Cruising the Dardanelles

We're looking to take a cruise where we can see the Dardanelles as we cruise through. I'm looking at two options, both of which come from the Med and overnight in Istanbul. (HAL and RCCL, both round-trip from Venice.)

Am I correct in thinking that we will pass through the Dardanelles in the dark on RCCL, which docks in Istanbul at 11:00 am and leaves the next day at 5:00 pm?

HAL specifically has "Cruising the Dardanelles" on the itinerary and doesn't dock in Istanbul until 4:00 pm.

RCCL just has a great deal right now, lol, but I'm guessing if the Dardanelles are one of our main goals, then HAL is the way to go, right? Thanks! :)

To give you some idea of timing, on our cruise last year we departed Istanbul at 12 midnight to be cruising the Dardanelles from approx 8am to 10 am.

According to this site, the distance is about 120 nautical miles, so around half a day away from Istanbul (depending on the ship's speed of course). So basically your ship needs to arrive or depart Istanbul in the nighttime in order to pass through the Dardanelles in the daytime.

Thank you both! That will help with the planning.

Of course, if Istanbul ends up coming off itineraries in the next year, then I'm guessing the Dardanelles will be off, too. We'll wait and see a bit.

The problem with the cruise ships leaving Istanbul is that they are only allowed to leave at certain times. The channel operated 6 hours, all ships go in one direction, the next six hours they go in the other direction and it reverses. Luck of the draw. We did a ferry trip across the Dardanelles during the day and to be truthful, not that much to see from the water. You need to do a land trip to appreciate the area.