Egypt ABD vs. Viking for non-drinking adults

[Raya]

We were fairly sure we would do our Egypt trip with AMA Waterways, which we found through Adventures by Disney. However, the reviews are dreadful. I'm now back to ABD Egypt or Viking River Cruises. We are adults, who do not drink and take no joy in watching other people taste alcohol.

For anyone who has done the ABD trip, can you tell me about your adults only Egypt trip? I've read trip reports, but a lot of them are from folks who enjoy alcohol so they aren't super helpful. For our River Cruise ABD, there was a lot of alcohol based events, wine tastings, breweries, etc. We ended up doing the kids excursions during that time - which were great! I'd prefer to travel with other adults, but I'm afraid if we take an adults-only excursion, there will be no non-alcoholic option to replace any tastings or tours.

This, along with the drama around cancellations during covid, has me leaning toward Viking, but I trust the Disney brand. If anyone out there can compare Viking to ABD, I'd love to hear about it!

 

[ITGirl50]

I have no experience with either but have been researching them both. 1) You can do AMA river cruises without ABD, but they are using the new ships for ABD and the old ones for the same tours without ABD (not all but a lot of them). 2) ABD has more included port excursions than AMA 3) Viking makes you pay in full a few months after you book, even if your cruise is 18 months away. I think for repeat cruisers they will delay payment, but for new customers this is their policy. That has discouraged me from booking with Viking. 4) Viking is an older crowd. We are in our 50s and really would prefer to cruise with a younger group. 5) AMA is not adult only unless you choose an ABD adult exclusive trip, Viking is always adult only. We want adult exclusive, but we live in a 55 plus community and most people are late 60s and 70plus, so their interests are different than ours. Most retired years ago and have great grand children. We are hoping AMA ABD will be a younger crowd.

As far as drinking activities, I agree. Disney includes too much drinking as a way to entertain adults.. they do this on the cruises too. When checking the adult exclusive shore activities with ABD river cruises there were non drinking activities. Did you check out the adult exclusive itineraries?

 

[aggiedog]

You could look over on CruiseCritic for other options as well. Viking has the lion's share of the river cruise advertising budget out there, but there are many other very good companies. Smaller ships, passengers that skew younger than Viking's, better cancelation policies, most lines that won't make you pay 100% up front.

We did a Danube river cruise with Avalon and there was only one wine tasting tour for our 2 week cruise.

 

[jimmymc]

You could look over on CruiseCritic for other options as well. Viking has the lion's share of the river cruise advertising budget out there, but there are many other very good companies. Smaller ships, passengers that skew younger than Viking's, better cancelation policies, most lines that won't make you pay 100% up front.

We did a Danube river cruise with Avalon and there was only one wine tasting tour for our 2 week cruise.

This is the best advice. Viking has a huge advertising advantage in the US, but there are many more options available at different budgets and activity levels.

 

[mathgeek]

Not super helpful since it wasn't adult only, but I was on the 7/5 Egypt trip, and for the most part the adults did not drink any alcoholic beverages on our trip (our guide had our soda orders down pat pretty quick though!). But I did look at the adults exclusive itinerary, and it didn't appear to really have anything different on it than on the trip I did - no added alcohol tastings or anything like that, which makes sense in Egypt since it's not really a thing for them as a mostly Muslim country. Having been on other ABD trips that included wine tastings and things like that, it was rather refreshing to not have them on this trip.
This was a fabulous trip, and I highly recommend it.

 

[jimmymc]

Not super helpful since it wasn't adult only, but I was on the 7/5 Egypt trip, and for the most part the adults did not drink any alcoholic beverages on our trip (our guide had our soda orders down pat pretty quick though!). But I did look at the adults exclusive itinerary, and it didn't appear to really have anything different on it than on the trip I did - no added alcohol tastings or anything like that, which makes sense in Egypt since it's not really a thing for them as a mostly Muslim country. Having been on other ABD trips that included wine tastings and things like that, it was rather refreshing to not have them on this trip.
This was a fabulous trip, and I highly recommend it.

I'm also curious what the drinking activities would be on the Egypt ABD. Nothing on the itinerary involves alcohol tasting.

 

[lmgustafson]

One company you may want to consider is Abercrombie and Kent. We are going on their Pharaohs and Pyramids trip for our 30th anniversary. I researched a lot of Egypt trips including AMA, Viking, ABD and others. This one gets you to absolutely everything you would want to see including a hot air balloon ride over the area and an exclusive visit into Wahtye's tomb that was discovered in 2018 and is still immaculately intact. It is a little longer (13 days) but when we looked at all the tours available it seemed the best. While there are obviously drinks on the ship the tours focus on the sites and markets. Just something to consider. I am beyond excited for the trip.

 

[Terapin]

Just got back from Egypt ABD. The alcohol factor was very limited. Beer and wine were sometimes included at dinner, very easy to not partake. No tour involved alcohol. Hope that helps!

 

[Raya]

Just got back from Egypt ABD. The alcohol factor was very limited. Beer and wine were sometimes included at dinner, very easy to not partake. No tour involved alcohol. Hope that helps!

Thank you so much! Any chance you're going to write a trip report?

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Just got back from Egypt ABD. The alcohol factor was very limited. Beer and wine were sometimes included at dinner, very easy to not partake. No tour involved alcohol. Hope that helps!

Sorry to rehash an old thread, but I'm researching Egypt right now and leaning toward Viking mostly due to the fact that they have new purpose built ships for the Nile cruise (one just came out and three more on the way), and when i started researching other companies and the specific ships they use there seemed to be a lot of inconsistency in food, accommodations, etc. I was wondering if you ended up doing a trip report and/or what you thought of the ship that ABD uses.

 

[AquaDame]

Also interested...! We won't book for a couple more years but I'm starting to weed out some options now.

 

[jimmymc]

I'm also checking out some potential Egypt tours. ABD seems above my price point and I also don't care about the Red Sea extension. I'm looking at maybe booking a separate land tour and longer river cruise, although even the river cruises have mixed reviews due to overcrowding.

Edit: Check out Gary Bembridge's video on his Nile river cruise if you're curious about the crowd situation.

 

[KLondon]

FWIW my wife and I did the AMA Waterways Egypt trip (with Jordan extension) back in Nov 2022 and it was amazing. I think I saw OP mention that they heard the AMA reviews are dreadful, but I honestly have no clue what reviews they read. The Guides were amazing, the ship was excellent, food was excellent - no bad words to say about the trip other than it was a very full itinerary that could be pretty tiring

Just my opinion... While we have looked seriously at ABD Egypt in the past, I think their itinerary is not quite as good as other tours we've looked at. I Love ABD (just got back from ABD Greece), but their Egypt trip is a premium price and you spend 2 fulls days at a Red Sea resort rather than exploring Egypt.

 

[AquaDame]

We watched a videolog of an AMA tour as well, and while it seemed just fine, reviews for Viking (and the ship) won us over and we took advantage of the $25 deposit to reserve for 2025. There are far fewer guests aboard which we like and comparing it to A&K we're going to add a couple private excursions ahead of time to fill in the gaps which will be far less than the price tag difference. What I did NOT realize until we were reading through their terms is they have you pay in full 18 entire months before sailing! That seems crazy, but clearly folks are OK with it. Their cancellation structure is generous in contrast to ABD and some other tours at least. Up until 120 days before departure we would pay a mere $100 per person cancellation fee. That's a gamble I can take, even if they'll be holding our money hostage. My only lingering fear is we're going to be the youngest on the boat by a few decades but I really do feel the only way to get over that reality is for more "young'uns" to book their options and level the playing field. It's not like they serve only consume and pureed vegetables in the dining room anyway, and we enjoy chatting with seniors for the most part as much as folks our own age. The zoo I volunteer with is mostly much older retirees too and they are lovely.

 

[Calantha]

and we took advantage of the $25 deposit to reserve for 2025

We're thinking about 2027 (next year is all DCL, the following year will be DCL/Bonaire direct, then probably DCL/Hawaii) but I want to go with just my mom to Egypt. So, I'll want to hear all the details! Some videos I watched the other day made me consider throwing in the towel entirely and coming up with another cool thing to do.

 

[Raya]

Some videos I watched the other day made me consider throwing in the towel entirely and coming up with another cool thing to do.

My extended family agrees with you. I received yet another scolding about how dangerous Egypt is and how I should wait until it got calmer politically to go. They've been telling me that since 2013 though, so I don't think there will ever be a 'perfect' time to go.

 

[Calantha]

My extended family agrees with you. I received yet another scolding about how dangerous Egypt is and how I should wait until it got calmer politically to go. They've been telling me that since 2013 though, so I don't think there will ever be a 'perfect' time to go.

So, dangerous doesn't deter me (although it might my mom - but she did tag along with me to Colombia once). It just seemed like the experience wasn't necessarily what it had been made out to be. Here's the video in particular that influenced me:

.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Wow, great video. Thanks for sharing. I've never seen him before and I really liked his approach. Gives me a moment's pause, that's for sure (we're signed up for a Viking Egypt cruise in 2025). I only have $25/person invested in it so I have plenty of time to reconsider.

 

[jimmymc]

I've seen the same video. And while I do still want to visit Egypt one day, it's important to set expectations.

 

[AquaDame]

Wow, great video. Thanks for sharing. I've never seen him before and I really liked his approach. Gives me a moment's pause, that's for sure (we're signed up for a Viking Egypt cruise in 2025). I only have $25/person invested in it so I have plenty of time to reconsider.

Antares by any chance…? In November?