Can I leave the ship for the night on overnight stop in port?

[mikeerdas]

I'm interested in a cruise that includes an overnight in Alexandria, Egypt. Since the Pyramids at Giza (Cairo) are a 3 hour drive away, I'm thinking I'd like to book a hotel room for the night in Cairo to make the most efficient use of my time there.

 

Will Royal Caribbean let me do this? Do I need to notify them of my plans in advance so I'm not reported to be missing?

[melbur]

I'm interested in a cruise that includes an overnight in Alexandria, Egypt. Since the Pyramids at Giza (Cairo) are a 3 hour drive away, I'm thinking I'd like to book a hotel room for the night in Cairo to make the most efficient use of my time there.

 

Will Royal Caribbean let me do this? Do I need to notify them of my plans in advance so I'm not reported to be missing?

 

No problem to do this - they expect it. As long as you are back by sail away no need to advise. We did the same thing in Egypt and in Rio.

[mikeerdas]

No problem to do this - they expect it. As long as you are back by sail away no need to advise. We did the same thing in Egypt and in Rio.

 

Thanks Melbur.

 

Even with the overnight in Egypt, did you feel at all rushed seeing the pyramids? We're going to be comparing the cost of the cruise vs. pure overland options, e.g. fly to Athens, perhaps, visit the greek isles of our choice, then look at an Athens to Cairo sub-trip. I wanted to find a cruise that included both Santorini, Mykonos, and Egypt, but my ideal itinerary was not on offer.

 

The highlight of the cruise would certainly be Egypt--and we've been to many of the other ports on the itinerary. So we wonder if perhaps we should do a package tour to Egypt exclusively and get to see things large cruise ship passengers would never have time to visit, e.g. Luxor / Valley of the Kings. May look into a nile river cruise, etc.

[phred119s]

Thanks Melbur.

 

Even with the overnight in Egypt, did you feel at all rushed seeing the pyramids? We're going to be comparing the cost of the cruise vs. pure overland options, e.g. fly to Athens, perhaps, visit the greek isles of our choice, then look at an Athens to Cairo sub-trip. I wanted to find a cruise that included both Santorini, Mykonos, and Egypt, but my ideal itinerary was not on offer.

 

The highlight of the cruise would certainly be Egypt--and we've been to many of the other ports on the itinerary. So we wonder if perhaps we should do a package tour to Egypt exclusively and get to see things large cruise ship passengers would never have time to visit, e.g. Luxor / Valley of the Kings. May look into a nile river cruise, etc.

There are chartered flight packages to visit Luxor.

 

Personally, I'm glad we only spent a day out to Cairo. We thought Egypt was awful. I didn't expect it to be nearly as dirty as it really was. We didn't even get off the ship the second day.

[melbur]

Did not feel rushed at all, we used a private tour operator to pick us up, take us to Giza, did an evening Nile River Dinner cruise, next morning back to Alexandria and toured there. We also did Mykonos, Santorini, Athens, Istanbul and found the itinerary was perfect - alas, it was NOT with RCI:rolleyes:

[mikeerdas]

Thanks Phred and Melbur.

 

@Phred, I too have heard Cairo is dirty and ugly. But then I hear the same reports about Athens--while not one of the world's beauties, I was not at all bothered by Athens considering what was on offer. But I've also never been to Athens during summer weather (sounds miserable).

 

Did not feel rushed at all, we used a private tour operator to pick us up, take us to Giza, did an evening Nile River Dinner cruise, next morning back to Alexandria and toured there. We also did Mykonos, Santorini, Athens, Istanbul and found the itinerary was perfect - alas, it was NOT with RCI:rolleyes:

 

Thanks Melbur, sounds great. No cruise in my Spring time window (Mar, Apr, May) hits Venice, Egypt, Santorini, Mykonos, and one or more Croatian ports. Some come close, but like you've noted, none of them are with RCI. I'm tempted to try other lines like Costa and MSC, but may have been spoiled and softened by RCI.

 

Anyway, I wonder if I should do a Venice-based cruise that gets most of what I want, then look for packages from Venice to Cairo. I love the convenience of cruising, but again can't find a just-right itinerary on RCI for what I'm after.

[phred119s]

Thanks Phred and Melbur.

 

@Phred, I too have heard Cairo is dirty and ugly. But then I hear the same reports about Athens--while not one of the world's beauties, I was not at all bothered by Athens considering what was on offer. But I've also never been to Athens during summer weather (sounds miserable).

 

I enjoyed Athens. I don't even think it's in the same ball park of dirtyness as Cairo. Our trip was in September. It was miserably hot at the Acropolis even then. I could only imagine how hot it would be in the middle of summer. Seeing the Pyramids was amazing. I wasn't too impressed with anything else in Egypt. (Not saying there isn't history there or that other people will not like it, etc.) We took a felluca ride on the Nile (now known to us as the "Nasty Nile") as part of our private tour. It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle, but the ride itself was a little boring. So worth it to get away from the honking horns and crazy traffic. :D