Best Of
Re: Is anyone from the first departures back?
Seating at Wadi Rum was bench seats in the back of the 4X4's. Fits six snugly, four quite comfortably. Can be bumpy. You will be outdoor in the wind/sand/chilly depending on your weather conditions. Some people may choose to sit inside vehicle, but very limited (like one per vehicle if guides already not using it). See Candy's pics of the vehicles. Our Tauck guide paid for all camera passes entire trip; I assume that is normal for all Tauck tours. Phones do not need passes. Flash OK in tombs. Impossible to explain everything we saw on tour … just wait and see for yourselves.
BlountvilleTN
Re: Is anyone booked for the Douro River trip?
It will be cool at that time of year, especially the evenings.
British
Re: Is anyone from the first departures back?
Both the 4 engine Dash 7 and the smaller two engine Dash 8 come in many models/sizes. We flew on the smaller Dash 8-102's and the even smaller Dash 6, Twin Otter (and the even smaller yet, Cessna Caravan) during K&T several years ago. All were just fine. Since our baggage on J&E is not restricted to a duffle like K&T, you can be sure you'll fly a larger aircraft than a Twin Otter. 
Twin Otter:
Cozy interior of the Twin Otter:
I want to sit in the front seats in the PAS Dash 8:
On K&T I really got the front seat of a Cessna Caravan! 
AlanS
Re: Is anyone from the first departures back?
Hi Exlandlubber,
As always AlanS is on point!
Here's details I received from the tour manager regarding the internal flights.
For the flight on Day 10 Luxor to Cairo it is with Egypt Air, a commercial airline. They use Airbus 320s or 330s.
For the flights Aqaba to Aswan and then Aswan-Abu Simbel-Aswan we fly with Petroleum Air Services, a charter flight company. They use twin engine Dash-8 planes with 50 seats that are flown by 2 pilots, these are common planes used for smaller flights in the U.S.
Hope this helps,
Tauck Emily
Tauck_Emily
Re: Motor coaches ?
It is unlikely that the coaches will have USB ports and you certainly should not count on it. Unless your phone has a bad battery you should be able to snap pictures to your heart's content and not worry about it. This assumes that you charge it each night and put it in airplane mode so that bluetooth and cell service don't use power. However, if you are concerned, buy yourself a power bank. You should be able to order one today from Amazon and have it by Thursday (assuming you have Prime).
Ken from Vegas
Re: Is anyone from the first departures back?
Mil - Chicago Travelers have returned from the first "Egypt: Jewel of the Nile" trip and provides outstanding reviews under that trip title here on the Forum. Also recommend looking at the "Israel and Jordan" trip for comments about Jordan. We took that trip in October 2018 and it was outstanding and we are taking the Jewel trip in March 2021 and early reports are that it is also outstanding. Good luck!
Re: Category 7 wait listing
I would try calling the hotel, but quite honestly, you spend so little time in the actual hotels until night time, I don’t think it is a big problem. You might be lucky with current panic about the Coronavirus, I think people will be canceling vacations here there and everywhere, so I would keep calling Tauck to see if anything is coming up. Keep an eye on your flights too because I think the airlines will be cancelling flights as they become half empty.
British
Re: Luggage Size Restrictions for on-tour flights
The Galapagos tour is one of the easiest to pack for. We have taken it twice. You need no dress up clothes. It’s easy to stay under 44 pounds. On this tour just about two years ago, one of our checked bags was ruined on our return flight, it was very wet, but we soon discovered it stunk of fish when we collected it and rechecked our bags at Miami. It must have been stored near a fish shipment. We had to throw taht almost new bag away and could not claim on insurance since it’s not possible to send a photo of the damage, you can’t photograph a terrible smell.
British
Re: Luggage Size Restrictions for on-tour flights
Unfortunately for years Tauck literature has not done a very good job describing luggage restrictions.
How much over?
Your on-tour flights are on commercial carriers like LATAM, Avianca, and TAME, so you must first adhere to the airline weight and size restrictions. LATAM has 3 categories of "luggage"- Checked luggage, carry-on luggage, and personal item. The limitations are typically 17 lbs (LATAM) for carry-ons (Economy or higher) and 50 lbs (LATAM) for checked luggage. Note, the LATAM website states, "The Basic fare does not allow carry-on bags". You'll need to call Tauck to see what fare class you'll be flying. We sat in steerage! 
but it could have been an Economy class fare when we did Peru & Galapagos a few years ago. The amount of space for carry-on luggage on the small regional aircraft (A319 is typical) flying this route is almost nil for anything but "personal items" - "purse, laptop bag, diaper bag" which are limited by size only according to the LATAM website. On our aircraft people brought small soft-sided day bags/large purses, camera bags, and small backpacks. I carried a man-purse (camera bag). Just be aware that if it is too big they may make you check it for which you will pay a charge.
If you meet the airlines' weight and size limits on checked (and carry-on) luggage, but are just a tad over some Tauck-only limitation you'll be fine. I don't see size restriction in the Before You Go > Luggage Handling and Restrictions on the Tauck website, is it spelled out in your Green Book?
AlanS