Ngaire - sounds terrific! I'm glad the final itinerary includes the Triton. She's a wonderful ship. Here's hoping we can come and see Mr. Fawzy, Moones and all the other wonderful sights and staff traveling along the Nile.

Oh .. and NO ONE will miss that 3:30 am wake-up call to get to Abu Simbel. If things work the way they did in 2007, here's the drill (and it worked extremely well, BTW):

Egypt Air flies you down there, where you board their buses for the short ride with your guide. Once you arrive, the guide will explain the site to you. Thanks to the building of the High Dam, the site had to be excavated and moved to higher ground, brick by brick. The rebuilding is the work of masters. The guide then sends you into the temples to take your time to see them. Guides are not allowed to go into the temples with you. I assumed it's because everyone on the flight arrives together, so having guides stopping to lecture and blocking traffic is not a good thing. You continue up to a coffee/shop/rest area once you've seen the temples. From there, everyone catches the buses back to the airport where the plane is waiting to take you back to Aswan. Flight from Aswan to Abu Simbel is short - maybe 40 minutes - and when we went was on either a 737 or A320.

Cheers, Anne