Review of The Omar El Khayam on Lake Nasser.

[marcc]

At the end of February, we travelled from Aswan to Abu Simbel on the Omar El Khayam.

It is sold as a Deluxe 5 * cruise and it was very nice.

The boat has 80 cabins and is designed to accommodate 160 passengers. We were only 27 !!!!

The service was very good as there was a crew of 90 to take care of us.

 

The ship was built in 2008 and it has been well maintained. The public rooms are clean and fresh looking with no noticeable wear and tear on the carpets and seats or scratches on the woodwork. It's a little garish for my taste but it's not unlike major cruise ship lines like RCI.

 

The cabins were well maintained with modern decor. They were not exceptionally large but they were certainly adequate for the two of us. Each cabin came with a small balcony and the bathrooms were well fitted out and included a bathtub. There was lots of storage space and a large closet.

 

The sundeck covers the top of the ship. It has a bar, a swimming pool and a couple of jacuzzis. There is an awning that covers most of the forward part of the deck with couches and chairs to sit on.

There are umbrellas and loungers on the aft portion for the sun-worshipers.

 

The restaurant is on the main deck and accommodates all the passengers at one sitting. The food is always served as a buffet. The quality of the food was always acceptable and sometimes it was actually pretty good.

The service was a little strange. While it was a buffet, once you made a selection and filled your plate, a waiter would take it and escort you back to the table. Sort of a hybrid between table service and buffet style.

 

Entertainment - With 27 passengers it must have been hard to organize anything. They had a local folk dancing troupe one night and a raffle on another but that was about it.

 

The Lake itself was interesting. You see very little traffic on the lake and there are no obvious signs of human habitation. There are lots of water birds like ducks, herons and storks but not much moves on the land. The lake is a huge body of fresh water but there is nothing green growing around it. You step off the boat onto a desert that runs all the way to Libya. Very cool.

 

The ship stopped at various temple sites on the lake. Admission and a guide were included in the fare. , There was a feel of artificiality about the sites as the temples had all been moved from their original location when the lake was created by the flooding of the Nile. It's a bit like Egyptian Disney World.

 

Abu Simbel is the best known site on Lake Nasser and it did not disappoint. It was amazing to approach it from the water and see it appear out of the haze and get bigger and bigger. Fantastic. We took in a sound and light show at Abu Simbel and that was well worth it as well.

 

There were only a few negatives.

 

First, a warning - This is not a cruise for anyone with limited mobility. There is an elevator but access to the ship, including our embarkation in Aswan, was by tender that required all passengers to climb rickety metal ladders. There are no gangways. In Abu Simbel you had to walk on a dirt path on the side of a hill and climb over 100 stairs to get off the boat. I found it a challenge and I'm only fat and fifty.

 

Lake Nasser is not very warm in February. The sun is incredibly strong but the daytime temperature rarely touched 68 F or 18 c. It was great for touring but several times we needed a jacket to sit on deck. Nights in the desert are cold as well. It was hard to keep the cabin warm and we slept under blankets most nights. We used the pool once. It was the coldest water I've ever swum in. I must have shivered for 20 minutes after I came out. The jacuzzis were tepid as well. I'd have preferred them to be a lot warmer.

 

The balconies were almost unusable due to insects swarming around them even while we were moving.

 

Tap water was not potable. We had to drink bottled water for which we had to pay extra. Irritating.

 

Apart from these minor points the trip was a big success and I would be happy to do it again tomorrow.

[franski]

Thank you for the review - and your observations.

 

I do have one question... was this part of a package offered through a company? Or, did you book directly onto this boat.

 

Fran

[marcc]

We used an Egyptian tour company called Memphis Tours to organize this cruise. It was all part of an 18 day custom tour of Egypt and Jordan.

The ship can be booked directly as well at:

http://www.jaz.travel/destinations/egypt/lake-nasser-hotels/jaz-omar-el-khayam.aspx

I had the impression that I had a better price by dealing with a tour company rather than directly and I was quite happy with the service that Memphis Tours provided.