Up at the crack of dawn today (5:30AM). We all needed to be packed and downstairs in the hotel lobby by 6:30AM.
Selim had spoken with the staff about opening the dining room a bit early for us. Unfortunately, when we got downstairs there was no one in site. We all milled around waiting for a bit, then Selim came downstairs and was able to round someone up. They let us into the room and we found out the large German group had left even earlier than us. No one had bussed the tables and things were a bit of a mess, but we found some clean tables and sat down.
Only cold items this morning, of course. Joyce noted a few salad items out from last night. (More about this later.) We grabbed a quick breakfast. As I was over getting myself a pot of tea, Selim told me he wasn’t feeling well at all. This was the second person in the group. By this time in the tour, Todd had been struggling with very severe gastric problems for about 2 days. Over the course of the next 2 or 3 days, 2 more of our group would be affected. Hint to future travelers on the tour: get your doctor to give you a wide-spectrum antibiotic before you leave. Our doctor had given us Cipro before we went to Africa. Unfortunately it expired before this trip and I never got another batch. I was to deeply regret that.
Onto the bus and off to Ankara we went. Took about 4 hours to get to Ankara airport. Only one “comfort” stop this time. Selim picked up about 4 papers and translated a few headlines for us to break the monotony of the trip. After a bit, he laid down on the back seat and tried to get some sleep. We were all feeling really sorry for him by now, he looked awful.
Arriving at Ankara airport, we gave Ali his tip, thanked him for taking such good care of us, and headed inside. Further note to future travelers on this tour: RSSC gives you no information about tipping on this tour. Todd and I were accustomed to tipping after our Tauck days, but several tour members thought it would be unnecessary. Luckily for Selim and Ali, Libby and Julia’s travel agent had sent them information telling them to be prepared to tip a total of $10 per person per day. This is consistent with the Tauck guidelines where $7 per day goes to the guide and $3 per day goes to the driver.
We put our luggage through the conveyors. Interesting system here – I’d suggest folks not bring much baggage. No porters or curb-side check-in here: you heft your own bags up onto the conveyor. Selim checked on the plane. Smaller than he expected so he suggested that many folks check bags through. (He normally doesn’t do this, attempting to save time in Istanbul, but several of our folks had full-sized suitcases along, so we were going to have to wait at baggage claim anyway.)
Selim gave us our tickets and we headed toward the gate area. We started down the stairs and were greeted by a ferocious look and shouting from a security guard. A bit un-nerved, we retreated back up the stairs and waited at the top. After about 15 minutes, folks were allowed to go downstairs.
I never fully appreciated the American habit of having gates with jetways until this trip. As you might guess, when we got to the bottom of the stairs we were in a waiting area with an outside door. And behind the door? Two shuttle buses! We were able to board the first and were amongst the first people on the plane. Lucky thing too, since the overhead compartments were not the most spacious I’ve seen. By now, I’m carrying my bag and wondering what on earth possessed me to buy that fragile item in Capadoccia.
The plane was an old airbus. Seat space was at a premium and Todd and I seemed to spend the flight accidentally jostling one another’s elbows off the armrest. They had a drink and snack service even though the flight was only about an hour.
We arrived in Istanbul and headed for baggage claim. After the bags arrived, we headed out to find our van. In the end, our van turned out to be a regular bus. For the first time, we could now TRULY appreciate our luxury VIP bus. Several folks commented on the difference in ride on the two buses.
Traffic was awful. Selim had hoped to have time to do the Spice Market and the cisterns on the way to the ship. The company rep on the bus said RSSC expected us by 3:30PM at the latest, so doing two sites was out. The group opted for the cisterns and we headed in that direction. I wasn’t feeling well (rheumatoid arthritis problems) and Todd was having a lot of pain, so we decided to do the cistern on our next trip to Istanbul. (Which will come fairly quickly, I think. We both really enjoyed our time in Turkey.)
Anyway, Selim put us in a cab and gave the driver directions to the pier. About 20 minutes later we arrived on the pier. Residensea’s “The World” was docked directly in front of us.
We hopped out of the cab and headed into the building. Here’s where things get really interesting. Note to future travelers, when they take your carryon luggage from you at this point, they are NOT going to run it through xray and give it back to you inside the building. When we walked inside the building, Todd said, “Where is our luggage?” The agent said, “You’ll get it on the ship.” I’m saying “No, no, no…” and Todd spots our luggage on the conveyor belt, by now about half way to the back of the building. While I’m trying to explain to the agent that we MUST have those bags, Todd makes a sprint worthy of Carl Lewis and manages to retrieve the bags just before they exit the building. As he walks back with the bags, I finally get the agent to understand that our cruise tickets, passports, etc are in Todd’s carryon and without that, we’re not getting on the ship in the first place!
We are later to hear a similar story from Jack and Joyce, but more on that later.
We head onboard where we are handed our welcome champagne and given our keys and information by the Assistant Cruise Director. One omission we didn’t discover until later in the trip: unlike on Navigator, they did NOT take a credit card imprint at this time. (This was to be discovered later on in the cruise, when Todd received the friendly note letting him know that he was presently scheduled to pay for his incidentals in cash. He must have set a record getting to reception.) 
Just as we received our keys, they made the announcement that the cabins were available. Juggling our champagne and bags, we made our way to our suite, number 724.
Our luggage was already waiting in the room. We decided to get the unpacking over with and tackled it quickly. I tried something new this trip. I had seen a tip on Cruise Diva’s site for packing. She suggested wrapping every item in a dry cleaner bag, folding it in half and setting it right in the suitcase, hangar and all. I decided to try it since I knew our luggage would be packed for 6 days before it was opened. What a treat! Nothing was wrinkled and all I had to do was lift each item out of the case and hang it right in the closet. I’ll definitely be doing that again for hanging items on our Baltic trip.
Naturally, not all of our items were hanging items, so I still had one suitcase to unpack and place the contents into drawers. The space on Diamond is quite good, especially for so small a ship. I did dearly miss Navigator’s walk-in closet though. Guys, get ready to roll your eyes, but I know my fellow female readers will understand perfectly: I didn’t have enough space in the closet for shoes and was forced to place them decoratively around the cabin, under the desk chair, next the the bedside chest, etc. 
With unpacking behind us, we started to slide the cases under the bed. Oops… cases are too high and don’t FIT under the bed. Managed to get one under there and moved the other 2 next to the balcony for now.
Our stewardess, Aigul, stopped by to introduce herself and show us around the cabin. She asked what we wanted in the mini bar and we asked for diet coke, club soda, seltzer water, and bottled water. I asked about the in-suite setup and she gave us the form. Later, I was to notice that the form mentioned a wine list available for in-suite setup use.
Next, we headed off to explore a bit before the muster drill. Just as we were about to leave the cabin, there was a knock on the door. A crewman was there holding a bag which I recognized as the bag containing Jack and Joyce’s rug. Thank heavens I was standing next to Jack while we waited for the bus to pick us up in Istanbul, otherwise I never would have seen the carrybag which Carpetdoccia had given them. Like with us, someone had taken their bags before entering the terminal building. When Joyce expressed concern, she was told everything would be fine. Clearly, it wasn’t fine. There was a tag on the bag which had our room number. I explained that it wasn’t ours, but we knew who it belonged to. We gave them Jack and Joyce’s first and last names and told him we knew they were on the eight deck. I was later to be very sorry that I hadn’t just taken it and gotten it to Jack and Joyce myself. They were to have some very anxious moments for the first and second day of the trip until it was finally delivered.
By this time, we only had about 15 minutes to explore before the drill. After a quick walk around deck 7, we headed back to the room where we spent the next 10 minutes looking everywhere in the suite, before finally consulting the behind-door documentation and seeing that the life jackets are stored OUTSIDE the cabin. At 4:15PM, the signal for the muster drill began and we headed for our station. We ended up on the pool deck, where we received our life jackets and our muster captain, Tifani, gave us the procedures. After the drill, we stayed up top for the sailaway. Sam, the Cruise Director, made an announcement that we would be leaving a few minutes late as the Captain was waiting for a few passengers whose RSSC-purchased flights were arriving later than expected.
I spotted Jack and Joyce and made a beeline for them, telling them their rug was onboard and we had given the crew member their information. The bar staff started circulating with the beverages and we all had a glass of wine. The sailaway was a lot of fun, as always. We got to meet some very nice folks. One couple, Mary and Tom from South Dakota, were celebrating their honeymoon. One really nice thing about Diamond is her size. You get to see people a lot and really get time to chat.
Back to the room to change for dinner. I looked at the in-suite setup list, and noticed the bit about a wine list being available. This was different from Navigator, where I had a choice of champage, chardonnay, or merlot. I opened the door, looking for Aigul. Luckily she was almost right outside the door. She gave me the list and assured me that everything that was on the list was available as part of the in-suite setup.
I actually wrote down the contents of the whole list in my travel journal, so if anyone is interested, post and I’ll type it up. For our setup, we chose a Pinot Grigio, (D.O.C. Borgo Margredo, Italy 2002) and a Sauvignon Blanc (Grove Mill, Marlborough, NZ 2002).
Todd and Jack had made arrangements to meet for dinner, so we headed for the dining room. I told Joyce and Jack about RSSC’s special treatment: making special orders with advanced notice. Jack had been speaking about how much he enjoyed escargot. We encouraged him to talk with Miki and request it. (He was later to do so and sure enough, with 48 hours notice, they made him his escargot. Actually they made two orders. He said when the waiter asked if he could manage two orders he nearly cried with joy. Definitely a success! Yet another happy RSSC customer.) We all enjoyed our first dinner onboard then headed over to the show. One of the onboard singers also writes her own music. She only did one of her own songs, but she is definitely wasted doing covers of other artists’ songs. Her rendition of the song she wrote was absolutely incredible! A very talented young lady. After the show, we all hit the sack, our 5:30AM wakeup call was finally catching up with us.
