A Long Day

We were up at 06.00 this morning (20^th) in order to be at Gatwick by 07.00, after having a sneaky cup of tea and some toast before leaving the hotel.  We arrived at Gatwick just in time for the check to open and were met by the most officious check in person I have ever met in all my years of travelling.  We had one case that was 4Kg over weight and one case 4Kg underweight.  She made us unpack 4 Kilos of luggage from one case and put it in the other.  Needless to say, we were not very happy, but kept our cool as we were afraid of having to leave 4kilos of luggage at Gatwick. 

Having recovered from the embarrassment of unpacking our luggage at the check in desk, we went through immigration and into the restaurant for full English.  Purly to pass the time of course.  After three hours of waiting around the flight was called and off we went to the gate.  Boarding was pretty much on time and on we went. It’s been a long time since I turned left after boarding,

 However, it would appear that we had 270+ passengers but only 170 meals.  According to the captain – there had been “an administration error”.  It took a further 40 minutes to get more supplies on board, but then we we’re underway.  From then on it has been smooth sailing all the way.  The flight was as smooth as silk, plenty to eat and drink and friendly cabin crew.  Top marks to Thompson Airlines.  Nil points for the miserable bitch that checked us in.

Having arrived at Bridgetown, Barbados we were ferried directly from the airplane to the port where we were checked in for the cruise.  More sets of full marks for the staff and system of checking in.  Fast and slick ,within 15 minutes of arriving at the port we were checked in, had the obligatory photograph taken and boarded.

Pictures of our cabin

The cabin is reasonably spacious, I’ve stayed in much smaller hotel rooms and the ship is ginormous.  It’s going to take a couple of weeks to find our way around.  We set sail at about 7.45 local time, but our luggage still had not arrived in the cabin.  Out trusty cabin steward, Collin, with 2 l’s assured us that it would materialise soon, but it was worth checking with reception as any bags who’s tags were missing ended up there.  Having eventually found reception on deck 6 of 15, we also found our luggage.  Immediately, a member of the crew was summoned to get it to our cabin, which he duly did and we heaved a a sigh of relief.

Dinner tonight was positively sumptuous; duck for starter, venison for main, and profiteroles, followed by coffee, all washed down with a nice red.  Cheese was available; I thought that would be going over the top on the first night!  We sat on a table for eight with some very pleasant people.

All in all not a bad first day.  We’re at sea tomorrow and arriving in Bonaire on Monday.  It’s now 11.40pm local – 3.40am body time, so it’s off to bed.