We hate cruise excursions too. About 8 years ago, we took the same
trip. We went to Cairo by train. City bus to and from pyramids after
visiting the Cairo Musuem. Came back from Cairo by 12 passenger bus
after dark because we did not want to wait for the next train.

Two mistakes we made:
1. we went to the wrong pyramid gate so we had to ride to the pyramids
by camel as walking was not allowed.

2. We paid the first bus driver that we saw(there were many) and we had
to wait for him to sell the last ten seats.

If you do not like NYC subways, you may not like Cairo Buses.

We were 55yo at the time.

Doug Clark