Anyone been on Movenpick M/S Darakum

[champagnebarfly]

We are going on a Nile cruise in February on M/S Darakum, and was wondering if anyone had been on the same boat and could let us know what to expect.

[Mark_T]

Yes, we did the long Nile cruise on Darakum in February last year.

 

Which itinerary are you following?

 

I can give you more relevant comments once I know where you are traveling from and to...

[champagnebarfly]

It is the long cruise from Aswan to Cairo, which is 12 nights then 2 nights in Cairo in the Le Meridian Pyramids Hotel.

[Mark_T]

Excellent, you are doing it the opposite way around to us, so you will visit all the same places just with a little less relaxation in between :)

 

Basically you shave off almost two days by travelling with the flow of the water downstream.

 

The ship was great and all the staff were friendly and helpful.

 

Do keep in mind though that this is not a little pocket of artificial 'western' culture sailing through Egypt, although Swiss owned, the ship is an Egyptian ship, with Egyptian cooking and Moroccan inspired decor. This is not a Viking or Uniworld cruise and we enjoyed it all the more for that, just don't expect French cuisine and familiar dishes...

 

Almost all meals will be buffet style and it was rare that I didn't find something that I liked, but given that I do not enjoy fish, I was happy to find that they were willing to provide chicken for me on the evening when they served a special fish focused menu.

 

You'll find that there will be groups from more than one tour company on board some of which have their own guides, (Jules Verne for example) while those from smaller tour companies like Cox & Kings and similar were grouped together with their guide.

 

For us it actually left us with a better ratio than the Jules Verne group as there were about 14 of us with our guide.

 

Probably best if I answer any particular questions you may have and do check my other post about the trip, I'll find a link later on.

[champagnebarfly]

Thank you for your response.

We can't get Egyptian currency in the UK, so were wondering what currency is best to take $ or Euro

We aren't overly worried about the quisine, and we are aware we should use bottled water, and have a supply of insect repellent. were you aware of anyone coming down with a stomach upset?

[2552phxcrzr]

Thank you for your response.

We can't get Egyptian currency in the UK, so were wondering what currency is best to take $ or Euro

We aren't overly worried about the quisine, and we are aware we should use bottled water, and have a supply of insect repellent. were you aware of anyone coming down with a stomach upset?

 

US dollars were widely accepted in May when we were there ,,, the locals preferred it over their own currency.

[Mark_T]

We can't get Egyptian currency in the UK, so were wondering what currency is best to take $ or Euro

 

GBP is fine, the ship will change cash (GBP/USD/EUR) into EGP or you can change it at the airport. You can't bring a lot of EGP into the country anyway, so you are not missing much by not being able to buy in the UK at the moment.

 

 

You can also use your bank ATM card to withdraw EGP while in Egypt but be aware that the daily limit on withdrawals is much lower than you are used to in the UK. Not all ATMs will work for your card but they are usually clustered together so if one doesn't work there will be another near by on a different network.

 

We aren't overly worried about the cuisine, and we are aware we should use bottled water, and have a supply of insect repellent. were you aware of anyone coming down with a stomach upset?

We didn't need insect repellent in Feb last year and we were delightfully impressed with how clean and free from odour the Nile was given some of the horror stories people had told us of trips years ago.

 

There were only a couple of people onboard that fell ill as far as we know and for both of them the root cause was really dehydration which is very easy to avoid. All of the food preparation on board, salad, fruit, ice etc. is totally safe.

 

You will discover early on that small denomination EGP bills are hard to find but useful for tips, bottled water etc. when on trips (buy water from the bus driver not the street markets) but you can get it easily on the ship of course. If you have access to USD and can get some $1 bills these will be very useful.

[champagnebarfly]

Hello again.

Was the ship full when you went and did any of the passengers stay on board instead of going to see the sights?

Were there talks beforehand on board to tell you what you were about to see and expect?

What was the entertainment like in the evening and did you go to the Galabya party?

Thank you.

[Mark_T]

Hello again.

Was the ship full when you went and did any of the passengers stay on board instead of going to see the sights?

 

Not 100% full I think there was one or two of the suites still available.

 

From our group I think one or two people may have stayed onboard once or twice but generally everyone was keen to see everything :) (staying on board was not a problem though if that is what you wanted.)

 

 

Were there talks beforehand on board to tell you what you were about to see and expect?

 

Different tour groups handled that differently but yes, there was plenty of information about what we were about to see, but it was not as regimented as a talk each day on board.

 

 

What was the entertainment like in the evening and did you go to the Galabya party?

 

The evening entertainment was limited to a few specific events and to be honest that was just fine as most people were too tired to stay up particularly late.

 

The Galabeya party was well attended and a truly beautiful and talented dancer was in attendance with her musicians which made it a special night.

 

I'd say about 60% of the guests there had purchased galabeyas from the shop onboard ship.