Egypt and the Red Sea have always been on our back-burner, but we were never sure it was a safe place to go. After participating in a familiarization trip, we know it's as safe as or safer than other destinations.

Our flight leaving Pittsburgh experienced a 20 minute "ground freeze" while President Obama arrived for the local AFL-CIO meeting, and the Egypt Air flight left JFK one hour late because we were #17 for take-off. And I thought flying was down! I was concerned about our carry-on luggage, but this was not an issue at all. We carried on two items each, and were allowed two check-in two pieces weighing 50 pounds each. The economy seats seemed a tad larger than other international flights we've been on, with a little more legroom. There were no seat-back TV screens, so we watched three bad movies and ate two OK meals as we flew non-stop to Cairo, the largest city in Africa. Egypt has a population of 75 million, rising each minute, and is 90% Sunni Muslim. Most women wore scarves and very few were completely covered.

At JFK and everywhere along the way, we were met and escorted by a representative of Learning Through Travel or the Emperor Fleet. We were like ducklings following our guide Manal in Cairo and Luxor. Manal really knows her stuff, including how to haggle and what price to offer. She's a gem.

Arriving in Cairo, we were taken to the Mena House Oberoi Hotel, right next to the three great pyramids, including Cheops'. We were introduced to Egyptian cuisine, really different. Even the ice cream was a different consistency, more like custard. Over the course of our two weeks, we learned to embrace buffet meals where we could pick and choose and actually see what we were about to eat! Most of us had stomach issues at some point during the trip. We did not drink tap water anywhere, but bottled water is cheap.

But the pyramids, the Sphnix, and the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities were fantastic, and the camel ride (my first) was a hoot. We also went to the Khan El Khalili Bazaar, where we were warned not to stop or talk unless we really wanted to purchase-the vendors try to get the tourists to say something so they know what language to speak, and they can speak most languages.

While we were touring, our dive luggage headed for Hurghada via truck, so we wouldn't have to pay overweight fees on the domestic flight from Cairo. Unfortunately the wake-up call was at 1:30am to catch the 5am flight. Since we couldn't board the liveaboard until late afternoon; they put us on a day boat for a 2 tank trip, so we loaded our dive gear into baskets and boarded the boat. There are a lot of day boats that go out from Hurghada, so we had to be careful to re-board the same boat. The fish mostly looked familiar, but had different color schemes. The second dive I counted 19 lionfish. We boarded the Emperor Superior around 5pm.

The Superior is a good-looking wooden boat, with large, comfortable sitting and dining areas. The cabins, except for the two in the bow, are nice sized with two side-by-side twin beds; the bow cabins have bunk beds; they try to only put one person in those. There was adequate storage space. The bathrooms had small, separate shower areas, and plenty of counter space. The dive deck is large, but there are two rows of tanks facing each other with not that much room between them, so it can get congested, especially with the crew trying to help. The dive entry area was big enough for several people to don fins at the same time. Nitrox is included on the Superior and the tanks are DIN, with convertible inserts available. Fills were quick and right on the money. The camera table is tiny, with small cubicles above. One DSL takes up all the space, so the three coffee tables in the lounge area became camera tables.

All meals were buffet. Breakfast consisted of cereal, toast, eggs,and meat. Lunch and dinners might have fish, pasta, chicken, and/or beef, soup, salad, rolls, vegetables, and some type of dessert. Several types of cookies, hot water, tea, cocoa, sodas, and instant coffee were always available. Wine and beer were extra. Although not all the food was to my taste, I didn't go hungry.