Turkey unrest

[Napi's Mom]

With all that is in the news today, bombings in several Turkish cities, including Istanbul ,and so many of the O cruises in the Med. using these cities as ports, does anyone know what sort of plans there are if it continues.... to change venues? I admit I was slightly concerned with the 11/15 itinerary when we first considered this cruise, but it was so exciting to be going to these interesting ports all on one cruise! Now as the summer goes by the whole area seems to be escalating in turmoil. It is worrisome!

Has anyone been on trips that were changed because of similar problems ? How concerned should we be?

[Liv4cruzin]

I've been to Turkey several times; recently spending a week there in May. IMO, you have little to nothing to be concerned about. The last "incident" in Istanbul was in the far reaches of the city (which sprawls forever in 3 directions). Turkey is a HUGE country w/ the majority of unrest taking place in the far southeastern portion. Even though there are fanataics hidden everywhere in the world, this beautiful & exciting city is extremely safe & filled w/ friendly, peace-loving people. You are no less safe there than you are in any large city in the world. If the cruise line has any concerns about you or their ship's safety, they would alter the itinerary accordingly. So, don't for a minute worry about it. Just go & enjoy all it's wonder.

[Druke I]

Hard call.

 

We are scheduled into Istanbul 11-26-06, to board Nautica 11-27-06, to Singapore via the Suez. Hopefully, the trip will still be on, and as long as the US State Department doesn't say we can't go -we are planning on it.

 

Son-in-law was manager of HSBC bank in Istanbul when it was bombed a couple of years ago, and was in bank at time of bombing. Saw him on CNN that evening.

 

Mid-east has been in turmoil since beginning of recorded history!

 

We have been on ships that have skipped ports due to unrest - Bali comes to mind, as well as Guadalcanal.

 

Had uncle who had to sail around Africa when the Suez was closed in the '67 (?) war. He was not a happy camper about that.

[SeaCCruiser]

We stayed at the InterContinental Ceylan in May, before our cruise on Nautica, and the security was extremely tight, but it didn't surprise me that the hotel took such precautions, because on our previous visit to Istanbul in 1999, they had many of the same procedures in place at the hotels, even at that time.

[caclays]

To Druke 1 and anyone else going on a through the Suez Canal, you are in for a real treat! The scenery is varied and magnificant and like nothing you've ever seen before. We did an Athens to Mahe cruise on one of the small Ren ships in Oct 2000, about two weeks after the bombing of the USS Cole. Our stops in Jordan and Yemen were cancelled because of the unrest but we picked up an unscheduled refueling stop in Djubuti, Africa, which was "interesting" to say the least. We have always been glad that we saw this part of the world when we did, and we never felt fearful at any time during our trip.

[Napi's Mom]

Hard call.

 

We are scheduled into Istanbul 11-26-06, to board Nautica 11-27-06, to Singapore via the Suez. Hopefully, the trip will still be on, and as long as the US State Department doesn't say we can't go -we are planning on it.

 

Son-in-law was manager of HSBC bank in Istanbul when it was bombed a couple of years ago, and was in bank at time of bombing. Saw him on CNN that evening.

 

Mid-east has been in turmoil since beginning of recorded history!

 

We have been on ships that have skipped ports due to unrest - Bali comes to mind, as well as Guadalcanal.

 

Had uncle who had to sail around Africa when the Suez was closed in the '67 (?) war. He was not a happy camper about that.

 

;) We will be there for 1 day after our cruise, which ends as yours begins, we haven't thought about any cancellations or anything but it does seem that fate is conspiring to make sure our children will be worried the whole time we are gone. My daughter a museum researcher always knows what's going on around the world, and being a serious type, was already worried. What with we are on British Air RT through Heathrow, now this added on (to the Bird flu,bombings near Cairo, earthquakes etc.).

We usually take adversity as a chance to have experiences we otherwise would not have had, but this does not include such things as Terrorist Bombings! More like breakdowns of transportation etc., being stuck over New Years in New Mexico for 2 days, because of snow in Wisconsin...like that. Well we will just have to have faith and hope also that, since tourist season is almost over when we'll be there, the interest in the area will switch to somewhere else!