Jade: Alexandria/Cairo - time question

[MPH]

Suggest you look under ports for comments on tour companies. On the Jade in April many of us took private tours from either of two companies, we used Nile Blue. We had 8 people, driver, guide and body guard. We left before the cruise ship buses and did the following activities:

Pyramids, Camel ride from picture point back to Pyramids, Sun Boat, Valley Temple, Eqyptian Museum (guided and free time), Khan ( we could have also gone to the light show but opted to spend longer in the Khan) -returned to ship about 11 pm. The next am we saw Alexandria - catacombs, Library (new and very interesting) Quitbey fort, Palace and gardens, Pompeii's Pillar (old site of Serapteum), Roman museum. The price we paid for the two days was fantastic - and definitely within our budget and was still a good tour. We would NOT do this on our own, but would definitely do this again with our guide and body guard. Strongly suggest you do some reading before you go.

 

For Ephesus we used Nejat, Hulya, and Levent and one other (friend of Hulya) all were excellent guides ( our cc group was about 100 strong with very active members).

 

How does Nile Blue do the deposit? I have conversed with De Castro but they want money wired and I'd rather not do all that...

 

Thanks everyone for your replies, quite helpful! I definitely do NOT want to do any of the NCL tours, WAY overpriced and for some of us, that is very important!

[don1933]

Here's my experience with Cario and suggestions:

 

Take the NCL trip to Cairo - as someone said earlier 2 1/2 hours Alexandria to Cairo (with business suit gun carrying guard). There were several buses, and each had a guard. I assume this was because of hijacking of some tourists traveling by themselves.

 

First stop was pyramids - swarms (and I mean swarms) of people accosting you to sell you something - camel rides, post cards, and every conceivable doo dad manufactured in China. So, here's the mantra: No No No, keep walking, don't stop near anyone that even looks remotely like an Egyptian. If you can get past them there are a few spots where you can take pictures. It's normally hot and very dusty - suggest you get out, get an idea of how really large the pyramids are, then get back on the bus and relax.

 

Next stop is large mosque - long walk but worth it if you haven't seen a large mosque before (but you can see better and more beautiful mosque(s) in Istanbul.

 

Onward then to the Nile crise. Belly dancer, small orchestra, and passable food. Enjoyed the short trip but the banks of the Nile here are high-rises.

 

Last stop is downtown Cairo to visit gift shop - as every tour does. Little children in downtown Cairo will accost you trying to sell you postcards etc.

(not as bad as the pyramids) - then back to Alexandria.

 

I have been all over the world (except India) and I have to say the Egypt is probably the filthiest place I have ever been. I had this fear of even breathing the air.

 

I'm sure others have a different view of Egypt but the majority of the people I spoke to after the trip felt the same way. If you want to visit pyramids to say you were there then by all means go, but forwarned is forearmed.

[lambs2]

We just got back from 21 days on the Jade. Had a fabulous 2-day tour to Cairo with a private tour company (not DeCastro and all their sleazy business on Cruise Critic roll call boards lately....) We had our own armed security guard for the two days and an Egyptologist and another guide who rotated commentaries for the ten of us on the tour. Booked our own rooms at the Le Meredien and our total out of pocket costs were less than half of an NCL tour..AND we saw MORE! Both the Sound & Light Show at the Sphinx AND the Nile Dinner Cruise complete with belly dancer and Whirling Dervish were included in our price. So was a trip down into a pyramid and the Mummy Room at the Egyptain Museum in Cairo. ONLY thing we paid extra for was the Solar Boat Museum (100 Egyptain pounds each). Our guide advanced us the Egyptian pounds for the Solar Boat until we got some at the Le Meredien from an ATM or the banker there that evening. We also got to go to Memphis and Sakkara to see the giant Statue of Ramses, the Alabaster Sphinx and the Step Pyramid. We also saw the Red and Bent pyramids at a distance. after the Egyptian museum on day two we went to the Citadel, Mosque and spent an hour or so at the Khan Kahilili Bazaar before heading back to the ship. Got to photograph the location where the Great Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the original 7 Wonders of the Ancient World) once stood too! PHEWW! But that was quite a bit off our "bucket list"!!!

[hopeless holiday booker]

I know you wrote this a while ago but if you look again, who did you book with?

[Aries 65]

Our group from the Jade used DeCastro - all day in Cairo, 2d day in Alexandria. Our tour guide was wonderful, we were able to adjust the itinerary to avoid crowds and always felt very safe. I'm the only one who remotely got ripped off (I over paid for a camel ride I took on my own). In Alexandria we had a very visable police escort. If you have a group from CC or elsewhere I'd recommend a private tour.

[Clay Clayton]

How does Nile Blue do the deposit? I have conversed with De Castro but they want money wired and I'd rather not do all that...

 

When we used Nile Blue in April of 2008, we didn't do a deposit at all. They requested that we pay in cash....if we wanted to use a credit card the price was higher. We considered doing the overnight but in the end couldn't rationalize the much greater expense (not to mention feeling like we were paying for the ship's bed sitting empty in Alexandria) when it would only either add a bad dinner and cruise down a portion of the Nile - and from what I could research the part of the Nile near Cairo isn't all that pretty OR for the Sound and Light since the night we would have been there it wasn't being offered in English...anyway, we left Alexandria about 6:30 after watching Sunset and made it back to Alexandria about 9:30 and grabbed a late dinner at the buffet as they were closing it. All in all a very long but unforgettable day.

[Carnac767]

We had over a hundred people on our March 8 Jade roll-call and about 90 of them showed up for the Meet and Greet. Among those in the group were those that did the NCL Cairo excursion, as well as several who went with DeCastro and Nile Blue.

 

We did the Cairo overnight and I've already covered that pretty well with the excursion reports I posted during the cruise. If I could design my own Cairo excursion I'd skip the Sound and Light Show (overly cheesy) and the Nile Dinner Cruise. The dinner cruise sounded fascinating. But in reality you're just doing laps along the Nile in downtown Cairo, surrounded by high rise hotels and various and assorted Hard Rock Cafes, TGI Fridays, KFCs and Pizza Huts. You might as well be cruising the Missouri River in Kansas City. The food was good (apart from the one table that had a roach running along it) and the local dancing was entertaining. But at least I can say I was on a Nile Dinner cruise.

 

Our hotel (the Conrad) was way better than five stars. We had a suite with two balconys overlooking the Nile, plus the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. DeCastro and Nile Blue tours stayed near the Pyramids. Either way, you can't go wrong--either a view of the Nile or the Pyramids, pretty cool.

 

I'd rather have an hour at the Great Pyramid of Cheops and 30 minutes at the Papyrus Institute/Cartouche Corner than the other way around. I'd rather skip the shopping completely, but that's never going to happen on any tour, ship's or private. The tour guides get paid almost nothing by their tour operators and depend upon commissions from the shops and our tips to make a living. And these are people with PhDs in Egyptology.

 

We had a large number from our group who went with DeCastro. They all praised their tour, saying the bus was clean (with a bathroom) and their guide was great. Their itinerary was very similar to ours. They didn't have the whisper headsets in the Egyptian museum that we had, though.

 

The Nile Blue bus didn't have a toilet and made a pit stop halfway to Cairo. They left two of their passengers behind (a couple from our roll call). It took 45 minutes to contact the bus and get it back to rescue our stranded couple. Funny now . . . not so funny then.

 

One reason you may want to book a ship's excursion: An older woman on our bus broke her ankle on day two. She and her husband were walking with the group to take a camel ride and she tripped over a rock (the area is littered with rocks). An ambulance was summoned and she was immediately taken to Cairo's Anglo-American Hospital (the best hospital in Cairo). The following day she underwent surgery. In the meantime NCL collected all of their belongings from the ship and brought them to Cairo. Once the woman was released from the hospital, NCL flew her and her husband home to Tampa. Because she was on a ship's excursion, NCL paid for everything--hospital, hotel for her husband, and the flight home. If she'd been on a private tour, she would have had to depend upon her private insurance. If you plan on a private tour, make sure you have trip insurance.

 

The buses did not travel in convoys but NASCOTours, the tour operator NCL uses in Egypt, has a roving security bus that travels among all the NCL tour buses. Over the years there have been a few attacks against tour groups, but Egypt has taken many precautions since then. Tourism is one of its primary sources of income and they take your safety very seriously. The vast majority of Egyptians are friendly and hospitable. (The rest are pyramid vendors).

 

From what everyone has told me, you'll have a great time no matter whom you use (NCL, DeCastro or Nile Blue--but bring your Egyptian phrase book if you use Nile Blue so you can communicate when you get stranded). Personally, to us it was worth the extra bucks in Egpyt for the extra sense of security on an NCL excursion. But that's a personal choice. We've done private tours in other places.

[hopeless holiday booker]

As always - very useful information - thank you

[Alaska Girl]

lambs2, would you be willing to let me know who you used for your 2 day Cairo excursion, I've been looking into DeCastro but it seems all the positive feedback on here might be coming from them instead. I would also like to book my own room so your review appealed to me...

 

thanks...

[dtracker]

Just back from JADE - and we visited Alexandria for 2 days.

 

I would highly recommend that you take NCL excursions, period.

 

They use fully working modern coaches and there is a driver, Egyptologist and an armed police guard on each coach. And there was a back-up coach travelling with us.

 

We got to see possibly more than the private tours (one family said they didn't see all as they ran out of time).

 

We found the coaches to be clean (each has a toilet) and quite comfy - and we liked the huge windows to look out and wave and take pictures at the busy life on the streets. And I notice that cars would give away to coaches willingly.

 

The cost is high but it's fully inclusive - all admission included, all great meals included.

 

Egypt has nothing that I would want to jeapordize my life or my DW's life for. I've read plenty of posts from pax that said the same thing..."Go exclusively with NCL's excursions in Egypt." No ifs ands or buts! :D

 

DT