charli

I loved the light show at Philae! Actually I loved getting there at night. My guide and I were late arriving and so we had a boat to ourselves (and the boatman of course.) The boat motor broke down! I was stranded in the middle of the Nile for about 25 minutes. It was fabulous. In the dark quiet I enjoyed the cool fragrant breeze and sound of the Nile lapping on the sides of the boat, the brilliant Egyptian stars, and the vision of the temple lit in the distance. It was too awesome for words. Finally we were rescued and went on to the show. We were very late and missed much of the show but just seeing everything under the stars was magical. We sneaked around a bit while the show was on to walk through part of the temple before taking our seats. On the way back to the hotel, my guide stopped the car, ran in a store. He returned with a cool drink of fresh squeezed sugarcane juice. Definitely do everything that you can. Have a wonderful time.

Thank you CC! This is a very informative thread. I really appreciate everyone's input. Can you tell me about the power in the hotels as far as laptops, camera's, etc. If you have a dual wattage item do you only need an adapter? What worked best for for you?

Audia, I thought the CC boards were more geared to independent tours too. When I read Hilitner's post I thought I read it wrong. It made me feel really sad reading how much fun I would miss not being comfortable with booking independent tours. When I was in my 20's my Mom and I traveled Europe on the $5.00 a day way. We had a wonderful and unforgetable time. But, that was over 30 years ago. My Mom is now in her 80's and we have decided to visit the Med. again. She doesn't get around so well now, nor does she have the stamina she once did (nor do I). This time we will be cruising and taking ship's tours and we will have a wonderful trip. If I were traveling with my daughter or husband we would certainly do things independently, but under the circumstances, Mom and I will be on organized tours and still have a wonderful trip.... again. For us, the opportunity to travel together is incredibly fabulous in itself. So when you see us and others like us on a ship's tour, understand that we are happy just to be traveling with someone we love.