I have always wanted to see the pyramids in Egypt, the sphinx, and many of the temples. This seemed like a safe time to visit. The cruise along the Nile was excellent. The staff of the Tosca was very good. We felt very welcoming among the staff. Security was good at all times. We had armed guards on our excursions and police cars followed our bus.
What was poor was our Egyptologist. He was very knowledgeable about the history of every site. There were 34 on a ship that holds 80. Having just one Egyptologist for 34 people was not sufficient. He never presented any pre -excursion talks at dinner so until we boarded the bus or walked to the sites, we didn't know whether we would walk 10 yards or 100 yards, whether we would climb uneven stairs (plenty to climb) or walk on uneven stones (plenty of those too). He never watched out for the stragglers (heat exhaustion was pretty common) and only counted us when we were on the bus. Several were sick due to heat and diet I assume and he never asked where they were or how they felt. He catered only to those who shopped and appeared to have money. Sitting on a bus for 45 minutes while 3 women shopped is not my idea of fun. What free time we had, he never told us what we could see on our own. He did take the shoppers shopping quite often and several couples to dinner places while the rest of us made due at the Cairo hotel.
Cabins were very large as were the bathrooms. A little dated but lovely.