Lost in Venice with a taste of Turkish Delight and Souvlaki

[Pushka]

Some photos of the lovely buffet. It's 3pm so the hot foods aren't available yet.

 

[Pushka]

Seating area:



The moving fountain in the main pool




I'll be offline now as my Optus plan runs out and will await the Hotels wifi to post tomorrow.

 

[Dougo]

Wow ... is all I can say re the lobster and the desserts !! And I'm not a fan of lobster either !

The photos of the ship look great ...thanks for posting them

 

[Pushka]

Just weird. We've just had the call to prayer from the Mosques and while sitting in the outdoor area of the buffet (fabulous) over the loudspeaker system has come "Silent Night, Holy night". There are Chinese people, Americans, Australians etc looking at each other in puzzlement.

The aft view. Glorious even though not in focus.







(My plan ends in 3 hours. Yay!)

 

[Pushka]

I promised the guys at the bar I'd post this picture.



Sri

I also filmed Edi during a performance which I've promised I'd post on YouTube when on wifi. He'd never seen his performance before so he was pretty happy.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Love reading about all your travels Pushka. I did a Caribbean cruise onboard the Celebrity Summit which I loved & a friend's favourite ship is the Celebrity Solstice. The cruise staff are from a vast number of different countries it's always interesting to find out where everyone is from.

Was there any kind of wi-fi package offered when you did the booking with Vacations to Go? What was the Optus plan you arranged for your travels?

 

[TomVexille]

Ship looks great. You've convinced me.

 

[Bindibuys]

We used Vacationstogo for our Caribbean cruise, due to sail day after Sandy hit, they constantly kept us in the loop with what was happening with our cruise.
Lost 1 day (and 1 Port) as ship could not get into harbour. I would use them again without hesitation.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Hi Pushka, loving your review and the pictures.

That out of focus aft picture above (blue tones) actually looks quite amazing, like a Pointillist painting.

Cheers
JJJ

 

[Pushka]

Hi everyone. Here at the Intercontinental Istanbul. A huge room indeed. MrP is happy. Just switched on the TV to see the AFL match.

Disembarkation a mess. They were an hour late on their callings due to 3 ships at the same time. Then a belter of a thunderstorm and pretty much drenched everyone waiting. Then, a 2 hour wait for taxi. We rang the hotel and they sent one for us. There was some traveller angst as there was no order with some waiting two hours and others grabbing them as they appeared. We decided to walk out the gates and there were taxis everywhere - they just didn't want to come into the Dock.

Here now and this is the room.

 

[love_the_life]

A bit like QM2 disembarking in HongKong? From memory I think I have had more bad disembarkations than good ones. Somehow cruise lines just don't manage to get it right. Celebrity are no different. Auckland was abysmal - long queues just to get off the ship. We gave up and went back the the Elite lounge and waited for another half an hour.

 

[Pushka]

Taksim Square



Our pool



I used Optus travel plan which is $10 a day unlimited phone calls and texts in Zone 1 (Europe) and 50 mb a day coughulative data a day. Well worth it.

We actually received our excess OBC back! So even after upgrading to a premium drinks package we had money left over. I'm happy with that.

Yes Dame. At least HK wasn't raining. There was quite the rage happening.

Nice to see you Triple J and Ozbeachbabe.

Tom, the ships are lovely. Clean and modern. Crew fabulous. It's the getting off we hate.

 

[Pushka]

Vacationstogo certainly work for me! Wonderful bargains and credits we don't get here.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I used Optus travel plan which is $10 a day unlimited phone calls and texts in Zone 1 (Europe) and 50 mb a day coughulative data a day. Well worth it.

We actually received our excess OBC back! So even after upgrading to a premium drinks package we had money left over. I'm happy with that.

Yes Dame. At least HK wasn't raining. There was quite the rage happening.

Nice to see you Triple J and Ozbeachbabe.

Tom, the ships are lovely. Clean and modern. Crew fabulous. It's the getting off we hate.

I know one thriftly AFF member booked a cruise through Vacations to Go & after they made their final payment the price dropped but they were given the difference in onboard credit. They had trouble spending it all so had to go to the onboard Casino to cash it in for chips then cashed in their 'winnings' to get the cash back which I understand was well worth it.

 

[Dougo]

Very nice hotel in Istanbul Pushka ... I love Istanbul... so colourful !

 

[Pushka]

Ozbabe, they didn't need to go to the casino. Ours is just being credited to our credit card. Just happened. We have 3 pages of zero charges. Sweet.

Photos of today shortly.

 

[Pushka]

Clearly the IC KWWA



MrP is rather smug.

He thinks he's learnt how to speak Turkish after ordering Baklava. Now, every second word is Baklava.

The sweet desert apparently stolen by the Greeks.

While typing this he's said it twice more. We've just had the most sweet, delicate Turkish baklava ever.

I'd post a photo but they've all gone. We didn't do it. Unfortunately. We have 40 mins to go for replenishment.

 

[Pushka]

The Turkish people display their flag everywhere we can see their flag. I envy them their distinctive flag.









We are up to 20. Playing "where is Wally" with the flags.

 

[Pushka]

We took the hoho bus today and tomorrow will walk the Sultanahmet area. Some are not in good focus due to the moving bus.

Fishermen on Galata Bridge


Crazy gridlock traffic


The Blue Mosque


Sob

 

[Pushka]

More sights

The Bridge dividing Europe and Asia.



Just another beautiful Mosque



Cool Council worker