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15 Day trip to Egypt - the travel notes, by Seafun

seafun

By seafun,
in Africa & Middle East

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seafun

seafun

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I'm glad you found my adventures of interest! Now that it's done, I feel like a weight (say, about the size of a pyramid stone?) has been removed from me! :D

And as far as the galabaya -- I haven't washed it ("But 100% Egyptian cotton -- No shrink!!"). It has some bronze metallic threads in the embroidery around the neck and cuffs, so I had planned on dry cleaning it. But I'm sure if you were to wash it separately, and hang it to dry it would be just fine. But I hate ironing, hence the dry cleaning. I carried a travel steamer with me, and steamed the heck out of it before wearing, removing the wrinkles from it being folded when I bought it.

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HPIM2574.jpg.8f7f7a33c96eeaf10485e9952bb046b5.jpg

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Traveler50

Traveler50

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I'm glad you found my adventures of interest! Now that it's done, I feel like a weight (say, about the size of a pyramid stone?) has been removed from me! :D

 

 

 

Thanks so much for your wonderful review!

We will be on a 15 day tour of Egypt with GCT beginning April 12. The first five days will be at the Marriott in Cairo and then we'll fly to Aswan for a 7-day cruise. I have a question about what type of outlets were on your ship for recharging camera batteries, etc. and also in your hotel in Cairo?

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seafun

seafun

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Egypt has 220V AC electricity, and you'll need to use a round two pin European type adaptor. The ship we were on -- well, even the hotels -- had few electrical outlets, but I was always able to find at least one I could get to and use. (On our ship, it was back behind the television.)

It might be easier for you to bring a small extension cord with multiple plugs, if you have more than one thing to plug in, rather than fumble around behind the television.

Pleasant note: All hotels, and the ship had built in hairdryers that worked well.

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seafun

seafun

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I had to use the little round two pin Europe and Africa adaptors that came with my voltage converter (even though I left the one pound converter at home) -- "suitcase weight limit..." :D

Another note -- after using my steamer for "a while," one of my fellow passengers who borrowed it, returned it to me with the adaptor almost melted clear through! I'm not quite sure what happened, but apparently it generated enough heat to melt the adaptor. So TAKE MORE THAN ONE ADAPTOR PLUG WITH YOU. (In case it melts, gets dropped behind a TV console you can't move, gets misplaced, etc.)

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MVPinBoynton Great Review Rare

MVPinBoynton

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Seafun,

Thank you for the info. I incorrectly assumed that the ships would be 110. I am glad that Traveler50 asked the question. We always take multiple adapters and an extension cord. It sounds from your description, that I will be able to use the Great Britain adapters I previously used. I will check it out this weekend.

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Traveler50

Traveler50

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Seafun,

Thank you for the info. I incorrectly assumed that the ships would be 110. I am glad that Traveler50 asked the question. We always take multiple adapters and an extension cord. It sounds from your description, that I will be able to use the Great Britain adapters I previously used. I will check it out this weekend.

 

What tour company is your upcoming Egypt trip with? We will be going with Grand Circle on 4/12 - 4/26.

 

Thanks to all for the information about the outlets!

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GMoney

GMoney

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We are going on Amadeus on Sep 9. Can't wait!

 

Mike - When I go to Amadeus' website, I don't see Egypt cruises listed. Any idea why? Also, did you book directly with them or thru a TA? Thanks.

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MVPinBoynton Great Review Rare

MVPinBoynton

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Patrick,

Now that is strange. It isn't there. They just changed ships to the Sun Goddess and it is possible that they are redoing that section of the website. Here is a link to the Egypt page, but when you click on the actual tour, there is an error. http://www.amadeuswaterways.com/destinations.asp?dest=egypt

 

This cruise was made through a group tour operator that we met on a British Isles/Norwegian Fjords cruise. They did book it directly through Amadeus. I did just book a Danube Cruise directly through Amadeus a couple weeks ago. am sure the site will be back up again for Egypt.

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GMoney

GMoney

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Patrick,

Now that is strange. It isn't there. They just changed ships to the Sun Goddess and it is possible that they are redoing that section of the website. Here is a link to the Egypt page, but when you click on the actual tour, there is an error. http://www.amadeuswaterways.com/destinations.asp?dest=egypt

 

This cruise was made through a group tour operator that we met on a British Isles/Norwegian Fjords cruise. They did book it directly through Amadeus. I did just book a Danube Cruise directly through Amadeus a couple weeks ago. am sure the site will be back up again for Egypt.

 

Thanks for the info. I will do some more hunting. This looks like a good option. I will be interested to hear how your Danube cruise goes.

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Bop

Bop

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Thanks for the info. I will do some more hunting. This looks like a good option. I will be interested to hear how your Danube cruise goes.

 

Hi G Money,

We did the Danube cruise 2 years ago on the Amadeus Symphony. It was quite a difference from the usual ocean cruise but we liked the fact that we were "up close and personal" with all the towns along the way, you usually dock right in town and just have to step off the boat. Tours were small and several cuts above the usual "cattle call" cruise line tour. Guides were excellent. We will do another riverboat cruise for sure. Be sure to go to the opera in Vienna and Budapest. The Statsoper in Vienna was Grand but the opera house in Budapest was grander. I hope you are lucky enough to be entertained on board bu the Aphrodites in Bratslava. A really pleasant surprise. Most entertainment was not great. They were world class entertainers and not hard on the eyes, for sure.

Have fun!

Jim

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GMoney

GMoney

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Hi G Money,

We did the Danube cruise 2 years ago on the Amadeus Symphony. It was quite a difference from the usual ocean cruise but we liked the fact that we were "up close and personal" with all the towns along the way, you usually dock right in town and just have to step off the boat. Tours were small and several cuts above the usual "cattle call" cruise line tour. Guides were excellent. We will do another riverboat cruise for sure. Be sure to go to the opera in Vienna and Budapest. The Statsoper in Vienna was Grand but the opera house in Budapest was grander. I hope you are lucky enough to be entertained on board bu the Aphrodites in Bratslava. A really pleasant surprise. Most entertainment was not great. They were world class entertainers and not hard on the eyes, for sure.

Have fun!

Jim

 

Jim - Really glad to hear this. I will be sure to check it out further. If it doesn't work out for Egypt, then maybe somewhere else!

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GMoney

GMoney

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Patrick,

Amadeus still isn't showing their Egypt cruises; but if you go to the Amadeus website and pull down their eBrochures, you will find info on their Egypt itieraries.

 

I found it - thank you!

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seafun

seafun

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Here's a posting from someone who was on our tour, and took a couple of the side trips that I did not. I thought her comments were appropriate for those considering this tour, or one similar.

I'm including her first name, and here's her thoughts, from another forum...

"Opinions from Ann,

Hi again,

 

Just wanted to give a few more details about the optional tours. We signed up for everything in advance thinking that it might be difficult or more expensive to book when we were there. It would have actually been better to wait and book the tours while we were there.

 

The tour guides gave a full description of the upcoming tours while we had some downtime cruising the Nile. They had ones they recommended and ones they honestly didn't recommend. We were on a couple that they did not recommend but we thoroughly enjoyed them! I believe it was the snorkeling and the monastery trip.

 

The problem with booking ahead of time is that you can't change the tours at all; you can't switch over to a different tour even if it is the same amount of money. If we had waited to book them upon arrival, we could have cancelled or changed over to another optional tour without a problem.

 

 

We had a problem also with the half day Cairo tour, as we were signed up for the tour ahead of time but we were on the late flight leaving from Hurghada to Cairo, so there was no way we would make the tour.

 

Also I was very much looking forward to the dinner with the family in Cairo (another tour the guides did not recommend) but because there were not enough people signed up, they shifted us to a dinner cruise on the Nile. It was nice, and the food and the show were quite good, but I was hoping for more of a cultural experience!

 

 

I was very happy that we did the snorkeling tour although I was very nervous about the water temperature in February! It was quite cold but what a wonderful experience. It should be much nicer at this point, though. There were only 4 of us signed up so they put us on a boat full of scuba divers. We had to wait for all the divers to get their gear on, so we were kind of an afterthought but they did get to us eventually. One of the people working on the boat led my husband and I around and showed us amazing areas of coral and spectacularly colored fish. I wish I had brought my underwater camera...I have never seen such colorful sea life, and I have had previous diving experience. I don't believe we missed out on anything the divers saw, though, as they only went 15 feet down. Lunch on the boat was very good...in my husband's opinion it was one of the better meals he had. We never made it to Giftun Island, though.

 

 

 

I was similarly pleased with the monastery tour. It was the most warm and beautiful day we had had thus far in our trip and we had some time to walk along the beach at our resort before we left for the tour in the late morning.

 

When we got to the first monastery it was very very windy and cold! We did spend a fair amount of time indoors though. What a beautiful and peaceful setting. Many of the other places we had been previously were very chaotic and filled with tourists, but there was an instant serenity about this place.

 

The monasteries are in a very remote area and we were the only group there. The priest that showed us around even brought bread that the monks had made, and shared it with all of us. He showed us a natural spring within the confines of the monastery and we could drink from it if we wanted. I did drink from it and was fine (stomach-wise), although we all looked at eachother like "is this safe?"

 

The second monastery was also wonderful and they had a fairly extensive gift shop where we could purchase things at very reasonable prices. The artwork within the monasteries was amazing and very different from anything we had seen thus far on the trip. We were allowed to take pictures inside but only with the flash turned off. It was a long drive but I thought the experience was well worth it!

 

 

 

 

I will try to write more later, but don't hesitate to ask if you have further questions!

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