade having spotted a good deal with Monarch. They were surprised when I warned them to expect a night in Rhodes on the way out, having been told that they'd be on an evening boat on Wednesday. This came as news to Monarch UIK 'customer services' as well when our friends checked with them. In the event there was a room provided at the Plaza, they enjoyed a stroll around and a pleasant meal and caught the Spanos on the Thursday morning.

So all was well in the end but had they not checked I did wonder whether Monarch's local agents would have put them up somewhere less salubrious than the Plaza. They're old Greek hands and wouldn't have been fazed, but a newcomer to the islands might not have been happy.
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Re: Ferries

Postby D and E » 30 Jun 2017, 12:03

Good to hear Monarch using the Plaza which is one of our favs but having had an excellent lunch in Koykos (the taverna) during a recent stop-over (it is just a very short walk from the Plaza) and seeing the fantastic ratings it gets on Booking.com as a hotel (Koukos) we have decided to book in there for the Saturday following this one. We are with Olympic and have been put up in an overnight hotel by them several times before but it is very hit and miss as to where they put you. So for peace of mind we will take care of our own stop-over and get a taxi to the port to pick up our tickets and the ferry on the Sunday. It adds to the cost but we got such a bargain with Olympic by close monitoring of the website and waiting until just a few weeks before we wanted to go the additional costs won't break the bank.

We will also need to stop over on the Friday for our return journey as there are no morning ferries on the Saturday and our flight is at 14:55. We will decide closer to the time if we take care of ourselves or go with the Olympic flow.

From what I am reading we will be faced with the same issue when we return in mid-September as the Wednesday ferry is at 3pm and we don't land until 3:10pm but we never mind a stop-over as we reach beloved Symi refreshed the following morning.

But we do feel for the restaurants, bars and shops on Symi as over a season these lost nights must add up to a fair amount of lost income and from what we are reading on the various threads the island is not attracting the numbers it used to so every Euro counts. The Dodecanese ferries used to offer such a wonderful service but its all down to supply and demand or government intervention and subsidy. Will we see the resurrection of something like ANES ?

Anyway we will be heading to Manchester around this time next Friday for our most unexpected, last minute, and first time ever in July, very short visit to Symi, and just hope that the thermometer drops a few degrees by then - 41 as shown today is a bit on the high side.
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Re: Ferries

Postby JeanW » 30 Jun 2017, 12:15

Olympic used the Lindos Gardens Hotel and Rodos Palace last September for our stopovers in Rhodes. Best overnighters I've ever had!!
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