Current itinerary sheets
Hi all. There have been questions about how this itinerary has changed. We are currently starting this tour this evening ( Jordan time), at the Kempinski Dead Sea. This is a fabulous place on the Dead Sea . The views include the lights of Israel across the water. The resort reminds us of the Four Seasons in Marrakesh, but made with cream colored stone in lieu of the pink stone In Marrakesh. I am sending the daily itinerary sheets so you can see real time how things have changed ( or stayed the same!) Lastly- view from the lounge terrace looking across the Dead Sea at the West Bank of Israel. 
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Sorry- I could not get these to appear in the order I attached them in, so look at the dates!
Those lights across the Sea are Jerusalem. Enjoy the trip, Andrea
I love the quotes!
MotherOfPoodles - The safest way to ensure the pictures show up in the order you want them, is to post them one at a time in the order you want them to appear.
British- the best quote from the tour director , Tony Oldham ( we will meet him at the welcome dinner tonight) , was in the pre- trip email he sent us:
“Remember where you are, not where you’re from”. Thanks for the photo posting tips, Sam.🐫🐫
Oh dear, people are ALWAYS asking me where I’m from and it really annoys me because when I tell them the answer, which is where I actually live, they say, no , where are you from! But I do understand that is not what your TD means.
I usually pose the ‘from’ question as What is your heritage? Which makes way more sense to me.
British - An alternate way people could get to know you would be by asking - How many post offices is your wanted posted hanging in? 😂
British - Just tell them you are a member of a lotalist group that has done their best to maintain the British accent for the last 250 years.
or
Start saying y'all...
Or she could say - I was born in Yorkshire, came to America on the Mayflower, moved to Philly, and I love cheesesteaks. Or something similar.
MotherOfPoodles - I loved the quotes wrote some down for my travel books, I went on this tour in 1997 and yes there are many, many changes.
I did this trip in October with Tony, great TD. I like some of the changes they made. Enjoy. One thing about Tony, he must run cold, he kept telling us to bring a jacket, warmer clothing, layers, etc. my husband and I peeled off the layers almost immediately. We finally stopped bringing warm clothing! lol.
Research your restaurant choices a few days before the actual day, because he will ask for them ahead of time and let the hotel, know. Highly recommended the cave bar at Petra, which is across the street from the Movenpick and past the vendors. Reasonable prices and the gourmet dinning room in the Movenpick was very good! (Actually better than 1902.)
If you have status with Marriott let the Mina front desk know that, the lounge had free wine at night and it was easy to run in there for a cappuccino in the morning. The same goes for Star Alliance for the plane trip to Cairo. There is also a Priority Pass lounge in the Aswan airport, it is small, but we ran in there to grab soda and water.
Have fun it was a great trip and I loved the Old Cataract hotel. Walk around the public areas and enjoy the photos. Breakfast was excellent. Actually most of the breakfasts were excellent.
Re the Old Cataract Hotel, sign up for the tour. Very interesting to see the Agatha Christie (where she wrote Death on the Nile) and Winston Churchill suites. If you haven't seen the movie, Death on the Nile, look for the 1978 version. IMO, the remake (2022) was bad.
Our suites in the historic Palace Wing at Old Cataract was a total dream. It felt like stepping back in time to another world. The 1902 Restaurant is also stunning
Thank you for your helpful comments everyone. Currently we are in Petra. Thus far the trip has been great. Our tour guide, Tony Oldham is soft spoken, organized and very visible. It is a large group of 37 people. He said this is the largest group that he has had since Covid. Jordan still only has 1/3 of the tourists that it had before Covid. We very much enjoyed the day tour that the concierge from the Kempinski arranged for us to the baptismal site of Jesus at Bethany, and old city ( Palestinian Camp) Amman. The tour does not take you at all through Amman, aside from going through on the highway. Everywhere we go we have an armed guard with us. In Jordan, they are called the tourist police. It is very useful to have someone like that with us because there are a lot of rules and they interact with the local police force. For example, yesterday it was pouring and our tourist police officer negotiated with the local police for our bus to pick us up right in front of the restaurant rather than us having to walk through the pouring rain back to the parking lot. It has been the same person the entire time, Kasim. Our local guide, Aziz, has been absolutely wonderful. He is full of all kinds of useful information, is funny, charming, and is fluent in English. He has traveled extensively throughout the states so he uses all kinds of American cultural references in his discussions. We had fabulous weather in Jerash, however, yesterday on our visit to Mount Nebo there was a deluge. In one day, we all got to experience 4 inches of rain, floods, roads closures, and then while we were driving to Petra we drove through a sandstorm. We managed to get the entire desert experience in one day. Today at Petra it was very cold, around 40° with wind gusts up to 27 mph. Everyone dressed appropriately and although there were some frozen toes and fingers, it really didn’t affect our good time. The pathways in Jerash and Petra, are fairly easy to walk on and do not require walking sticks. Actually, at Petra, on site, at the gate they offered us walking sticks to borrow if we needed them. Some people did avail themselves of this. For the most part, it was flat terrain with some very large Roman type cobblestone paving in areas. Petra is vast. To even get to the area where the famous treasury ( really a tomb) is requires a long walk through a slot canyon. This is about the halfway point. The walk today to where we had lunch was over 3 miles. Golf carts drove everyone back after lunch. If you wanted to stay at the site longer, you could, with golf carts available to take you back from the treasury Site all day long until 3 PM. The camel experience was essentially a single up, take a picture, then down on a camel in front of the treasury. Tomorrow Wadi Rum, which will also be cold. If you have the right clothes with you it is no big deal. I would advise monitoring the weather at different sites along the itinerary before you pack. So far only one business casual event - the welcome dinner. About to head to the Cave Bar. 😁
First glimpse of Treasury coming through slot canyon.
Beautiful! Keep having fun! Now that's a well-groomed camel!