Gate 1 questions

[june1]

I am looking into a river cruise and Gate 1's prices are soooo much less than the other companies. Anyone know why?

*Are there a lot of optional excursions?

*Also, does Gate 1 rent out the whole ship or are there other tour groups on it?

*Are the ships new and in good condition?

*Food???

*Hotels?

*Any other suggestions or comments are very welcome.

 

Thanks in advance.

June

[smeyer418]

I am looking into a river cruise and Gate 1's prices are soooo much less than the other companies. Anyone know why?

*Are there a lot of optional excursions?

*Also, does Gate 1 rent out the whole ship or are there other tour groups on it?

*Are the ships new and in good condition?

*Food???

*Hotels?

*Any other suggestions or comments are very welcome.

 

Thanks in advance.

June

 

 

Gate 1 to where? I have been on a Gate 1 Nile cruise and yes it was much cheaper than others.

Most of the excursions on a River cruise are included....some are not

Most of the time there are more than one tour group on a ship from many tour companies.

We were on an upgraded ship but saw the regular ship. The Upgraded ship was 2 months old(they don't do this upgraded anymore). the regular ship was ok.

No one starved. The food was ok

The hotels were ok too(even the regular ones)..

 

The only issue for me is the number of people in their regular tours. They do 30-40 or more. We only had 8 on ours. But we would not hesitate to use Gate 1 again...

[texancruzer]

We have an upcoming trip to Egypt...... I researched this to death....... so many tour companies out there !

 

We chose Gate 1 for a number of reasons.

 

The itinerary was perfect. Included 2 nights at an all inclusive on the Red Sea. Others did not.

 

Also our trip does not include all of the tours..... 1 or 2 included but from there you choose the ones you wanted to do and therefore only paid for those. Because of this - the base price was lower and then YOU added in how many or how little excursions you want to do. We added all but two of the optional excursions (since we had no desire to do these 2).

My Sister and her husband are going in Feb. with a different company. All their tours are included but the price is much higher than ours. Since my sister has health issues (bil does not) I think this is a waste of money since she won't participate in many of them.

 

Our Nile river cruise portion is on an older ship BUT it was refurbished last year. Have already been advised that it will NOT be like a Celebrity cruise ship - and don't expect it to be. Have heard the food is ok but to be honest that is not our focus.....Egypt is. BTW - the tour companies do not own the ships, so there could be others onboard.

 

You need to research this alot. Each one is different. Also, havent seen too many negatives about Gate 1. There will always 1 or 2 - can't please everyone :) Also, re: size of tour group. Smaller groups will always be more $$$$ - you have to decide if @40 people is too many - keeping in mind that not all of these 40 will be on all your excursions..... and sometimes they break the 40 into 2 groups of 20 or so..... just works for us.

[buie]

Texancruiser,

 

Do you know how many have signed up for our trip yet with Gate 1? BTW, we booked the same excursions as you. We also didn't book the light show or the jeep ride at the end. We are so excited about it.

 

Steph

[texancruzer]

Steph, we don't normally use a TA - but did for this trip since it is so different than any other trip we have done. She is a good friend of mine too so that makes it nice. She indicated that the booking agent at Gate 1 said we would have a full group - perhaps 40-45 people. But - she also said he told her there were still plenty of good cabins available on the ship. We went round-n-round about getting a large bed cabin...... MS Neptune has 42 cabins total and we will be using perhaps 22-23 of them..... so if the ship sails full - half of the people onboard will not be with Gate 1.

 

So indicated also they will usually split the 40-45 people into two groups of 20-23. Also, heard that many people do not book their excursions ahead of time...... opting instead to wait until they get there. So not sure how many people on each optional tour. I am just not worried about crowding.....as long as I am on the bus :eek: 40-45 people is not that big of a group anyway.....

 

Yep, we are getting pretty excited too......we leave for NY in 56 days.... :D

 

Cheryl