Celebrity Quest in the Med/ new ports in Turkey and Greece

[Susan-M]

In 2008 Celebrity will have their ship, Quest, in the Med - the itineraries (all 14 days) vary throughout the summer, but one that I have my eye on is the Ancient Empire Cruise: Rome to Athens, with port days in

- Sorrento

- Santorini

- Chios, Greece

- Istanbul (overnight)

- Canakkale, Turkey

- Bodrum, Turkey

- Fethiye, Turkey

- Antalya, Turkey

- Limassol, Greece

- Cairo

 

Some of these ports are ones that I haven't heard of previously (Chios, Canakkale, Bodrum, Fethiye, Antalya) and I was wondering if anyone was familiar with them. Thanks :)

[Bruin Steve]

Wow!

Some really intriguing itineraries:

 

http://www.celebritycruises.com/search/vacationSearchResults.do;jsessionid=0000fdpGBzlwftgmGx6K5j3eKXY:1028etot9?dest=ANY&date=ANY&port=ANY&ship=QS&x=11&y=5

 

We just did the Eastern Mediterranean on a sister ship, the Oceania Nautica...

 

Chose the itinerary because it took us to ports we haven't been to or couldn't get on Celebrity...

 

The experience was very good...but different from our Celebrity experiences...we typically wondered how many of the differences were due to the different cruise line and how much to the size of the ship...

 

For example, the entertainment certainly paled compared to Celebrity...but was this just the line or the fact that theshowroom is really just a small lounge without the typical big ship stage facilities?

 

Dining on Oceania was all "open seating", but does the dining room set-up (and two alternative restaurants) just not lend itself to tw traditional dinner seatings?

 

These new itineraries certainly seem to be competing directly with those Oceania cruises...

[Susan-M]

Hi Steve,

 

Yes - great itineraries, but I'll need to research the ports. VTG already has some detail on each port and they sound quite interesting. This class of ship will have open dining, and two specialty restaurants .... and from what I've been reading on the Celebrity board, no formal nights.

 

I like having only 2 sea days also.

 

A close resemblance to Oceania!

[Mike Andrews]

Fethiye in Turkey is a nice little town that has a fantastic market on a Tuesday.It is also very near the town of Olu Deniz whose beach is featured on many of the publicity shots for Turkey.For those who are slightly more adventurous the mountain above Olu Deniz is one of the best paragliding sites in Europe.

[cruisemom42]

Wow, sounds like a great itinerary for an ancient history buff like me!!

 

I don't know about all of the Turkish ports, but Canakkale is the port closest to the excavations of ancient Troy.

 

And Chios is supposed to be the island where the poet Homer was born. It was a thriving part of the Athenian alliance during the wars against Persia. Later it was part of the Roman and Byzantine empires.

[Mike Andrews]

The ghost village of Kaya Koyu is also near Fethiye

[TourDeCruise]

We are interested in the same Ancient Empires cruise but in October 2008 with Crete instead of Santorini (have been to Santorini twice, but have not been to Crete). We're also very much into ancient history & archaeology and would love the opportunity to visit ancient sites in nearly every port.

 

Antalya is close to a large number of archaeology sites; in fact, it has Hadrian's Gate and an archaeology museum right in town and then various Hellenistic, Roman, Lycian, and possibly Hittite sites to choose from and possibly within touring distance of the port, including Perge, Aspendos, Teimiussa, Myra, Simena and Termessos. See the following link for some tours or places that may be possible to do/visit from Antalya.

http://www.affiliate.viator.com/brochure/ed_PRODUCT_results.jsp?CITY=ANTALYA&COUNTRY=Turkey&CONTINENT=Europe&AUID=2365

 

My husband e-mailed the itineraries to me at work today. I was (still am) so excited. You can guess what I did at lunch today -- some of the evidence is above!

 

Kathy

[Susan-M]

Many thanks for your very helpful replies! I booked Quest for June '08. :)

[TourDeCruise]

Susan,

 

Good for you. Excellent choice -- what a wonderful itinerary. If I had enough vacation time from work, we would probably book the very same cruise. We could get a direct flight to Athens in June-Sept. but not in October (at least in 2007). So we most likely will wait until we can do the same itinerary in June -- but 2009 because of lack of vacation time by June 2008.

 

Have a wonderful time.

 

Kathy

[franu]

Susan,

Canakkale, Turkey is also the port for Gallipoli. The World War I battlefield. I am visiting this port in October 2007 and will let you know more after my visit.

Fran

[Susan-M]

Thanks Kathy and Fran :) .... I'll look forward you your review Fran!

 

Susan

[mountainmare]

WOW Susan what a great trip and a wonderful time of the year.

Have fun planning!!