Made it to Istanbul last night after 1.5 days of traveling. Lufthsana's new Business Class is great with lay flat seats...made the 9 hour trip from Denver to Frankfurt much easier. After 3 hour layover, our plane to Istanbul was delayed for (1) taking baggage off of passengers who hadn't boarded after checking in and (2) waiting for a part for a plane that was broken in Istanbul. We arrived about 7:00pm and then were transferred to Cirigan Palace.
Hotel is very beautiful and we have room overlooking the Bosphorus. Woke up just to see the back of a big white ship go by but do not think it was the Voyager as there as several in port at the same time.

Off to site see today. Board the ship tomorrow.

Jan

Glad to hear you made it to Istanbul safe and sound, Jan. Hope you and Fred enjoy the Cirigan Palace as much as we did ten years ago. It does have a lovely view and the rooms are spacious. Enjoy your two days in Istanbul. There is so much to see.

Hi Jan,

Hope you're having a grand time in Istabul and hope you'll continue with seamail for the landlocked!

Jan - glad you made it, even with the delay. Have a wonderful time in Istanbul and will look forward to seamail as you get closer to us boarding in Monte Carlo. Keep us informed.

Jan and Fred,

Glad you arrived safely. Istanbul is an incredible city. I hope you have a marvelous time.

Happy to learn that Lufthansa Business was such a great experience. We fly Business with them at the end of the month. We flew with them several years ago and were quite pleased. Sounds like they've kicked up Business class a few notches since then.

See you both on CROSS! Have a wonderful time on your pre-CROSS cruise!

Happy to read you arrived safely in Istanbul Jan and Fred. Enjoy your pre-cruise stay and most of all PLEEZ send lots of Sea Mail...us CROSS'ers are so anxious to catch up with you! <img border="0" alt="[vhappy]" title="" src="graemlins/icon_vhappy.gif" />

Jan, so happy you and Fred made it safely to Istanbul. We're scheduled to visit for the first time in April.

A couple questions please....Have you been to Istnabul before? I ask because from what I've been reading on various sites most people recommend staying in the Sultanahmet area to see the sites for a 1st time visitor. I notice that Cirigan Palace is in Kempinski area and curious why you picked this area. Any feedback to a complete novice is appreciated.

Continue having a great time!

Marcie,
When we stayed in the Cirigan Palace ten years ago, our TA booked us there. It was a lovely hotel right on the Bosphorus. I think she booked us there to see, at that time, one of the top 10 hotels in the world. It lived up to our expectations.

The Ciragan Palace is a legend in Istanbul, supposedly THE hotel to stay at!

WOW...just looked at website, looks magnificent! Even smallest rooms are mega $$$$. Better keep looking.

Marcie, I sent you that hotel months ago when you were first looking, they were had a special way back when...it must be expired now :(

Hello Everyone
We made it to Istanbul late on Friday night – flying Lufthansa from Boston to Frankfurt to Istanbul. The flights were uneventful and we slept most of the way. We stayed at the Intercontinental – a fairly standard large hotel in the Taksim district. The driver was very friendly and spent some time explaining the layout of the city and also explaining that although Turkey is 98% muslim, it is not terrorists like you we see on CNN – this was a theme reiterated by every guide we had.. It is Ramadan and Istanbul is full of tourists from other parts of Turkey in addition to the usual international visitors.

We had an opportunity to join an Iftar feast (the meal at the end of the day of fasting during Ramadan) with a colleague from work. A wonderful meal filled with lots and lots of courses – we were a little too jetlagged to capture all the details (I forgot to bring a camera) but it was lots of fun and we got to meet his very large extended family – the children – there were about 12 of them – were very interested in us.

On Saturday we took a boat ride on the Bosphorus and also went to the Grand Bazaar. It was very helpful to see the city from the water to get a better sense of the territory. Both the Navigator and the Voyager were in port on Saturday morning. The Grand Bazaar was a little intimidating – the shopkeepers are very aggressive – I’m not sure I’d want to walk through alone but it’s definitely worth doing. I did some half-hearted haggling but there was nothing I really fell in love with to buy (still tired I think).

We boarded the Voyager on Saturday around 3 – there was no waiting and our luggage was already in our room when we arrived. The Voyager looks to be in great shape. It’s always wonderful to be back on a ship. We had dinner in La Veranda as we were too lazy to get even minimally dressed up. The Mediterranean steak house menu was on offer and the food was excellent.

On Sunday we took the ship’s tour to the Blue Mosque and Topkapi Palace. They get the group very small – there were only 14 people in our group. The Blue Mosque is spectacular – I’ll try to post a picture of the tile work on the ceiling – it doesn’t even begin to do it justice as the building is enormous. Everything was extremely crowded because of Ramadan. Our guide explained that this is the one time of year there are a lot of female tourists – they don’t have to cook during the day because no one can eat so they have the time to go visiting. Once again our guide spent quite a bit of time explaining that terrorists were not good muslims and trying in a few brief hours to communicate something of the glory of Turkish history. A side note to future visitors to Istanbul – bring socks if you plan on visiting the mosques as you have to take off your shoes while you are inside. Also long pants and shirts with sleeves unless you want to wrap some grungy lengths of cloth around your waist and over your shoulders…..

Topkapi Palace has many interesting rooms to see – we focused on the textiles, jewels and kitchens (always important) but that doesn’t begin to cover the vast array of things to see there. It’s located in a beautiful area overlooking the water and the gardens are also magnificent.

Dinner in Compass Rose and then off to see the show – Pete Neighbour – a great clarinet player we saw on the Mariner over New Year’s.

Today we are in Mykonos – it’s a lovely day – sunny but not too hot. We just wandered around the town – up to the windmills, through the winding little streets, visiting a few art galleries – and had lunch at one of the waterfront cafes – yummy seafood. Now back on board and ready to depart.

Although the wireless network is present, the internet speed is S….L….O….W. I tried uploading a few photos and no luck. I’ll try again if we ever get a more reasonable connection.

Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen,

Istanbul is a beautiful city. So glad you were able to enjoy your days there. Mykonos is a great relaxing day after the rat race of a big city. Sounds like a wonderful beginning for your cruise.

Thanks for checking in ME - I think we had booked this trip as B2B but the following week was chartered (Venice) so we switched - Istanbul sounds wonderful - Joanna

Wonderful report M'ellen!
Thanks for sharing. :app:

Hi M'ellen! Your trip sounds fantastic! Good to hear from you. Give our best to Jim! :)

Michele & Don

Hello from Rhodes, Greece. After two full days of sightseeing with a great private guide, I came down with a bad cold when we boarded the ship on Sunday...I never get colds but this time it is a duzzy!

We saw the St. Spohia and Topkapi Palace. Had lunch in a little restaurant deep in the side streets around the Grand Bazaar and then rug shopping. I wanted a small rug for our entry hall and of course, I found one. Friday night our guide had arranged for a dinner on the Asian side at a wonderful seafood restaurant. The restaurant sends a boat across for you so we had a short sail across the Bosphorus and back. The food was wonderful and we enjoyed talking with our guide in a more informal setting. She is a young, 30 year old, mother whose mother was a guide and now she is as well. She is not a practicing muslim so joined us in our meals.

Saturday we went to the "new" mosque, the Blue Mosque, the Cora Museum which has beautiful mosaics from the Christian period. Another nice local lunch, then to the Cistern. By that time, we were ready to go to the ship. Our guide and driver had put our luggage in the car so we went direct to the ship where we checked in without lines. By 3:00pm we were in our suite, with our bags that we had shipped ahead. We were lucky...our friend who also shipped her bags (with IPS) still has not received her shipped luggage and is now hoping to receive them tomorrow in Santorini! We used LuggageFree and had no problems at all.

Fred enjoyed Mykonos by himself as I slept most of the morning and finally got up in the late afternoon, took a shower and made it to dinner.

We had reservations at Signatures, but unfortunately I couldn't taste anything!

Tuesday morning I felt better and we met our guide again who had flown from Istanbul to Kusadasi to meet us. We really enjoyed the private tour of Ephesus where we could go at our own pace, which was slow. The weather was very nice, about 79F and sunny. Another local lunch..is there a pattern here? food?.

We enjoyed the sunset from our balcony and had dinner at La Veranda.

This morning we are going to wander around Rhodes on our own as we will be back here next week!

Some of the Ships officers are:
Captain - Knut Hanssen
Hotel Director - Engelbert Lainer-Wartenberg
Cruise Director - Lorraine Weimerskirch

Hope I can find Mary Ellen this evening at the Seven Seas Party.

Jan

Hi Jan,

Sorry to hear you were hit with a cold, but sounds like you are on the mind. Hope those taste buds return quickly. No need to waste that great Voyager food and not be able to enjoy it.

How fortunate to have a private guide. We enjoyed our guide is Istanbul also. It does make it special.

Continue to have a wonderful time and thanks for checking in!

I think you can see the Voyager on the Crystal Serenity's web cam on the port view.