Any Reports on June 14 Black Sea Cruise?

[Bob and Peg]

Anyone who was on the Quest for the June 14 Black Sea Cruise. Would appreciate any comments about your cruise. We'll be on the July 12 cruise. Specifically, info about the ports. What did you do in Sinop, Turkey and the other Black Sea ports? What about Chios, Greece? I'd love to see a review of your cruise before we leave on ours.

 

Thnaks, Peggy

[tgg]

We're still unpacking. I'll try to post something for you before the end of the week.

[xnpio]

Hello peggy,

 

Tour was wonderful, we would love to do it again. Here some short info:

 

Ports:

 

Varna: near town, they offer a transfer bus for $ 8 per person, is not really necessary, downtown is near, but a little bit difficult to find when you have no map.

 

Odessa: directly at Potemkin steps you need no transfer bus although they offer it. Centre is easy to find.

 

Sewastopol and Yalta : we were 6 persons and organized two tours with an Ukraine tour guide, it was perfect if you need a contact I can post more info about it.

 

Chios: In front of the ship you can get Taxis which offers tours. Prices are on a map at home I will try to find it tomorrow in my Paper Chaos of the cruise and post it.

 

Sinop: very small, we just walked through and enjoyed an afternoon on deck. ( We had to leave earlier, because there was a race at the Bospurus and otherwise we couldn t get to Istanbul ontime. )

 

Hope this will help you for the beginning.

 

Best regards and enjoy this wonderful ship. Xnpio

[uktog]

Thanks for this great information; we will be on the Black Sea trip so look forward to all the information. When you get time to post, can you tell us which nights if any they had special buffets or entertainment reflecting the tastes of the regions

A

[Skeezics]

Look forward to your report. We are on the August 23 sailing.

[stipmom]

Can you post the Ukraine tour guide you use? Thanks

[brucedodge]

Specifically, info about the ports. What did you do in Sinop, Turkey and the other Black Sea ports? Thanks, Peggy

 

Hi Peggy,

 

We've been on the Quest twice, but we were also in the Black Sea on Galaxy in the fall of 2007. I'm sure xnpio will post some very useful info, but I also have a recommendation for your Crimea stops.

 

We used Lilia Ivanova to arrange our tours in Yalta and Odessa, and she was terrific. We did our own research, and exchanged suggestions with her several times before we arrived at a customized itinerary. We were a group of 10 CCers in one place and 11 in the other. We had nice vans, a driver, and excellent guides in both places. If you like, she can be reached at: lili at yalta dot crimea dot ua.

 

Bruce

[shoshona2]

Hi,

 

We used Lilia Ivanova several years ago and she provided wonderful guides. We used her services for Yalta, Odessa and Sevastopol and have given out her email addresses lots of times to many satisfied people.

 

Sheila

[xnpio]

@ Stipmom:

 

 

www.mt.crimea.com

 

sergey.crimea@gmail.com

 

Sergey is a very nice tour guide and knows a lot about Ukraine. But he is not telling too much so that it is getting bored.

 

Our tours took about 7 hours and we had a nice airconditioned minivan for 6 people. We booked the tour with two other couples here from cruise critics.

Yalta: Massandra Palace, Livadia Palace, Swallows Nest, Vorontsov Palace

Sevastopol: Balaklava, Bakchisarai to Khans Palace, Uspensky Cave Monastery, Panoramic Museum in Sevastopol.

 

both Tours included lunch and we payed € 62 per person for each.

 

 

Chios:

 

Taxis are outside the pier:

Chios-Kampos-Armolia-Pyrghi-Mesta-Emporios-Chios € 95

 

Chios-Nea Moni-Anavatos-Chios € 65

 

Chios- -Lagada-Kardamila-Nagos-Chios € 80

 

Chios-Volissos-Ag. Markella-Limnia-Elinda-Chios € 100

 

The Taxis are waiting at the stops between 30 and 60 Minutes for you which is quite enough to see everything.

 

We desided to take tour one and tour two together. At the beginning we wanted to see Pyrghi, Mesta and the Nea Moni Monastery only but as we bargained with them they gave us both tous for € 130,-- ( whole car and you can go with four passengers) and it was worth to take the other stops.

 

Hope this will help you.

enjoy the trip.

Xnpio.

[Skeezics]

Sorry to say that Sergey is booked for Sept 1 and 2. Contacted him way back in April to set up tours for Yalta and Sevastopol. Barb

[stipmom]

Thanks for the information. I am not going until June 0f 2010 but I want to line up the tour guides early.

[Bob and Peg]

Hi Again,

 

I've read tgg's excellent review of their cruise. Can anyone comment on any of the ship excursions? There are a couple that sound quite interesting to us.

 

We've been on several other other cruises and have done ship excursions, private tours and on our own, so we know the differences. But there are ship tours in Pompeii and Ephesus (both of which we have toured before) which go off the "beaten path"; so we are kind of interested in those.

 

Thanks, Peggy