If you’ve been plan­ning a trip to Egypt, you’ve prob­a­bly read a lot about the new Uni­world ship River Tosca that  sails the Nile River. She’ll be out of ser­vice from Feb­ru­ary 1–March 19, 2010, and here’s what the com­pany CEO is say­ing about it:

A Mes­sage from the Pres­i­dent & CEO of Uniworld

Dear Val­ued Uni­world Travelers,

There has been quite a bit of infor­ma­tion writ­ten about the River Tosca since it launched a cou­ple of months ago, and I wanted to take this oppor­tu­nity to per­son­ally give you an update on where things stand.

Over the last sev­eral years, we have seen a grow­ing inter­est in Egypt, which is a glo­ri­ous des­ti­na­tion. As a com­pany, we saw the need and oppor­tu­nity to pro­vide trav­el­ers to Egypt with a Nile River cruise ship that would be of a sim­i­lar high stan­dard as our ships in Europe. Uni­world com­mis­sioned the River Tosca with the goal that it would be one of the most lux­u­ri­ous ships to sail the Nile.

Unfor­tu­nately, we expe­ri­enced some unex­pected chal­lenges in intro­duc­ing the River Tosca and we are not happy with the cur­rent qual­ity of work­man­ship fin­ishes in sev­eral areas of the ship. The most obvi­ous exam­ples are the floors in the state­rooms, main stair­well and cor­ri­dors which were dam­aged and scratched dur­ing the instal­la­tion; the mosaic tiles in the restau­rant; and the paint and wood­work in the state­rooms. We have there­fore made the deci­sion to dry dock the ship for seven weeks to cor­rect the cur­rent defi­cien­cies. The ship will there­fore be out of ser­vice between Feb­ru­ary 1, 2010 and March 19, 2010.

We do have an alter­na­tive ship, the Miriam, which we will use while the River Tosca is dry docked. Uni­world has suc­cess­fully used the Miriam prior to intro­duc­ing the River Tosca and the ship is a good sub­sti­tute. The crew from the River Tosca – includ­ing the Hotel Man­ager, Exec­u­tive Chef, and Exec­u­tive House­keeper, all Uni­world employ­ees from our Euro­pean oper­a­tion, will be onboard the Miriam. We will also bring onto the Miriam some of the spe­cial ameni­ties cur­rently avail­able on the River Tosca, such as bed linens, robes, slip­pers, and bath prod­ucts. We will be offer­ing a com­pen­sa­tion pack­age to those clients sail­ing on the Miriam as we under­stand that some of our guests will be dis­ap­pointed with the ship change; how­ever, we will work very hard to ensure they still have a won­der­ful vaca­tion in Egypt.

We are also going to proac­tively reach out to our guests who are trav­el­ing prior to Feb­ru­ary 1 to update them on the sta­tus of the River Tosca.

This was a very dif­fi­cult deci­sion because we know that this will have an impact on our val­ued guests – some who have cho­sen to travel with Uni­world because they wanted to expe­ri­ence the new River Tosca. It is also a dif­fi­cult deci­sion because, even with the cur­rent defi­cien­cies of the ship, the over­all feed­back we have been receiv­ing from guests who have already trav­eled on the River Tosca is very pos­i­tive. The Cairo pro­gram, the Tour Man­agers, the excur­sions, the food, and the ser­vice onboard the ship have all been very well received. And of course the des­ti­na­tion itself is fab­u­lous. It is how­ever the right deci­sion for us to make.

Uni­world has built our very good rep­u­ta­tion today on being a very reli­able river cruise oper­a­tor and we are com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing our guests with a fan­tas­tic vaca­tion expe­ri­ence and value – in every region where we oper­ate. When we re-launch the River Tosca in March, we are con­fi­dent that we will achieve this com­mit­ment in Egypt.

After sev­eral years of suc­cess­fully launch­ing ships in Europe, the expe­ri­ence in Egypt has been a hum­bling one for me and the entire Uni­world team. I want to per­son­ally apol­o­gize to any of our guests who we may have let down and please know that we are work­ing hard to achieve our stated goal of oper­at­ing a lux­ury prod­uct in Egypt.

Kind regards,

Guy Young
President & CEO
Uniworld River Cruises, Inc.

I really like what Aber­crom­bie & Kent is doing with its orga­ni­za­tion, Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy. The tour pack­ager that’s known for high-end expe­di­tions to the far cor­ners of the globe is now offer­ing indi­vid­u­als the chance to be part of the solu­tion to a local prob­lem in a far-off location.

As the hol­i­day sea­son approaches, Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy is remindng every­one that dona­tions make fan­tas­tic gifts for friends and fam­ily who have everything.

“This year the focus is on what money can­not buy—shared expe­ri­ences and trea­sured mem­o­ries,” says Aber­crom­bie & Kent Vice Chair­man Jorie But­ler Kent, who guides Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy. “Our guests are look­ing for more mean­ing­ful ways to cel­e­brate with their fam­i­lies and asked us to cre­ate a Gift Pro­gram that makes it easy to donate to projects mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in places they have visited.”

With the help of A&K’s 62 world­wide offices, Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy has iden­ti­fied grass­roots orga­ni­za­tions, spear­headed by ded­i­cated local experts in con­ser­va­tion, edu­ca­tion, com­mu­nity devel­op­ment, and pub­lic health.

These are inspir­ing gifts designed to honor a friend or fam­ily mem­ber.  Dona­tions range from $10 for a sim­ple HIV test to help pre­vent the trans­mis­sion of AIDS to an unborn child to $500 for a field trip for Maa­sai chil­dren who have never been on safari.

Here are three pro­grams being offered right now. Visit Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy to read about all dona­tion pro­grams through­out the world.

HIV Test­ing in Uganda
Uganda Bwindi Com­mu­nity Hospital
—$10 helps assess the HIV sta­tus of a local res­i­dent with a sim­ple field test.

Restore a Nat­ural Land­mark 
in Morocco
Morocco—Protection of the Palmeraie—
$50 plants a tree to help restore the del­i­cate ecosys­tem in this thousand-year-old date palm grove, a Mar­rakech landmark.

A Safari Field Trip
Kenya — Friends of Conservation—
$500 gives 20 Maa­sai chil­dren the chance to dis­cover their nat­ural her­itage and learn the value of pro­tect­ing wildlife with a field trip to the Masai Mara National Reserve.

Dona­tions can be made online through Aber­crom­bie & Kent Philanthropy’s secure web­site www.akphilanthropy.org with 100 per­cent of all dona­tions going directly to the project selected.  Gift cer­tifi­cates will be deliv­ered to the recipient(s) elec­tron­i­cally or printed and mailed.

To make a dona­tion as a family—or in honor of a loved one—go to www.akphilanthropy.org. One hun­dred per­cent of your char­i­ta­ble gift to Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy goes directly to sup­port local projects world­wide. Aber­crom­bie & Kent Phil­an­thropy is estab­lished in the United States as a 501©(3) not-for-profit orga­ni­za­tion. Your char­i­ta­ble gift is tax deductible as pro­vided by law.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

There is one sil­ver lin­ing to our cur­rent eco­nomic cri­sis: Cruise lines are start­ing to think more cre­atively and are offer­ing deep dis­counts (Ocea­nia Cruises), com­pli­men­tary shore excur­sions (Regent Seven Seas), and new itin­er­aries to entice all of us to book another vacation…soon.

There is one sil­ver lin­ing to our cur­rent eco­nomic cri­sis: Cruise lines are start­ing to think more cre­atively and are offer­ing deep dis­counts (Ocea­nia Cruises), com­pli­men­tary shore excur­sions (Regent Seven Seas), and new itin­er­aries to entice all of us to book another vacation…soon.

Wind­star Cruises just announced two new seven-night Canary Islands voy­ages that are sure to pique some inter­est with fans of the line who were get­ting bored with the repeat­ing itin­er­aries in the Caribbean, Costa Rica, and the Mediterranean.

Ten years ago, Wind­star offered a sim­i­lar adven­ture in this region. On Novem­ber 14, 2009, and again on Novem­ber 21,2009, Windstar’s 148-passenger Wind Spirit motor-sail-yacht will call upon the fol­low­ing ports:

• Lis­bon, Portugal
• At Sea
• Casablanca, Morocco
• At Sea
• Agadir, Morocco
• Lan­zarote, Spain
• Las Pal­mas, Spain
• Santa Cruz De Tener­ife, Spain

Dou­ble occu­pancy per per­son cruise fares start at $1,999.These two voy­ages are expected to sell out so call your travel agent or Wind­star Cruises (1–800-258‑7245) for more infor­ma­tion or to book a cruise.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

There’s a new lux­ury travel com­pany offer­ing cus­tomized, upscale vaca­tions to Egypt: Travel2Egypt.

This endeavor is an off­shoot of Travelive.com, and pres­i­dent Panos Chal­vantzis explained why this new ven­ture is focus­ing on Egypt: “Egypt offers great value for money with five-star accom­mo­da­tions and excep­tional ser­vice. From its cul­tural and his­tor­i­cal trea­sures, to serene Nile Cruises, to beau­ti­ful beaches along the Red Sea, Egypt is a des­ti­na­tion that com­bines leisure and relax­ation with edu­ca­tional tours, his­tory and archeology.”

Travel2Egypt offers cus­tomized vaca­tions as well as six sug­gested itin­er­aries that com­bine Cairo stays with Nile River cruises, and Red Sea beach retreats.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit Travel2Egypt or call 1-(888) 377‑5483.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com