question about customs at Galataport Istanbul

[cruisefam38]

On our cruise terminating in Istanbul in early September, the cruise overnights in Istanbul before disembarking the next day, Monday Sept. 5.  Do we pass through customs on the arrival date, Sept. 4, or on Sept. 5 the day of disembarkation, or both?

We are trying to arrange tours and transfer and are trying gauge the time requirements.

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

I don't know, as we embarked in Istanbul, not disembarked.  But when we have overnighted in a port and disembarked the next day, any passport or immigration check is done, if at all, when we pick up our luggage in the port's terminal.   I know in Barcelona, for example, I think we had to show our passports upon leaving the port terminal with our luggage, but that was fast and easy. One thing I never really know is whether a country or port has "cleared" people to get off the ship based on examination of a passenger manifest or if they'll want to look at passports or something in the port terminal.  But in any case,  I would guess that you'd be able to meet a vendor maybe an hour after you disembarked the ship, or even perhaps less.  But I cruise mostly on Oceania or Viking, which rarely have more than a thousand passengers to disembark. And I've never disembarked through Istanbul's new cruise terminal Galataport), so I can't tell you what they do. 

 

For the first day you have, I would say that generally I would try for meeting a guide 45 to 60 minutes after the scheduled arrival time.  If the ship is a little late due to weather or something, most vendors will wait.  But you just never know when something can cause But make sure you know where the person/vehicle will be.  Istanbul's new port has mostly (or possibly all) pickups/drop offs underground at the terminal.  In May it was kind of a mess, coming in via taxi.  There wasn't much signage, and nobody around to direct the cab driver to an entrance.  Once he found one and dropped one, we had trouble getting in because we hadn't checked into the ship yet and had no card to present. Hopefully now things have improved.