Embarkation@Overnight Port & Shore Excursion Questions

[LondonCalling2]

My husband and I will be going on our first-ever cruise at the end of this month.

 

We'll be on board the Navigator for the 9-night cruise from Istanbul to Rome. The first night on board the ship is actually an overnight in port. As we'll be arriving in Istanbul the day before, we'd like to spend most of our first full day there seeing the city. Our cruise documents say "Embarkation 3:00pm". Is there any real downside in boarding an hour or two later? If we were to board a bit later, is there any reason not to board, get our cabin situated to our liking and then heading out again into the city for the evening? Since we're cruising RSSC, we're obviously not counting our pennies, so no worries about missing dinner on board and having to buy it in Istanbul. We've spent most of our vacations in Europe over the last ten years, but this is our first time in Istanbul and we're very excited about visiting the city.

 

The second Istanbul-related question regards the actual port. On our cruise documents is says "Salipazari Port or Kakakoy Port". I'm thinking this means it could be either, and Regent won't know until closer to 10/30 which of the two it is going to be. Is there some further notification from Regent regarding this matter, or do we end up working this one out for ourselves? In reading other threads, I get the idea that the ports in Istanbul are quite close to each other.

 

Final new cruiser question is related to shore excursions. When the shore excursion is only four hours of an ten-hour port call, are we free then to roam about the port and its environs at will afterward? I would imagine so, but just like to know these things in advance. I'm particularly interested in this for the ports of Malta and Crete, as we'd like to go on the half-day excursions in the morning and then see Iraklio and Valletta (especially).

 

Any advice and suggestions all of you more experienced Regent cruisers have to offer is most welcome. I have invested quite a bit of time researching and planning our first cruise, as my husband was somewhat reluctant to sign-up (he's looking forward to it now, though) and I would really like to make certain we have a wonderful first experience.

 

Thank you for helping us out.

 

Julie & Alex

[Wendy The Wanderer]

My husband and I will be going on our first-ever cruise at the end of this month.

 

We'll be on board the Navigator for the 9-night cruise from Istanbul to Rome. The first night on board the ship is actually an overnight in port. As we'll be arriving in Istanbul the day before, we'd like to spend most of our first full day there seeing the city. Our cruise documents say "Embarkation 3:00pm". Is there any real downside in boarding an hour or two later? If we were to board a bit later, is there any reason not to board, get our cabin situated to our liking and then heading out again into the city for the evening? Since we're cruising RSSC, we're obviously not counting our pennies, so no worries about missing dinner on board and having to buy it in Istanbul. We've spent most of our vacations in Europe over the last ten years, but this is our first time in Istanbul and we're very excited about visiting the city.

 

The second Istanbul-related question regards the actual port. On our cruise documents is says "Salipazari Port or Kakakoy Port". I'm thinking this means it could be either, and Regent won't know until closer to 10/30 which of the two it is going to be. Is there some further notification from Regent regarding this matter, or do we end up working this one out for ourselves? In reading other threads, I get the idea that the ports in Istanbul are quite close to each other.

 

Final new cruiser question is related to shore excursions. When the shore excursion is only four hours of an ten-hour port call, are we free then to roam about the port and its environs at will afterward? I would imagine so, but just like to know these things in advance. I'm particularly interested in this for the ports of Malta and Crete, as we'd like to go on the half-day excursions in the morning and then see Iraklio and Valletta (especially).

 

Any advice and suggestions all of you more experienced Regent cruisers have to offer is most welcome. I have invested quite a bit of time researching and planning our first cruise, as my husband was somewhat reluctant to sign-up (he's looking forward to it now, though) and I would really like to make certain we have a wonderful first experience.

 

Thank you for helping us out.

 

Julie & Alex

 

Yes, you can definitely embark later. But you can also embark earlier, and since most hotels have an early check-out time, you could: check out of your hotel, take a cab to the ship and board about 12 or so. Then you can have a quick lunch onboard, or just get off the ship again and carry on touring. The only fly in the ointment is that your stateroom won't be ready probably, and you might not have a place for your carry-on luggage. You could probably lock it and drop it off in your cabin, just make sure to talk to your stewardess about this, or other personnel might have a solution.

 

You might be able to find out if it's going to be Karakoy or the other place, but it looks like they are *very* close to each other.

 

Yes, of course you can get off the ship and explore at any time, as long as you get back promptly before the "all aboard" prior to leaving the port. Don't miss the ship, that's all.

 

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice. If you have more specific questions, just ask, we love to help!

[RachelG]

Definitely recommend boarding fairly early to get rid of your luggage, then going out exploring. My husband has been allowed to leave our carry-ons in our suite even though it wasn't ready yet.

The 2 ports are right by each other. We didn't know which one we were going to when we embarked in Istanbul, but you can see the ships from the street. We spotted ours easily--the cab driver will help you.

You certainly are free to get off and explore--just have to be on board for the life boat drill. Not sure when they will do this as you have an over night in Istanbul.

In any port, if you have a 1/2 day excursion, you are free to explore on your own the rest of the time. This is actually one of our favorite things to do. We get our bearings while on the excursion then go out and see things that look interesting or that I have researched afterward.

[LondonCalling2]

Glad to hear we'll not have to worry about port confusion.

 

Any other embarkation advice for us?

[scuba diver]

Julie & Alex:

 

We are also on this cruise. There is a roll call at:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=850086

 

Be sure and check in there.

 

We have a transfer to the ship provided by Regent so I assume they will know at which port the ship will be. However, if there is any confusion Regent includes a number to call in Istanbul if you have a problem. It should be in your docs.

 

While not an experienced Regent cruiser, my experience has been that most of the excursions will let you stay in town after the tour and you make your own way back to the ship. The problem is to avoid being late for the sailing.

[LondonCalling2]

Well, we leave in a couple of days, and it looks as though everything that needs to be sorted out has been.

 

Thanks to each of you for your helpful replies.

 

Our hotel, which we chose based on the supremely glowing reviews on Trip Advisor, has agreed to hold our luggage for us while we spend our day hitting as many of the major sights as we can.

 

Emails with the hotel have indicated that the port is very close, and we'll just get a taxi there when we decide we're too jet-lagged to continue sight-seeing.

 

If we do decide to strike out on our own post-Regent's organized shore excursion, we'll keep in mind the "missing the boat" probability variables. Hopefully, after having done this much travel on our own, we're careful enough and organized enough to give ourserlves a healthy margin of error on how much time we need to get back to the the ship. If not, well, seems like that will be an interesting story to tell and hopefully it will teach us a lesson (that we apparently needed to learn the hard way)!

 

We're getting very anxious to go -- only a couple of more days left.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Have a wonderful trip!

[lenbro]

We recently embarked from Istanbul and our ship didn't leave till the next day. We brought our luggage on board at 12 noon and had a quick lunch. We were then able to walk from the ship over the bridge and visit the area by the river especially the Spice market. It was very interesting and we thought more authentic then the Grand Bazaar. Be careful trying to cross the streets. Pedestians don't have the right of way to for most driver's. You might consider returning to the ship for dinner . A good time to meet people and I think the food is as good as you can get in the city.

Len