canpass

For anyone thinking of booking with Ramses Tours @ www.ramesetours.com please be aware that they are NOT a tour company. They are a clearing house for independent contractors, tour guides, busses, etc. This will mean that your experience may vary greatly from a differnt group. We just returned from a Ramses overnight tour in November. Unfortunately, we got the lemon :mad: while others had an excellent experience. Being promised upon our return that the guide (Mr. Khalifa) would no longer be employed by Ramses will not help us to get past what was a trying experience at best. Its not like we'll be going back. That having been said, the pyramids are AWSOME! Be sure to look past the filth that is Alexandria & Cairo.... all of Egypt? and enjoy the view of the Pyramids and the Sphynx. Keep your eyes closed however when it comes to the Egyptians and their 'traffic laws'. There are none. Thank God we arrived back to the ship in one piece. Our tour bus ended up with a scrape that was 4 feet :eek: up the side of the bus from where he hit a curb and the thing started to go over. I guess it wa a blessing that there was an overpass with a guardrail!

We were on the ship with Lucille and Mike and can attest to the story that they outlined. Some people had a great time and some like Lucille and Mike had a story to tell. Some told stories of great hotels and some of not so great hotels. Egypt is an experience, there are no rules on the roads.

the more I read the more I am looking forward to my Epic voyage in 4 short weeks

I am cruising on the NCL Pearl in May. I e-mailed the access desk and they sent me a list of gluten free products I could pre-order for my cruise. I am wondering if they charge extra for these products?? I emailed this question to the access desk and have recieved no reply :(, so I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with this. I'd hate to order a bunch of food and then have hundreds of dollars added on to my cruise bill.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

 

 

(I'd also appreciate any tips fellow NCL GF cruisers could give me!)

I haven't read all the responses to your question and apologize if this is repetitive. We meet some wonderful people on our last NCL cruise and they had nothing but praise for the way the staff went out of their way to accommodate her glutton free diet. Just make your needs known in advance and you will be well looked after.

Small travel-size steam iron. I didn't think to bring one on my first cruise. I thought there would be one in the cabin (like a hotel room). No iron, had to send things to be pressed, very pricey. Now, I always pack it. Our friends went with us after Thanksgiving and borrowed it. They didn't think to pack one either.

 

Have fun!

We just called and had an iron brought to our room within five minutes and they came back to pick it up immediately upon calling.

I agree that the entire discussion probably only gets more confusing for new people reading this thread. And in keeping with much of your point, I have also been reticent in saying that the whole effort to understand when and under what circumstances a passport is required is fuzzy at best so I have recommended that everyone get and carry their passport whenever they travel anywhere outside our nation's borders.

 

I make this recommendation not because I can't or don't want to understand the current regulations and exemptions but rather because nobody, not even the cruise lines, Dept of State, and Dept of Homeland Security (DHS), can clearly define and communicate the current requirements. In addition, as everyone knows, these regulations constantly change.

 

I usually support threads that inform and discuss, but in this case, I think this thread will confuse and cause more harm to more people than it helps. For someone just joining this thread, this is an awfully long thread with lots of old information, few useful new facts, and so many differing opinions. So, when in doubt (and this thread will certainly cause most people some doubt), get your passport! :)

You can't go wrong when you travel with a passport, it makes life easy. I know so many people having problems with all the new travel rules, get a passport it will always save you grief.

Everyone is trying to pack lighter these days in order to avoid airline charges. We used to try and travel with three suitcases on our next cruise we are limiting ourselves to 2 plus the carry on. I figure I can either pay the airline a total of $100.00 to carry the extra bag or pay to have laundry done on the ship. I am opting for laundry.

We always bring:

a couple of insulated muggs and generally leave them behind at the end of the cruise, use them for coffee in the morning and cold drinks around the pool;

a small flashlight, use it at night in the cabin and is abailable in an emergency should the ship loose power.

I bring my favourite coffee and make it in the cabin, but that is just me.

We always pack half in half in each of the suitcases that way if a case goes missing you still have clothes to wear.

First of all this is your opinion its not a fact. I know of no country that doesn't accept a US driver's license as an ID. YOU are the one who is saying a passport is always required and is the only acceptable identification. We are pointing out the alternative AND citing the US State Department as a source. You are just making something up that you have heard from others who are equally not a source. No one is stopping you from carrying your passport, but in most cases its not required. Its only required when entering a country(although many countries in the Caribbean and South America don't require it either-you can also go between countries in Europe by land without a passport) or returning to the US by air. After that its just not always required. So go ahead keep spouting stuff you don't know, without a source.

The United States requires everyone arriving in the United States to have a valid passport unless they have a trusted traveller card and it is in use at the border crossing they are using. A drivers licence maybe acceptable as a secondary piece of identification but it does not establish nor does it prove citizenship. In the simplelist of terms it proves that you are legally able to drive a car in the state in which it was issued. There is an exception some provinces in Canada and some states have an agreement to issue what is called a secure drivers licence which is subject to special procedures and where persons have such a licence they can use to cross the border by car. I could almost guarentee you that if you tried to board a flight in Europe destined to the United States without a valid passport you would be denied boarding. I refer you to the US State Department Web Site. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html The only exception is if you are flying in from hawaii or Alaska