This was our first cruise and if we hadn't planned and paid a land trip for next year already we would have booked another cruise for 2016, never mind we are planning for 2017 now, so we clearly got bitten by the cruise bug. Since we have no other cruises to compare to, this might be an "over the top" review for seasoned cruisers, anyway this is our personal experience.

We started actually our trip over a year ago by planning flights, hotels pre- and post cruise and looking for excursions. I found cruisecritic around the same time when we booked and found out quickly that this website is of great help and registered on the roll call. We were able to book some great tours with even greater people, a shout and big hand to John, Wayne and Mike for organizing the tours and to the fellow members of our various groups.

After all the confusion on the net and the final message from Celebrity regarding canceling the overnight in Istanbul, we were relieved that we planned ahead a couple of months ago to start or "Meds adventure" a couple of days before embarkation day. Our flight with Qatar Airways departed Bangkok at 2.40 am on the 17th of September and arrived in Istanbul by around noon the same day, after some confusion which immigration counter to use, we were out the airport door and welcomed by our transfer driver that we had booked online. We were staying at the Antea Old City Hotel for the next 2 nights to come and after some refreshing out to explore this great city. Read more