Need info on Sonesta Moon Goddess

[HRHMadonna]

Hoping someone can give me some info on the Sonesta Moon Goddess Nile cruise...Web site says the cruiser has "international telephone line and internet access."

 

RE: Internet

Is there an internet center onboard? Or is wireless available? Any idea of approximate charges? We are planning 6-day cruise Luxor to Aswan....Is internet readily available in the ports along this route?

 

RE: international telephone line

Does one charge phone calls to cabin? Or to credit card? Or is it better to purchase a local phone card for calls from Egypt to the US?

 

I'll appreciate any suggestions on the best way to maintain contact....Yes, I'd prefer to get away from it all....but unfortunately that is not an option for us at this time.

 

Thanks!

 

Also: Are there hair dryers in each cabin?

[Trece]

Just got off the Moon Goddess a few days ago & can provide more information about the ship if you'd like (too jet lagged right now, got in late last night!).

 

Answers to your questions:

 

Internet - THERE IS NONE AT ALL. We too were under the impression that there was internet on board in some way, shape, or form. This turned out not to be true. You will not have time in any of the ports to locate internet except in Luxor, where it is available in internet cafes etc. However, we did not use any so I can't help you with which one might be best.

 

International phone calls - According to a notice in the cabin, there is international access via phone at a cost of roughly US$2/minute. I have an old grandfathered T-mobile phone plan that lets my family call me in Egypt for 59 cents/minute so I used that (service was great everywhere). I looked into buying a Mobinil (the main Egyptian provider) SIM card and the price to call the US varies from 3.75 Egyptian pounds to 2.75 Egyptian pounds (roughly 60 cents to roughly 50 cents, depending on time of day) so this would have been a decent choice but it was easier to just use my existing plan at that price.

 

Severing all contact with home isn't an option for us either, so I'm compulsive about having all available ways to be in touch set up in advance!

 

Hair dryers - yes (not germane to the question, but if you use face cloths, there are none on the ship - bring cheap ones to use & throw out).

 

Hope this helps!

[HRHMadonna]

Thank you so much for taking time to reply....We just arrived Cairo....so we are jet-lagged too....Your info will really help us plan phone & internet contacts...Cheers! Madonna

[Kamper]

Trece, Did you take the ship tours? Is so, how large were the groups? I'm thinking of going on this ship but, I don't want to tour the sites and temples in a group of 20-30.

[HRHMadonna]

We just returned from the 6-day Moon Goddess cruise --- Loved it!

 

Our tour group size varied a lot because most people were on board for only 4 days. There were only 6 people on our tours for the first 2 days....that was a perfect size. After the 4-day cruisers boarded, however, the size in our English speaking tour group jumped to 20-22 people. That was larger than we would have liked....But I must say we could still hear most of the commentary and still managed to move at a reasonable pace.

 

Be glad to answer any other questions you might have.

Madonna

[Kamper]

Well, that kind of confirms my fears. We will either have to go on a smaller ship or pay for private guides. We will probably do the 4 night cruise and spend some extra night in Luxor.

[Trece]

Our largest group was probably 18 and our smallest was two on the Sonesta cruise. This was our third cruise/tour and each time we have done more and more on our own (we also visited Egypt one time as a day trip to St. Catherine's but the focus of that tour was Israel/Jordan).

 

First trip was in 1999 with Gate 1 and the ship they used was the Sonesta Sun Goddess for the cruise portion. I think our group was probably supposed to be larger, but tourists were avoiding Egypt at the time we went, many people cancelled, and our group was nine. It was a very nice size.

 

Second trip was in 2007 with Overseas Adventure Travel. Max group size with that company is 16 and ours was 14. Of the three companies we've used, this was our favorite. The quality of the guiding was stellar, we had the continuity of one guide, and we did so many unique things like visit a school, have dinner with a family, learn how to read & write hieroglyphics & even a little Arabic, shop for groceries at a market & then use the ingredients to prepare a meal etc. I would do that same exact tour again. Our guide was extremely conscientious about gathering us around her so we could all hear. She even paid attention to details such as our heights to be sure we all got the most out of her talks. As a short person who always seems to have someone a foot taller standing in front of me, this was SO refreshing.

 

A few weeks ago we visited Egypt on a trip we put together on our own with another couple. We picked our own hotels in Cairo & Luxor and arranged day trips and internal flights with DeCastro. Between the hotel stays we booked our own cruise on Sonesta Moon Goddess. Thus most of our touring was just the four of us with DeCastro and then on the ship, as mentioned, we had groups as large as 18 and as small as two, when our friends opted not to go.

 

We had tried to learn in advance what the Moon Goddess group size would be and got very little information, and now I understand more why. The OAT ship has 16 cabins and seven were allocated to our group of 14 and eight were allocated to another OAT group of 16 (with its own guide) and we were the only groups on the ship because it's OAT's ship. On Moon Goddess, there were groups that came on with their own guide (and they toured with their own guide, not under the auspices of the ship). And there were people like us who booked independently or were placed on the ship by their TA and we were the ones using the ship guides. There are also subdivisions by language if there are passengers from non-English-speaking countries. This is a roundabout way of saying you will never probably know the size of a group in advance if you use the included ship's tours on most any of the ships. And I'd be curious to know if there ARE any ships smaller than the Moon Goddess, because when we did our research I believe it was one of the smallest.

 

I hope I didn't confuse anyone with this explanation because I think I confused myself! :D

[Kamper]

Trece, Thanks for your description. There are smaller ships like the Sonesta Star Goddess and Sun Boat III (A&K). I really like the look of the Star Goddess and I was thinking that would give us our best chance for a small group size. Now I think maybe a larger boat but, booked independantly might not be a bad way to go, especially is a couple of group tours were booked at the same time.