by Andy W » 04 Feb 2017, 17:50
Will the timetables change between now and July? Quite likely, they often do, but this may simply be to correct errors - for example there is a day when one of the catamarans ends the day in Samos and the other in Rhodes. The two ships seem to swap over during the night as they are in the opposite ports in the morning. Dodekanisos Seaways are also quick to spot a business opportunity and tweak the timetable for special events, religious festivals etc. If someone came forward and offered to make up the difference between fares collected and operating costs if there was a shortfall, I'm sure your Wednesday morning and evening sailings would appear like magic. The problem is that to run the Wednesday morning sailing from Symi there needs to be a Tuesday evening sailing from Rhodes, and the Wednesday evening Rhodes-Symi comes back Thursday morning. Those Tuesday and Thursday boats are virtually empty.
More to the point, there are two more ferry operators on this route, and neither have published their timetable for July yet. If Blue Star follow the March-June pattern, that provides a Wednesday morning sailing from Symi, which gets to Rhodes before 10am, and a 3pm Wednesday departure from Rhodes to Symi. Unless you had some very oddly timed flights you'd be able to avoid at least one of those two nights on Rhodes.