We chose this cruise because it was billed as an AMAWATERWAYS trip and we had travelled with AMA before and been happy. However please be advised that in EGYPT, THE CRUISE IS LARGELY RUN BY THEIR EGYPTIAN PARTNER WINGS. So the transportation within Egypt is all handled by WINGS as is all the staffing on board the ship. Because of these issues we basically paid for an AMA experience ---but we didn't get it.

Staff on board is poorly trained, and many of them did not seem to have proficiency in the English language. (our room stewards for example). Dinner service was stressed and rushed, with none of the graciousness we had experienced on previous AMA trips. Airport transits were nightmarish. The actual temple tours and touring in general was good, though the Egyptologists on board did tend to be overly enthusiastic from my point of view in sharing their knowledge, which left very little time at the sites to sort of wander on your own (which I like the best). Bus drivers were good, and we had unobtrusive police escort every step of the way. There are police and army with guns everywhere in Egypt and checkpoints at many places as well. Having said that, we never felt un-safe.

I thought the Amadahlia was lovely, though some others didn't agree. It is not a new ship--due to requirements on the Nile. In order to get a ship one has to buy an old ship, gut it, and completely re-do it, which is what was done here I believe. The top deck was absolutely lovely, though very underutilized as they didn't serve meals up there as we had been assured they would. When we asked about it we were told basically that it was too much trouble for the staff. This seemed like a big 'miss' during Covid and yes, we DID have Covid on the ship (though we were never officially notified of that) . Read more