Insignia & Alexandria

[Bo1331]

We're almost ready to book the Insignia Rome-Athens cruise in May. This will be our first Oceana cruise. The over night stop at Alexandria sounds neat. Has anybody been to see the pyramids on the Oceana tours or would a private tour be better.

[drwong]

Have you been able to find any local tour guides who will meet you in Alexandria, drive you to the pyramids, and back? Of the 500+ passengers on our cruise who took the Cairo/Pyramids excursion (instead of one of the Alexandria ones), I think all of them booked an excursion with Oceania, including ourselves. But then agian, none of us had a lot of time to organize independent excursions in Egypt due to a last-minute change in itinerary.

[brian_uk]

We were on the Millenium on 9/10 (day before 9/11 2001) and took the organised tour to Cairo and the Pyramids. We normally arrange our own tours but I felt it would be better to go on the ship tour.

 

It was well organised and each bus had a guide and we were told an armed guard on board and there were military trucks arranged along the convoy of about 20 buses that were doing our tours.

 

The drive each way to Cairo was about 3 hours and we were actually pleased to be on a bus where there was room to stretch and move around.

 

The Pyramids were thrilling and most enjoyed the Museums in Cairo.

 

I was glad to be back on The Milly that night and the next day as events unfolded was a nightmare..............

 

Brian

[Napi's Mom]

We are just back from our Nautica Rome to Istanbul Cruise, which we really enjoyed,( along with Carolyn who's review of said cruise is now on CC. She's a great conversationalist). One thing we did was several private tours, one of which was in Alexandria. Set up by one of our fellow passengers, with Naga tours, website "first24hrs", yes thats the name! We left Alexandria upon arrival first day,(10 of us) in companys' tour bus, drove to Giza, stayed in hotel overnight.We attended the "Light Show" at Pyramids first night, was at the Pyramids 7am next morning, most people touring inside Great Pyramid, others the solar boat museum (neither of which are available on ships tours due to time) Then the Sphinx..lunch and then the Museum in Cairo. Traffic is horrendus there, need police escort no matter how you go. We actually paid LESS on this tour for all above than the ships single day tour, and not having to sit on bus for 5hrs or more on a 13 hr trip. The drive was long enough without doing twice in one day! (The Light Show and tours inside Pyramid, Boat museum were extra expenses however)

We also had private tours in several other cities, set up by ME who has no experience with it at all. Just get on your computer and surf!

By the way we had wonderful weather, temps way above seasonal norms,rain only 1 morning, which was a question so late in season, and helped Nautica celebrate her 1st birthday!