Discover Egypt, Royal Viking

Excellent pre travel information and Itinerary. Very helpful and knowledgeable Tour guides. Cruise ship very clean and comfortable with a spacious cabin. Excellent food and the staff were very helpful and friendly. Itinerary covered a wide variety of tours enabling us to get a wide view of life in Egypt, its history and amazing sites and landscapes. Felt safe at all times. An amazing experience...would recommend to anyone.

I don't want to write this review - I'm afraid that there will be no cabins left for my 2014 holiday- but here we go.

Ms Royal Viking is spacious, comfortable, organised and very beautiful. This was my third (yes third) year using the Royal Viking (via Discover Egypt). The staff are the most polite and helpful that I have ever come across, and are a credit both to themselves and the Viking Egypt Company.

Nothing is too much trouble.

They now have a private dock near Luxor bridge - I have to confess that this made me a little sceptical, in previous years we had docked in the heart of Luxor - but it was wonderful, and when docked in Luxor you can spend your evenings in their private garden where there is a small café selling Turkish coffee and speciality teas, without fear of hassle.

Trader hassle in Egypt seems no greater than previous years, although they no longer offer a trip to the Botanical Island in Aswan (which was beautiful) because it has become little more than a big market with traders constantly following you.

My friend and I wanted to experience a couple of things that were not on the set visit list (which was amazing, Philae Island is my new favourite)- afternoon tea at the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan. Our Guide Hussein arranged for the ship staff to find us a horse drawn carriage, and for ten English pounds (the price was agreed BEFORE we started) our driver took us to the Hotel, waited for two hours and then returned us to the boat. It was beautiful, and if the Bird watching trip is not for you, and you want to see where Agatha Christie stayed when in Egypt, its a great visit.

We also went to the Winter Palace in Luxor for cocktails one evening - fabulous sitting in the garden drinking Gin Fizz. I do believe though that the Duty Manager thought that the two middle aged English women were truly mad...

The Royal Viking staff were amazing - so very patient with us when I miscounted my laundry time after time... yes, you can get your laundry done for a small fee. The cabin was cleaned and tidied beautifully twice a day, and the 'elephant' towel sculpture was my absolute favourite.

The evenings are full of entertainment - you can join in or not, but these evenings really 'break the ice' between passengers. Sadly my DVD did not survive the Easy Jet flight, so nobody will ever realise my belly dancing calling (not).

The food was great - the chefs are amazing - my favourite was the Egyptian themed meal - so good. The waiting staff are attentive without being intrusive, and although it is in a buffet style, they can't do enough for you.

Top -tip from me though, keep hydrated, don't lay in the sun all day drinking beer - you WILL get ill, and it will not have anything to do with the food, or flies landing on your beer bottle...... Duh.

The guides work for the travel company, and not the boat - third year, third guide, learnt so much more - thank you Hussein.

Thanks to the deck staff, who moved sun beds about for us, bought us drinks to our exacting requirements (which was often and many), and did this politely and with a smile (always).

For seven days we were Nile Royalty, and I can't wait for next year.

Our trip involved three nights in Cairo based at a hotel near the Pyramids and then seven on the Royal Viking boat from Luxor to Aswan and back. The organisation was through Discover Egypt. This was very satisfactory with smooth transfers and arrangements at all times.

Our previous experience on cruises has all been on ocean-going larger vessels so this was an interesting contrast. Our mid-deck cabin on the Royal Viking was spacious in traditional wood-pannelled style and had a good sized bathroom, though storage was a little cramped. It was good to have an opening window to lean out as well as look out over the Nile. The cabin was well looked after by the two cabin stewards.

We missed lots of places and nooks and crannies to go to on board, but the sundeck was very pleasant and the main and really only social space apart from a lounge bar where the mostly homespun, low key entertainments took place, including a jolly galibiya dress-up evening. The "swimming pool" was really just a plunge pool but useful nevertheless to cool down in as temperatures hit the high thirties during the week.

The trip included several excursions which were led by very knowledgable and enthusiastic guides. The passengers were divided into two groups and both guides, Hussain and Radwan, were highly and rightly praised. These tours often required early starts, but were neatly arranged to get everyone back in time for lunch and to avoid the real heat of the day. The tombs and temples were really stunning. Having seen Greek and Roman temples before we were bowled over by the beauty and wonderful state of conservation of the Egyptian monuments despite their mostly being 1000+ years older. The other highlight was drifting along the Nile and seeing the timeless scenes along the banks.

Meals were always by buffet with a reasonable selection, though this was often rather bland, certainly very edible but hardly cordon bleu given the five star status. The best exceptions to this were the local Egyptian dishes somethimes served (not often enough). Soups were always rather watery. There wasn't much of a selection of fresh fruit despite the piles we could see in local markets and coffee was disappointing - Nescafe sachets plus hot water for breakfast. Cleanliness was good however and no-one seems to have had any major tummy problems.

Egypt is in an uncertain phase at the moment since the Revolution. Two aspects underlined this. Firstly, there is a great dearth of tourists. Whilst this made it pleasant for us visiting the great sights, it was sad to see the majority of Nile cruise boats empty and forlornly tied up three or four deep on their moorings in several places. We were told tourism is 90% down in the last two years. As a result the local hawkers who have never been shy of doing all they can to get a sale are now totally "in your face" and incredibly persistent, so that you run the gauntlet every time you stop and venture off the boat or tour bus.

Secondly, those of us who went on the optional 3-hour trip to Abu Simbel via army-protected convoy were prevented from returning for about 6 hours by a roadblock caused by a local dispute. No-one in authority seemed initially to be willing, able or basically around to "negotiate" our way out for most of that time. Demos and roadblocks are common in Cairo but this was the first time it had happened so far south. Despite this we certainly didn't feel directly threatened in any way and Hussain, our guide, did a great job of calming everyone down, keeping us informed and somehow rustling up lunch for everyone.

Overall then, this trip was a great EXPERIENCE. It wasn't a particularly relaxing holiday but then that wasn't the point. The arrangements were very smooth and the boat perfectly adequate with all its staff doing their best for the passengers.

The boat and everything to do with the trip cannot be faulted.It was a fantastic trip.

The company need to monitor the service of videoing the experience. I bought the DVD package for £20. It was three discs. One of our experience of the trip, the other two of various areas of Egypt. The one of our trip worked. The other disc was only music and the third was completely blank. Nothing had been burnt onto it. I am glad the one of our trip worked but feel put out by paying money for something that was not as advertised,I felt I was done.

Initially we were going to book another cruise boat but the MS Royal Viking was recommended by our tour company as being a better option. The boat is beautiful and cabins are excellent BUT with the current situation in Egypt there is a huge shortage of travellers, I think 31 passengers on our cruise. This caused our boat to sit at a dock way out of Luxor for most of our cruise, waiting for more passengers to join the cruise. We boarded the boat Monday morning and it didn't leave Luxor until Wednesday night, dreadful, thankfully our wonderful Memphis Tours guide suggested some extra tours for us at a good price or it would have been a lot worse. I understand the economics of this but I believe passengers should be notified beforehand and given the choice of making other arrangements but we were just told it was a "change of itinerary". Once our day tours were done we were left sitting around the boat waiting for it to cruise, also nothing was open, such as the pool bar, we were told it only opens once the boat sails. On day 3 we were told we could have asked reception and they would get anything we needed, perhaps being told that on day one may have been helpful. I did try to complain to the person in charge who just dismissed my complaint, again saying "change of itinerary". We were looking forward to seeing things like cruising through Esna lock, that was done overnight while we were sleeping. We had already stayed 2 nights in a Luxor hotel and if we had wanted to stay another 3 days we would have chosen one of the lovely hotels in the middle of town, with full service, not sitting on this boat. There was four in our group in two cabins which cost over $2,000, we don't think this was money well spent and unless the situation changes would not recommend this cruise to anyone.

We have just returned from a fantastic Nile cruise on the Royal Viking, it turned out to be one of our best holidays. From the moment we arrived at the airport to our final departure every little detail was well organised. The boat itself was superb, lovely and clean inside, the decorations were very tasteful and in keeping with the rest of the boat. The restaurant was excellent, the food was varied, of great quality, and there was plenty of it. Hygiene was very good with compulsory hand washing before going into the restaurant and bar. The cabin was a good size, with a nice bathroom, the Juliette window was very nice but we did not use it much as we spent most of the time on the pool deck, the towel art made us laugh returning to the room every afternoon and evening to see different creations, crocodiles wearing sunglasses, elephant, swans and an Egyptian man with bottle top eyes. The top deck was lovely with a good sized splash pool and plenty of chairs and sun loungers. All the staff on-board were courteous and friendly, the boat tour was a great way to see how much effort everyone puts into making the holiday memorable and the Boat Manager was always available and often chatting to the guests. The tours were spectacular and our guide Yasser was excellent and full of enthusiasm for his subject, his explanations using audience participation were the highlight, bringing to life the fact that you were standing amongst 4,000 year old Temples reliving the history. He looks after you really well, even explaining the art of haggling and the prices you should pay, the traders are a bit of a pain but you have to remember if they don’t sell they don’t eat, so that puts into perspective why they are begging you to buy things. The trip to the perfumery and papyrus shops were also very good. The entertainment on-board was a great laugh, once again audience participation the order of the day with the guides organising the very funny Galabaya Party and Treasure Hunt.

All in all a great holiday and one we would highly recommend to everyone.

Just back from 7 nights on the Royal Viking boat. All crew outstanding for service and friendliness, food excellent boat lovely and clean throughout, cabins fabulas. example every time you went into the restaurant for food you had to sanitize your hand, and if you went in by mistake without cleaning your hand the restaurant manager would call you back. That's the kind of stand this boat had.

However some issues not the control of the boat. The holiday was fabulous but you don't spend enough time cruising 4 days the boat is moored up while you visit the sites ,which means your cabin is dark because other boats are moored alongside NO VIEW YOU HAVE TO KEEP YOUR CURTAINSED CLOSED

I have just returned from a Nile cruise on the MS Royal Viking. This was a return visit as I enjoyed it so much last year. Chances are if I can save enough money, i'll be returning next year as well... It is exactly what i needed as a hloiday. I am not a lay on the beach type person, and this holiday gives you just the right mix of culture and relaxation. I went with a friend who normally takes foreign walking holidays, and was at first sceptical about whether she would enjoy the 'down time', but because there is so much to see just sitting in the sunshine from the top deck, she is now a convert. I don't know of any illness on the ship from either this year or the last - except for the man who had ice in his drink whilst at the Valley of the Kings in 2011. Sadly the large cafe there is now closed - the government have put the rent up, and no egyptian can afford to run it with tourism the way it is at the moment. The ship and her staff are fabulous, they really can't do enough for you. The only thing that I would ask for is proper coffee... nescafe just doesn't do it for me. Cafe prices are getting on to about double what they were in 2011, this is probably a reflection on tourism rates, which are running at about a fifth of pre revolution numbers. The trips are really good, and being accompanied by experienced guides is a real bonus. I thought that as we had already been, we would have heard all of the information, but different guides seem to focus on different things - therefore in about ten years, i'll be an expert! One of the real highlights of our holiday though was outside of the tour. A group of us walked down to the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor, we were made to feel so very welcome, and had cocktails in the bar. The service and ambiance is of a bygone era, so fabulous that we returned on our last evening, and had drinks in the garden - so very beautiful. Please be aware though that there are some shop keepers that try to rip you off. I needed some after sun and tablets from the pharmacy at Karnak Temple, and the pharmacist tried to charge me 370LE. I ended up paying only 69LE for the tablets that I was desperate for. Later, accompanied by a sailor in Luxor, I visited another pharmacy, and got the same tablets for 11LE. The price on the box printed in LE under the expiry date had been blacked out by the pharmacist at Karnak Temple. Otherwise everything was wonderful, I will have no hesitation booking again. Thank you Royal Viking staff for making my holiday perfect - again.

Watch out for the bloke who puts your luggage on coach on arrival - he is not the coach driver - trying to make a fast buck.

Food terribly average - not five star at all - but they try hard and make the most of turning over food not used to the fullest for the next day. My husband didnt fare well here and actually had a cheese roll for his anniversary - however most people would manage with most of the food. Bear in mind that there is a bit of a food shortage for the majority of Egyptians.

Cabin fine although each night you are moored up against another boat so keep your curtains closed. Generator close by kept husband awake most nights - so may be go for a cabin that is higher up and not on main deck. He is a light sleeper.

Our guide, Sherry, was incredible - knew so much and very passionate.

Out of 600 ships only 30 operating so Egyptians clearly seeking tourists - can be in your face - but then only 30 per cent employment. Life could get even tougher for the Egyptians after the up coming elections.

Great holiday, but biggest complaint was the quality and choice of food on the boat.

Fish fingers as a main course for dinner is not acceptable on a 5 star+ boat.

Excursions were superb, Abu Simbel worth every penny of the £85 fee.

Egyptologist, Amira, extremely knowledgeable.

Quality of cabins is good, with a different 'animal' made of towels every night.

vendors VERY aggressive in all locations, but good deals to be had if you can weather the storm!

3 days in Cairo followed the cruise, local guide Mohammed was incredible.

Hotel Le Meridien Pyramids is a joy. Upgraded to a pyramid view room for a small fee was well worth it. magnificent view.

organisation by Discover Egypt was perect, all transfers completed with no problems. Would recommend them to all, but would personally not return to Egypt as the 'WOW' factor could never be repeated.