Hi Candy here, I had to cancel my Greece trip and still have my 3 nights in Athens at the Hilton Hotel. I booked this on my own and not sure I can transfer it...But if someone is interested I can do my best.  I'll sell it for $300. It is the host hotel for Olivia so you would still be with the group. There is no refund for me so I thought maybe someone else might like it.

I'm hoping you all have a great time and I'll miss you....Candy

Hi Lynn and Marg!  Well your seasoned Olivia travellers!  How lucky for you!  Looking forward to meeting you both! pgal.

Hey Sue!

Loves it from NS!  We're in Rothesay NB!  We're neighbors! Yep we drove a 35 foot RV cross country 7 weeks!  Trip of a life time...if your on facebook join our group Strong and Free Emblem or www.strongandfreeemblem.com we're pretty patriotic!

Our flights are all booked, will be quite a journey!

This is our second olivia cruise and we cant wait!  We were so excited when we learned thay were going to greece!  Also, on my bucket list!

Did you book the pre hotel? we missed the boat but will try to get on a wait list.

We leave sept 30 montreal - munich, munich - istanbul,  returning October 15 athens toronto direct!

Looking so forward to meeting all!

Pgal.

Hey Julie and Sue,

Muriel and I haven't booked flights yet either, but hope to soon.  Just got back from Palm Springs (our usual annual vacation) and need to get moving on some organizing of flights etc.  Need to arrive in Istanbul on the 1st and leaving Athens on the 13th.  I guess leaving TO on Sept 30th.

Margo

Hey Sue, what flights are you on? We are flying AC out of Toronto via frankfurt. Gets into Istanbul at a decent hour...1:00 pm.

Coming home the flight is direct to Toronto from Athens..........

(Fingers crossed for your exam results!!!)

Hi Jill,

 Any chance any additional rooms will become available for pre trip with the group....we've just returned from a 2 month cross country trip to the Olympics and seemed to have missed the boat....eeks!

Fingers crossed. pgal.

We booked the Istanbul pre-trip extension and are at the Point Hotel.  I'm looking at their website and it seems there are two Point Hotels in Istanbul.  Which one are we booked for, the Taksim or Barbaros?  I may have missed the details in the documentation.

 http://www.pointhotel.com/

Hi. So poking around here in the member forum, I found an awesome link to Turkey and it also gives info on cultural "cues" for peeps traveling from the West.  -you said your a blond traveling alone.... I'm married to an amazing blonde- so this peaked my interest... the article commented on "smiling at men"  ?? what? right?

 so, it seems when a woman smiles at a Turkish man, it is taken as the woman is interested in the man.  it goes on to say when the woman declines his advances, in turkish culture, men (expect this response from the woman) and take this as a signal to double their efforts- their thinking is that the woman is trying to put a "good girl" "front'/face" ruse so she can appear to be not a promiscuous woman, but still get her man in the end.

and I read that a "hoodie" hood (pulled up) , is acceptable to use a head covering- rather than a "scarf" when entering the Blue Mosque. yeah. 

 Innocent

You are all unbelieveable!  We have SOLD OUT of our PRE packages to Istanbul! that's 400 people - 200 rooms in two hotels!

We do still have room in our Post package at the Athens Hilton - it does include breakfast :-)

If any of you are trying to book rooms at the same hotels we are using on your own during our Istanbul pre-package dates of Oct. 1 and 2, please be wary - Our "Block" of 100 rooms are guaranteed, but it is typical fror hotels to "oversell". What this means to you if you are NOT on our package and in our room block, we cannot help you if you check-in and they tell you they are oversold and have to send you to another hotel.

We highly recommend if you are on your own and wanting to do your own thing that you do not use the Point or the Nippon hotels during the dates of Oct. 1 and 2. There are the Sheraton and Intercontinental Hotels that we can also recommend to you if needing hotels for those nights.

Jill

Otherwise, those who are ON our package can book additonal pre- nights directly through their websites, based on the hotel you are confirmed with. Those rooms will be guaranteed as we will be making sure they know you are on our package.

Hi Everybody!

I am traveling solo and was intending to hang out in Turkey for a week or so before the cruise starts.  People are telling me that it is not so much fun to travel in Turkey as a blonde single woman, so I was wondering if any of you might want to team up and brave the Arabic men together.  I was hoping to check out Cappadocia but I don't know if there will be enough time.

Looking forward to meeting you all soon! 

Hi Maree,

I am also interested in doing some touring in addition to the pre and post tours that Olivia is offering. I've traveled rather extensively, but never with Olivia before. I'm looking forward to it.  I'm traveling solo, though I have friends who are going on the cruise.  But they are traveling to Paris first, so not able to arrive before the pre cruise tour.

Please let me know what you are thinking.  I realize I am responding almost 2 months after your post, so maybe things have changed since then.

By the way, I am also looking for a roommate for the pre and post cruise tours.  If you know of anyone wanting to share a room, please send them my way?

Regards,
Betty