Trip report: Egypt: Ancient Wonders and the Legendary Nile, National Geographic, October 26-November 5, 2023, Complete.

[cheryllarsen]

Thanks so much for posting! I enjoyed reading this.

 

[newfamilyman]

There was a treat for guests who arose early: a spectacular view of the many hot-air balloons passing by the hotel. Bill claimed that the view from the ground of the balloons is better than the view from the balloons themselves.



After breakfast, we were off to the Valley of the Kings. We started with King Tut’s tomb. All of the treasures from the tomb have been removed. Many of them have toured worldwide in the two major exhibits and are now in the Egyptian museum. The mummy of King Tut, however, remains in the tomb. There’s no question that it is an iconic and deeply affecting experience to come face-to-face with the mummy of the most famous Pharaoh who ever lived:



Bill shared that the Pharaohs all tried to outdo each other to become the most significant and best-remembered, but only King Tut succeeded, as he is the one that everyone now knows about by virtue of the discovery of his tomb and its contents.

Visiting the treasures and sites of Egypt is to be constantly reminded of the country’s widespread poverty and the resulting need to have to fend off constant demands for money. Every time that we left a bus to visit an historic site, we were hounded by people who Magdy referred to as “vultures” desperately selling the types of items that an old friend of mine would have described as “T&S” (trinkets and ****). Incredibly, the guards at these places, including the tombs of the Pharaohs, were also vultures. Instead of keeping people out of areas where work remains ongoing, they hound you for tips so that you can enter these protected areas. Magdy repeatedly warned us to avoid these advances. In King Tut’s tomb, the guard solicited tips to put your phone directly on top of the plastic covering of King Tut’s mummy so that he would take a picture for you directly looking down on the mummy’s head.

We visited another tomb and then it was time for a snack. We drove a short way to a quaint hotel with a farm and had a round of…yes, dips again. This was just a snack, since we would be having lunch on the riverboat. After the snack, we visited Madinat Habu, another temple which looked very similar to the other temples that we had seen so far. Other than an amusing photo op with Jackie and observation more juxtapositions of ancient ruins combined with stray animals, this was not an especially memorable stop.



It was finally time to board the riverboat, the MS Farah. We’ve done many Disney cruises but never a riverboat cruise, so we weren’t sure what to expect. Upon boarding, we were given a cool towel and cold fruit drink. Magdy handed out the stateroom assignments and we briefly visited our rooms before heading to lunch.

Magdy had secured three tables, each seating six, next to the windows in the back of the restaurant. The restaurant offered a buffet breakfast and lunch and waiter service for dinner. When we arrived at the restaurant, only Bill was sitting at one of these three designated tables, and we joined him to avoid being rude. The other couple who knew him from the Nat Geo round-the-world trip joined us later, and a few people never made it to lunch. The food was actually quite good at the buffets, especially the french fries, which were always welcome. There was a wide range of different selections and themes. I mostly stuck to the salads at lunch so as not to overeat, and my stomach continued to bother me slightly. I asked Bill what his trick was to avoid gaining weight, since he said that he spends about three months a year on Nat Geo trips. He shared that he only makes one trip to the buffet and eats only two meals a day, which explained his absence at some of the dinners.

Before the other couple joined us, Bill related that he kept in touch with many of his former students, who even occasionally stay at his home in Connecticut. I found this hard to believe, and Bill clarified that he was referring to his graduate students, who accompanied him to digs, and not his undergrad students. He shared that when he offered his class, History of the World in Architecture, it was extremely popular with students who needed to fill a prerequisite in that particular area, and he had as many as 300 students at a time. When I asked how it was that he encouraged his students to keep in touch, he replied, with complete sincerity, that his philosophy was, “Don’t be a dick.” True story.

Shortly before we finished, a server came by with a dinner menu for the table. Apparently even on the cruise, we had to order our dinner selections in advance. Everyone had to select on the shared menu our starter, soup, entrée, and dessert. It turned out that not only would you be locked into your selection, but you were also locked into your table, so wherever you sat for lunch, you had to sit for dinner. The first night, there was a table for the people who didn’t show up for lunch.

After lunch, we returned to our staterooms. It turns out that a Nile river cruise is a bit of a misnomer, since we actually did very little cruising compared to other cruises that we have been on, but maybe river cruises are different. The first day, we did not even leave port.

We were assigned to one of the staterooms that did not have a Juiliet balcony. I’m not sure if all the staterooms were like ours, but the windows were tinted, so even if you moved the glass wall to the side, it was still half-tinted. While this presumably prevented people looking in, it also limited our view. The bathroom was in a way more luxurious than DCL’s bathrooms, though they were not split. The shower had very strong pressure, though it got hot quickly, and you could almost burn yourself trying to change the temperature. As Jackie put it so accurately, “I’m not a lobster. Don’t boil me!” The major design flaw of the bathroom, from my perspective anyway, was that the wall behind the shower was translucent, not solid, which meant that anytime someone turned on the bathroom light, the whole room would effectively light up. The bed and pillows were comfortable, and the laundry was unbelievably cheap.

The ship had a fitness center that consisted of one treadmill and one stationery bike. The fitness center was open 24/7. There were a few shops and the one restaurant. The top deck had a bar, ample seating and a small pool and jacuzzi. There were also a couple of staff members offering massages, which I will describe more in later installments.

Prior to dinner in the cocktail lounge, there was a belly dance show followed by a performer who twirled for extremely long periods of time while changing the shape of his costume. After performing solo, the belly dancer went around the room to try to get all the men, and some of the women, to dance with her for tips. It was much harder for the spinning dancer to stop to be able to collect his tips. Again, it required some adjustment in my thinking to accept that even performers on a riverboat solicited tips. It bears repeating that if you are going on this trip, or presumably the ABD version, no matter what they tell you, you have to be prepared to tip everywhere you go, including or especially the bathrooms.

Afterwards, at 7:30, it was time for dinner, which lasted up to two hours, depending upon the length of the conversation among the tablemates. The meal started with what the menu optimistically described as an amuse bouche but usually turned out to be just a piece of cheese. The food items were hit-or-miss. I had selected the beef the first night, and it was so tough as to border on inedible. The soups were so-so, as were the desserts. The quality of the a la carte meals were maybe a notch below DCL’s. The service was excellent, with staff always readily available.

We returned to our stateroom after dinner, where we found towel animals. The Farah stateroom attendants could definitely give their DCL counterparts a run for their money. We missed the gentle rocking of a boat that normally accompanies a cruise, but it rarely moved at night.

Next Installment: Halloween at the Valley of the Queens

 

[newfamilyman]

Halloween was unquestionably the best day of the trip. It started after breakfast with another bus ride to a nearby site from yesterday. If Valley of the Kings was fairly mobbed, then Valley of the Queens was comparatively empty.

Bill got emotional twice during the trip, or should I say, talked about being emotional if not demonstrating actual feelings, and both of those times were today, at the Valley of the Queens. The first time was at the tomb of Amen, first-born son of Ramesses II and Queen Nefertari. Bill explained how Amen’s tomb is one of his favorites because he is so moved by the uniqueness and poignance of the tomb that was created by his mourning parents as opposed to all the other self-serving tombs of the Pharaohs.

If the E-ticket ride of the Valley of the Kings was King’s Tut’s tomb, then the E-ticket ride of the Valley of the Queen’s is Nefertari’s tomb. Magdy explained that this tomb was closed for many years, and when it opened, there were so few tickets available, you had to get there at 5 AM because they quickly sold out for the day. They are luckily more available now. Bill explained that this tomb has been carefully restored to how it looked at the time that it was discovered. If there were other tombs so meticulously restored at either the Valley of the Kings or Queens, then we didn’t visit them.

Introducing Nefertari’s tomb was the other instance in which Bill related a time when he was overcome by emotion. He said that the tomb was closed during all of his early trips to Egypt, and then when it was reopened, it was impossible to get tickets, as Magdy had described. It wasn’t that long ago, on a Nat Geo trip, when he visited the tomb for the first time. Bill described his first visit, taking pictures as a scientist would to document and memorialize the discovery. Afterwards, one of the guests asked Bill a question, and he began answering, but he said that he had to stop almost at once because the emotions of what he had just witnessed caught up to him, and he needed a breather to cry and let those emotions out before he could then answer the guest’s question.

Magdy again demonstrated his magnificence as a tour leader by ensuring us a place in line, as this tomb was the one that all the visitors came to see. While waiting for our entry, Karen, who speaks Spanish, overheard a Spanish guide tell his group who were bemoaning the wait that our group got in first because we were paying in dollars.

Nefertari’s tomb was absolutely spectacular. The pictures below can’t possibly do it justice, but comparing the experience of entering an actual tomb, fully restored to how it would have looked at the point of its discovery, to the other tombs which have been allowed show their age, was extremely moving. It was a bit like taking a time machine back and feeling what it must have been like to enter this sacred space in all of its wonder. The fact that it was Halloween only increased its impact.


After leaving the tomb, we met up with Magdy. He was sitting near another tour group who happened to be from Norway. One of the awesome experiences of the trip was being around so many groups from other countries. Touring the ruins, you can’t help but observe groups from so many different countries, with their guides speaking in French, Spanish, and other European languages, combining with the Egyptian locals. Once Magdy realized that the group was Norwegian, he and their tour leader quickly broke out into song, belting A-ha’s “Take On Me” together. Another magical and memorable moment of the trip.

We then left the Valley of the Queens, having seen only those two tombs, and made our way to the temple of Ramses II. At first, this seemed like just another temple, until remembering the significance of this particular sacred place. I was aware of the poem “Ozymandias” by Shelley. It was easy to quickly google the poem and learn that Ozymandias was the Greek name for Ramses II. I read the poem while observing the ruins that had inspired it. One of the other guests who had not brought her glasses asked me to read it aloud, which I did. It was incredibly moving to speak these words of one of the most famous poems in the English language while looking at what had inspired Shelley to write it.


I approached Bill to ask if the Greek name for Ramses II was Ozymandias, what was the Greek name for Ramses III. Bill looked at me as if I was a complete idiot, full of condescension and scorn, and explained to me that Ramses III did not immediately follow Ramses II. One of the other guests would later coin a phrase to capture these incidents of Bill’s self-importance and pomposity, describing him as being “in full Bill-galia.”

We made one more stop, a brief visit to the temple of Hatshepsut, where you could take the stairs to the top for some incredible views. Here is an example of the ongoing crowds during high season, usually packed in tight areas.

Here is the group heading for the stairs.


Here is another Disney reference. Egypt has its own equivalent of Disney rides ending in a gift store. When visiting most of these historical monuments, it is impossible to enter or leave without going through a pavilion like this one. You unavoidably brave a gauntlet of merchants selling and sometimes following and hounding you to make a purchase.



It was then time to return to the boat for lunch and free time. A few of us got massages. Interestingly, none of the other passengers on the ship, some from Canada, the rest from Europe, partook in massages, from what we could tell. Magdy suggested it was an American custom not as much shared by other cultures. Magdy arranged for a 10% discount, and luckily the masseur in charge was not very good in math. Normally priced at $120 US, he charged $100. Tipping was more of a dilemma. Magdy insisted that a $5 tip would be appreciated, and there was no need to tip more than that. It was tough for those of us who are used to American tipping standards to make that adjustment, though for me, it got easier the second time (more on that in the next installment).

In any case, the Farah had a masseur and a masseuse, with the masseur being the one in charge. We booked a couples massage, which really just meant that we both got massages at the same time but in two different rooms. I was assigned the masseur, and Karen, the masseuse. I had never had a masseur before, only masseuses, and he gave an excellent massage, really using his muscles to work out my knots. He suggested that I return the next day, and hopeful for a similar experience, I agreed. The women who were booked with the masseuse had universally less impressive reviews.

There was a cocktail party before dinner, the only point where alcoholic drinks were included. Already-prepared cocktails looked like they had been sitting for a bit, with melting ice. We all bunched up in one section of the lounge. I asked about whether it was wise to be drinking the cocktails with ice. Is it still mansplaining if one man explains a very basic and rudimentary concept to another man? If so, Bill demonstrated his first of two instances of mansplaining. He explained that the ice cubes were from an ice maker and gave various information about how an ice maker works, including the detail that the square in the middle of the ice cubes is indicative that they came from an ice maker. I replied that I was familiar with ice makers but that if the same water goes into them as to the rest of the ship, and we have been advised only to drink bottled water on the ship, that it would not make sense to drink melted ice cubes. Bill claimed that the ice cube maker used purified water. I was tempted to argue why he thought that the only place on the ship that used purified water was the ice maker, and if they had purified water for the ice maker, why couldn’t they use it for the rest of the ship? I have no way of knowing if anyone got sick from the ice cubes. I do know that at least half of the people got mild-to-moderate stomach bugs, with varying severities and duration, on the trip, and it could have been more than that who experienced symptoms but may not have been comfortable sharing them.

The chefs got very creative and obviously had a lot of fun creating the Halloween decorations for the party, especially considering that Egyptians don’t celebrate Halloween, at least from what we could experience:



We loved that the cake said “Happy Halloween Day”:


The only problem was that the party took place before dinner, and I didn’t want to fill up on desserts before dinner. I asked one of the chefs if I could take a piece downstairs and eat it after dinner. He assured me that they would bring a piece to me in the restaurant. Fast forward to the end of the meal. Some of the group had already finished their meals and left, but I still hadn’t received a piece of the cake. I bemoaned the absence of the cake to Magdy, who left to investigate. Shortly afterwards, the lights were dimmed, and the cooking staff came out en masse with the cake and brought it over to me. They began to sing and invited me to march around the restaurant with them, showing everyone the cake. It culminated in my being directed to cut the cake and even blow out some candles, as if it was a birthday. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun, and I don’t see how it will ever be possible to have a better Halloween than the one we shared today.



Next Installment: A Couple of filler excursions as we slowly make our way down the Nile

 

[aggiedog]

Those chefs really got into the Halloween spirit! Yikes.

I will say that we just got back from SE Asia and the resounding statement from multiple guides in several countries was that if your ice had a hole in the middle of it (ie, from an ice machine) it was safe to drink. I'm going to assume that the machine has a purifier built in? We rolled with it and none of us got sick following that rule.

 

[newfamilyman]

Those chefs really got into the Halloween spirit! Yikes.

I will say that we just got back from SE Asia and the resounding statement from multiple guides in several countries was that if your ice had a hole in the middle of it (ie, from an ice machine) it was safe to drink. I'm going to assume that the machine has a purifier built in? We rolled with it and none of us got sick following that rule.

Thanks for sharing that. I've always been cautious of ice cubes since a trip to Mexico when I didn't get sick the entire time until the way back, when I had ice cubes on the flight home that got me sick. I can't remember if it holes in them or not, but they had obviously come from an ice maker.

 

[sayhello]

I love how they really got into the "spirit" of Halloween for you guys! How cute!

Sayhello

 

[newfamilyman]

Today felt like a day of filler excursions, so it's a short installment. It began especially early, with a 6:15 departure for Jabal as Silsilah. It was a long drive, over an hour, maybe an hour-and-a-half, and Magdy and Bill discussed how it used to take twice as long almost before the new roadway was built. This detour was not worth the drive as it was, much less if would have taken even longer. The purpose of visiting this site was to see the quarry where the stone was cut for the temples built in Luxor and Karnak. There is a reason that when you take an archaeological tour of Chicago or anywhere else, you don’t follow it up with a visit to a steel mill or glass factory. It was a completely unnecessary stop that Bill and Magdy tried to justify by reminding us in subsequent days when we were visiting temples to remember from where the building materials came. It had nice views at least:



From there, we went to back to ship. There was a cooking class as soon as we returned which proved to be more of a demonstration. I was the chef’s favorite after last night, and he picked me first as one of the “chefs”. The other three volunteers were all Canadian retirees, which was fun. We prepared a chicken shwarma dish. They did not provide recipes with actual ingredients, so there was not way that anyone could try to reproduce this at home. The four chefs who participated received a nice wooden bracelet as a gift. Here we are, along with the manager:


The ship was actually moving, and there was nothing to do after lunch until the ship docked again late in the afternoon for a visit to the temple of Kawm Umbū and the neighboring crocodile museum. Before then, I returned for my second massage. The masseur told me that I was getting a treat, which was that the masseuse would be doing the massage. I figured that he was getting a large cut of the $100 already and that I probably still had too many knots in my back for his liking. The masseuse turned out to be as horrible as everyone had described. She seemed to have spent half the time on my feet, which the other guests who had massages from her also reported. The masseuse also did something that she did to her female clients the day before which was to actually climb on the table. In short, it was painfully obvious that this masseuse had never had any training and was in no way qualified to be a masseuse. The fact that they both charged the same price was truly highway robbery. Needless to say, I followed Magdy’s direction this time for the tip, but since the rest of my Egyptian pounds wouldn’t even cover $5, I ended up giving her even less than that.

After an otherwise relaxing afternoon, it was time for the excursions. At the risk of dating myself, this temple looked like the other ones that we had seen so that there was a feel of, “If This is Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium.” Still, it was crowded:



The temple was a tribute to Sobek, the crocodile-headed god, so we made our way to next door to the crocodile museum. The set-up was like Sea World of the Dead. The museum felt and looked like one of Sea World’s exhibits, except instead of live animals in the glass cases, there were crocodile mummies. There were a lot of them, actually. I didn’t need to spend too much time there because a little went a long way.

The highlight of the day back on the riverboat was the barbecue dinner on the top deck. Magdy had reserved a large table for all of us, and everyone was seated except Bill. It turned out that Bill was sitting at a neighboring table with another family. It turned out that in addition to our group expedition, other people had booked individual Nat Geo tours which overlapped some of our itinerary. They had their own Egyptologist, but no expert. Bill saw an opening and took it, and for the rest of the cruise, when there was down time, we noticed that he could be reliably found with this particular family. That group was a family of giants (slight exaggeration). The mom approached me the next day to ask about our tour and its cost, which I shared, but she didn’t reveal how much they paid. I asked why she hadn’t booked with us, and she said that her two children were so tall that she was afraid they wouldn’t be able to fit on a regular bus (true story; they were really tall).

The barbecue dinner turned out to be the best meal of the trip by far. I’d never seen a whole lamb barbecued before, and many of us agreed it was the best lamb we had ever tasted. There were also a couple of other dishes, a pancake-like dish with meat and a macaroni-and-cheese dish also with meat, which were also absolutely delicious. Getting a mango for dessert was a treat. These ripe fruit were unlike any mangoes that we have in the States. The chef would elaborately slice them up almost like a blooming flower so that the presentation was as elaborate as the fruit was delicious. That night, we all ate like Pharaohs.

Next Installment: Aswan and Agatha Christie

 

[newfamilyman]

Our Aswan day began inauspiciously with a visit to another quarry. This one was even less interesting, lacking the water views:

Instead, it contained something they call the “unfinished obelisk.” It was so unfinished that I missed it completely. Just to recap, in the last two days, we visited two quarries and saw an unfinished obelisk. Were they expecting Fred Flintstone on one of these tours? Bill offered a fun fact, which is that there are more obelisks in Rome than there are in Egypt, since so many were pilfered or traded away.

Here is a fun photo of Karen and Jackie pretending to be Vanna White with a recent excavation:



From the quarry, happily our last one of the trip, we visited another temple, Philae. What made this temple unique was that you had to travel by small boat to get there. Even though the boat ride was only a few minutes, it came with another merchant selling his wares:


This temple at least had some nice views, since it was an island:

It was fun and unique to see the ancient carved graffiti:

Another in the series of stray animals and historic temples:

From the temple, we visited one of the shops in the bazaar which, as I noted previously, were as connected to historical monuments here as gift shops are to Disney rides. In this particular bazaar, Magdy had been heavily promoting a particular cotton stall. I had asked about sheets, and it turns out that I guess sheets made with Egyptian cotton are manufactured in China, not here. Magdy escorted us to a store where an artisan was using a loom to make scarves. I made a few purchases there, mostly towels and napkins, and all of the napkins shrunk in the wash. I should say that the cotton shirts purchased at the Ritz Carlton also shrunk in the wash. As a result, it made me question after the fact if there was really anything special about this particular stall or if Magdy somehow benefitted personally from bring us there. It just didn’t seem unique compared to other, similar shops that sold cotton goods.

We returned to the ship for lunch, with Magdy cautioning us that we would be having high tea afterwards, so we shouldn’t eat too much at lunch. As a result of his warning, a number of people skipped lunch. We attended lunch, somewhat out of hunger and somewhat out of being concerned where we might end up at dinner if we didn’t claim a table at lunch. As usual, the dinner menu was circulated, and the four of us at the lunch table made our selections.

We then moved to the highlight of the day, which was a visit to the Sofitel Old Cataract hotel where we enjoyed high tea. We learned that cataract has another meaning besides eye disease because if it didn’t, it would sure be a strange name for a luxury hotel. Bill explained that cataracts are whitewater rapids which become more dangerous depending upon how high the river rises.

The Sofitel was a magnificent grand old dame where more than a few of wish we could have stayed in lieu of the Steigenberger and the cruise. There was a wonderful, large photo of Agatha Christie that really seemed to reveal her nature. She wrote “Death on the Nile” at this hotel, where the original movie was filmed and where some of the common areas were reconstructed in England for the sequel. As we walked down a main hallway, there were photos of other prominent guests. There was a striking photo of Omar Shariff and a card he had written which was dedicated to “My favorite hotel in my favorite city in my favorite country in the world.” As a musical theatre buff, I was thinking of the song, “Omar Shariff” from the musical, “The Band’s Visit.” The song was the heart of the musical and thinking about it made looking at his photo and inscription even more powerful.

The hotel had magnificent views:


We descended to the area where we had our tea. We were seated, and the servers elaborately lifted in a ceremony-like manner paper bags to reveal elaborate towers of mini-sandwiches, fruit, and pastries. There was one tower for every two people to share except that two vegetarians received their own, and so did I. At this point, I should report on some of the strange conversations between Magdy and me, especially when I slightly challenged him. For example, while on the bus before we arrived at the riverboat, he was giving a spiel about what was included, and he said that two waters were included in the staterooms. I asked what happened if we needed more water than two bottles, since we couldn’t drink the water on the ship, and he became somewhat irate, telling me, “I know that you’re writing a report on me, Carl.” I hadn’t told him that I would be writing a trip report for a Disney-fan website, so I got the sense that he meant some kind of report to National Geographic. I wondered if he gave me my own tower to improve how I reported on him, but having my own tower made me uncomfortable, so I kept offering its treats to others who had to share.

After the tea, we used the bathroom, the only one other than at the Ritz where there was nobody soliciting tips. I went in at the same time as the guest who knew Bill from the around-the-world trip and who Bill consistently favored. I shared with this guest our suspicion that Nat Geo was paying Bill to curry their favor, and he shared more stories from his previous trip, including the fact that Nat Geo’s CEO accompanied them for the first part of the trip and that there was a young female guest who seemed to rub everyone the wrong way. She loudly and frequently proclaimed her vegan lifestyle to the point where she refused to sit on the leather seats on the plane until a cover was placed over them.

We then departed the hotel on a felucca, which must have been the inspiration for the Jungle Cruise ride vehicles. As we made our way slowly down the Nile as the sun set, there were initially children floating around the boat singing for tips, which continued the uninterrupted hounding of people trying to get money from you. Of course the fact that they were children made it that much sadder, though it would have been sadder if it wasn’t so annoying in that it diminished what might have been a more relaxing experience. They returned to shore soon enough, and the ride became peaceful:

It took an hour or so before we reached the point where we disembarked to take the bus back to the ship for dinner. I should note that on previous bus rides that day, Magdy had presented us with a dinner menu for the next day and lunch and dinner menus for the final day, which was getting pretty ridiculous.

Dinner ended up being somewhat comical. At our table, we were joined by two additional people, and they hadn’t shown up for lunch. This proved to be vexing to the servers. Courses starting coming out which nobody claimed. When we repeated back what we had ordered, the server argued that all the dishes had been ordered on the menu. When we tried to dispute him, he brought back the menu from lunch to prove that we had requested everything he was serving. Remembering what we had ordered after being given too many menus in advance was apparently more than we could manage. It was never clear to me why ordering meals in Egypt, or at least on this particular Nat Geo trip, required such rigid advance planning. It must be a revelation for Egyptians to go on cruises in other countries and not have to commit to and remember their dinner choices during the previous meal.

There was some sort of party again in the lounge after dinner, but we were pretty beat after the long day, so we headed back to our stateroom to pack and call it a night, since we had another early flight in the morning.

Next Installment: Abu Simbel and back to Cairo

 

[aggiedog]

On other trips I've been on where I need to pre-order meals, I've started taking a picture of the order form. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast that day. What I circled yesterday is lost to the mists of time usually.

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

Very interesting trip report. Egypt is somewhere thats always fascinated me.

I want to write my thoughts about Bill and some things you mentioned about being shocked seeing the poverty but I dont want to get points. Its good that you are being a bit more real about your experiences, the culture shock is something people need to know about. I kinda agree with Bill about his attitude to Disney, its kinda how I felt in Vegas and seeing the The Venetian Hotel after being in the real Venice and Italy.

 

[newfamilyman]

Very interesting trip report. Egypt is somewhere thats always fascinated me.

I want to write my thoughts about Bill and some things you mentioned about being shocked seeing the poverty but I dont want to get points. Its good that you are being a bit more real about your experiences, the culture shock is something people need to know about. I kinda agree with Bill about his attitude to Disney, its kinda how I felt in Vegas and seeing the The Venetian Hotel after being in the real Venice and Italy.

Thanks for your reply. Hopefully I've conveyed that Bill's contempt for Disney was no different than his contempt for many, if not most, of the travelers in this group. He is entitled to his opinions and judgments, but given that we were paying for him to be there, he should have done a better job keeping them to himself.

 

[newfamilyman]

On other trips I've been on where I need to pre-order meals, I've started taking a picture of the order form. I can barely remember what I had for breakfast that day. What I circled yesterday is lost to the mists of time usually.

Thanks for your response. As I mentioned, this was our first group trip, so maybe this is endemic to all of them. If it is, then it is another reason why we would be reluctant to repeat this kind of vacation. I much prefer to order what I feel like eating in that moment and not have to choose up to a day ahead of time. Given that these are restaurants we are talking about, not catering operations, I was never convinced of its necessity.

 

[jimmymc]

This trip sounds wild, and I'm really enjoying your report. It sounds like NatGeo trips have a core group of regulars they cater to, people who are fans of this style of trip.

 

[newfamilyman]

This trip sounds wild, and I'm really enjoying your report. It sounds like NatGeo trips have a core group of regulars they cater to, people who are fans of this style of trip.

Thanks for your kind words.

 

[Mathmagicland]

Thanks for your response. As I mentioned, this was our first group trip, so maybe this is endemic to all of them. If it is, then it is another reason why we would be reluctant to repeat this kind of vacation. I much prefer to order what I feel like eating in that moment and not have to choose up to a day ahead of time. Given that these are restaurants we are talking about, not catering operations, I was never convinced of its necessity.

Your experience seems to be very different. I’ve been on fewer Disney adventures than many others here, but my experience with them has been pre-order dinners are the exception rather than the norm. The one deviation was New Zealand, because the country had been fully open to tourism just a couple of months when we traveled in October 2022. Similar to when the US started reopening travel in 2021, many New Zealand restaurants weren’t yet fully reopened or fully staffed. A couple were not yet open to the public again but did open just for our Disney groups, which was very much appreciated. Preorders helped them be prepared for us with staffing and food. We all took it in stride, as we were so happy to be there.

 

[newfamilyman]

Your experience seems to be very different. I’ve been on fewer Disney adventures than many others here, but my experience with them has been pre-order dinners are the exception rather than the norm. The one deviation was New Zealand, because the country had been fully open to tourism just a couple of months when we traveled in October 2022. Similar to when the US started reopening travel in 2021, many New Zealand restaurants weren’t yet fully reopened or fully staffed. A couple were not yet open to the public again but did open just for our Disney groups, which was very much appreciated. Preorders helped them be prepared for us with staffing and food. We all took it in stride, as we were so happy to be there.

Yes, that experience did seem different. We were only a group of 12, eating at restaurants that were open to other customers, some in hotels, often in tables of 4 or 6, so it seems like it would have been very easy for the restaurant to have allowed us to order at that moment. The only thing I can think of is that Nat Geo got a discount by limiting what we could order, but at $8K a person for the trip, almost $1K a day per person, that didn't sit very well with me then and doesn't now.

 

[chuff88]

Thanks for your response. As I mentioned, this was our first group trip, so maybe this is endemic to all of them. If it is, then it is another reason why we would be reluctant to repeat this kind of vacation. I much prefer to order what I feel like eating in that moment and not have to choose up to a day ahead of time. Given that these are restaurants we are talking about, not catering operations, I was never convinced of its necessity.

So as a bit of a contrast to what @Mathmagicland said above, I've been on two ABD trips, Germany and Norway, and for both of them we did a fair amount of preordering, but it worked differently. In Norway, on the first day when we met our guides we were given a list of the meals that needed to be preordered and we made our choices that day for the whole trip. This was clearly out of necessity - many of the places we had meals were very small, somewhat remote, or both, so they needed advance notice in order to have enough of everything and prepare enough. That said, I recall some people asking about changing their choice the day of and it was never an issue. In Germany, we "pre-ordered," but it was more that the day of a particular meal we'd be told where we were going, what the options were, and the guides would take our orders and call ahead to the venue to let them know what we were ordering. I think this was more a case of efficiency. We were a fairly large group and while we were eating at restaurants open to the public it allowed the restaurant to start preparing the food either before or right after we arrived so they didn't have to go around and take everyone's orders before preparing everything. In this instance it was definitely possible to switch choices in the moment, and there were even cases where guests were offered alternatives if they were disappointed in their initial choice. In Germany we were definitely never left hungry or feeling like we didn't have sufficient meal options.

 

[chuff88]

I really appreciate this report. We've done 2 ABDs and loved them, but I have been looking at other touring/group travel companies just because sometimes they have more options or departures that better fit our schedule. I'm had looked closely at Nat Geo for some trips, particularly in Africa, but now I'm leaning more towards sticking with ABD just because our two experience so far have been excellent. I'd be very curious to read an in-depth trip report from someone who's been on ABD's Egypt trip.

 

[jimmymc]

Thanks for your response. As I mentioned, this was our first group trip, so maybe this is endemic to all of them. If it is, then it is another reason why we would be reluctant to repeat this kind of vacation. I much prefer to order what I feel like eating in that moment and not have to choose up to a day ahead of time. Given that these are restaurants we are talking about, not catering operations, I was never convinced of its necessity.

My two cents, the only group trip I've ever done is the Southern California ABD, and we only have one meal where we need to order ahead. And even then, the restaurant was flexible if something changed from check in day. Having 2 or 3 in a week long trip seems like the average.

 

[newfamilyman]

I really appreciate this report. We've done 2 ABDs and loved them, but I have been looking at other touring/group travel companies just because sometimes they have more options or departures that better fit our schedule. I'm had looked closely at Nat Geo for some trips, particularly in Africa, but now I'm leaning more towards sticking with ABD just because our two experience so far have been excellent. I'd be very curious to read an in-depth trip report from someone who's been on ABD's Egypt trip.

Thanks for your kind words. Since this was my only NatGeo trip, it's impossible to know if Bill's behaviors were the rule or the exception. In theory, an expert can definitely enhance a trip by sharing a wealth of knowledge that would be beyond the capability of any guide. In this particular trip, if Magdy had focused on being a guide and let Bill do most of the talking, and if Bill had done a better job containing some of the more unpleasant aspects of his personality, then it would have been a much different, and better, experience.