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Paying a visit to Egypt during your cruise summer 2015?


MobyandDick
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May I ask about your opinions about visiting Egypt while the cruiseship stops in Port Said and/or Alexandria?

Do you:

1. stay on-board during the stay

2. leave the ship en venture into Egypt (whether via ships' excursions or by yourself)?

Any comments or experience ?

Thank you!

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We will be there in June on the Riviera. We are planning to stay onboard in Cairo, and take a private tour in Alexandria.

Cairo is just to unsettled right now to take a chance, we feel, but Alexandria should be fine.

Our Egyptian Visas are in place so we are ready to go.

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Just some nattering away here... we've long talked on hitting Africa (and still is on our list), but IDK if I'd do it as part of a cruise but more so as a land based vacation.

 

Why? The unrest.

 

My "advice" (and thought for if/when we go) is simple, do a land trip but dye your hair, grow your beard, tan yourself up, familiarize yourself with the dialect and first thing once you're in place after adjusting to the pollution of Cairo is get yourself a gun (your concierge will be able to help you with that for a fee) that you are intimate with in its handling characteristics.

 

Better have and not need than need and not have. An old Tokarev, or Norinco or Helwan prolly will have a bunch of "miles" on it, but Mil Spec means typically functional in all situations.

 

It is a tough world outside of Western Europe/America/Canada and Australia, you'd not go skydiving w/o a parachute right?

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Just some nattering away here... we've long talked on hitting Africa (and still is on our list), but IDK if I'd do it as part of a cruise but more so as a land based vacation.

 

Why? The unrest.

 

My "advice" (and thought for if/when we go) is simple, do a land trip but dye your hair, grow your beard, tan yourself up, familiarize yourself with the dialect and first thing once you're in place after adjusting to the pollution of Cairo is get yourself a gun (your concierge will be able to help you with that for a fee) that you are intimate with in its handling characteristics.

 

Better have and not need than need and not have. An old Tokarev, or Norinco or Helwan prolly will have a bunch of "miles" on it, but Mil Spec means typically functional in all situations.

 

It is a tough world outside of Western Europe/America/Canada and Australia, you'd not go skydiving w/o a parachute right?

 

All joking aside, lots of pretty bad things can (and have) happened to people in Western Europe/America/Canada and Australia.

It's a very different and dangerous world we live in today:(

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We're doing private small group tours in Alexandria (El Alamein and Alexandria) and Port Said (Suez Canal and Ismailia). We, like Oceania, will monitor the situation. Both tours are totally refundable. We do not pay Ramasside Tours for El Alamein until after the tour, and only if we're satisfied.

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. We do not pay Ramasside Tours for El Alamein until after the tour, and only if we're satisfied.

 

I'd like to be a fly on the wall when (if) you tell them that you were not satisfied and thus you won't pay them :D

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The point is that they do not have my money or even cc number.

 

No, but they will have you in person (if you take the tour) :D

I wish you much luck should you decide not to pay them because you didn't like the tour.

Edited by Paulchili
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Well, I'd certainly be going ashore, although the heat would be a concern.

 

In fact, we're taking a Uniworld river cruise on the Nile in October, so obviously I'm not too worried.

 

We too are on a Uniworld River Tosca cruise on the Nile in early October as well. Looking forward to it.

 

Bill & Jeannie

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Paul, stop winding up JPR, (who might not share your sense of humour), or I won't consider cruising with you and LuAnn :D:D!

 

JPR, we had a similar arrangement in Turkey last year. We took the tours and paid at the end, and the airport transfer which we pre booked worked in the same way. No problems. These guys depend on their reputations to earn a living.

 

I have found the Egyptians to be, in general, warm and friendly people with a great sense of humour when they're not shooting tourists :o. We took a Nile cruise some years ago and loved it. Security was very high and when we went to Abu Simbel we had armed guards on our coach and travelled in a convoy. There had been an "incident" at Queen Hatshepsut's temple previously, similar to the recent attack in Tunisia where tourists were targeted, and ordinary Egyptians were desperate to restore the tourist trade since the country depends so heavily upon it.

 

Paul, I agree with you that there are lots of bad things happening around the world, and we have to make informed choices. According to the UK Government travel to Luxor and the Red Sea resorts seems to be OK at the moment but Cairo and Alexandria are considered less stable. If I was to go there I'd rather travel with a private tour guide than take a ship's excursion.

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We went on a river cruise seven years ago. What an amazing adventure to be able to see the marvelous places I had dreamed of visiting all my life. We were there in September during Ramadan and everyone was very friendly. I was surprised at how nice everyone was to us. It was hot at times; but it was a very dry heat. The pollution in Cairo was particularly bad, since everyone was cooking outside and sharing with their friends for the holiday.

 

We have lots of photos from our trip in our review of it on our website. I would certainly hate to go to Egypt and miss the amazing sites in and around Cairo; but I do appreciate concern for one's well being. I would not hesitate to visit there today; but my wife would be staying home. She feels the same way about visiting Jerusalem unfortunately or we would be on that cruise this year. :(

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Paul, stop winding up JPR, (who might not share your sense of humour), or I won't consider cruising with you and LuAnn :D:D!

 

Sella,

I guess you are right (and I would want to risk the consequences) :D :D

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7 yrs ago, we were in Egypt also. But it was a totally different story then. Not totally safe, but not the dangerous place it is today! The only thing that happened was one guy took out a wad of money to pay for something he didn't want and the merchant grabbed the whole wad out of his hand and ran with it. The traveler lost all his money.

 

Look beyond their smiling faces and friendly façade. What they are really thinking is that money keeps coming out of our pockets.

 

Having said all this, I think Oceania would not stop there or even let people off the ship if they thought it would be unsafe.

 

Just be careful whatever you do. Use a neck wallet and tuck it inside your shirt. Don't carry much money on you and leave your cell phone on the ship. Stay close to your guide, and you should be fine.

 

Cheers,

Jan

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Thank you and it is interesting to see the variety of comments made.

We will take all the advice to our hearts and let it simmer for while.

Our cruise is leaving on June 1 by then we know what to do (or hope to know what we will do).:rolleyes:

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We were in Alexandria eight years ago for an overnight on Insignia. The morning we docked, we bused to Cairo on an Oceania tour -- almost 600 pax on a fleet of buses, an armed, plainclothes security guard (dark suit and tie) on each bus, and a number of armed motorcycle guards constantly weaving through, and circling, our convoy to and from Cairo. Never felt safer in my life -- though the phalanx of security personnel was a total surprise to us, and, naïvely, I suppose, it had never crossed our minds to be concerned. Once we were at Giza, however, we were very much on our own at the pyramids and the sphinx and at the hotel for lunch, and then, later, downtown at the Cairo Museum. If anyone had wanted to create mayhem, there was ample opportunity. On the second day, we stayed in Alexandria, took another Oceania tour in the morning, and then walked freely around areas of the city, decidedly "unguarded." But a lot of blood has flowed over the dam since then, and I suspect we would probably stick with Oceania tours were we to return to Egypt today. Which, truth to tell, I very much would like to do.

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Paul,

 

Aside from the excellent reviews of this tour company, my point was that we pay nothing if we decide at the last minute not to go.

 

I understand - I was just kidding you :)

It's a good option should you change your mind or if the situation in Egypt changes in the last minute.

Enjoy!

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We too are on a Uniworld River Tosca cruise on the Nile in early October as well. Looking forward to it.

 

Bill & Jeannie

 

I'm guessing you're on the departure right before us? Our trip starts on the 17th in Cairo, boarding Tosca a couple of days later. There's a thread here on CC for all Uniworld Egypt departures:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2187370

 

So far there's very little activity. I thought it might be a good way to trade information, but so far not much.

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