Aegean Mosaic Cruise from Istanbul; 07 October 2015 for 8 days. Embarkation arrangements at Istanbul were awful! (I will write separately about this when I get a moment.) Captain Andreas Sisniotis and the crew of the Voyager were, as usual, first class and everything on board ship lived up to the usual high standards (and, now, our high expectations). However the standard of optional excursions was mixed. We objected, in particular, to the visit to a carpet factory which was an opportunity, we were told, to see a social project to provide employment for village women in Turkey and maintain a traditional industry. In practice it was nothing but a hard sell (in which, according to the owner, Variety Cruises were implicated by underwriting any purchases we made - shame on you). We enjoyed our cruise and would come again: but the letdowns were serious letdowns!