Upcoming Nile River Cruise November, 2023

[ShaZoGus]

Booked on a Uniworld Nile River cruise with a pre-cruise extension in Jordan. Uniworld cancelled Israel post-cruise 2 days ago due to the war.
Feeling very anxious and stressed about going to that part of the world but we’re at the mercy of Uniworld should they decide to make any further cancellations. As we do not have cancel-for-any-reason insurance, we stand to lose a lot of money.
Air Canada is allowing us to rebook our flights ( Toronto-Amman and TelAviv-Toronto) at no fee or to receive a refund. If a major airline is offering a full refund on business class tickets, they seem to be taking the situation more seriously than the cruise line.

Anybody else out there in a similar situation?

[LTC]

We are going with AMA on a Nile River cruise in mid- November. We're doing the pre cruise extension in Jordan, going to Amman and Petra for 4 nights before going to Cairo for 3 nights, then the cruise and then another night in Cairo. They also cancelled pre and post cruise Israel. We're concerned also but all the other pre/post extensions are still a go as is the cruise...at least so far .We have about 3.5 weeks before we leave and anything could happen in that time. If the cruise is still happening, we'll go but it sure won't be a worry free vacation. Good to know that AC is offering a full refund as we're using them as well going to Toronto-Amman also in business class and returning from Cairo.

I'm sure that if the cruise is cancelled that AMA will give us a future cruise credit.

[ShaZoGus]

Thanks for your response. Our trips sound quite similar, although with different cruise companies.  We are scheduled to fly to Jordan on November 5th, just over 2 weeks from now. I very much agree with you that this won’t be a worry-free trip if it happens, which defeats the purpose of a vacation.

Hopefully the river cruise companies will do the right thing and cancel, as I’m pretty sure that we aren’t the only passengers with these concerns!

[bubbulz]

Did you not purchase the Uniworld insurance? If you did, you can cancel for a full future cruise credit. https://www.uniworld.com/us/already-booked/travel-protection 

[CDNPolar]

Don't want to assume, but you are aware of the Egypt Visa issues for Canadians right? 

[ShaZoGus]

Oh yeah…getting the Egypt Visas was very stressful, but we did manage to get our e-visas just before the cutoff date of October 1st.

[ShaZoGus]

Unfortunately, we did not purchase Uniworld insurance…there were some pre-existing health conditions at the time of booking which have since been resolved.

[bubbulz]

23 minutes ago, ShaZoGus said:

Unfortunately, we did not purchase Uniworld insurance…there were some pre-existing health conditions at the time of booking which have since been resolved.

That is unfortunate. A friend of mine who was supposed to join me on my last cruise had to cancel due to a pre-existing condition, and she got a full refund from the insurance since she purchased it when she booked her trip.

[ShaZoGus]

That’s good to know for future reference. Thank you.

[CDNPolar]

21 hours ago, ShaZoGus said:

Oh yeah…getting the Egypt Visas was very stressful, but we did manage to get our e-visas just before the cutoff date of October 1st.

 

I was under the impression that evisas obtained before October 1st for travel after October 1st were going to be rendered invalid?

 

Did this change?

[ShaZoGus]

Yes, it did change and we found out the hard way.  We used CIBT, a third party visa company, completed all the forms and sent them by FedEx along with our passports in order for the Egyptian embassy in Ottawa to process old-school paper visas on September 14. CIBT received our package on September 15 and immediately called to say that things had changed yet again and we were no longer eligible for the paper visas and that we could now apply for an e-visa which needed to be approved and issued by October 1st and would be valid for 3 months.  Completed the online forms on September 15th and finally received the e-visas on September 29th after being told that the process would take only 5 business days. 

 

 

 

 

[CDNPolar]

19 hours ago, ShaZoGus said:

Yes, it did change and we found out the hard way.  We used CIBT, a third party visa company, completed all the forms and sent them by FedEx along with our passports in order for the Egyptian embassy in Ottawa to process old-school paper visas on September 14. CIBT received our package on September 15 and immediately called to say that things had changed yet again and we were no longer eligible for the paper visas and that we could now apply for an e-visa which needed to be approved and issued by October 1st and would be valid for 3 months.  Completed the online forms on September 15th and finally received the e-visas on September 29th after being told that the process would take only 5 business days. 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow... what a kerfuffle this whole thing is with Egypt Visas.

 

I just hope that all goes smoothly for you and that you have a wonderful trip! 

 

Egypt is a beautifully striking country and it will go down as one of our favourite and best trips ever.  Our of 40 some odd countries, it is in the top three.

 

Just one word of advice from a traveller that got a dreaded Egypt stomach bug on the last day and missed the pyramids, be very cautious of what you are eating and drinking off of a ship or outside of a hotel.  Note also that typical North American remedies like Imodium do NOT work for these stomach bugs. 

[ShaZoGus]

Thank you for your advice…we have some activated charcoal tablets in the event of “Pharaoh’s Revenge” and plan to be careful with food in Egypt (if we go!). Still hoping that Uniworld cancels!

[CDNPolar]

17 hours ago, ShaZoGus said:

Thank you for your advice…we have some activated charcoal tablets in the event of “Pharaoh’s Revenge” and plan to be careful with food in Egypt (if we go!). Still hoping that Uniworld cancels!

 

If you go, even the charcoal will not help.  You will need antibiotics.  Uniworld have doctors that will come to the ship, and for me we were at the Four Seasons at the end of our trip and the hotel has doctors that they call and the doctors come to you.

 

I had Imodium, charcoal, and probiotics - nothing helped until the doctor visit and the meds he prescribed.

[ShaZoGus]

Oh my…you really got it bad!  Any idea what caused it?  I heard that it’s wise to avoid salads as well as any raw fruit and veggies that have been peeled and to always use bottled water.

[CDNPolar]

23 hours ago, ShaZoGus said:

Oh my…you really got it bad!  Any idea what caused it?  I heard that it’s wise to avoid salads as well as any raw fruit and veggies that have been peeled and to always use bottled water.

 

We were told by the Uniworld agents that met us at the airport, on the bus ride to the hotel for the first night, not to eat or drink outside the hotel or the ship.  We did not.  We followed their instructions.

 

Our travel companion got it bad on the second last day on the ship, and she had to have a doctor come to the ship.

 

I got "hit" at 4am on the final day in the hotel and the day of the pyramids.  We had our farewell dinner the night before in the hotel, and to my knowledge, I was the only person on my ship of 70 odd that was not in attendance for the Pyramids - so who knows where it came from.

 

By 1pm that day when I had unsuccessfully tried Imodium and Charcoal, my husband was keeping our Guide informed and he called the hotel and asked them to arrange a doctor.  Doctor and nurse arrived an hour later with IV fluids and anti-spasmodic meds in the IV and then three prescription drugs.  Two anti-biotics and one anti-spasmodic.  The doctor and nurse stayed in the room with me until the IV was completed - about an hour - and then left.  The nurse checked back about 10pm that night - in person - and I was on the road to recovery.

 

We left the next day and with 17 hours of flying ahead of us, I was a bit skeptical, but the doctor said that the drugs would make me flight ready... and I did make it home without incident.

 

I showed the doctor the Imodium and he just laughed and said Western meds won't help with this.

 

He felt that it could have been dairy related, but I don't eat a lot of dairy, and the only dairy the day before was the farewell dinner cheesecake at the hotel and everyone had it.

 

It will likely always be a mystery as to what caused it.  Same with our travel companion that got it on the ship.  No way to know what caused it as she was the only one sick on the ship.

 

Interesting fact however, I asked the doctor how often he gets called to the ship or hotel, and he indicated that this was his medical practice - only tourists on the ships in port or in the hotels. This is his business.

[franski]

We were lucky when we went, but my daughter ended up with "Mummy Tummy" when she went.  Luckily, she recovered quickly and only missed one day of touring. 

 

It is stories like the one above that scare me enough that I will *not* travel without good travel insurance. Plan for the worst, hope for the best...  Travelling can be a huge expense - I want to make sure that I won't spend the money for the next trip on medical coverage for the bring I am currently on!

 

Fran

[CDNPolar]

6 hours ago, franski said:

We were lucky when we went, but my daughter ended up with "Mummy Tummy" when she went.  Luckily, she recovered quickly and only missed one day of touring. 

 

It is stories like the one above that scare me enough that I will *not* travel without good travel insurance. Plan for the worst, hope for the best...  Travelling can be a huge expense - I want to make sure that I won't spend the money for the next trip on medical coverage for the bring I am currently on!

 

Fran

 

Our friends that had the doctor come to the ship paid $100 USD for that.

 

I paid $200 USD in the hotel, but the extra was for the IV and time to sit while the IV was administered.  

We have good health insurance - great health insurance - but, we are required to call them before anything is done, unless we are incapacitated, and we chose not to.  Why?  Because they would have sent us to a clinic or a hospital where we would have sat and waited and probably experienced few if anyone that spoke English.  We knew the cost and decided to pay it rather than use the medical coverage that we had.