Blue Star Ferries

About Blue Star Ferries

Blue Star Ferries is the Greek domestic brand of Attica Group, the Piraeus-listed shipping group that also owns Hellenic Seaways, Superfast Ferries and ANEK Lines. The brand grew out of Strintzis Lines, a family company from Kefalonia that dates back to 1965; Attica took a stake in 1999 and renamed the fleet Blue Star Ferries. Today the company serves the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, the North Aegean and Crete from Piraeus, and on Santorini it is the operator of the conventional ferries that carry vehicles, cabins and the long-distance chains.

The ships on the Santorini routes

Four ships appear on the Santorini sailings. Blue Star Delos, delivered from Korea in 2011, is 145.9 metres long, carries 2,400 passengers with 122 berths and 602 lane metres of garage and runs at up to 25.5 knots. Blue Star Naxos of 2002 is 124.2 metres, 1,474 passengers, 102 berths and 360 lane metres. Blue Star 1, built in the Netherlands in 2000 for the Adriatic, is the largest at 176.1 metres, 1,890 passengers, 495 berths and 1,718 lane metres, with a top speed of 28 knots. Blue Star Chios of 2007, 141 metres, 1,782 passengers and 252 berths, works the Crete and Dodecanese chain. All four have air seats, cabins including pet and accessible cabins, kennels, a café bar, an open-deck bar, a self-service restaurant, Wi-Fi and stabilisers. For the daytime Piraeus run an air seat is enough; a cabin pays off on the overnight sailings and the Dodecanese chain.

Routes to Santorini on this site

The backbone is Piraeus - Santorini, which Blue Star sails year-round in about 7 hours 45 minutes with calls at Paros, Naxos and Ios; the same chain carries on to Anafi. In Piraeus, Blue Star 1, Blue Star Naxos and Blue Star Delos use gates E6 and E7, and the company publishes its own port map. Blue Star Chios adds the seasonal link from Heraklion and Sitia on Crete and the Dodecanese chain via Kasos, Karpathos, Diafani, Chalki and Rhodes, long crossings that run a few times a week. All routes are on the route map, and every one of them arrives at Athinios.

Check-in, vehicle and pet

Blue Star's general conditions ask every passenger to report at the embarkation area at least one hour before departure, and that applies to foot passengers and drivers alike. Tickets are issued by name with nationality and date of birth and cannot be bought on board. Each passenger may carry up to 50 kilos or one cubic metre of luggage free of charge. Vehicles board via their own lanes: the driver loads and unloads the car alone, other occupants leave the vehicle first, electric and plug-in hybrid cars must arrive with no more than 40 percent battery charge, and LPG or CNG vehicles with the tank at most half full. Pets are declared when booking so a free pet ticket can be issued; the owner carries the health booklet or pet passport with the microchip number, a maximum of five animals per booking. On board, pets travel in the kennels or in a pet cabin for up to two animals, never in other cabins, bars, restaurants or indoor areas, and on deck they wear a muzzle and a lead. Unaccompanied animals are not carried.

Tickets

Tickets are sold online through the booking step on each route page, through Blue Star's own site and app and at port agencies. Children under five travel free on a mandatory zero-fare ticket and pay half price if they take a bed or seat. The fare depends on accommodation class, vehicle class and date; cancellation is contractual and tied to the season and how far ahead you cancel, so read the conditions of your sailing. Departures are in the timetable.