Kathy, Have a safe and wonderful trip. I am very interested in hearing about your 5 day pre-cruise in Istanbul. John & I are booked for Istanbul for Oct 1, 2005. We want to do a pre-cruise too. We did a 4 day pre-cruise in Moscow this year and it was absolutely terrific. Are you doing the 5 day pre-cruise through Radisson or on your own? We did the Moscow through Radisson.