New itinerary Veendam May 5th,2019. Kusadasi is back!

Today I got this email from hal:

TINERARY CHANGE NOTIFICATION:

We are excited to announce a return to the historic port of Kusadasi, Turkey in

summer 2019. As a gateway to the ancient Greek city of Ephesus and host to an

array of scenic beaches, Kusadasi offers an exceptional variety of sites for

guests to visit. Your 2019 cruise itinerary has been revised to include a full

day call at Kusadasi, Turkey.

The new itinerary is:

SUN 05MAY19 Sail from Venice, Italy 5:00pm

MON 06MAY19 Split, Croatia 10:00am 6:00pm

TUE 07MAY19 Korcula, Croatia 1,2 8:00am 6:00pm

WED 08MAY19 Kerkira, Nisos Kerkira (Corfu), Gre 11:00am 8:00pm

THU 09MAY19 Katakolon (Olympia), Greece 8:00am 5:00pm

FRI 10MAY19 Mykonos, Greece 1,2 11:00am 10:00pm

SAT 11MAY19 Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey 7:00am 6:00pm

SUN 12MAY19 Sea Day

MON 13MAY19 Catania, Sicily, Italy 8:00am 5:00pm

TUE 14MAY19 Naples (Pompeii), Italy 8:00am 6:00pm

WED 15MAY19 Debark Ship Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 7:00am

Just a bit disappointed missing Saranda, Albania as scheduled before but I like the new one as well.

Nothing to see in Saranda, Kusadasi is so much better.

Enjoy!

Nothing to see in Saranda, Kusadasi is so much better.

Enjoy!

I beg to differ. Sarande has outstanding late Roman remains at Butrint, set in a beautifully scenic park at the edge of a lake. Well worth a visit. (I've been twice.)

That's not to say that I'm not thrilled to see that HAL is going back to Turkey. I've missed having Turkey on the Med itineraries.

That is good news.

Turkey/USA relations worsened this week. I would not make any nonrefundable plans for Ephesus.

I think HAL may have gotten ahead of itself. According to the President's tweet yesterday , there are new tensions between the U.S. and Turkey having to do with new tariffs and the release of a U.S. citizen. A lot can happen between now and May.

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I think HAL may have gotten ahead of itself. According to the President's tweet yesterday , there are new tensions between the U.S. and Turkey having to do with new tariffs and the release of a U.S. citizen. A lot can happen between now and May.

 

 

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The issue with the US pastor has been ongoing for a while. I suspect it's a bargaining chip for Turkey, who wants the US to extradite the Turkish cleric that Erdogan blames for the uprising a couple of years ago. I don't really see that as an impediment to visiting Turkey.

As for the tariffs -- well, the US has implemented tariffs against many countries in the past couple of months, most of them our allies. Should we stop visiting the EU? Canada?

However, it may well be that the US public remains skittish about Turkey, in which cases ships will probably continue to avoid calls there -- a shame, IMO.

Today I got this email from hal:

 

TINERARY CHANGE NOTIFICATION:

We are excited to announce a return to the historic port of Kusadasi, Turkey in

summer 2019. As a gateway to the ancient Greek city of Ephesus and host to an

array of scenic beaches, Kusadasi offers an exceptional variety of sites for

guests to visit. Your 2019 cruise itinerary has been revised to include a full

day call at Kusadasi, Turkey.

 

The new itinerary is:

 

SUN 05MAY19 Sail from Venice, Italy 5:00pm

MON 06MAY19 Split, Croatia 10:00am 6:00pm

TUE 07MAY19 Korcula, Croatia 1,2 8:00am 6:00pm

WED 08MAY19 Kerkira, Nisos Kerkira (Corfu), Gre 11:00am 8:00pm

THU 09MAY19 Katakolon (Olympia), Greece 8:00am 5:00pm

FRI 10MAY19 Mykonos, Greece 1,2 11:00am 10:00pm

SAT 11MAY19 Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey 7:00am 6:00pm

SUN 12MAY19 Sea Day

MON 13MAY19 Catania, Sicily, Italy 8:00am 5:00pm

TUE 14MAY19 Naples (Pompeii), Italy 8:00am 6:00pm

WED 15MAY19 Debark Ship Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 7:00am

 

Just a bit disappointed missing Saranda, Albania as scheduled before but I like the new one as well.

There are ferries from Corfu to Saranada, Albania. Well worth visiting, just for Butrint -a haunting ancient Roman port city, as well as seeing first hand what happened to one of the last Red Chinese communist dependency countries.

Last time in Kusdasi, the crowds were overwhelming. It will be interesting to see how much of their former tourism overload has been coming back. Try to stay away from the tour groups with the portable squawk boxes is my best advice.

I hope you are happy with your revised itinerary, and enjoy your day in Kusadasi.

Nothing to see in Saranda, Kusadasi is so much better.

Enjoy!

What? Butrint! We enjoyed Albania.

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Turkey/USA relations worsened this week. I would not make any nonrefundable plans for Ephesus.

Yes, definitely subject to change..

Yes, definitely subject to change..

What has also changed is Turkey desperately needs US dollars and Euros, as their own Turkish Lira is now in steep decline. My guess the Turkish military knows it is in their best interests to protect the perimeters this relatively isolated tourism site.

The itinerary of the July 2, 2019 sailing of the Veendam is also changed, with Kusadasi replacing Rhodes, and Rijeka replacing an overnight at Venice.

TUE 02JUL19 Sail from Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy 6:00pm

WED 03JUL19 Naples (Pompeii), Italy 7:00am 5:00pm

THU 04JUL19 Sea Day

FRI 05JUL19 Thira (Santorini), Greece 1,2 8:00am 6:00pm

SAT 06JUL19 Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey 7:00am 6:00pm

SUN 07JUL19 Iraklion (Crete), Greece 8:00am 6:00pm

MON 08JUL19 Piraeus (Athens), Greece 8:00am 11:00pm

TUE 09JUL19 Nafplion, Greece 1,2 8:00am 4:00pm

WED 10JUL19 Argostoli, Cephalonia, Greece 1,2 10:00am 6:00pm

THU 11JUL19 Kerkira, Nisos Kerkira (Corfu), Gre 8:00am 6:00pm

FRI 12JUL19 Kotor, Montenegro 3 7:00am 2:00pm

SAT 13JUL19 Rijeka, Croatia 10:00am 6:00pm

SUN 14JUL19 Debark Ship Venice, Italy 7:00am

June 1, 2019 Konigsdam cruise will now go to Kusadasi, dropping Sarande. Received email from HAL.

We were not happy about the change in itinerary for the July 2, 2019 Veendam sailing, we specifically chose this cruise because of the overnight in Venice and did not want to go to Turkey We probably will not get off the boat in Turkey and will add an extra day onto our trip to spend the original overnight in Venice.

First of all, a dinghy is a boat, a lifeboat is a boat, a cruise vessel is a ship

Secondly, Kusadasi is a very nice port with an incredible amount of history nearby.

I am myself not a fan ( to put it mildly.)of the current President of Turkey, but its People are very welcoming, Turkey is a secular country and is nowadays dirt cheap.