Turkiye 2023: Bosphorus Dinner Cruise

After the visit to Hagia Sophia we boarded the tram, which is has a station in Sultanahmet a few yards away, to get to the port where we would be taking the Bosphorus Dinner Cruise. It was around 7 pm when we got to the tram station and the cruise wasn't until 8 or 8:30 that night. I personally was hoping that we could all go there early to explore that area. However, we found out that there was nothing there to really see. But the tram stopped across the port area, so very convenient.

At the gate of the port area, we asked if this was the right spot for the cruise, and they said yes, but could not allow us to get inside the port area. We had to wait for the cruise time. He pointed to a cemented bench that was filthy with bird poops and said for us to just wait there.

We thought we could walk around a little farther and see what's there. We saw some boats that were also doing dinner cruises, but these were not the ones we signed up for. These boats were meant to party. We probably booked the wrong cruise.

One of the popular street food here is mussels. I'm not sure how they sell them, but I think they sell them by piece.

The party boats.

The ubiquitous cats of Istanbul also present in this area, although they brushed off our offerings of boiled eggs (taken from the hotel's breakfast buffet), which I personally took offense to. My friends commented that they probably have an abundance of seafood given they live so close to the water.

When we got back to the port area, we found the gate open and a line had started to form. Pretty soon, we spotted a catamaran/boat coming in, which was our boat. We waited until it unloaded its passengers before we were allowed to board. It was kinda chaotic.

Despite the lack of order in boarding, we got to the main dining area (second level, although I believe the first level was also serving dinner). The appetizers were already waiting for us.

A closer look. I love Turkish/Greek/Mediterranean cuisine so I truly enjoyed this plate.

Here we were doing a selfie before eating. The other people are still boarding.

So this was about 3.5-hour long dinner cruise with performances while we were dining. When I booked this cruise, the reviews online were saying that it was too long. It could have been shorter. I was flabbergasted by such reviews, yes plural. How could one think a cruise with food and entertainment is too long? And since I really don't take into heart what the reviews are and prefers to see or experience it on my own I told myself, I'm ready for a long dinner cruise.

However, let me just say......the reviews were correct. I felt bored! The sights along the Bosphorus Strait were pretty, the food outside of the appetizers were mediocre, and the entertainment were good, not great, and way too many and too long. The main course was served one hour after the appetizers were served. And the dessert (which I thought was not coming at all) was served 30 minutes before disembarking.

Let me be clear, we didn't pay a hefty price for this so I would say the experience was worth it. And now for the photos.

My main dish was grilled fish with vegs. Do you see how pathetic looking my plate is? There were two options, I think my husband chose the other one, I can't remember what it was right now and there was no photo taken of that one.

The dessert was a plate of honeydew, watermelon and baklava. And I believe we were given ice cream too.

The performances were varied and invited audience participation, which was well received by the audience of course.

Whirling dervish.

Folk dance.

More folk dancing. There were more dancing, not showing all here.

The guests took over the dance floor and it was a blast for those that did. The ones who did not go up were encouraged to dance on their spot since the performers went around taking our hands and swaying us to the beat.

The sights from the upper deck level. I stayed there for a bit, but found that the flooring was not level and I thought combining that with the darkness and the wind, it might not be safe. My husband went up to get some photos too.

The viewing upper deck. Do you see the flooring?

The boat returned to the port at 11:30ish. The tram stopped operation at 11 pm. They really should coordinate to make sure the guests can take public transportation. So what ensued was jockeying for taxis outside the port. However, the taxis were already spoken for. It's probably like Uber, but they were taxis, so when they pull over and we asked them if they were free, they were not as they already have a passenger that signed them up.

Eventually, we got a taxi that dropped us off Sultanhamet Square and not in front of our hotel. Again, these taxi drivers you pay them for the correct fare, but they never drop you off at the agreed upon destination. In this case, we were not really miffed since the night was glorious and peaceful and hardly anyone on the streets. It was a lovely few blocks of walking to our hotel. This was a full day of touring on our own and we covered so much. Tomorrow, we will be meeting our tour director/manager for dinner, but we have the whole day to ourselves, which means we would be exploring on our own again.