ISTANBUL - on our own. October 2012

[thunefeld]

We just returned from a sailing on the Norwegian Spirit. We did the exact same itinerary as Puablo and his wife – 4 months later, and likewise (with his and Rick Steves’ help) did many ports on our own. Since we gained much of our information from Cruise Critic and “Puablo”, we felt it would be helpful to report how we did in each port.

 

The NCL Spirit Southern Europe * Eastern Mediterranean Cruise

October 26-Nov 6, 2013

Venice > Greece > Turkey > Western Italy > Barcelona

 

Our best resources for our self-excursions into ports were Rick Steve’s Mediterranean Cruise Ports, Rick Steve’s Istanbul Booklet, the Rick Steve’s Free Audio Tours iPhone app and multiple posts to Cruise Critic by Puablo who did the same cruise that we did 4 months earlier. (Search Cruise Critic for Puablo to follow his excellent posts on his visits into several ports – we printed him out and took he and Rick Steves with us into every port!)

 

Or just follow this link to Puablo’s Cruise Critic Post:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=108486

 

Puablo’s Istanbul On-His-Own Message Board Post:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1657317

 

Our ship docked at Karakoy Cruise Terminal in Istanbul at 0800 and we were at the ATM directly across the street from the cruise terminal at 0815 obtaining Turkish Liras (TL). We read (and found it accurate) that the metro and museums only take TL. We read (and found accurate) that merchants take Euros or USD and found that to be true although we paid for everything in TL (we are not souvenir shoppers but love to sample local cuisine). After getting our TL, we headed left (west) toward the Galata bridge and the Karakoy Metro Station (walk along the water toward the bridge… you can’t get lost) and took the Metro four stops to Sultanahmet Station (you cannot miss the Blue Mosque and the Haggai Sophia) and hopped off there. We found ourselves at the Hippodrome, so we enjoyed the monuments there (well described by Rick Steves) then walked through the gate to the Blue Mosque which was open by the time we arrived at 8:40 a.m. (just as Puablo had predicted). By 9 a.m. when we departed it was already getting pretty busy so we were glad to have been one of the first 30 or so visitors of the day – it was quiet and had magic.

 

After the Blue Mosque, we walked through the park to the Hagai Sophia (taking Rick Steves’ “Spin Tour” along the way). Ann used the spotlessly clean & no waiting (1 TL) Water Closet (WC) located at the end of building on your right as you approach Hagai Sophia from the Blue Mosque. There were two lines queueing up at the ticket windows for the Hagai Sophia, one about 70 people long, one about 15 people long. Go figure! “We saw two lines, and took the shorter.”

 

We obtained our ticket (now 25TL, not 20 as Rick says) and were following Rick Steves’ walking tour within 5 minutes of getting in the short line. Thanks to Rick we entered via his otherwise-missed “shortcut” through the 1500 year old sultan’s guards gate ancient doors that won’t close anymore (cool!). We did the entire Rick Steve’s tour and it was perfect – not too much, just right.

 

When we exited the Hagai Sophia, I used the free men’s WC and walked by the queue of at least 30 ladies waiting for the free ladies WC. Ann was very happy we had spent 1 TL at the WC at the park prior to arriving at the Hagai Sophia.

 

It was only 10:30. Ann gets a bit grouchy without having good coffee (there is not good coffee on cruise ships), so we skipped the Underground Cistern (we came back later). If we did it over again, we would have done the Cistern upon leaving the Hagai Sophia, but no big deal, we like walking around new (to us) cities.

 

We bought 4TL of roasted chestnuts from a street vendor… (wow, why don’t we have roasted chestnuts in the USA?) Then we headed to the Grand Bazaar with plans to follow Rick’s guided walk to the cool merchants he described and promptly got totally and completely lost. That place is confusing! We had fun being lost and just following the flow of the crowds. I just kept asking merchants (they’re ALL standing out in front of their stores) where I was on Rick’s map and they would show me and we would be lost again within 2 minutes. It was great fun!

 

We eventually stumbled across a delightful sidewalk café and had awesome Turkish Coffee. Our waiter showed me where we were on the map and we got lost again. We found 8 different entrances/exits (they all have a number) but Rick’s map does not give numbers that correspond to the bazaar so unless we asked (there are security guards at some of the exits) we never REALLY knew where we were, but had fun wandering, wandering.

 

I pride myself in navigational skills and orientation and not getting lost, so we were laughing like crazy because I got us lost so quickly and completely. Asking merchants where we were on Rick’s map became a game, they all helped us, and finally, quite by luck, we came out an an exit near the B stop on the metro and followed the tram tracks back to the Underground Cistern while enjoying a shaved chicken sandwich (yum!) from a little café along the way. Boy oh boy was that ever fun.

 

Then we hopped the metro tram to the Spice Market, found our way behind the New Mosque to a non-descript entrance through narrow outside aisles of what Rick has labeled in his book “the plant and pet market” where nearly every animal and bird imaginable is for sale (located along and behind what appears to be a garden store), waked though it into the spice market for around for 90 more minutes.

 

By now our feet were completely worn out so we enjoyed more roasted chestnuts (out of this world) and found out way back to the Galata bridge. We walked across the lower level of the bridge (below the traffic – it is a double decker!) with open-air restaurants on one side - and on the other, hundreds of fishing lines from the fishermen up above us, fishing off the side of the bridge.

 

Every maître de of every one of the myriad restaurants (they are lined up wall to wall all the way across) will try to usher you into his restaurant. We found the best way to disengage them rapidly is to smile, rub your stomach contentedly; act stuffed, and exclaim, “Oh, we are SO full!! We have been eating ALL day!” That worked on Souvlaki Row in Athens, too! We were back at the ship by 4:30 p.m. to watch the sun set over the New Mosque from our little balcony at 5:04 p.m.

 

Thank you, Rick and Puablo! As Oprah would say, "Wooo-hooo!"

 

Terry Hunefeld & Ann Dunham

Inn At Moonlight Beach Bed & Breakfast

San Diego

 

*****************

 

PORTS OF CALL ON YOUR OWN:

 

If you’re on an NCL shore excursion, the process for disembarking for one of their paid shore excursions is streamlined, straightforward and efficient like all of the processes on NCL. This is quite a feat considering that there are sometimes thousands of cruisers getting off the boat to board dozens of different busses.

 

However, we wanted to do Athens “on our own” and it was our first port of call. We wanted to be in the first group off the ship to “beat feet down the street” to get to the metro and to the Acropolis when it opened at 8 a.m. to beat the crowds because Rick Steve said that the best time to be at the Acropolis is before the tour busses disgorge throngs of tourists at 10 a.m. He was dead-on correct!

 

BEWARE: NCL Spirit arrived at the cruise terminal at 6:40 a.m. We were told by two different NCL employees the evening before that there would be an announcement as to when we could disembark, so to be “waiting in our room” or in a “public area” until the announcement. We were discouraged from queuing up near the stairs or elevators prior to the announcement. When we had not heard anything by 7:20, we wandered down to see what was happening only to find that disembarkation had begun 25 minutes before! I inquired why (again asked 2 separate NCL employees) who replied that the ship does not make announcements before 8 a.m. So, there you have it… if you want to be first off before 8 a.m. on an NCL cruise, you need to be aware. My motto after this misinformation was to ask at least multiple different NCL employees the same question until I got the same answer THREE times. That seemed to work okay.

[puablo]

I'm very happy that you were able to see so much of Istanbul, glad I could be of help! I wish I had some of that street food right now.

[Keith1010]

Thanks for your post.

 

We love Istanbul and as you showed it is very easy to do on your own.

 

Keith

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your DIY review!

[CruisingGiants]

Thank you Thunefeld and Puablo! I feel confident we can do Istanbul on our own next summer. Both of your reviews were extremely helpful!

[marazad16]

Thanks for your DIY review!

 

Yes, thanks. We're looking at DIY too.

[ancientcivteacher]

We just returned from a sailing on the Norwegian Spirit. We did the exact same itinerary as Puablo and his wife – 4 months later, and likewise (with his and Rick Steves’ help) did many ports on our own. Since we gained much of our information from Cruise Critic and “Puablo”, we felt it would be helpful to report how we did in each port.

 

The NCL Spirit Southern Europe * Eastern Mediterranean Cruise

October 26-Nov 6, 2013

Venice > Greece > Turkey > Western Italy > Barcelona

 

Our best resources for our self-excursions into ports were Rick Steve’s Mediterranean Cruise Ports, Rick Steve’s Istanbul Booklet, the Rick Steve’s Free Audio Tours iPhone app and multiple posts to Cruise Critic by Puablo who did the same cruise that we did 4 months earlier. (Search Cruise Critic for Puablo to follow his excellent posts on his visits into several ports – we printed him out and took he and Rick Steves with us into every port!)

 

Or just follow this link to Puablo’s Cruise Critic Post:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=108486

 

Puablo’s Istanbul On-His-Own Message Board Post:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1657317

 

Our ship docked at Karakoy Cruise Terminal in Istanbul at 0800 and we were at the ATM directly across the street from the cruise terminal at 0815 obtaining Turkish Liras (TL). We read (and found it accurate) that the metro and museums only take TL. We read (and found accurate) that merchants take Euros or USD and found that to be true although we paid for everything in TL (we are not souvenir shoppers but love to sample local cuisine). After getting our TL, we headed left (west) toward the Galata bridge and the Karakoy Metro Station (walk along the water toward the bridge… you can’t get lost) and took the Metro four stops to Sultanahmet Station (you cannot miss the Blue Mosque and the Haggai Sophia) and hopped off there. We found ourselves at the Hippodrome, so we enjoyed the monuments there (well described by Rick Steves) then walked through the gate to the Blue Mosque which was open by the time we arrived at 8:40 a.m. (just as Puablo had predicted). By 9 a.m. when we departed it was already getting pretty busy so we were glad to have been one of the first 30 or so visitors of the day – it was quiet and had magic.

 

After the Blue Mosque, we walked through the park to the Hagai Sophia (taking Rick Steves’ “Spin Tour” along the way). Ann used the spotlessly clean & no waiting (1 TL) Water Closet (WC) located at the end of building on your right as you approach Hagai Sophia from the Blue Mosque. There were two lines queueing up at the ticket windows for the Hagai Sophia, one about 70 people long, one about 15 people long. Go figure! “We saw two lines, and took the shorter.”

 

We obtained our ticket (now 25TL, not 20 as Rick says) and were following Rick Steves’ walking tour within 5 minutes of getting in the short line. Thanks to Rick we entered via his otherwise-missed “shortcut” through the 1500 year old sultan’s guards gate ancient doors that won’t close anymore (cool!). We did the entire Rick Steve’s tour and it was perfect – not too much, just right.

 

When we exited the Hagai Sophia, I used the free men’s WC and walked by the queue of at least 30 ladies waiting for the free ladies WC. Ann was very happy we had spent 1 TL at the WC at the park prior to arriving at the Hagai Sophia.

 

It was only 10:30. Ann gets a bit grouchy without having good coffee (there is not good coffee on cruise ships), so we skipped the Underground Cistern (we came back later). If we did it over again, we would have done the Cistern upon leaving the Hagai Sophia, but no big deal, we like walking around new (to us) cities.

 

We bought 4TL of roasted chestnuts from a street vendor… (wow, why don’t we have roasted chestnuts in the USA?) Then we headed to the Grand Bazaar with plans to follow Rick’s guided walk to the cool merchants he described and promptly got totally and completely lost. That place is confusing! We had fun being lost and just following the flow of the crowds. I just kept asking merchants (they’re ALL standing out in front of their stores) where I was on Rick’s map and they would show me and we would be lost again within 2 minutes. It was great fun!

 

We eventually stumbled across a delightful sidewalk café and had awesome Turkish Coffee. Our waiter showed me where we were on the map and we got lost again. We found 8 different entrances/exits (they all have a number) but Rick’s map does not give numbers that correspond to the bazaar so unless we asked (there are security guards at some of the exits) we never REALLY knew where we were, but had fun wandering, wandering.

 

I pride myself in navigational skills and orientation and not getting lost, so we were laughing like crazy because I got us lost so quickly and completely. Asking merchants where we were on Rick’s map became a game, they all helped us, and finally, quite by luck, we came out an an exit near the B stop on the metro and followed the tram tracks back to the Underground Cistern while enjoying a shaved chicken sandwich (yum!) from a little café along the way. Boy oh boy was that ever fun.

 

Then we hopped the metro tram to the Spice Market, found our way behind the New Mosque to a non-descript entrance through narrow outside aisles of what Rick has labeled in his book “the plant and pet market” where nearly every animal and bird imaginable is for sale (located along and behind what appears to be a garden store), waked though it into the spice market for around for 90 more minutes.

 

By now our feet were completely worn out so we enjoyed more roasted chestnuts (out of this world) and found out way back to the Galata bridge. We walked across the lower level of the bridge (below the traffic – it is a double decker!) with open-air restaurants on one side - and on the other, hundreds of fishing lines from the fishermen up above us, fishing off the side of the bridge.

 

Every maître de of every one of the myriad restaurants (they are lined up wall to wall all the way across) will try to usher you into his restaurant. We found the best way to disengage them rapidly is to smile, rub your stomach contentedly; act stuffed, and exclaim, “Oh, we are SO full!! We have been eating ALL day!” That worked on Souvlaki Row in Athens, too! We were back at the ship by 4:30 p.m. to watch the sun set over the New Mosque from our little balcony at 5:04 p.m.

 

Thank you, Rick and Puablo! As Oprah would say, "Wooo-hooo!"

 

Terry Hunefeld & Ann Dunham

Inn At Moonlight Beach Bed & Breakfast

San Diego

 

*****************

 

PORTS OF CALL ON YOUR OWN:

 

If you’re on an NCL shore excursion, the process for disembarking for one of their paid shore excursions is streamlined, straightforward and efficient like all of the processes on NCL. This is quite a feat considering that there are sometimes thousands of cruisers getting off the boat to board dozens of different busses.

 

However, we wanted to do Athens “on our own” and it was our first port of call. We wanted to be in the first group off the ship to “beat feet down the street” to get to the metro and to the Acropolis when it opened at 8 a.m. to beat the crowds because Rick Steve said that the best time to be at the Acropolis is before the tour busses disgorge throngs of tourists at 10 a.m. He was dead-on correct!

 

BEWARE: NCL Spirit arrived at the cruise terminal at 6:40 a.m. We were told by two different NCL employees the evening before that there would be an announcement as to when we could disembark, so to be “waiting in our room” or in a “public area” until the announcement. We were discouraged from queuing up near the stairs or elevators prior to the announcement. When we had not heard anything by 7:20, we wandered down to see what was happening only to find that disembarkation had begun 25 minutes before! I inquired why (again asked 2 separate NCL employees) who replied that the ship does not make announcements before 8 a.m. So, there you have it… if you want to be first off before 8 a.m. on an NCL cruise, you need to be aware. My motto after this misinformation was to ask at least multiple different NCL employees the same question until I got the same answer THREE times. That seemed to work okay.

 

Thanks this was a wonderful post. We are on the June 4 cruise.

[maryann ns]

Great post! We too, went on our own in Istanbul. We did not even try to follow a map in the bazaar. You could spend days in there.

[NextOne]

Thank you! You and Puablo have convinced us that we really CAN do Istanbul on our own in June. We're looking forward to a marvelous experience!

[mommamd]

Did you find the experience very safe and hassle free??

[ancientcivteacher]

Thanks this was a wonderful post. We are on the June 4 cruise.

 

Roasted chestnuts from street vendors in New York are good...they are available.

[jandora]

Thank you Thunefeld and Puablo! I feel confident we can do Istanbul on our own in May this year. Both of your reviews were extremely helpful. My husband and I would really like to do our own "thing" and you have both made it a lot easier for us. Thank you

 

Jan:)