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Destination: Mediterranean Cruising

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Arrival in Kuşadası — Be Independent or Go on a Tour Bus

At each port you have three options: hop on an awaiting tour bus to enjoy the guided excursion you purchased from the cruise line; meet a private guide at the port who you arranged for on your own; or walk boldly into the unknown — guidebook in hand — and be your own guide.  (Our new Mediterranean Cruise Ports guidebook is designed to be helpful to people going on any of these options.) On this cruise, I met an enthusiastic group on board who connected via cruisecritic.com, an online chat group. They organized various on-shore activities completely independent from the cruise line (such as arranging for a guide to meet them with a minibus here in Kuşadası) and were thrilled with the experience. Cruisecritic.com is a wildly popular resource among cruisers for feedback on independent guides who connect with travelers at ports.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

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Istanbul to Kuşadası

These six photos show more about life on board a cruise ship as we sail from Istanbul to Kuşadası in Turkey. One of the pictures shows someone using my new Mediterranean Cruise Ports book. As we consider our next edition, I’d love to know, what kind of information in a guidebook would be most helpful to you if you were on a cruise?

 

It's a special honor to be on the bridge with the captain when leaving a port, and I was there to bid farewell to my favorite port — Istanbul. The captain was very gracious and generous with me. He explained the process with the local pilot (who knows his home port intimately); told me about the wind, the current, and the uncontrollable ferries of the Bosphorus; and handed me a nice cup of coffee. Knowing how my dad always loved to be "on the bridge" in his boat — a 38-foot-yacht that seemed so big to me growing up but would fit three times across on this bridge — I felt my dad was with me in spirit. • The Turkish pilot bundled in like a doctor making a house call. The captain was nervously chewing his gum while he and the pilot huddled to chat about the wind and current. (A 15-story-tall ship catches the wind like a huge sail.) The Turkish pilot asked, "What's your power?" Considering his 100,000-horsepower thrust, the captain responded, "I could pull your pier out to sea." • The Bosphorus was churning with ferries and littered with fishing boats — "countless uncontrollable little boats," the captain called them. A security guard, arms folded, stood under a sign carved in wood that read "Eternal Vigilance Is the Price of Safety." The captain touched few controls on the bridge. He just barked out coordinates and commands. In spite of wind, current, and the confusion of boats, our ship majestically maneuvered out of port, heading south down the Bosphorus. Eventually — after an hour of urban sprawl — the city of 14 million was no more to be seen.
 

Our boat seemed designed to let you enjoy a meal as much "at sea" as possible. Some of my favorite tables were in the stern, overlooking the wake. Ships now offer romantic specialty restaurants where, for a cover charge of about $30, you enjoy more private and elegant service and better ingredients. Excited to get a window view for our fancy specialty dinner splurge, we made a reservation for 9 p.m. By that time, the view we dreamed of was long gone, and we dined looking at a black sheet of glass. Tip: If springing for a specialty restaurant on board the ship, do it early so you can see something out the window.

Traditionally ships come with a huge, chandeliered, multilevel dining room where passengers have appointed tables, appointed times, and regular dinner mates. In the cruise industry, this is becoming more flexible all the time; plenty of dining options means lots of empty chairs. Still, about every other night at 8:45, we'd join our gang at our six-person table, enjoy the lavish service from our multinational waitstaff, and share our adventures for the day — all under a huge and gently quivering chandelier.

On-board gyms and spas let cruisers enjoy taking care of their bodies. While the exercise gear was top-end — and the setting was breathtakingly beautiful — I never saw many people huffing and puffing here. Remember, I started this month of cruising weighing in at 212 pounds. On my last cruise blog — in a week or so — I'll be reporting on my embarkation weight. We'll be having a contest to see if anyone can guess how much I gained...or lost. More to come!

Arriving in Kuşadası on the west coast of Turkey, I was struck by the beautiful black hull of the Cunard Queen Victoria. Kuşadası built its pier after the 1967 visit by the pope (in which he OKed the importance pilgrims were giving the reputed "House of the Virgin Mary"). It has enjoyed a thriving cruise business ever since.
 

People always ask me why our guidebooks aren't produced spiral-bound. Of course that would be handy. But it would add enough to the cost of the book to kill sales — and even if someone did want to buy it, you wouldn't see it because, with a spiral binding, there's nothing to read on the spine. Still, there's nothing stopping a traveler like this one to drop by Office Depot and have the book spiral-bound. While I still prefer to rip out chapters and staple them together, this woman was really happy with having her Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports done up this way.
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Security Back on Ship

Each time we leave the ship, we punch out with our personal sea card. This functions as our room key, credit card for any purchases on board (the ship is essentially cash-free), and general ID. And when we return to our ship, we punch back in. They know exactly who’s on shore and who’s on board at all times. And no one comes back on board without having everything they carry run through the X-ray machine for security. After security, someone tries to get me to use a little Purell (which I avoid), and we’re back into our fantasy ship world. Here’s the security action from the point of view of my camera. (If you’ve never personally gone through an X-ray machine, you’re in for a treat.)

The cruise ship security was very impressive. It was a comfort to know that no strangers could ever get on board. How was your cruise ship security experience?

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

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Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar

Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar is a must-see on any cruiser’s sightseeing list. In fact, our ship had a free shuttle bus ready to take you there and back throughout the day. (When taking you to a place where there’s no shopping, shuttle buses are generally not free.) As you can see from this clip, the market is thriving — and it’s a hit with locals as well as tourists.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

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The Istanbul Tram Crush

Of course, many on the ship opt for a cruise excursion specifically so they will not have this experience (see below). But for me, feeling the crush of Istanbul’s only tram is a travel highlight. I suppose a grunge rocker who leaps into a mosh pit knows the thrill, but words can’t describe the sweaty crush of the Istanbul tram. Maybe this video can help put you there.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.