Just returned from this tour, and it was absolutely fabulous in every way. It was about our 9th Insight tour, and I was very pleased. Very well organized and set up. It was wonderful to have land time in two great cities combined with a cruise.
The Cristal was our boat and was actually excellent. I had had reservations before the trip as I had read negative things about other Louis Line boats but this was lovely. The service was excellent, very attentive, food was good and the boat itself was very nice. We did pay for an "A" grade cabin and it was really worth it. We had a large window, nice sized room and decent sized bathroom on the 7th deck. I have previously done Holland America Line cruises and while you can't compare a mid sized ship with one of the large ones, this was really lovely. The entertainment was so-so, but on Holland America it was too!!!
There were definitely advantages to being on the cruise with Insight: our tour guide was David Price and he was excellent. Most times we were first off the boat for many tours, he had things very well organized and on the last day actually had our luggage off the boat and on individual trolleys to breeze thru customs. I was very impressed.
The hotel in Istanbul (Crowne Plaza) was very nice, lovely breakfast room and large breakfast buffet with many choices. Right next to the tulip Mosque to you could hear the calls to prayer (5 times a day!) and I would wake up thinking, "That's right, I'm in Istanbul!" It was easy to navigate the city with the tram stop not far away.
I will write a detailed trip report to follow but know that we are one of the first to do this tour and wanted to reassure those who follow that it was really a wonderful area to visit and nicely organized tour. I'll follow up with details and some basic tips when I get a bit more time.

Welcome back Brooklyn! I am glad you had a great time. I was apprehensive at first about being on my own for a day in Istanbul but as you experienced it was no problem for women. I enjoyed Istanbul and Turkey a lot.

Marie: I appreciated your input: I will say I got tired of the carpet salesman and next time will take girl scout cookies with me: whenever they try to take me to a carpet showroom I'll ask them to buy some girl scout cookies for the girls back home. That ought to stop them. I did find I got hassled by them less if I covered my hair.....

Interesting, Brooklyn. I was not bothered much by the carpet salesmen, I said no and kept on walking, but smiled at them they smiled back but that was all. I did wear my Tilley hat though.
It will be interesting to read your tour tale. I hope your mom enjoyed it too. My mom will soon be 91 and is really not in a shape to travel, but she did travel on her own in her early eighties.

Hi Brooklyn. Did you have to tip the ship's staff at the end of the voyage or was the tip included in the cost of this tour. My friend and I will be going on this trip in September and I can hardly wait to hear more about your experiences.

The tip for the steward and waiter were included, according to David Price, our Insight guide on the cruise. We did tip the Insight tour guide, Omar, in Istanbul and David...

Hi Brooklyn, can't wait to see your full tour tale. We are going on the same tour June 17th-28th. Other than the optional tours in Istanbul and Athens offered by Insight, did you do any others? We were looking at a full day Bosphorus tour in Istanbul and a full day Delphi tour in Athens both offered by local tours. Any recommendations after your trip? We want to see as much as possible and absorb as much of the culture and atmosphere as possible - not that interested in shopping. Did you also do the optionals on the cruise?

quick answer and I'll go into more detail a bit later: we did a few of the tours on the cruise but you book thru insight which makes it really nice as the TG on the cruise takes care of you! you are pretty much first off the boat, etc. we did the Oia tour in Santorini, where I rode the donkey down (really fun, a bit challenging) and the Ancient Ephesus tour in Kusadasi that is not to be missed. Really fascinating and wonderful. some people did the island tour in Patmos and liked it, we just walked around. We also did the full day Delphi tour and it was excellent, out of Athens. Much prettier and more interesting than I thought, we got a great tour of the museum and lunch was included. it was expensive, but worth it.
We did the Bosphorus tour with the Beylerbeyi palace included, really nice an interesting to see the Asia side.
After our included highlight dinner in Istanbul, our TG drove by the lit up Blue mosque and Hagia Sophia, so that was really nice.

Thanks Brooklyn. Exactly what I was looking for. 11 days more for us!

We took this tour May 5th out of Detroit, I went with my 81 year old mom who is pretty darn spry and I think it is about our 8th or 9th tour. I've also done a few Holland American cruises, so had an idea of cruise life. I was very pleased with all aspects of this tour. If you would like to see photos, please send me an email address and I'll send you a shutterfly website I put up: I tried to post photos but the site thought they were too big and I'm too rushed these days to try to figure it out.
At the airport, make sure to get in the Visa line (I think it says visitors visa with an arrow to the left) before immigration to buy the small stamp they put in your passport. then do immigration. I was mesmerized by all the different outfits: western, shiek with the checkered red and white turban, burka, etc. Fasinating. They were also scanning people for fever and wearing face masks with the swine flu scare.
Arrived a few days before the tour started in Istanbul: we had arranged on the internet with Backpacker's travel to get pick up at the airport as we had booked our pre tour days at the same hotel but separate from Insight so we didn't get their airport pickup. Backpacker was excellent: got us right to the hotel, helped with the luggage, gave us a snack and something to drink. My mom didn't like our first room at the Crowne plaza (didn't like the view and two big pillars in the room) and asked for a switch: we got a room with a view of the street, which was fine, no pillars.
We arrived around 3p or so, walked down the street (out left from the entrance, turn right at the light) to the Tulip Mosque, where we looked around (really beautiful, quiet) make sure to check out the separate WC's they are turkish (squat) but immaculately clean and the toilet attendant was lovely...
walked back down the street to the small donor shop: carved lamb or chicken pieces in a pita with onion, tomato, etc. cheap and excellent! we also had veg soup here (chol ba) that was wonderful. we ended up eating here a number of times. the "salon" is like eating in someone's basement, but the men were nice and the food good. I think the name of it was Lalei Furkan.