Said to Alexandria via Cairo?

[mikewrit]

I don't know why there aren't dozens of threads and hundreds of posts on this, but searching has been in vain. We are on Jade next November for the Holy Land out of Civitavecchia. We are scheduled to dock at Port Said at 7 a.m. on Dec. 3and leave Alexandria at 6 p.m. on Dec. 4. Several of the usual tour companies will pick a group up at Said in the morning and leave them off at Alexandria in time for sailing the next afternoon after an overnight in Cairo with visits to the Sphinx and pyramids. Will NCL allow this or encourage it? (Of course all depends on whether the present political situation has settled down by then enough for NCL to restore Egypt stops for Jade.)

[njhorseman]

I don't know why there aren't dozens of threads and hundreds of posts on this, but searching has been in vain. We are on Jade next November for the Holy Land out of Civitavecchia. We are scheduled to dock at Port Said at 7 a.m. on Dec. 3and leave Alexandria at 6 p.m. on Dec. 4. Several of the usual tour companies will pick a group up at Said in the morning and leave them off at Alexandria in time for sailing the next afternoon after an overnight in Cairo with visits to the Sphinx and pyramids. Will NCL allow this or encourage it? (Of course all depends on whether the present political situation has settled down by then enough for NCL to restore Egypt stops for Jade.)

 

Yes they allow it...and in fact there is at least one NCL shore excursion that does exactly the same thing. Check the shore excursion listings for your cruise and you'll see it. The same thing can be done at Haifa and Ashdod in Israel.

 

As you can see we're booked on the same itinerary in October...and we would be really disappointed if we were unable to visit Egypt, but it looks like there's a real possibility of continued instability there...and in the entire region.

[mikewrit]

Many thanks, njhorseman, particularly for the addendum about Israel.

[Fishbait17]

On the Jade a couple years ago, we has a similar stop in Morocco.. Ship docked at Casablanca first day and then Agadir the next. In order to take an overnight tour to Marrakech, we were required to book the NCL tour only, they would not allow us to do the tour privately. I think I read somewhere that this has changed very recently, but just make sure that it is definitely allowed - we tried every way possible to do it privately to no avail.

 

Robin

[garycarla]

I would guess this topic is being discussed on your ROLL CALL,and others that have the same stops.

[bluesea777]

On the Jade a couple years ago, we has a similar stop in Morocco.. Ship docked at Casablanca first day and then Agadir the next. In order to take an overnight tour to Marrakech, we were required to book the NCL tour only, they would not allow us to do the tour privately. I think I read somewhere that this has changed very recently, but just make sure that it is definitely allowed - we tried every way possible to do it privately to no avail.

 

Robin

 

Wouldn't it be a great peace of mind and great security if you booked a NCL tour rather than a private one in Egypt when the ship arrives in one port and leaves from another?

 

I have had 3 colleagues on same Med cruise (as part of a very large group). Two of them took a private tour and one took ship's tour. The one managed to see the pyramids and ride a camel, but the other two didn't - the van broke down.

[mikewrit]

The added peace of mind gained by booking an NCL excursion generally costs around $200. We found it worthwhile in a day-long trip out of Naples to Vesuvius and Pompeii. But we decided to book St. Petersburg on our own (with four other CC folks) and had a great time without stress.

Of course we understand that world events can influence our plans and expectations, but I'm not going to eschew Egypt on the chance that radical Muslims will hold sway 10 months from now

(And I am on the roll call for the cruise and have looked for an answer there and on other Jade roll calls. I came here to inquire in hopes of finding a broader knowlege base.)