SD I May 25 - June 5, The Black Sea

[whatnot]

Yes, I did mean Doramas, just a typo

 

Vandrefalk, the visas for Turkey worked perfectly! They saved lots of time at the airport and we also had to show them when we got on SD. We are having a great time! We have Chef Havlicek who is new to me but the food is great as always Silvio is still on board until June 5 and just working some in the background. He toured with us yesterday. Rosie also goes home on the 5th for her daughter's 7th birthday but Mikee will be here.

 

Would love to meet you sfwriter. Have not heard your names so I am sure we haven't met. We are LuAnn and Guy from North Carolina. I am looking for you.

[whatnot]

It was a beautiful day in Bulgaria! This is a resort town with lots of shops and good prices. We did not do a tour but enjoyed walking around the town looking at the many ruins of medieval churches and doing some shopping. Dinner was the Confluence Dinner which basically the De Gustation dinner. No caviar but did have Fois Gras, pumpkin soup, sorbet and a choice of Veal Wellington , a pasta dis or sea bass. Our group dined on the back deck for the 2 nd straight night. Lovely sunset! The Internet is working great. And is $154 for 11 days.

[whatnot]

We had an 8:30 am tour to sail The Danube Delta. We left the busy, very industrial port of Constanta for a 2 hr bus trip to Tulcea where we boarded a boat for the 4 hr cruise in the Delta. The bus trip was quite interesting and the guide outstanding. But the Danube cruise was not very good. We saw very little widlife and a lot of muddy water. It was only in the upper 60's and quite windy, so it was pretty cold in an open sided boat. The food for lunch and the wine served were all pretty bad too. So we had another 2 hr ride back to SD. Romania is still very 3rd world and that was quite evident as we rode through the cities and country side. Farmers were still plowing with horses and weeding large fields with hoes. Herds of sheep and goats were being herded by shepherds and dogs because there were no fences. Most buildings From the communist period were in various states of disrepair but still being lived in. Our guide told us a lot about life there during and since the communist period. It was great to get back to SD!

[whatnot]

Odessa was a lovely port! We did a private touour at 11am from a company called Odessa Walks. It was a 3 hr Foodie Walk through the streets of Odessa. We stopped at 3 local restaurants along the way and sampled local cuisine Some very good and some not so good - such as thinly sliced lard withe peppered edges! It looked just like sliced turker breast! It was a lot of fun and the guide was great. In the afternoon we did a ship tour to 2 palaces and hed a concert by local string musicians and the lead soprano from the local opera. The Odessa Opera House was closed for an event so we were not able to go there in the evening. Therefore SD brought on local Ukrainian musicians and dancers after dinner last evening .

 

We have not had mussels for lunch yet. SD only takes on supplies in EU countries, so we did not take them on in Turkey, but got them in Bulgaria on Sunday. We were told the quality of the mussels they got were not up to their standards so we may not have them at all.

 

Weather is still cool. We are having a Sea Day today and the seas are a little rough. You need long sleeves outside. It has been cooler than I expected. Hopefully I have gotten caught up and will report again tomorrow .

[JES4845]

Whatnot, thanks for the very helpful reports. Please keep them coming. We are doing the BlackSea trip in August so your port reports and tour reviews are invaluable. Pretty sure we met on a prior cruise as your names and NC location sound familiar. We are John and Melissa from the DC/VA area.

[knotheadusc]

Good. Looks like Nat was able to pull off that surprise for you! I hope you enjoyed it!

[vandrefalk]

Glad you are having fun!! Bet the concert was fun -- they did some things like that a couple of years ago in Norway.

We leave on Friday!!

[fpebbles]

enjoying sailing along with you!

[CDreamer]

enjoying sailing along with you!

 

Me too! Sounds like you're having a great cruise, even with the colder temps and speed bumps in the ocean.

 

Love the idea of going on a "Foodie Trip"....sounds like a lot of fun!

 

Thanks for all your updates, whatnot - please keep 'em coming! :D

[whatnot]

it was a cool day at sea with temps in the upper 60's and a fairly stiff breeze. In the morning was the usual Dream Showcase the chef preparing crepes, and demos of napkin folding and making twel animals etc. There was a Bridge tour at 11 and trivia and a movie in the afternoon. Our group of 6 dined with the Head Sewardess Maria at dinner. She was quite interesting to chat with and a very good conversationalist. It was Returning Club Member Coctail Party night and there were 50 of us out of the 89 on bored this cruise.(the number was revised after the first day). The 50 of us had logged a total of over 7 years on board. The top couple had over 400 days on board and the next 2 had over 200 each. It was Crew Talent Night after dinner. They all did a great job as usual, but my favorites were the solos by Brian and Hose. They were outstanding! Tomorrow is Yalta.

 

Yes we are having a great time. I must say the Foodie Walk one of our favorite things so far. I highly recommend it. I read about it here on Cruise Critic and booked it on line.

[whatnot]

It was a busy day in Yalta. We started out at 8:30 with a tour that visited the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, included a ride through the city oYalta and along the coastline to see the beautiful views. Later we spent about 2 and a half hours touring Lavidia Palace, the spring and summer residence of the last of the Romanof family to rule Russia and the site of the 1945 Yalta Conference. We also had local sigers and dancers perform in the courtyard. We had a great guide and the tour was very educational. I highly recommend this tour. We did not do the afternoon tour to the Massandra winery but those that did really enjoyed it. We chose to walk down the promenade along the seaside and check out the stores. There was very little to buy and everything was geared to the local tourists who flock to this resort town in the summer not Americans.

 

We had a special evening even which all but about 20 guests chose to attend. It was a finder at Lavadia Palace featuring recipes enjoyed by the Tsars accompanied by their favorite wines still being made at the Massandra Winery. Of course there was ice cold vodka and caviar. It was great fun!

 

The new Club Director Nat Green is doing a great job. Some of these events were added after he came on board. He seems to be very experienced. I know he was with Silver Sea for a few years but not sure where else.

 

Will report again soon.

[Jim Avery]

Sounds like a really interesting day. Thanks for taking us with.:D

[agfald]

Whatnot, my husband and I enjoyed having met you yesterday at our lovely dinner in Livadia. We have been looking forward to this trip for a long time, the Black Sea is a region that we had never been before, and so different. I see that you enjoyed your stay in Istambul, we like it very much, and are always happy to return.

Hope you enjoyed our wonderful day sailing today, great weather and very calm seas.

[vandrefalk]

Looking forward to meeting Nat next week! He sounds as good as Michael!

Vandrefalk

[frequent traveler]

Thanks for the postings. Reconfirms my desire to see this area. Glad you are enjoying.

FT

[knotheadusc]

We had dinner with Nat and he said he'd started out as a dancer. I think he said that was how he had connections to the dancers who came on your cruise in Odessa. He said he made friends with one of the top SeaDream execs when they were both a lot more junior and working elsewhere when the position on SeaDream opened up, the exec remembered him and invited him for an interview.

 

My husband and I really enjoyed talking to Nat. He's very sincere and has some great ideas, even for dealing with kids who come on SeaDream. :eek:

[JES4845]

Question for Whatnot and others: did you get a Russian visa to be able to do things in Sochi and any other Russian ports without an organized tour? We did not get a Russian visa for St. Petersburg in part b/c there were so many organized tours we wanted to do and there wasn't going to be much free time. For the Black Sea in August, Sochi is the only Russian port, but pending Whatnot's review, neither of the two long land adventures is necessarily appealing to us. We are inclined to apply for the visas even though it is expensive and we time-consuming in the USA to get them. Thoughts welcome.

[whatnot]

JES. I will answer your question before I do my review. We did not get a visa and did a tour with SD. We had friends that booked a car with a driver and a guide through SD. Their van was for 6 people and they split the cost. I think the cost was $525 for 4 hours. They had no problem finding others who wanted to share the trip. I will check and let you know if that figure is wrong. Seems like a car for 2 people was a little over $400. They were pleased. I think that is less costly than getting a visa particularly for 1 day.

[whatnot]

i skipped Friday because it was an uneventful sea day. I even walked 2 nautical miles around the top of the yacht that day. A first for me!

 

Saturday was a very nice day in Sochi. The weather has warmed up and the last few days have been sunny. Sochi is a Russian resort town and also the site of the 2014 Summer Olympic Games. The city is semi-tropical but snow capped mountains are only 40 miles or so away. Construction is everywhere! Buildings are being built such as high rise luxury apartments for wealthy Russians to purchase as second homes. The locals can not afford them. The roads are all being rebuilt, widened or total new roads being built for the Olympics. They say the Olympic venues are finished but the infrastructure to get people there, etc is far from complete. We did not go to the Olympic village, which is near the mountains but there was a tour that went there. Very few people here speak English so I would want a guide of some sort and not do the area on my own.

 

We did a tour that walked through the city and then visited Stalin's vacation home. It was interesting but really a ugly building. Then we rode through the countryside to a tea plantation and had Russian tea and local food and were entertained by local musicians . The buildings in Sochi were beautiful because the Russian elite came here to vacation but when you got away from the beaches you saw all the crumbling Soviet period apartment buildings where the real Russian people live. Every city has lots and lots of them!

 

Tomorrow is Novorossiysk, Russia.

[JES4845]

Appreciate the visa advice to go with the daily reports!

 

With Sochi as our only Russian port in August I am inclined to agree that getting a car/driver/guide makes a lot of sense.

[DisneyJen]

Just catching up LuAnn!

 

Sounds like you are having a wonderful time. Appreciate your taking us along!

[whatnot]

It was a beautiful warm day here. This is not a resort town. It is a very Russian industrial port that was occupied for about 225 days by the Germans during WWII. The city was almost totally destroyed before it's liberation by Russian troops. It has numerous monuments to commemorate the events of this period. This was not a friendly port. The Russian authorities were very hard to deal with and made our entrance through Passport Contro very difficult and our departure was even worse. We were suppose to sail at 5pm but they kept delaying our clearance. At 6:30 they decided they needed to see all guests and crew passports again, even if you had not gone ashore. Since we all had them in our possession, they had to be collected and presented to them . Finally they allowed us to sail about 7:30, 2 1/2 hours late. Quite an experience!

[whatnot]

Today was cool in the morning and rainy by afternoon. The worst weather we have had.

 

Due to the delay that occurred leaving Russia yesterday, we were 2 hours late arriving in Sevastopol. Therefore all our tours had to be shortened so we could sail on time in the evening. That was a bummer because this really is an interesting city. We did the Highlights tour which took us to the ruins of a Greek city from 400 AD, to the Panorama Museum depicting a scene from the Crimean War and to the Russian Orthodox Monastery among other things. This city was destroyed during the Crimean War , rebuilt and then destroyed again during WWII. It is full of military history as well as being the home of both the Russian Black Sea Fleet and the Ukrainian Fleet. Russia rents the space from the Ukraine. It is also home to the submarine museum which you can visit on the Cold War tour which is quite good. Everything is fairly clean and bright here compared to some other cities in this area .

 

Tonight was the De Gustacion Dinner. Our group was asked to taste and critique the one they are working on to be served on the Asia cruises. So instead of the usual we got beer and saki served with things like seared tuna and wasai, sushi, tempura, duck with spicy foie GRAS, and green tea ice-cream. It was quite interesting and fun to do. Afterwards the chef came by for our comments.

 

Tomorrow is a sea day as we are returning to Istanbul tomorrow evening and overnight in port. It will also be the Champagne and Caviar Spash and BBQ.

[JES4845]

Whatnot, thanks again for your timely, thorough and helpful reports! Safe return to Istanbul!

 

As you have kept us informed we all should do the same. You no doubt may know that the street protests continue in Istanbul and elsewhere in Turkey. There are news reports this AM USA time (Tue 4 June) that one or more unions may strike in the next few days, but so far it seems fairly limited. The US Consulate in Istanbul has a web site with updated messages on the situation. So far they are simply providing updates and the usual warnings to stay away from areas where protests are occurring. I can't recall what your post-cruise plans might be or those of others on SD. Arriving with an overnight is an advantage as you can get the lay of the land from SD and/or the US Consulate. It looks to be a manageable situation. We look forward to your future reports!

[DisneyJen]

Another informative report LuAnn! Greatly appreciated.

 

Interesting about changing the Degustation Menu.

 

Safe travels!