Planning to take Black Sea cruise and need to know if water is rough in August/September. Smaller cruise ship (650 passengers) preferred if not too much motion at that time.

I sailed last October on the Black Sea and the water was quite calm. Fabulous itinerary with great ports in Ukraine: Sevastopol, Odessa, and Yalta, among others. Our ship was about 450 passengers Is this for 2010?

We are planning ahead for 2011 and looking at the Azamara Quest. What ship were you on.

Depends on what your budget is, too. Regent has ships in the 450-700 passenger range. Both the Voyager and Mariner (700 passengers) are actually fairly large (50,000 tons) because even the standard all-suite, all-balcony cabins are quite large as are the public spaces.

We did the same cruise on Oceania Insignia, (identical in all important respects to Azamara Quest) in July/August this year. The sea was positively glassy!

Incidentally, we decided to take neither the ship's tours in Sochi, Russia, nor go to the trouble of getting Russian Visas for private tour. We spent a quiet day on the ship; all the people whom we mentioned this to said they wished they had done the same. I understand several of the cruise lines are considering replacing the stop in Sochi with one in Northeastern Turkey.

Jeff801, What is missing in Sochi? I am just starting to look at Black Sea cruises or Eastern Europe River cruise. The stops in Russia & Ukaraine sound fascinating. Thanks in advance.

We chose not to go ashore in Sochi. I can tell you only that those passengers that took the ship's tours were disappointed with Stalin's Dacha and the Baths. We did not meet anyone who chose to take a tour on their own. The cost and inconvenience of getting a Russian Visa for one day did not seem worth it. That, at least, was the consensus among the cruise critic group that met for drinks one evening. The Ukraine, particularly Odessa, was fascinating. Because Sevastapol is still largely dominated by the Russian Navy, we went for the historic sights outside the city and enjoyed them. Yalta, too, is worthwhile.