We arrived in Istanbul four days early to enjoy the city with local friends. The city is lovely, the people are wonderful and we had a great time. It was hard to break away to board ship - for about the first 15 minutes. That's how long it took for us to get aboard and to our stateroom, a concierge level room with veranda.

Our greeting was by our room steward, who had worried about us because we hadn't spent the first night on board (the ship was in Istanbul 2 days). What a lovely personal touch.

We met our cruising friends on board and we all promptly made our reservations for specialty restaurants and set about enjoying the ship. Read more