For the HardRock Cafe and the main tourist area of Sharm i.e. Naama Bay a taxi is really the only alternative - but make sure you get one from outside the port gates not inside as I believe they are cheaper even though you will have to walk 200 yards to the port gate from the ship !

Thanks for the info guys, taxi it is then!!

Donna

totally new to this forum, so please excuse me, , going to book red sea cruise with thomson on celebration, but the costs for the excursions are never listed, has anyone been on this cruise, and do you know of the costs, hope someone can help, booking it for dec 06, thanks

just wondered what day time activities there are on the thompson celebration red sea cruise for days when you are at sea and if you dont go on some of the trips.

thought of something else too, in jordan and sharm if you want to snorkel do you have to do an organised trip or if you go to the beaches near harbour can you hire things there.

Dawn

Scroll back through this thread, I'm sure there were some prices listed.

Wondering if anyone had done any diving on this itinarry ?
Celebration 28/11/06

Can anyone help, I am going on the red sea cruise in Nov 2006. We have booked to go to Ras Mohamed boat trip (which I have been on before) this will be on our 3rd day. As my friend has never been snorkelling I want to find out the best place for her to practice in Safaga, Is the public beach near to the harbour and is it easy to get into the sea or would we be better off paying £23.00 for a trip with Thomsons to Makida Bay Hotel for 4 hours?. Has anyone done this trip ? is the snorkelling good from the hotel? My second question is also about snorkelling, on the 2 days spent at Jordan one we will be going to Petra but need help with the other day as to where we can snorkle in Aqaba is the public beach near with easy access ( we will have our aqua shoes) or do we have to go for the Thomson trip again to the Movenpick ( another £17.00) I have read loads of reviews which have really helped us plan our holiday but cannot find any answers to the above so any help will be gratefully received thanks.

Hi,
Can anyone advise about taking trips ashore on this cruise independantly? We are going on the Red Sea Magic cruise next April 2007. I have read lots of reviews that say it is cheaper and a shorter day to take a taxi to sights such as Petra from Aqaba and Cairo for the pyramids, but how do you go about doing this as I wouldn't have thought that the staff on board would encourage people to do it? Is is safe to travel by taxi as I have read that many of the tours are accompanied by armed guards? Do you also need to arrange your visas if you are travelling independantly? We went on the Thomson Emerald this summer and it was brilliant and obviously we want to get the most out of this next cruise. We will be travelling with a 13 year old.
Thanks for any advice!
Sandy

Hi Logix

I will be going on the red sea cruise on thursday, so i will fill you in when i get back about the trips as we to are going to look into doing some excursions independantly if poss.

hi, ive booked to go on the celebration on the 22nd feb from sharm, can anybody tell me wot the weather is like in feb, also do i need to take jordon currency from england or can i get some on the boat, cheers andy...... p.s. is there anybody else going the same day as me ?....

The weather should be fine, we went a couple of weeks earlier than you will be and it was t-shirt weather.

Bit nippy in the morning b4 the sun came up but once out it was fine.

On the trips though, take a cardy or light jacket just in case.

Hi Andy,
I just got back from Red Sea Cruise at 3am this morning so not really up to much. I will do a review to cover as much as possible when I wake up enough to concentrate. We could not buy Jordan Dinars on the boat, they explained that we had to get them in Jordan. We did the trips with Thomson and the tour guides on the trip brought with them enough currency to cover everyones needs as you don't need a lot. They accept Euro's in Jordan so you could take them. Any other queries ? let me know I might be able to help.

Tricia

Hi Tricia - you must have been on the ship at the same time as me as I got back at 2.15am on 15th November!

I had a great time! Any queries I will try to answer them e.g. excursion costs, activities on board etc but I we didn't really go anywhere independently. The excursions that we went on were: Dead Sea and Quad Biking. In Sharm el Sheikh we walked ourselves to the beach (very close) and to the shops / Old Market in the town centre (around 1/2 a mile from ship I would guess - easy to walk to).

On the ship itself some of the activities we did were: Captain's Cocktail Night, play called Love In A Mist, Murder Mystery, Comedian - Andy Rudge, Movie Quiz, bingo, try dive, tour of the bridge, Marine Algae Mud Wrap and massage in spa and saw Jordanian airforce display.

Andy - on the coach to the Dead Sea, like Tricia says, the tour guide had jordanian dinars available. The exchange rate he gave was 10 JD per £10 or 12 JD for 10 Euros.

In Egypt we found that Egyptians were happy to accept sterling and Euros at 10 Egyptian Pounds per £1 or 7 Egyptian Pounds per 1 Euro which works out better exchange range than we could found on the high street anyway. When we looked last week M&S was better than Post Office, First Choice, Thomas Cook and Thomson. The exchange rate in M&S for 1 Euro was under 65p! And to change sterling into Egyptian Pound was just under 10 Egyptian Pounds for £1.

Hi Swayze

On Celebration there are 2 liveaboard divers called Jamie and Becky. They do a free try dive in pool on the ship a couple of times a week which is advertised in the Cruise News. To do a half day dive with them costs £60.

In Sharm el Sheikh the beach is not far from the port gates. On the beach there were several watersports on offer e.g. banana boat ride, seascope submarine and also I think snorkelling opportunities.

We were going to go snorkelling in Aqaba and bought our own snorkel and mask from sport shop for £7.99 but on the friday when we had intended going firstly we watched the air force display, went on the bridge tour and then had lunch. Went back to cabin to pick up snorkelling stuff but fell asleep so didn't actually do any snorkelling!!!

We didn't go into Safaga as driving through it didn't look too enticing and we wanted but one passenger said they paid £20 for taxi to go the 1km and he was warned by the taxi driver to steer clear of a certain part of town as really dodgy! He wasn't very impressed with the place tbh.

Hi cruisebabe, hoping you can point me in the right direction on a few queries:
Day in Safga - fancying going to Makadi Bay for a look round. Do you know if anyone did this on your trip?
Sharm -Is it easy to get taxis and how much do you think a taxi would be to Namma Bay?
Aqaba- was thinking of doing the Wadi Rum trip- Do you think that this is somewhere you could visit diy, if so any tips?
Aqaba - visit the lost city of Petra. Possible to do diy any tips?
Port Sokhna - just don't fancy the trip to the pyramids but have heard that this port is really busy industrial with grain machines blowing dust down onto the ship if the wind is blowing the wrong way. Did you find this? Therefore if i dont do the pyramids what else would you recommend doing? Is this the midnight buffet night?

What are the prices of drinks onboard like? Say glass wine, Gin and tonic and a pint of beer?

Sorry to ask so many questions but i am getting really excited and any tips you can think of i would love to hear.

Thanks in advance

hi, tricia and cruisebabe thank you both for the info on currency, i think ill be taking all english money and change it over there as and when i need to. have you done a review yet tricia , if so where is it, only 14 weeks to go hi hchy girl, why dont you fancy going to the pyramids, i visited them the last time i was in egypt and it was the highlight of my holiday, go to see them you wont regret it, also when are you going....

Hi Andy-40

I will do my review in the next couple of days but to avoid waffelling I am writing a rough copy first. I will add it to this page when sorted.
Tricia