MS Nile Festival

The rooms are dirty. The food has no variety, always de same kind. The service bad, billing for internet that doesn't work, and not aplaying the official change in the invoice. Don't let to pay with credit card. The especial events short. The service allways asking for a tip.

Very good, very nice, fantastic food. However, MS Nile Festival cruise loses two points on the fact that the organisation at 'checking in' (boarding, more like) was so bad. We were in a group of 30 school children, British. It was 3 to a room, and, against British Law they put in a double and a single, and it wasnt sorted for another hour. However, very good.

I enjoyed my Nile cruise because I was hosted in a nice boat which is the MS Nile Festival.Clean- Bravo to housekeeping who did their best to make our rooms clean :)Nice Staff- we were 3 families with 5 children on board, they all bear us with a smile and friendly behavior towards all of us.We never lost a thing on the boat, when we forget our valuable things (Mobiles, DVD player etc.) somewhere on the boat we get it back.Good quality and tasty Food Variety of FoodSafe for children.Smooth sailing and coastingall in all it's an excellent cruise. highly recommend you to go for it!

The staff were very hospitable. Took care of every small requirement of the people. The Egyptian Party was good and they also celebrated people's birthdays. Value for Money. The food could have been better. Many times fruits were served as deserts

The cruise was fantastic and the boat was lovely, our best holiday so far, that good that we have booked again. I would recommend the MS Nile Festival.

Ship:

At the time of writing, the boat was only two and half years old, the general condition was good and well up to the standard expected of it's 5 star rating. It appears there is a lack of a maintenance on some of the other boats you see, which gives the apperance of them being slightly tired.

Rooms:

Clean and tidy at all times, don't worry, you won't get a port hole to peer out of. All rooms have a full size sliding door, so if it gets too hot up on the sun deck then you won't miss much sat in your room with the door open.

All rooms had a small LCD telly (prog's aimed at Spanish and Italians, there is CNN), fridge, safe and plenty of storage space for the 2 average travellers. The beds are x2singles pushed together (firm). There is also a small table and chairs in each room.

En-suite:

A decent size with a shower that has jets that manage to clear out the bits an average shower could not reach.

Excursions:

Easy to summarise this one - unbelievable and if you our guide then you are made, he is wealth of information, spoke excellent English, understands our humour and goes above and beyond to make your holiday that little bit special (even the locals refer to him as no 1 guide).

Must do's:

Abu Simbel, we took our guides advice and went by road, it's about 3 hours each way but when you consider the time you would spend waiting in an airport it works out roughly the same but it's have the price by road and you get to see so much more by road (the incredible mirage) and the timings are more flexible.

Balloon ride, we went with Hod Hod, it cost £135 for two of us, I have seen reviews saying that people had got it cheaper with other providers, all I can tell you is that three Hod Hod ballons were up a lot longer than any of the other providers, we were airbourne for just under an hour, we saw others up for only 25-30mins, plus Hod Hod gives you a T shirt, certificate and everyone has dance and song after the landing.

If you go with Libra and you the bird spotting boat trip, take it, it costs around GB £10pp, you get picked-up next to your ship then travel up the Nile towards the Cataracts (rapids), you go to a crocodile farm and get to travel back in time when the boat zig-zags between the islands close to the Aswan damn, it's amazing and yes you do get to see different birds if you like that sort of thing!

Other Info:

Money - Take plenty of low denomination sterling, you can use it everywhere (local markets etc), it's better to pay for your extra excursions with GB £ rather than credit cards, the exchange rate fluctuates and it's obviously never in your favour.

Drinks/food - Buy your water off the ship, it will cost you about £1.50 for a lge bottle on the ship, but if you get it from the local shop it's around 50p, it might not seem a great saving but over the week and the amount you will consume, it's well worth stocking up when you get there for the first leg of your journey, there's plenty of shops en-route to top-up as you go down the Nile.

We found it was handy to take a few nibles with you to have in your room, the mini-bar has no stickies/nibles but has plenty of room to store your own.

Summary: All in all an excellent holiday, it's full-on with the excursions etc but you do get plenty of time to relax when the ship is moving between sites.

Very good food

very good crew

The staff on board were very hospitable and kind. The tours, both included and additional, were fantastic. The food was plentiful and of good quality. The original cabin that we were given was highly suspect and should never have been allocated to anyone.There was definitely a health and safety issue ( a wooden ceiling tile fell owing to the vibrations caused when the boat was sailing, just missing my friend's eye ) Unfortunately, since the ship was fully booked, it was not possible to move us until some other folk left the cruise at Aswam. It must have been a known fact that this room was so dreadful because it would have been used before! It is totally unacceptable to have sleep deprivation for four nights under these circumstances. This room would have been condemned if it had been in a house.

We had a great time on the MS Nile Festival cruise, it is an ideal way to see all the sites along the nile. Absolutely fantastic cruise, food was varied and very nice (as long as you don't want typical english dishes you will be ok) the chef who cracked the eggs for your omlettes on your head was very entertaining also. The staff on board were brilliant, rooms were cleaned twice daily. The masseur gives a great if not different massage, afternoon tea was a nice touch as well.

A wonderful cruise, the cabins are lovely, the food was great and the staff could not be more helpful. Our guide was superb, his knowledge of ancient egypt was overwhelming and he made the whole experience a truly memorable one. The trips were well organised and interesting - I recommend the motor boat ride, it was excellent. I took my children (18 and 13) and was worried they would be bored - no problem, they loved it.