Princess Sarah Cruise 5 days 4 nights from Luxor to Aswan

We did a 7 night Nile cruise on board Royal Ruby, we had a great time. Our tour guide Saladino was brilliant very knowledgeable and passionate about Egypt. The boat was dated but okay, food was good the staff were excellent. The pool was a great asset on hot days after trips out. The drinks on board are not Egypt prices they are more expensive, almost equivalent to UK prices, you settle your bill last day on board.

The good news is that my wife and I enjoyed the cruise and the trips out to some of the historic sites near Luxor and Aswan greatly. We also loved shopping and haggling in the markets of both Luxor and Aswan which are close to the boat and can be walked to in just a few minutes. The bad news is, as another reviewer has said, they do try to extort money for you constantly including asking for money for tips in lump sums at the start of the cruise. The cabin was fine and about the same standard as we experienced when we went on a Baltic cruise although this time we had a window. The food was more restricted than our hotel but after all there is a limit as to what can be prepared on board ship. My wife has an allergy to milk and the waiting and cooking staff went out of their way to identify what was milk free and even on a couple of occasions prepared a milk free version of some puddings for her.

From our first moment on board the staff were trying to extort money from us. The trips were VERY overpriced - Tip Number 1, get a taxi and go on your own, perfectly safe and the cost is approximately 10% of what they are trying to charge you. The guide demanded an up front tip of £30 pp for the crew! An up front tip meant the service was appalling - from trying to take our plates before we'd finished eating, to refusing to supply a glass because we wanted to finish the water we had bought earlier but not from the boat. They were incredibly fast to try and get you to sign for drinks and made you very uncomfortable if you'd bought a bottle of water from them previously during the day when they demanded a new signature for an already purchased bottle. Tip Number 2 - keep ALL your drinks receipts, if they don't tally at the end of the week, don't pay them. The only complimentary drink you get is a cup of tea or coffee and fruit juice at breakfast. Everything else has to be paid for at greatly inflated prices. The food is mediocre in the extreme. Beef stew, chicken stew or fish. Lots of dry, unappetising rice and sometimes pasta and even more rarely, almost raw, inedible potato. The housekeeping leaves a lot to be desired. They make the bed - that's it. As for entertainment - well, one night we had a couple of men in fancy dress banging a drum for 20 minutes and another night a belly dancer and a man wearing a skirt with fairy lights on it. That was it. One additional point, they kept a note of who had paid the compulsory tip and who hadn't. At the end of the cruise, they refused to allow the porters to touch the cases of anyone who had not paid this charge. This meant that a disabled lady with a walking stick (who incidentally had generously tipped staff who had given her good service) and a gentleman recovering from a heart attack were expected to take their suitcases through three moored boats, across a long, narrow gangplank and then up two flights of stone steps to get to the coach - all the time being badgered for money from the porters who wouldn't help them! Tip Number 3. Watch your cases at all times, many were grabbed by the porters and put on the WRONG coaches for the return trips to Hurghada. Shocking behaviour. Definitely not a trip for families, the children will be bored senseless. Egypt is a wonderful place. The temples and museums from Luxor to Abu Simbel are amazing and are a 'must see'. I'd be very careful what boat you book for a Nile Cruise though. Read the small print.