Visiting Egypt and sailing on the Nile was an awesome trip, so much so that we are planning on going back. But the cruise line and ship were a major disappointment. I have been struggling with this contradiction, I think it distilled down to everything about the trip felt budget. When we booked the trip we chose one of the more expensive companies, our agent told us AmaWaterways was the best, a step above Viking River Cruises. We have sailed with MSC, Celebrity, Azamara, and Viking (Ocean and River), so are very aware one gets what one pays for, so the expectation was a higher end, more luxury, more pampering, Etc., we were expecting Ritz-Carlton and we got Holiday Inn express.

It started in Cairo where the cruise manager was also one of two tour guides (Egyptologist); followed by delayed fight to Luxor causing the cancelation of some visits, a high end cruise would have booked flights months early to assure an early flight; everything about the ship felt budget/low end, almost all the tours had us grouped with all the other visitors, many sites were quite crowded. We were given tickets and the guide/Egyptologist spent most the visit explaining a great detail what we were seeing, allowing little time to explore on our own.

On board there were no presentations or lectures or even reference material on Egyptian history, Egyptian and Islamic culture, what we going to see the next day, Etc. This would have required additional staff or preparation, but I suspect the tour operator did not want to spent the money for additional staffing, again a budget approach. Read more