feedingfrenzy

Sorry, I was not paying attention to this. The State Department site travel warning about Egypt says they do not allow personal to travel outside of Cairo. Good enough for them, good enough for me. If your going have a good time.

 

That is incorrect. There is currently no State Dept "warning" out about travel to Egypt. The US State Dept travel info on Egypt can be found at the following website:

 

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/country/egypt.html

 

What it actually says is "The U.S. Embassy restricts its employees and their family members from traveling outside of Cairo without prior approval." Further on it states " Embassy personnel in Egypt are currently prohibited from traveling to the Sinai, except by air to Sharm El Sheikh."

 

So the prohibition on travel by their personal is specific to the Sinai, not to anywhere "outside of Cairo" as you state in your post. But there's no reason to take my word for it. Anyone can check it for themselves.

What does it matter where Uniworld HQ is based?? And how sure can you be that a company that like most others that is in the business of making money won't do something unsafe? Willing to bet your life on it??

 

Am truly amazed at the number of people who will put their lives in the hands of companies blindly trusting the companies to protect them and do nothing unsafe.

 

Hey Dave! Have you ever traveled on an airliner? They're owned by companies, you know. I'll wager a whole lot more people have been killed that way than by terrorists in foreign countries.

I know you are going on the Uniworld "Splendors of Egypt and the Nile" cruise in early October, Bill. This will be the first Nile cruise that Uniworld has done for several years. Those if us interested in cruising the Nile are looking forward to hearing how your trip goes.

I think Viking made a business decision on this one. Whenever there's a mass tourist attack in any country in the world, most tourists will avoid it like the plague. Unfortunately, tourists have already been cancelling their planned trips to Tunisia in droves, and the same would have happened to the Viking Med cruise if Viking hadn't cancelled the stop in Tunis. OTOH, not nearly so many will cancel because of the itinerary change. So it's a no-brainer for Viking.

 

BTW, the claim in your letter that far more people have been killed in Egypt and Ukraine (both places being Viking destinations) in recent years is true only if you include Egyptian and Ukrainian nationals in the totals. About as many foreign tourists -- very few -- have been killed in Egypt in recent years as in the United States. In Ukraine, the only dangerous place is in the East, where a civil war is in progress, and Viking doesn't go there.

Actually, the crime rate in Cairo is lower than in most large American cities.

 

I checked the State Department website for travel advisories and warnings regarding travel to Egypt. Currently there are none. The SD does advise Americans in Egypt not to get involved in street demonstrations, labor actions or any other protest actions because these can turn violent.. Otherwise, you should observe the normal cautions you would when travelling abroad. Searching a little deeper, I found that US government employees stationed in Cairo may travel freely in all areas except for the Sinai, where special permission is required. Two Americans were kidnapped in the Sinai in 2012 and eventually released to their families.

 

I also checked the statistics on tourist deaths in various countries over the past 10 years and found that you are much more likely to die or be kidnapped in places like Mexico, Thailand, Brazil, Dominican Republic, etc. than in Egypt. In addition, I specifically looked for Americans killed in Egypt in recent years and found the following:

 

1993 -- five people, including two Americans, shot to death by what was described as a "madman," who may or may not have had connections to militants

 

2005 -- three people, including one American, killed in an historic marketplace by a bomb detonated by a suicide motorcyclist bomber

 

2010 -- eight American killed in a fatal collision near Aswan between a tour bus and a truck. This appears to have been a traffic accident and not related to terrorism

 

That's the extent of what I could find. So I will leave it to you to decide how safe Egypt is for American tourists compared with other tourist destinations, both inside and outside the US. As for me, I am currently planning to travel to Egypt next year, something I and my spouse have wanted to do for many years. The level of actual risk (very small) shown by the statistics doesn't seem to me to justify the reputation for extreme danger portrayed in the media in recent years.

Thank you Elizabeth for your report on the Castles tour. Since we've already spent some time in Copenhagen and seen the major sights, I had already signed us up for this tour because we hadn't visited the countryside. Sounds like I made the right choice! Really looking forward to it.

[quote name='roothy123']Kind of a longshot, but might want to try right clicking on the photo (box) to see if it will offer you an "Open With" choice. If so, pick whatever you have for viewing pictures. Of course, I'm using a desktop computer, which might be totally different from other devices, especially Apple ones.[/quote]

I will try that. Actually, the I tried before page did finally load. I returned from a shopping trip to find it open. No idea how long it took. I have a reasonably fast internet connection

OK, thanks. I suspect it's my browser although that surprises me because I've no problem downloading anything else.

[quote name='Dauntless']travelinsubman at wordpress.com has reviews with pictures of all cabins, other than the owner's suite[/quote]

I found the blog but clicking on any of the entries just brings up a blank page. Is there some trick to making them visible?

The keel for the Viking Star was laid on December 18 at the Fincantieri's Marghera shipyard outside Venice, Italy. The laying of the keel is a formal ceremony marking recognition of the start of a ship's construction. Here is a link to one of the various news sources reporting the event:

 

http://www.traveldailynews.com/news/article/58260/viking-cruises-announces-major-milestone#sthash.21lX2Tlw.dpuf

 

 

As you may have heard, steel was first cut for the ship last June. The laying of the keel is the next major step in its progress toward completion. According to Wikipedia "The event recognized as the keel laying is the first joining of modular components, or the lowering of the first module into place in the building dock. It is now often called "keel authentication", and is the ceremonial beginning of the ship's life, even though fabrication of the modules may have begun months before."