Hi all!

DH and I are going on the Mariner 8/26/2010 and are starting to look at excursions. We are going to the following ports:

Aug 26 Thu Athens (Piraeus), Greece Elegant Casual 7:00 pm
Aug 27 Fri Kusadasi, Turkey Elegant Casual 8:00 am 4:00 pm
Aug 28 Sat Cruise the Dardanelles, Bosphorus, International Waters Elegant Casual
Aug 29 Sun Sevastopol, Ukraine Elegant Casual 9:00 am 6:00 pm
Aug 30 Mon Sochi, Russia Elegant Casual 8:00 am 5:00 pm
Aug 31 Tue At Sea, International Waters Elegant Casual
Sep 01 Wed Yalta, Ukraine Elegant Casual 9:00 am 6:00 pm
Sep 02 Thu Odessa, Ukraine Elegant Casual 8:00 am 6:00 pm
Sep 03 Fri Constanta (Bucharest), Romania Elegant Casual 8:00 am 7:00 pm
Sep 04 Sat Nessebur, Bulgaria Elegant Casual 8:00 am 6:00 pm
Sep 05 Sun Istanbul, Turkey Elegant Casual 7:00 am

Has anyone been to any of these ports and can recommend which excursions we should look at, or, just as importantly, which we should avoid?

I am so excited - I can't wait, and we have to pick excursions next month.

Any advice appreciated!!!

Thanks!
Liz

Here's my trip report from last September. Enjoy your trip:

http://www.luxurycruisetalk.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=000287;p=1#000000

Thanks for the link to your trip report! Sounds like you had a great time. Makes me even more excited! Good input on a couple of excursions too.

Any other thoughts welcome too!

:)
Liz

Odessa really is charming. It makes sense to take the Palaces tour, or really any of the others--we saw several spectacular palaces (the beauty is all in the interior.) The cathedral was closed for renovation back then, but I've heard it's really worth it. Lots of pretty leafy streets, great streetscapes.

In Constanta we also got out to the Danube delta with the tour to ancient Histria. It's Greek, and just ruins on the coast, with a little museum. But the wildlife, especially birds, were amazing, as was the view of a very different life--horse carts, haying being done with scythes and pitchforks, a very different century. Constanta itself is struggling, but studying the women's shoe stores was fascinating.

In Nessebur you could just walk around, it's quite small. It's a Unesco World Heritage site and has dozens of incredible medieval churches, very very old. We did a walking tour of those churches, and it was very informative, and we got into some churches that we would otherwise not have been allowed, but I admit it was sort of tedious. There are lots of tourists there--they mostly go to Sunny Beach, a garish outpost near the ancient city.

In Sevastopol it's hard to ignore the Crimean War--we were very fortunate to have an onboard expert who gave lectures, and who accompanied us on our tour of the Valley of Death, Balaklava, the Panorama Museum and Malakhov Hill, site of one of the main defensive position during the war.
Sevastopol also seemed to be a great place to walk around--the Panorama Museum was a definite highly.

Don't get me started on Istanbul-we spent 6 days there and really loved it.

Liz - read the info in this post re: the tour in Kusadasi. Sounds like a super way to see Ephesus.

http://www.luxurycruisetalk.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=19;t=000313

Cheers, Anne

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I have heard Odessa is beautiful, and I'm looking forward to seeing it!

We have a few weeks to decide - but I'll let you know - and pester you with more questions soon I'm sure...

:)
Liz