October Black Sea Cruise Itinerary Has Been Changed

[msmoger]

During my daily OCD check of my personalizer today (:D) I happily saw that Princess has changed our itinerary for our October Black Sea cruise on the Ocean.

 

Yalta and Odessa have been replaced with Santorini and Kusadasi. We personally are very satisfied with this change. Although Yalta and Odessa would have been highlights and of course we're disappointed that we can't go, it's obvious no cruise ships will be calling on these ports in 2014 (although a Silver Seas ship was in Odessa on the day of the fire where 32 were tragically killed).

 

I think Princess was wise to make this change now and not to wait to make a decision that was inevitable

[Pam in CA]

Good for Princess. Those are really nice alternative ports. And they'll be warmer. :)

[flamomo]

Nice change!! If you have not been to Kusadasi before, and enjoy historic tours and ancient ruins, I strongly recommend doing one that goes to Ephesus. I did a Princess tour there last August, and IMO, awesome!!

[msmoger]

Good for Princess. Those are really nice alternative ports. And they'll be warmer. :)

 

Totally agree!! I hear Santorini is beautiful. :)

 

Nice change!! If you have not been to Kusadasi before, and enjoy historic tours and ancient ruins, I strongly recommend doing one that goes to Ephesus. I did a Princess tour there last August, and IMO, awesome!!

 

Actually, we've been to Ephesus and loved it. I'm very excited about going back!! :)

[KirkNC]

I would expect all the cruise lines to do this. Just not worth the risk.

[roamerfromtexas]

Egypt (Port Said & Alexandria) has been replaced with Rhodes & Santorini. Just notified by e-mail.

[Pam in CA]

Totally agree!! I hear Santorini is beautiful. :)

The town on Oia is beautiful and what you see in all the photos. Take a tour of the island that goes to the monastery for spectacular views and then plan to go to Oia to walk around, perhaps stop and have a coffee or ice cream, shop and then go down to the tender dock via the cable car. There are usually long lines for the cable car so leave plenty of time.

[stormyitaly]

Nice change!! If you have not been to Kusadasi before, and enjoy historic tours and ancient ruins, I strongly recommend doing one that goes to Ephesus. I did a Princess tour there last August, and IMO, awesome!!

If you've been to Ephesus already, try a Turkish bath in old town and follow it with a Turkish shave! Cost is very little and experience is big :)

[Colo Cruiser]

A couple of excellent replacements!

[ContemporaryTraveler]

Did Princess add on any additional Black Sea ports? Most of the other cruise lines have been replacing the Ukrainian ports with Sinop and Trabzon, Turkey. I think these would have been fascinating replacements since they are in the Black Sea and other major cruise lines are now sailing to these ports instead.

[caribill]

Egypt (Port Said & Alexandria) has been replaced with Rhodes & Santorini. Just notified by e-mail.

 

Egypt says to "come anyway." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2624104/Ignore-bombs-come-Egypt-Tourism-Ministrys-message-world.html

[paul929207]

Michael,

Thanks for the info.

[StLouisCruisers]

Did Princess add on any additional Black Sea ports? Most of the other cruise lines have been replacing the Ukrainian ports with Sinop and Trabzon, Turkey. I think these would have been fascinating replacements since they are in the Black Sea and other major cruise lines are now sailing to these ports instead.

 

I totally agree with this statement. They should have included other Black Sea ports. We are booked on the Holy Land cruise just after the Black Sea cruise, and will now have to stop in Kusadasi twice in one week! Not to mention Santorini twice as well. So disappointed!

[Pam in CA]

I totally agree with this statement. They should have included other Black Sea ports. We are booked on the Holy Land cruise just after the Black Sea cruise, and will now have to stop in Kusadasi twice in one week! Not to mention Santorini twice as well. So disappointed!

Have you ever been to Trabzon? I would rather go back to Ephesus and Santorini 10x than go to Trabzon. Maybe I just hit a bad day but after an hour in Trabzon, I couldn't wait to get back on the ship.

[msmoger]

Did Princess add on any additional Black Sea ports? Most of the other cruise lines have been replacing the Ukrainian ports with Sinop and Trabzon, Turkey. I think these would have been fascinating replacements since they are in the Black Sea and other major cruise lines are now sailing to these ports instead.

 

I totally agree with this statement. They should have included other Black Sea ports. We are booked on the Holy Land cruise just after the Black Sea cruise, and will now have to stop in Kusadasi twice in one week! Not to mention Santorini twice as well. So disappointed!

 

Although I understand your point, for us personally we're very happy with this change. Santorini has been a bucket list destination for us and we have no problem returning to Ephesus.

 

I've read a lot about some of these other Black Sea ports and I don't get the feeling they offer as much as Yalta and Odessa would have.

 

I realize there will be many seasoned cruisers on the Ocean and many of them will have visited Santorini and Kusadasi previously, possibly multiple times. As a result they might agree with you.

 

However, for us we have limited vacation time and I'd rather get more bang for my buck. Once we're retired I'm sure I'll want to visit some of the more obscure ports, but at this point I'm very happy with the decision Princess made.

 

Now for the poster doing the B2B and will now be repeating both of the new ports twice, I can certainly understand their disappointment.

[on cruise control]

I totally agree with this statement. They should have included other Black Sea ports. We are booked on the Holy Land cruise just after the Black Sea cruise, and will now have to stop in Kusadasi twice in one week! Not to mention Santorini twice as well. So disappointed!

 

We are so totally disappointed with these changes. Like StLouisCruisers, we are back-to-back and do not wish to see Kusadasi or Santorini twice....we have been to both, and Rhodes before. We just snail-mailed letters to all the head honchos of Carnival and Princess expressing our disappointment with their choices. We asked them to rethink the repeat ports.

 

We are not new to port changes. We sailed Princess from Bangkok to Rome in 2003 and we had seven - yes 7 - port changes during the 30 day cruise. An adventure, for sure. But we didn't have any repeat ports.

[GradUT]

I completely understand (and agree) with Princess' decision to omit Odessa and Yalta from their Black Sea cruise itinerary, but I feel sorry for all of those who booked that cruise hoping to visit Ukraine. (That was almost us-we had originally planned to go on this cruise in 2015, but moved it up to 2014.) Odessa and Sevastopol (which we visited from Yalta) were two of the highlights of the cruise for us. I'm glad I don't have to make this decision, but I likely would cancel a Black Sea cruise that did not include Ukraine.

[neilrr]

Hello everyone... We are also booked for the June cruise to the Black Sea on the Emerald and we too were a bit disappointed not to go to Yalta and Odessa (as of now). It looks like Princess replaced those stops with Nessebar, Bulgaria and a port in Romania. Anyone familiar with those ports and also, Volos Greece, Valetta, Malta??? We like that it is mostly all new to us.

 

We are spending 5 days in Athens pre-cruise. We really liked Athens on the last trip, but it was too short. The ship also goes back to Mykonos and 2 days in Istanbul. We love the Eastern Med.

 

Happy sailing everyone...:)

[Mackenzie1]

Constanta, Romania is on the Black Sea and is a major port city for Romania. There's a very good natural history museum in Constanta, but the better option in my view would be an excursion to Bucharest. Both Romania and Bulgaria were previously part of the Soviet Union, and their history since their revolutions is very interesting. I've been to Varna, Bulgaria, but not Nessebar. Princess does have an excursion to Varna, though, as described on its website. Both ports are good substitutes for Yalta and Odessa.

[newport dave]

Romania and Bulgaria were never part of the Soviet Union, they were part of the communist bloc and Warsaw Pact. The communist bloc was made up of numerous countries Inc. the USSR whose governments were communist.

 

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[Mackenzie1]

Romania and Bulgaria were never part of the Soviet Union, they were part of the communist bloc and Warsaw Pact. The communist bloc was made up of numerous countries Inc. the USSR whose governments were communist.

 

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Thank you for the correction, Newport Dave. I toured Romania in the early 1990's, shortly after the dictator, Ceausescu, had been assassinated. At that time, the locals were so thrilled that he was gone. When touring Romania recently, it was very interesting to find that sentiments had changed. Instead of contempt, the locals praised Ceausescu, and one even described him as the poet of their country. I learned later that the Romanians are still afraid to criticize their leaders, whether past or present, because they are the same corrupt, communist bosses who ran the country during the Ceausescu period, and the youth are being fed a steady stream of propaganda about how great the communist era was.

 

When I toured Bulgaria recently, the locals expressed the same frustrations about how the same corrupt, communist bosses rule as before, which is why so many young people are leaving Bulgaria. Ukraine's recent uprising was over the same discontent--their government was still being run from Moscow. Touring Romania and Bulgaria was a very interesting experience, which is why I feel these two ports are good substitutes for Yalta and Odessa, although Ukraine has great ballet and WWII sites.

Edited December 2, 2014 by Mackenzie1

[hokiefans]

Hello everyone... We are also booked for the June cruise to the Black Sea on the Emerald and we too were a bit disappointed not to go to Yalta and Odessa (as of now). It looks like Princess replaced those stops with Nessebar, Bulgaria and a port in Romania. Anyone familiar with those ports and also, Volos Greece, Valetta, Malta??? We like that it is mostly all new to us.

 

We are spending 5 days in Athens pre-cruise. We really liked Athens on the last trip, but it was too short. The ship also goes back to Mykonos and 2 days in Istanbul. We love the Eastern Med.

 

Happy sailing everyone...:)

 

Malta is fantastic and fascinating! we spent a week there for a conference and would love to return. It played a big role in WWII, has wonderful silver filigree jewellery, is "home" to the Knights of Malta, a very unusual Cathedral; etc. Enjoy!

[GradUT]

When we did the Black Sea cruise in July 2013, Nessebar, Bulgaria and Constanta, Romania were port stops in addition to, not instead of, Odessa and Yalta.

 

We did the ship's excursion from Nessebar to Varna and enjoyed the trip, primarily because our guide was so good. In Varna, we saw the Roman baths which were interesting because they were mostly still in ruins--nothing like the Roman baths in Italy or Bath, England. We also saw a pretty good archeological museum and visited the Assumption Cathedral whose religious leader spoke to various members of our tour as he studied in the U.S. and speaks excellent English. Lunch was a traditional Bulgarian meal and pretty tasty. It was interesting to hear about this country from our guide and see firsthand the effects of so many years of Soviet domination.

 

In Constanta, we did the ship's excursion entitled "Constanta, Museums and Zamfira Wedding Show". We enjoyed this tour very much too. There is a lot of construction going on in Constanta and our guide said they are trying to improve conditions not only for the residents but also to attract tourism. We visited 3 museums and all of them were really good. We got to see some scientists working in the Roman Edifice which was neat. The Zamfira Wedding Show was obviously geared toward tourists, but the cast seemed genuinely happy in what they were doing and the music and costumes were great. The meal was also good. Some friends we met on the cruise did the day trip to Bucharest since her family had come from there. They enjoyed that trip but said it made for a very long day.

 

I would never have visited Bulgaria or Romania but for this Black Sea cruise (and I'm glad I did) but I would disagree that Nessabar and Constanta are good substitutions for Odessa and Yalta. While the Bulgarians and Romanians were rightly proud of their towns, there was no comparison with the history, architecture, infrastructure, etc. with Odessa and Yalta (or Sevastapol, which we visited).

[altiva]

During my daily OCD check of my personalizer today (:D) I happily saw that Princess has changed our itinerary for our October Black Sea cruise on the Ocean.

 

Yalta and Odessa have been replaced with Santorini and Kusadasi. We personally are very satisfied with this change. Although Yalta and Odessa would have been highlights and of course we're disappointed that we can't go, it's obvious no cruise ships will be calling on these ports in 2014 (although a Silver Seas ship was in Odessa on the day of the fire where 32 were tragically killed).

 

I think Princess was wise to make this change now and not to wait to make a decision that was inevitable

Surely "tragic" is the strange adjective to use to describe what has happened. Some people joined a terrorist organisation for pay, were paid to occupy the government building and shriek "kill Khohols" (Khohol is a derogatory nickname for Ukrainians, akin to N word). For this, FSB, KGB that was, paid them 20 bucks a day. They beat people for speaking Ukrainian language, fired at an old lady, who sat near her window, at her apartment, under a Ukrainian flag and burned down all the stores with Ukrainian signs on them. Then, one day, their FSB leader told them that they would get a hundred US apiece if they create a good disturbance, beat people, stop trains and finally, barricade themselves in the building. These "people" happily agreed, ran out and started throwing stones at the passing cars, beating everyone who didn't wear their insignia, and so on. When the police arrived, instead of dispersing in the crown and going home, they ran and barricaded themselves in the Trade Union building, which they occupied before and turned into a veritable pigsty, urinating and defecating directly in the rooms and on the stairs. Their FSB ringleader, then, promptly discharged the lethal gas, walked out and closed the doors. Everyone inside died or was burned to death, with Ukrainian fire-fighters, whom those barricaded inside incited to kill just half an hour ago, trying to save them, all in vain.

Many words come to mind, when thinking about what happened to these people, "tragic" never being one of them.