Help with ship excursions in Egypt, Red Sea and Saudi Arabia please?

[mcmomny]

Good morning!

 

We have booked our first MSC cruise (long time NCL cruisers) for November of 2024 on The Musica to Egypt, Red Sea and Saudi Arabia and have been looking at the excursions. Some have descriptions and others do not.

 

We called MSC and spoke to a nice young lady but she was unable to help us so I was wondering if anyone has been on these excursions or these ports of call and can review them for me or let me know where to read reviews about them!

 

Our ports of call are Aqaba (Petra), Sharm el-Sheikh, Jeddah, Safaga and Sokhna Port.

 

We are looking at "The Wonders of Petra" "The Amazing Karnak Temple Complex" or " Luxor's amazing Valley of The Kings"

 

Not sure what to do in Sharm el-Sheikh or Jeddah.

 

We will spend a few days in Cairo before the sailing and will do The Pyramid's then but plan on using the ships excursion of "The Egyptian Museum and airport transfer" on the way home.

 

We typically book our own excursions but in this case we feel better using the ships excursions due to distance from port to the sights we want to see.

 

Thank you in advance for your help!

 

 

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

10 hours ago, mcmomny said:

Good morning!

 

We have booked our first MSC cruise (long time NCL cruisers) for November of 2024 on The Musica to Egypt, Red Sea and Saudi Arabia and have been looking at the excursions. Some have descriptions and others do not. We called MSC and spoke to a nice young lady but she was unable to help us so I was wondering if anyone has been on these excursions or these ports of call and can review them for me or let me know where to read reviews about them! Our ports of call are Aqaba (Petra), Sharm el-Sheikh, Jeddah, Safaga and Sokhna Port.We are looking at "The Wonders of Petra" "The Amazing Karnak Temple Complex" or " Luxor's amazing Valley of The Kings".

Not sure what to do in Sharm el-Sheikh or Jeddah.We will spend a few days in Cairo before the sailing and will do The Pyramid's then but plan on using the ships excursion of "The Egyptian Museum and airport transfer" on the way home.

We typically book our own excursions but in this case we feel better using the ships excursions due to distance from port to the sights we want to see.

Thank you in advance for your help!

Your cruise is so far off into the future that the excursions haven't posted yet. It will be awhile longer. I did this cruise this past April, the only difference was beginning and ending the cruise in Jeddah. I just pulled my folder from that cruise and unfortunately I did not save the excursion brochure. This is what I can tell you:

Jeddah: No excursion taken since this was the embarkation and disembarkation port.

Yanbu: Did a fairly inexpensive excursion called Yanbu: Tale of Two Cities, I think. Wasn't that exciting but got to see some of Saudi Arabia. Looks like Sharm el-Sheikh has replaced Yanbu.

Sokhna: This is the port for Cairo and the pyramids and this is where you're coming from so you don't need an excusion here. I've done Cairo in the past so had no desire to go again.

Safaga: This is the port for excursions to the Valley of the Kings and Luxor. The drive is about 3 hours each way and they're pretty expensive. I did the Hurghada On Your Own tour which was about a 1-hr drive to the city of Hurghada, a few hours to hang out and then the ride back. Since I collect Hard Rock t-shirts, I took a taxi to their mall and got that and then once back downtown, had lunch at one of the sidewalk restaurants.

Aquaba: I did the Wonders of Petra tour. Please note they offer two Petra tours, one a bit more expensive than the other. The cheaper tour includes a prepared on the ship box lunch. The more expensive of the two takes you to a hotel with a large all-you-can-eat buffet. I did the latter and it was worth the extra money. Petra of course is a must-see in Jordan.Both of these tours sold out in advance of the cruise so if you're going to do one, book it as far ahead of time as you can (like now if it's already posted).

 

 

 

[mcmomny]

Thank you so much for your response Kingbobofthenorth!

 

There are some excursions available already and we booked "The Wonders of Petra" already but the excursions in Safaga "The Valley of the Kings" has no description but "The amazing Karnak Temple" does. I was hoping there would be an excursion including both of these but I guess not due to the distance between the two locations.

 

In the meantime we booked The Karnak Temple excursion which looks amazing

 

I was wondering what your opinion of MSC is overall, we are easy going and know that this was a very affordable booking compared to the NCL.

 

We just finished an NCL Greek Islands and Turkey cruise which we needed to book excursions early as they filled up quickly so we have been looking at MSC excursions and booked three so far.

 

Again thank you for your information and stay safe wiht this hurricane!

[perakcruiser]

13 hours ago, mcmomny said:

We will spend a few days in Cairo before the sailing and will do The Pyramid's then but plan on using the ships excursion of "The Egyptian Museum and airport transfer" on the way home.

I don´t think this tour will exist anymore after the Grand Egyptian Museum has opened. 

[Mark_T]

7 hours ago, mcmomny said:

but the excursions in Safaga "The Valley of the Kings" has no description...

There will necessarily be a lack of precision on exactly which tombs you will see as it is not possible to predict this in advance as the tombs are rotated to reduce the damage caused by too many visitors.

 

I have not done this excursion with MSC, but we did a Nile cruise a while ago and the general format is you will be issued with a ticket on arrival which gives you access to say 3 tombs from the ones that are open that day, so pick wisely.

 

There is usually a premium option as well which can be purchased on site for access to one of the less frequently opened tombs.

 

Do think carefully about choosing Tutankhamun's tomb as it is well known of course, but by far the least spectacular and if you are doing a museum visit you will have seen all the artefacts there, these are tombs you will be seeing not what was in them. 

 

Cameras have to be checked in at the entrance unless you want to pay a fee to be able to take photos there. (no flash of course).

[CruisingFox27]

Our repositioning cruise this Nov visits some of these ports, and this is the description for the Valley of The Kings tour;

 

The Luxor is a must-see site for all lovers of history and archaeology and is the destination of this full-day excursion. Begin with boarding a coach for a 4-hour drive through the desert to reach the west bank of the Nile river and the city of Luxor, standing on the ancient site of Thebes, the capital of the pharaohs in their golden age. As you travel to this iconic site, you will have a short stop at the two massive statues of Amenhotep III, also known as the Colossi of Memnon. These two twin statues in a seated position, with the hands on the knees and the gaze turned towards the rising sun had the original function to guard the entrance to Amenhotep's Temple of Millions of Years, a gigantic cult centre built when the pharaoh was still alive. Next, you will reach the Valley of the Kings with the extraordinary opportunity to visit 3 royal tombs. After this leap into the history and grandeur of ancient Egypt, it will be time for a well-deserved stop at a hotel located on the east bank of the Nile river to enjoy lunch and recharge your batteries. Once refreshed, the tour will continue with a stop at a bustling Egyptian bazaar, the perfect opportunity to haggle with local vendors and buy a souvenir to take home as a memento of this wonderful day in ancient history.

 

In the additional notes it states that it includes visits to 3 tombs, excluding Tutankhamun and Ramses V or any which require an additional fee.

 

The tour has just sold out for our trip, although it still lists the price as £159. Definitely book early if you want to do this tour.

 

At several points I had issues seeing the tour descriptions through my booking. 

 

Thank you for confirming the best Petra tour @KINGBOBOFTHENORTH that's the one we've booked. And the Hurghada information. We were planning the above tour but have now booked a Nile Cruise for next year, we'll visit the Valley of the Kings then.

Edited August 30, 2023 by CruisingFox27

[mcmomny]

Thank you cruisingfox27 this is a huge help and I can't wait to hear how your cruise went!

 

Thank you to everyone for your responses, it has been very helpful!

 

One of our favorite things about travel is the pre-planning!  Our kids laugh at us about our folders of information and our constant youtube video watching!

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

12 hours ago, mcmomny said:

I was wondering what your opinion of MSC is overall, we are easy going and know that this was a very affordable booking compared to the NCL.

My 10th cruise on MSC begins.....tomorrow.

[CruisingFox27]

9 hours ago, mcmomny said:

Thank you cruisingfox27 this is a huge help and I can't wait to hear how your cruise went!

 

Thank you to everyone for your responses, it has been very helpful!

 

One of our favorite things about travel is the pre-planning!  Our kids laugh at us about our folders of information and our constant youtube video watching!

I love the planning part too. As soon as we booked my spreadsheets were up and running 😁

I was watching ship tour videos yesterday, which DH found very funny as this will be our 3rd time on Splendida. 

 

I see you're booked for a Mauritius to SA. That's part of our upcoming trip too. We're Italy to SA.

 

Have a great cruise @KINGBOBOFTHENORTH

[mcmomny]

21 hours ago, CruisingFox27 said:

I love the planning part too. As soon as we booked my spreadsheets were up and running 😁

I was watching ship tour videos yesterday, which DH found very funny as this will be our 3rd time on Splendida. 

 

I see you're booked for a Mauritius to SA. That's part of our upcoming trip too. We're Italy to SA.

 

Have a great cruise @KINGBOBOFTHENORTH

 

Can't wait to hear how your trip went, ours is not until Jan of 2025 but we have our spread sheet going too!