Istanbul on SD

[DR John]

We are on the SD 2 Ath to IST Aug 27 -Sep3. We are scheduled to arrive IST at 7:00am. Have booked a driver to the airport for 7:30 am. Does anyone have experience with getting off at IST. ( ie Turkish Customs/Immigration delays ?)

 

We know we are cutting it short for our flight ( 10:15 am), but was wondering all your thoughts.

 

Thank you

[zqvol]

We are on the SD 2 Ath to IST Aug 27 -Sep3. We are scheduled to arrive IST at 7:00am. Have booked a driver to the airport for 7:30 am. Does anyone have experience with getting off at IST. ( ie Turkish Customs/Immigration delays ?)

 

We know we are cutting it short for our flight ( 10:15 am), but was wondering all your thoughts.

 

Thank you

 

 

Wish I could help. We were in Istanbul last summer but were doing a back to back so we could come and go as we wanted. Looking back at my blog I see that we arrived last year around 8:00 so it may have been a little later before they cleared. Make sure to let the ship know about you tight connection and they will get you off ASAP.

[RachelG]

We have disembarked from Regent ships twice in Istanbul. Both were early morning, and we just walked right off with no problem. If you have booked a driver, they will be right there when you walk out. You should be fine to catch the flight.

[JES4845]

My wife and I disembarked SD in Istanbul a few years ago. My recollection is we arrived right on time at 7 am if not a little bit earlier. There didn't seem to be much of a delay if any between docking and clearance to disembark. The location they use allows the vehicles right at the end of the gangway. That said, I strongly second the earlier advice to let SD crew on board know your tight time frame. We had a flight departure time moved up last year after we booked the flight that made for a similarly tight connection north of Rome's airport on SD last year. They told us not to put our bags out overnight as usual. They had staff help us be right at the gangway so as soon as the clearance was given we were off the ship to the waiting van with another couple in the same predicament. We just came back from a Baltic trip on SD a few weeks ago and followed through on our plans to never depart the day of disembarkation again, or at least not do so early in the morning. Better to relax, have that last SD breakfast, and force them to toss you off right at 10 AM! We even saw one table drinking champagne at 930 - maybe next time!