FAREWELL TO AN OLD WONDER
Nigel Thompson reminisces on Red Sea cruise aboard now retired ship
‘‘ Celebration had friendly atmosphere and the crew were fantastic
Marella Cruises’ oldest ship, the 1,262-passenger Marella Celebration, has been retired early because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The fleet’s smallest at
33,933 gross tonnage, she carried more than half a million passengers over the last 15 years, having begun life with Holland America in 1984.
Here, in a throwback to one of its most popular routes, we say a fond farewell to the old girl on a Red Sea cruise to the ancient wonders of Jordan and Egypt.
Nature wows you first with the deep, curving drama of the Siq – a mile-long gorge in Jordan formed when a tectonic rift split a mountain in two.
Then man does his best. And what a best it is.
Because as you near the end of the gorge you get a first tantalising glimpse of the Treasury, the main sight of Petra, the country’s fabled rose red city.
A city that was lost to the outside world for a thousand years until a Swiss explorer stumbled on it in 1812.
And it merits every superlative you can throw at it.
After that epic walk through the gorge (anywhere else it would be a tourist attraction in its own right) the first view of the Treasury, hewn from the pink sandstone, leaves you slackjawed with wonder, thinking: “How the heck did they do that?”
‘They’ are the Nabatean people who built this trading powerhouse 2,000 years ago.
More than 30,000 lived in the residential areas now largely rubble, and the other sights include the burial chambers carved into cliffs, where our knowledgeable and boundlessly enthusiastic guide Saad brought the whole place to life.
Petra is a two-hour ride on a cruise excursion coach from Aqaba via the Desert Highway (a modern road blasted through the Arabian Shield mountains and full of lumbering petrol tankers) and the Kings Highway, mentioned in the Old Testament and dotted with bedouin tents and piles of rocks marking farmers’ territory.
There’s a comfort stop for the loo and inevitable souvenir shop, but also a fine view across Jordan from a lofty 5,600ft. To be honest, on this Red Sea Magic itinerary from Sharm El Sheikh on Thomson Celebration [as it was on this 2013 trip] you will spend a lot of time on a coach if you opt for sightseeing rather than beach and snorkelling excursions.
But of course it’s worth it to see Petra and the splendours built by ancient Egypt’s ruling pharaohs.
Those wonders began in dusty, crazy, traffic-choked Cairo – a two-hour bus ride from the ugly, scruffy industrial port of Port Sokhna – with a tour of the incredible Egyptian Museum.
You could easily spend a day here but with just two hours allotted, our superb tour guide Noha maximised the sights, including Tutankhamun’s death mask, coffins, chariots (even his underpants!) and assorted mummies including Ramses II. The museum is worth the journey alone – and getting a taster of Cairo’s chaos was a memorable eyeopener.
But the second part of the tour took in the last surviving Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and possibly the most recognisable structures on the planet. Of course, we were at the Pyramids of Giza, just outside Cairo where you can buy tickets to go inside the Pyramid of Chephren – which requires a mildly unnerving stooped downhill and uphill walk in the tight passages.
But it’s worth it for the experience of being 165ft beneath the top in the plain burial chamber.
Although it’s slightly smaller than the Great Pyramid of Cheops, its more elevated position and remaining capstone makes it seem all the more impressive.
You can’t miss the mysterious Sphinx close by, seemingly guarding the Pyramids from encroaching Giza.
We were pestered by vendors at Egypt’s main sights of antiquity, and the Pyramids experience got particularly wearing. But they were rarely intimidating – they’re just trying to earn a living.
Joining the Marella Celebration at Sharm’s scruffy port (Egypt apparently specialises in scruffy ports) had been a doddle and we were in our comfortable cabin less than 90 minutes after the plane landed.
Celebration may be three decades old, but she’s in good nick and there’s a friendly, relaxed atmosphere and a fantastic crew.
She’s not a luxury liner but she’s a nice ship, a manageable size. The cabins are comfortable, though ours had a curious layout which meant I had to climb over the end of the sofa to get to bed. After a pleasant meal in the
Meridian restaurant, my wife Debbie and I conked out and never noticed when Captain John Westgarth-pratt (his amusing daily updates over the tannoy were a highlight of the cruise) got us under way to Aqaba.
Jordan’s only sea port is worth a brief wander to take in the ruins of a Crusader fort and the world’s sixth tallest freestanding flagpole, which is 426ft high flying a 98ft by 197ft flag of the 1916 Great Arab Revolt.
If you fancy a coffee stop, beware – what we were given was potent enough to waken the mummy of Ramses II.
There’s plenty of decent entertainment on Celebration, though as we spent a lot of time on excursions we only saw one full show – a good selection of West End musical numbers.
The food was good too. The Lido buffet and the main Meridian restaurant did a sterling job and the Mistral – which has a €21 cover charge – was excellent.
I never had a bad meal in a week on board. Off the ship, we were well fed and watered during excursions
– usually a buffet lunch in a nice hotel. On that subject, the five-star Steigenberger Nile Palace in Luxor was a fine place to stay on an overnight trip when Celebration was docked at Safaga (Scruffy? Oh yes).
It eliminated two four-hour coach rides on a day trip and offered a more relaxed tour of ancient Thebes, capital of the pharaohs’ New Kingdom.
After a beer on the hotel terrace, watching the sun set over the Nile and Valley of the Kings, and an early dinner, the sightseeing began with a look at the Luxor and Karnak Temples.
An underwhelming sound and light show did not do justice to Karnak Temple, which dates back 4,000 years in parts.
Up at dawn, we were at the Valley of the Kings by 8am to beat the heat, stopping off for a look at the Colossi of Memnon, twin 60ft statues of king Amenhotep III.
The Valley is fiercely sunny – you’ll need a hat and sunscreen.
It’s home to more than 60 tombs, but only a few are open to the public (to stop too much moisture from our breath damaging the hieroglyphics) and the ticket with the tour gets you into three.
To see two extra showstoppers will cost you another €17 but you won’t want to miss the elaborate hieroglyphics in the tomb of Ramses VI and the last resting place of boy king Tutankhamun.
It’s not spectacular, but it is the world’s most famous tomb, discovered by Howard Carter in 1922, with its fabulous riches still intact.
It’s slightly eerie seeing the mummy of Tut after you’ve seen his death mask and treasures in Cairo.
Close by, and also unmissable, is the cliffside Temple of Hatshepsut, a feisty queen who reigned for around 20 years.
Before we left the Steigenberger for the bus back to Safaga, we took a last look at the languid Nile and the Valley of the Kings and remembered a sunset cold beer awaited us on our last night on board the ship.
Now that calls for a Celebration…
‘‘ You won’t want to miss seeing inside the most famous tomb in the world