Egypt-Nile cruise boat?
 

I am planning a trip to Egypt in October, and have been corresponding with Amanda at Lady Egypt. She sent me an itinerary with two possible Nile cruise boats: Jaz Jubilee and Al Jamila. Has anyone been on either of these boats? Or do you have a different boat you would recommend? Also, I am wondering whether to take the overnight sleeper train from Cairo to Aswan or fly-any suggestions? Is it possible to get any sleep on the sleeper train? I am a light sleeper. How bad are the bathrooms?

<<How bad are the bathrooms?>>

Oh dear....how strong is your stomach? :&

Here's a recent thread where I spoke about the train and the bathrooms. I was on the sitting train and not the sleeper but you will find info here about both.

http://www.fodors.com/community/afri...eper-train.cfm

I forgot to mention ships. I was on the Crown Jewel and it was great.

Thank you for your prompt reply! I had seen your review, and was wondering if there was any difference with a sleeping car (I suspect not)?

Actually I think there probably is a difference with a sleeping car, because you have so many fewer people using one bathroom, but it really sounds to me like it's not for you. In fact, it may not be for a light sleeper at all. We all (6 of us) loved the sleeper train, but we are sound sleepers.

I am not what I'd call a "light sleeper" but I still like to take a sleeping aid when I travel by the train. It is a bit bumpy, but most trains are a bit.
The bathrooms are not that bad on the Sleeper Train usually. You have to figure it is tourists that are on there, and the only thing that would make it really bad is if one gets sick and doesn't clean up after him/herself. On the normal seated train, the same thing happens, but you also have Egyptians that maybe aren't quite as careful as you might be, and there just isn't water available in enough qty to do a good cleanup job on that train every time someone uses the bathroom.

The Sleeper train food is another thing that is not for the picky eaters. Dinner (IMHO) is about the same quality as airline food (is or was back in the day when you could get a meal from an airline). One thing is that if you think it is decent, there is plenty to eat. They don't ask, do you want meat or fish/chicken (what ever the choice is), they give you both... so there is no lack of food to eat. Cocktails are served in your room or you can go to the (very) smokey club car and have a drink and a smoke, if you are a smoker (no smoking allowed inside the cabins on the Sleeper train supposedly).

Flying is probably more for you, jat.

Very helpful-think I will fly!
Has anyone had experience with either the Jaz Jubilee (Travcotels) or Al Jamila (Sabena) cruise boat?

The train from Cairo to Answan wasn't bad at all. If you're a light sleeper like I am then I don't think you'll get much sleep on it though. It's not that the bed wasn't comforable, but you will feel the train moving, shake and rattle while trying to sleep.

I was most afraid about the bathroom, since I was horrified at the bathroom condition when I took the overnight Chinese train from Beijing to Xian a few years ago. To my suprised the bathroom on the Cairo to Answan train wasn't bad at all. I did try to use the bathroom as early in the train ride as I could but even using it the next morning, it wasn't bad.

jat - it will probably be hard to get any response on the individual ships but maybe asking the question with their name in the title would catch someone's eye. Have you also checked on tripadvisor?

Hello jat! We, too, have been corresponding with Amanda at Lady Egypt, and she has also recommended either the Jaz Jubilee or the Al Jamila (or the Princess Sara, as well). Did you ever find any feedback on these? I'm having a hard time deciding. I did find one website that sold cruise trips on these and I found it interesting that the price for the Al Jamila trip was approximately 100 Euros more per person for the 3 days than the Jaz Jubilee. I wonder if that somehow means that something on that ship is better?! The websites for each make them look lovely.

We, also, decided to fly after reading much about the trains. I didn't want to deal with the bathroom, and my light sleeper husband who is 6'4" was afraid he'd never sleep because he might not fit in the berth. So flying it is for us as well. We will be there in late December (New Year's Eve on the nile cruise!).

Cheers,
mmc