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It’s difficult to advise really as it will depend on how difficult walking is for you. The ships are accessed by a gangplank which is literally a foot wide plank with a rope hand rail on each side. It’s not normally very steep but you might need assistance. There are normall three deck on each ship accessed by wide staircases which I would imagine would not be any great difficulty for you.

Regarding the excursions; there are a lot of uneven surfaces as you can imagine although some sites/temples are better than others in that respect. Your resident Egyptologist on board would be able to advise you the night before as to which excursions would be unsuitable for you.

I have seen people in wheelchairs in some of the temples with the most uneven floors but they did have a lot of friends helping them.

I think it’s probably a matter of how determined you are to see these amazing sights as well as you knowing your own limits. I am sorry I cant’ be more helpful.

I am publishing your comment and my reply on our blog for anyone, including future and existing clients to see. If we had any other motive than to help you and ensure that you received your refund do you think that we would do so?

Sadly you are one of many thousands of people who lost their Nile Cruise and Egyptian holidays because of the unfortunate demise of African Safari Club, a well-established company that traded honestly and successfully for many years and who’s products we sold without complaint for years. The unfortunate staff of African Safari Club also lost their livelihoods and we as a company have lost an enormous amount.

However at all times, despite what you describe in your comments above, we have worked and are still working hard to help ALL of our clients recover money lost.

I deeply resent the phrase “This is of course bull” and “Is anyone else having this hassle, or has she just decided she doesnt like me..? I started off so polite but this company has been laughing into my face for so very long now. I cant even be sure Im getting anywhere when I speak to them because they just lie lie lie. If I could JUST get an honest response…! .

How dare you say that we have lied to you.

Anything we have told you is the truth. The process of reclaiming your money is laid down by the Civil Aviation Authority and we have no alternative but to follow their instructions.

Let me explain to any else reading your comment just what happened:

For reasons totally beyond anyones control and due to a situation that was totally unique, i.e, the revolution in Egypt, all flights to Luxor starting on the 31st of January were cancelled on the instructions of the Foreign Office. Flights and Nile cruises were then cancelled for the next five weeks. However as the situation was changing on an almost daily basis the flights were not cancelled on the instructions of the Foreign Office until 2 or 3 days before departure. This caused unprecedented problems for all of us throughout the crisis.

Your departure was one of the first cancelled and we were instructed by African Safari Club to apply to them on your behalf for a full refund which we did. We also helped you arrange for refund of your Egyptian currency by supplying you with a letter detailing the reasons why your cruise had been cancelled.

Unfortunately African Safari Club as well as many other operators, agents and airlines then suffered weeks and weeks of disruption and chaos as the situation got worse. Never the less we chased the accounts department of African Safari Club again and again to ask them to arrange the refund due to you and many other clients.

This went on for many weeks and was a major source of frustration to ourselves as we had no other course of action other than daily phone calls to the company. Plus we were receiving emails from yourself complaining about the delay in receiving a refund.

Eventually after weeks of chasing African Safari Club and submitting documents they required on the 15th of March our administration office received cheques from African Safari Club for refunds including your own and they paid for express clearance of these cheques. However on the 16th of March we found out that African Safari Club had ceased trading and that cheques written by them over the last few days would not be honoured.

If you can tell me what on more we could have done I would love to hear it.

The fact that African Safari Club was now in liquidation meant that your refund would now have to come from the Civil Aviation Authority who were holding a bond posted by African Safari Club for just such situations. However this means that you will have to complete the authorised forms which we have posted to you.

The process does take some time because of the numbers of people involved. People like yourself who are waiting to receive a refund. There is absolutely nothing we can do to influence the speed of how things are acted upon by the CAA but they have a specialised department who work on nothing but these matters and they will be working flat out.

You have emailed Barbara on several occasions expressing you disatisfaction and worries about your refund and she has replied giving as much information as possible and we have acted on your behalf as quickly and as professionally as possible despite your comments above.

Dont’ you think that if we had any influence in the speed of these matters we would have tried to apply that influence? We are as frustrated as much as you are. We have many, many clients who were affected by the totally unique occurence. We have also personally lost an awful lot of money but we are not taking it out on the people who are working on sorting the situation out.

You will not lose your money as you will eventually be refunded by the Civil Aviation Authority but it will take time.

However I will not accept that you have the right to say the things you have about this company or its staff. Do you honestly think that we would choose to treat any of the many of our clients affected any differently than the others? Plus we do not lie to our clients. We may have to say things to them that they do not want to hear as in your case but that is totally different than telling lies to clients.

May I suggest that if you feel that you have been treated in an unprofessional way by ourselves, if you think we have told lies to you or that we are trying in any way to embezzle you of the money you have paid that you contact a solicitor and start proceedings against us. Or, if you do not wish to do that, then you contact the Association of British Travel Agents and apply to use their free Arbitration Scheme were you can explain to ABTA how we have lied and tried to defraud you of money that is due to you.

In the meantime I can assure you that we have done all that we were required to do and more to proceed with your claim for refund. We will also do anything else that is required however it is now in the hands of the Civil Aviation Authority to arrange your refund subsequent to your submitting the required forms which we have sent to you.

I can sympathise with the fact that you are frustrated that you cannot immediately receive your refund however we cannot do anything to help speed up the process. However if you wish to continue to accuse us of telling lies or acting in any way other than in a professional manner I want you to take steps to make your comments and any accusations placed on a legal footing rather than post unfounded remarks on this public forum.

Colin Maddocks

Is anyone else having this hassle, or has she just decided she doesnt like me..? I started off so polite but this company has been laughing into my face for so very long now. I cant even be sure Im getting anywhere when I speak to them because they just lie lie lie. If I could JUST get an honest response…!

The flights from Bristol are on a Wednesday once a week and the only ship that departs on a Wednesday is the MS Monica bu unfortunately that ship has been sold out since the 16th of June.

Otherwise the only other flights that are available are Manchester or Gatwick on a Monday. Is there any way you can take a Monday flight?

From my own personal experience of the Viking Princess I would recommend the middle deck.

The cabins on each of the three decks are identical (and excellent) but the lower deck cabins have portholes instead of windows. The middle and upper deck cabins have windows.

I choose the middle deck as I am then only one deck up to the sun deck and one deck down to reception. I think you’ll find that none of the cabins suffer from undue noise from either machinery or engines and we can certainly request that our clients are allocated quiet cabins near the front of the ship if possible.

I hope that helps but please do not hesitate to let me know if there any further questions I can help you with.

Kind regards,

Colin

Are you aware of any deck plans for Viking Princess ? Have seen one Tripadvsor comment to the effect that it doesn’t matter which deck you choose, because ships moor alongside each other and so views restricted wherever you are. However, are more concerned about not being near engines, noisy machinery, etc. Any suggestions greatefully received !

We would love to be able to assist you with your Nile Cruise and Cairo trip. If you’ve looked at our Nile Cruise Guide you’ll have seen that Barbara and I did almost exactly the same trip as you are planning. I would suggest the 5 Star Viking Princess and then 3 nights at the Mercure Le Sphinx Hotel in Giza, right by the Pyramids. You can see the exact trip on our http://www.nile-cruises-4u.co.uk/10nightnilecruiseandcairo.cfm page with our up-to-date prices.

If you wouldm like to know more about the trip please feel free to call either Barbara or myself on our Freephone number 0808 1089 100 with no obligation.

Colin

Colin

I did double check with our Egyptologist and it was ok. Promise!!

Colin

We are still actively talking about doing this and hopefully we will be able to proceed, possibly early next year.

As soon as we have anything more concrete I will let you know.

Kind regards,

Colin