By Gene Sloan, USA TODAY
Celebrity Cruises has announced plans for roundtrip voyages out of Istanbul — a first for the line.
The fast-growing company says it will offer three 12-night sailings from the Turkish city in the fall of 2011 on the 2,034-passenger Celebrity Constellation.
The new “Greek Isles and Turkey” voyages — to begin on Sept. 19, Oct. 1 and Oct. 13, 2011, respectively — will include an overnight in port in Istanbul and visits to Ephesus (Kusadasi), Bodrum and Marmaris, Turkey; Rhodes, Santorini, Athens (Piraeus), Mykonos and Chania (Souda), Crete in Greece.
Three of the ports — Bodrum, Marmaris and Chania — are new for Celebrity.
The line says the Istanbul itineraries will be book-ended by Mediterranean sailings on Sept. 7 and Oct. 25, 2011. On Sept. 7, the Constellation will sail a 12-night itinerary from Amsterdam to Istanbul with stops in Brugges, Belgium; Cherbourg, France; Vigo, Spain; Gibraltar, United Kingdom; Sicily, Italy and Athens. On Oct. 25 the ship will sail an 11-night voyage from Istanbul to Barcelona with stops in Athens; Naples, Rome, and Florence, Italy; Provence, France; and Palma de Mallorca.
On Nov. 5, 2011, the Constellation will reposition from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale with a 14-night trans-Atlantic voyage.
This sounds like a great cruise. Istanbul has always been high on my list of places to visit and being able to spend a night on board the ship docked in Istanbul gives even more time to view the wonderful city. The fact that the itineraries are on the ‘solsticised’ Constellation is an added bonus. I think these cruises are going to be very popular