An Egyptian Adventure

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20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

Background Info: My dad booked this trip some 12 months ago on the internet as he had always wanted to go on a Nile Cruise. So on the first Monday of the Easter holidays, I was found to be waiting in a departure lounge for my flight to Egypt.

The Holiday: It was an amazing experience, visiting temples, tombs, and also a hot air balloon ride. We were cruising down the Nile on the M/S Grand Star, just one of 50 cruise boats transporting passengers down the Nile.

Part 1 of 6
MAN-LGW MON4620 G-MONR Seat:10E
ETD: 09:00
ATD: 09:15
ETA: 10:00
ATA: 09:58
The first leg of this trip was Manchester to Gatwick on the A300 taking us to Egypt.
We had to get up at 05:00 to make arrangements for out pet and making last minute adjustments to the content of our bags. Then we put all this in the back of our Ford Galaxy and we set off along the empty roads to Manchester airport. We managed to get to the F.S.S. car park to drop off our car just after 06:00. We then got the bus from the car park to Terminal 1 departures where we went and queued up at check in for the flight to Luxor. Once we got to the front of the queue, we got our boarding cards and we headed through security and into the departure lounge. We found seats by the window where I watched movements for an hour and a half.The highlights were, a TCY 743, SSV 333, G-OMYT, SQ 772, CO 764 and the Hertz logojet of Ryanair. Our flight was called for boarding at gate 29 with boarding for rows 1 to 10 and 31 to 43. Then 25 to 43, then 20 to 43, then 1 to 43 before we got called for boarding. We made our way down the airbridge and boarded at the second dorr on the left. We made our way to the second row of seats in Economy and took our seats in the middle. We waited for everyone else to board and then the doors were closed. We pushed back and the engines were started. We taxied out to 06L past G-BYDA which was in the hangar. We taxied past the AVP and then made our way down to the holding point for 06L. We slowly taxied onto the runway and we commenced our take-off roll. We lifted off just level with Terminal 3 and lifted up into the air. We immediately turned left after take off and headed up to our cruising altitude of 19,000 feet. This is where we stayed for about 10 minutes before we commenced our descent into Gatwick. Soon, we turned onto finals for 08R and came in low over housing estates before flying over the threshold and touching down 2 minutes early. We applied reverse thrust to slow us down and we taxied off the runway. We headed past lots of Easyjet, another Monarch A300 (G-MAJS), Peter Max (N77014) and lots of other interesting stuff and we parked up between VROS and VLIP of VS.

Part 2 of 6 from LGW to LXR to come.

Original post

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,670

Nice, looking forward to the rest! :D

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

Part 2

LGW-LXR MON4620 G-MONR Seat:10E
ETD:10:45
ATD:11:45
ETA:18:15
ATA:18:14
Once we were parked up on stand, the crew disembarked and replaced by the Gatwick crew, 7 female and 4 male. We stood up for a bit and chatted to one of the stewards (Andrew) and we spoke about several topics, the A300 vs the A330, football, Liverpool vs Everton (I'm still furious at how badly we played) and when the 330s will get painted. He was very kind and funny. Soon, the Gatwick passengers boarded the aircraft and we headed back to our seats in the middle of the aircraft. The doors were closed and the captain came on the tannoy and spoke about our flight time and our route down to Luxor. We then pushed back from our stand which was between two Virgin 747s and very near to the North side and we then started the engines as we stopped behind a BA 777. We then moved forward and commenced our taxi out to runway 08R. We taxied under the bridge and then out passed the remote stands which had an Air Zimbabwe 767, G-JMAA which was the plane I flew to Spain last year, an Emirates government 319 and a few charters and Easyjets. We taxied out behind a BA 777 and a BY 767. They took off and we then reached the end of the runway and taxied onto the runway and commenced a rolling take off down 08R. We lifted off around three quarters of the way down the runway before turning east. The confectionary and headsets came round very shortly after take off. Then came the bar service and then the meal of Chicken and Leek. Then came yhr duty free from where I got a model of the A300. By now, we were over Greece. Scratchcards were then sold before we commenced our descent into Luxor over Cairo before following thre Nile down to Luxor. We soon came onto finals at Luxor. We came down over the busy streets and mosques and farms before toching down with a bump and applying full reverse thrust. We took the exit and headed back to the ramp where there were a Monarch A300 (2 hours late), a Monarch 757 (30 minutes late), an Egyptair 320, a Windjet 320 and a PAS DH8. We parked up and headed inside to the visa office and then through immigration to collect our luggage before catching the coach to the M/S Grand Star.

I'm sorry it took so long for this to come up here, but I've been ill all day trying to come to terms with English things. The food I had on the boat may have been a contributory factor.

Parts 3 and 4 from a DC9 to come.

Member for

20 years 10 months

Posts: 9,401

Excellent reports Alex, how would you rate the outbound flight then?

Sorry to ask, you dont give much opinion on them in your reports.

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 929

Brill report mate, look forward to the rest.

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

Sorry Tom! The legroom was poor but everything else was good.

Member for

20 years 9 months

Posts: 2,114

did you book with crusie control because we are thinking of going on ms grand star or 2 other ships, and thats with cruise control we will be going with monarch aswell so i would have thought it would be a a300 aswell. we are thinking of going in july.

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 1,098

We booked through Panorama. If you fly from Gatwick, a 757 operates one of the services and A300 the other.

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 1,887

Great reports there