nile dinner cruise or sound & light show- either or neither ?

[ritraveler]

we will be cruising to Eqypt in August with Celebrity( arriving on the 27th ...will be hot!! ..I know)...we are planning on booking an overnight with Ramsestours...in the details they sent me it says we have an option of taking a Nile dinner cruise or taking in the sound & light show at the end of our first day ...wondering which one is better...also thinking about just relaxing at hotel that night after what I'm sure will be a hot & exhausting day( going to try for the Oberoi Mena House)...any opinions from someone who's done those options?

[PROCRUISE]

we will be cruising to Eqypt in August with Celebrity( arriving on the 27th ...will be hot!! ..I know)...we are planning on booking an overnight with Ramsestours...in the details they sent me it says we have an option of taking a Nile dinner cruise or taking in the sound & light show at the end of our first day ...wondering which one is better...also thinking about just relaxing at hotel that night after what I'm sure will be a hot & exhausting day( going to try for the Oberoi Mena House)...any opinions from someone who's done those options?

 

We did both of these activities while on a 13 day tour of Egypt the last 2 weeks of this past September,2010. We spent several nights at Le Meridien Pyramids Hotel (#4012) and had a great view of the pyramids from out balcony. The Mena House is only a block away but we decided the price difference didn't merit staying there. We loved swimming in Meridien pools with the pyramids as the backdrop.

 

The Nile dinner cruise was very nice. Very nice setting, really good food, musical and dancing entertainment. The actual cruising distance on the Nile is not great and all one really sees is downtown Cairo all lit up at night, the Cairo Tower, and all the lit up boats either stationary or moving along the waterway. It did make us appreciate that our hotel was in Giza and not downtown Cairo.

 

The light show was just okay. We spent time before our trip reading up on Egyptian history and about the many, many places we were going to visit during our stay. I suppose if one knows nothing about the history of the pyramids then it might be more interesting. We decided afterwards that since we could watch the lighting of the pyramids from our balcony all 5 nights were where there, we could have just done that and not missed too much.

 

Our entire trip was fabulous and one we'll never forget. We wish you the same.

[cruisemom42]

I have done both on different trips; wouldn't rate either as a "must do". While I enjoyed being out in the "desert" (okay, barely in the desert, as Giza is all around you) and seeing the Sound and Light show, it was a little cheesy. On the Nile Cruise I will agree the food was pretty good but the belly dancer was certainly not. The dervish was definitely not real (I have seen the real sufi performances in Turkey).

 

If you do stay at the Mena House, I would recommend just having dinner in one of their restaurants (one has an evening show) and enjoying the hotel.

[pkamison]

I stayed at the Mena House in November - wonderful (walk around the grounds - it was great). Go to the Sound and Light show and then back to the Mena House for dinner. Make sure you make a dinner reservation at the Mena House so they can accomadate you. The front desk is very helpful. The ease of going to the Sound and Light show from the Mena House is great.

If you had 2 over nights I would suggest the Nile cruise for the next night. It is some distance away from Giza and can make for a long day after touring.

Enjoy.

[ritraveler]

Thanks for the input from you all....very excited about the upcoming trip, but feeling a little unsettled after hearing about the bombing in Alexandria last night...

[cruisemom42]

I just read about the bombing. Sad that this has to happen, and unfortunately it reflects Alexandria's history for thousands of years.

 

However, I wouldn't worry about your safety while in Egypt; this was a case of one religious group targeting another -- not tourists. And these are not sites that tourists would be near.

[dileep]

I stayed at the Mena House in November - wonderful (walk around the grounds - it was great). Go to the Sound and Light show and then back to the Mena House for dinner. Make sure you make a dinner reservation at the Mena House so they can accomadate you. The front desk is very helpful. The ease of going to the Sound and Light show from the Mena House is great.

Enjoy.

 

We also stayed at the Mena House in November too for 5 nights! We spent our first day wlking around the grounds (dodging the sprinklers) and watch the horse carts take people up to the pyramids. We had to wait for 1.5 hours for a seat in the Indian restaurant after the show without reservations. There is a Misr Travel office in the lobby that will take you to the S&L show for $25 pp.

[manoftheworld]

i did both last month on a private tour. hazem of Nile blue managed to customize our tour. you can have lunch at a Nile cruise and spend the night at the light show.

[havcamwiltravel]

we will be cruising to Eqypt in August with Celebrity( arriving on the 27th ...will be hot!! ..I know)...we are planning on booking an overnight with Ramsestours...in the details they sent me it says we have an option of taking a Nile dinner cruise or taking in the sound & light show at the end of our first day ...wondering which one is better...also thinking about just relaxing at hotel that night after what I'm sure will be a hot & exhausting day( going to try for the Oberoi Mena House)...any opinions from someone who's done those options?

 

My wife and I have booked an overnight excursion with Ramses Tours for next June and after reading so many lukewarm reviews about both the Sound & Light Show and the Nile Cruise, we have decided to take a pass on both those evening activities.

 

Instead, we have reserved a pyramid view room in the old Palace section of the Mena House Hotel and plan to spend our whole evening enjoying what this unique and quite exquisite hotel has to offer. We can catch the light show from our room, if we wish (the sound part is over the top, to all appearances). Being at the Mena House will also allow us to relax (recover?) after what we expect will have been a long day of touring, have a good meal and enjoy some authentic entertainment.

 

From all reports, the Hotel offers much better food and entertainment than any Nile Cruise, so then the only reason for us to go on the cruise would be to be able to say we were on a boat on the Nile ... but it's in the middle of the city. So again, the Mena House seems to be a more attractive option.

 

There are so many positive posts about this hotel and so many who have said they wished they could spend more time there but couldn't because of the S&L show or cruise. So we're going to take their advice.:)

 

I plan on posting our experience online after we return to let others know if it turned out to be what we had hoped for.

[ritraveler]

I think i agree with you....we are going at the end of August so I'm sure we will be ready to kick back and relax with a drink at Mena House at the end of a long day ...maybe we can fit in a "felucca" sail during the day so we can say we "sailed the Nile"...can't wait!!