3 Nights Sonesta St. George Nile Cruise

I booked a 9 day Nile holiday through Century Travel in Cyprus because it was recommended. The flight timings were excellent and the recommended boat seemed very good. After booking our flights were changed with a 7 hr stopover in Cairo and about 8 days before departing the boat was changed. The Sonesta St George Hotel is supposedly 5-star but we found the rooms to be very dated indeed and the food was very poor. On boarding the Sonesta St George cruise boat the surroundings were lavish and staff attentive. The cabin however was dated and bathroom dirty - see pictures below. The public areas were lovely but it was a back to back cruise, that is Luxor to Aswan and then back to Luxor. The standard definitely dropped on the return leg e.g. dirty cutlery the last night. The most disappointing thing was the reaction by Century Travel. They could not accept that the holiday package was not up to standard - in fact they blamed everything on the in-country agent. I shall not be booking through Century Travel again and do not recommend this holiday at all.

Not sure why the there are 2 separate threads for this boat on TA December 2022 Cruse experience... Summary: Like 1* or 2* Sonesta motels in USA, anything but upscale, forget luxury First the good... The staff at the kitchen/dining are VERY helpful and kind, service is attentive. Food quality depends on your own benchmark and expectations. We stayed at Mena House for 3 nights and ate there. Food quality at St. George is nothing really compared to Mena house. But over-all it is certainly not bad. The rooms are just ok, nothing special (we stayed in top deck, view from there is better than that from lower floors). Other services are reasonable. The bad... They mention that tap water is for shower only. You need to brush using bottled water. Similarly, you need to drink bottled water. What is included? One 16oz (or could be 14oz) water/person/day. Want extra? That will be 50 EGP for a bottle, which is a pure rip-off. Captain's cocktail? Watery margarita for free. Bad quality drinks. Coffee at breakfast is cheap, flavorless, and pathetic. Room cleaning and laundry just ok, eager to charge but return laundry half dry. The evening entertainment programs are below-average at best. The ugly... The worst part of the cruse is the so called Egyptologists or the tour guides provided by Sonesta. Ours was one named Medhat Nasri, short on guiding, made no particular effort to avoid crowds, always with stretched arm for tips, collected commission from every shopping from every customer. Overall, a very avoidable soul. Then there was an unscrupulous photographer from some street corner who came in the dining room of the boat, took pictures of you without permission, got it printed the next day and demanded money. The cruse managers (named Mr. Sameer) turned a blind eye. The wifi is pathetic. Very very slow and yes, they have a 1GB data cap. But it is so slow that the data cap did not matter. Hard to believe it was the year 2022. My two cents... If money is not an issue, consider ONLY Oberoy or Sanctuary cruises. Avoid all others, and most definitely avoid Sonesta, which is a scam. If money is an issue, do a private LXR-ASW (or the vice versa) road trip with a private guide. It will be much cheaper, and most importantly, you will really enjoy Egypt.

This is supposedly one of the best cruise ships on the Nile according to our guide. Whilst this is a nice ship, I'm surprised that this is rated as the best ship. The rooms are a nice size as are the bathrooms, but the bath/shower is very cumbersome to operate and in need of replacement. The water pressure is poor as is the drainage. The internet on board is terrible with a lot of people complaining. You can't get it in your bedroom and even in reception the connectivity is patchy. Lunch and evening meals are good, but the breakfast is disappointing and they never change the offerings for the entire cruise. They are slightly disorganised and I was surprised and disappointed to be charged for my own drinks I had put in the fridge in the cabin. I left those drinks behind when challenged even though they didn't stock that brand on the boat. The have a lovely upper deck and it's a delight to sit there as you slowly sail down the Nile.