Cruising is FUN

Well, what can I tell you. My old dad used to say, son you have to take the rough with the smooth. Boy was he right today.

Our Captain came over the PA system and said that we were sailing right into a storm.

He said that he would try to go around it as best he could, but because we were due in Palma the next morning and we all had flights to catch he would still have to go through part of the storm.

By about 11am I thought it was time for a lie down, everyone was dropping like flies and the ship was moving in every direction possible.

By the time we got to the evening, it was no better, Amanda, who sails like a true seaman, said, come on, lets go for dinner. All I could manage was a bit of jelly, while she tucked into a hearty meal.

About an hour later, we were sitting in the bar, she was having a great time with the 3 or so passengers that were left standing and I was sat there staring at my pint, then it came…. With just enough warning to get to the toilets, I had to say a fond farewell to my jelly.

The only option for me in seas as rough as this is to lie down, so about 9pm we took to our bed. Needless to say, Amanda took back a couple of glasses of wine and sat up watching a film.

The next Morning, we arrived in Palma to calm seas, thankfully.

Now I hear some of you ask, did that put me off cruising, well to you I say a great big no. With over 30 cruises under my belt and some 300+ days at sea, that is only the third time that has ever happened to me, so with that in mind, I’m looking forward to my next cruise on 18th April which is the maiden voyage of P&O’s new super liner, the Ventura, which will sail on a 14 night cruise from Southampton to Rome and back.

Day 7, Naples, Italy – 8am – 6pm

If there could be three words that describe Naples to me, it would be traffic, traffic and hmmm….. traffic.

I really do love Italy, the people, the food, the architecture the history, the climate, but that damn traffic really gets me down. I watched people crossing the street at pedestrian crossings with their eyes closed! Now that’s something, also a lot of Italian scooter riders must be colour blind, because they thing red is green.

Amanda did ask me to take her to the shops, but when she saw the traffic, she said we should opt for an open top buss tour instead, see, every cloud has a silver lining.

These tours really are good value for money. You can hop on and off as often as you wish and there are three different routes to choose from, we chose the city route, which the guide said should take 1 hour. Guess what, with the traffic, it too just over 2.

I think next time we go to Naples we will get off the ship a little earlier and try to do more, I don’t think we did this city justice by sitting on a bus for 2 hours.

Tomorrow is another relaxing day at sea, before we reach our final destination. Palma in Majorca.

Day 6 Messina in Sicily.

1pm – 8pm

This is one of the most beautiful arrivals of this year. We arrived in Messina around 1pm in the afternoon, which was really nice, because many cruises arrive early in the morning so that the excursions can get away, but as this was a repositioning cruise, things were a little different.

During the morning we cruised right passed Mount Etna the active volcano and although it was a glorious sunny day for us you can see that the top of the volcano has snow around it, even though you can also see the steam rising from the volcano’s crater.

Now, I must explain one thing, I am not stingy by any means, but when we dock on a cruise ship and we find out the shops are to the left, I like to steer my wife to the right! This amuses most people we tell as they assume my wife likes to shop and spend money, we that’s just not true, because mostly we manage to avoid the shops (lol). However on this occasion, the gods were on my side as Messina’s shops closed for some type of Siesta from 1pm until 4pm – so we had to visit the clock tower and church instead.

We were going to book an excursion to the “Villages of the Godfathers” but we left it a little late and the trip got sold out – Maybee next time.

The Clock tower and church in the town square were really impressive. We were told that at 1pm each day, the clock tower comes to life and all manner of animated gold statues come to life, unfortunately we missed that.

Inside the church was really impressive, Amanda and I wandered about and At one point I lost her completely, it turns out she had wandered into a restricted area and found herself behind the main alter (no doubt looking for a shop that was open).

One thing that amused me about this church was instead of real candles for you to light, it was all mechanical with false candles with bulbs, when you inserted a euro into the slot a candle came on. Now I didn’t wait to see how long it stayed on for, but whilst I was there I did not see any go out.

Then it was back onto the ship, a spot of late lunch, a a nap and then back to the bar for another games show, “Name that Tune”, our team came second, and I ended up having to get onto the stage.

Then after several more hours of a free bar, it was time to dance. Among my dacing partners tonight was the very lovely Joan.

Tomorrow we arrive in Naples at 8am

The cruise lines like to call these, relaxing days at sea, which I suppose they can be, however the cruise director usually has other ideas with activities starting from as early as 8am.

You can join Pilates Classes, Walk a mile around the deck, take a swim in the pool, visit the well equipped gym, or what I prefer to do is have a lie on and a late lazy breakfast!

Then it’s time to catch up with what’s happening with the current book that I’m reading, perhaps take a stroll around the decks.

Before you know it it’s almost lunchtime and not having eaten for at least an hour, we’re famished and head for the lido café for lunch, then after a few cocktails in the sun, it’s time for afternoon nap.

After a fabulous 5 course dinner in the main restaurant it’s time for the evenings entertainment. This can sometimes be a full production show, a guest artist or even a gameshow or quiz in one of the alternative lounges.

Then it’s off to bed, ready for Sicily in the morning.

Day 4, Sunday, Alexandria, Egypt.

After a leisurely transit of the Suez Canal, we arrived at Alexandria around 6am and we will leave today at 1pm. Amanda and I were up early and after a quick breakfast, we headed into town.

For those of you who have never been to Egypt, let me explain that many Egyptians have difficulty in understanding the word “NO”, in fact they often disregard it totally. As soon as you leave the secure area around the ship you are instantly bombarded with the calls from the stall holders, calls like “Have a Shufty”, “Luverly Jubberley” and “Cheaper than Asda Price”

What you need to understand is the hassle you get from these people is simply the way they live their lives, you need never feel intimidated by it, just keep saying no and eventually they will move on to the next tourist.

When we eventually got out of the port, we were then presented with 20-30 taxi drivers and buggy drivers all offering us a city tour for “Very Cheap Price” in the end we plumped for a horse and buggy tour for £5 for 1 hour. We even checked and double checked with the guy and each time he confirmed £5 fro 1 hour. Hmmm… I smelt a rat but said nothing at this point.

We were introduced to our buggy driver “Abdul” and his son, neither of whom could speak any English, so we settled back for a peaceful ride through the streets of Alexandria.

Little did we know that Alexandria has a 6 lane coastal highway, open to horses and they even have right of way, so joining in the fast lane and heading across six lanes of traffic to the “Horse” lane was a hair raising experience.

After viewing several monuments and taking in the sea air, around an hour after we started we arrived back at the port. I was ready with my £5 note and thust it into Abduls hand as we got out of the buggy. Then here it came, he suddenly spoke some English. “No, No…”, he said, “£5 Each”. I said that was all he was getting and we walked back to the ship. He didn’t follow.

I don’t understand why taxi drivers (and horse and buggy) drivers do this to tourists, it just makes us less likely to use their services or recommend them to others.

Anyway, back on board, we go ready for the afternoon sailaway, a few drinks in the bar and a nap before another hectic nights entertainment and socialising on the ship.

By now we had started to make lots of new friends. – Tomorrow will be a relaxing day at sea before we arrive in Messina in Sicily on Tuesday.

Day 3, Saturday, Transit the Suez Canal

At around 2am Thomson Celebration dropped anchor at the waiting area for Northbound Traffic through the Suez Canal. After paying the fees (around £2500 – now that’s what I call a toll) and the obligatory Egyptian bribe we set off in convoy with a load of container ships to spend all day transiting the Suez Canal.

What you probably don’t know is that the canal is so narrow that there is only one way traffic. What happens is that a convoy gets to use several miles of the canal then has to sail into passing places to let the traffic coming the other way pass.

The weather for the transit was perfect and it was a restful day on board just watching the world go by.

This trip was quite emotional for my wife Amanda as her father served as a Welsh Guard in the 1950’s Suez Crisis and was stationed along the banks of the canal.

The next port of call will be Alexandria, Egypt on the Mediterranean.

Day 2 sees us arrive at 8am into Port Sokhna in Egypt. Now The Thomson ships do tend to dock in shall we say, the less pretty ports. I think they do this to save money and also to encourage passengers to book organised excursions. As you can see from the picture, this is a container port.

The main excursions from this port are to Cairo, the Pyramids and Museum etc. What I like about these ports is that a lot of passengers do get off and go on the excursions, leaving the rest of the ship quite empty for the rest of us to enjoy.

Apart from lazing around the pool and hanging about in the bar, there wasn't much else to do here, however during the afternoon a lorry did reverse over a couple of port workers and after a lot of screaming, they were loaded onto an ambulance and taken away.

After all the passengers returned from their excusrions, we set off around 10pm heading towards the waiting area for northbound traffic through the Suez Canal.

We would spend all of the next day cruising through the Suez Canal to the Med and our next port of Call, Alexandria.

Our flight was from Cardiff Airport to Sharm El Sheik in Egypt. Depending upon the tail winds, this flight can be anything from 4½ to 5½ hours. Fortunately for us, the tail winds were very strong so we made it over to Egypt in about 4 hours and 40 mins.

Most people have a least favourite airport to fly to and from and I think Sharm airport has to my least favourite of any airport I have ever used. It is utter chaos in the arrivals hall with people not knowing which queue they need to be in, you are not told if you need a visa or not and of course it’s hot.

Now for anyone thinking of travelling to Sharm, you do not need a visa if you are going on a cruise ship, unless the ship is leaving Egypt at the end of the cruise, like ours did. Also, you do not need a visa if you do not intend to leave Sharm during your stay, just go straight to the passport control and they will stamp your passport.

Thomson cruise the red sea every year. www.thomson.co.uk

Then it was baggage re-claim, again not my most favourite of places, you always wonder if your case will every appear and if you have two and you check in two at the same time, why do they always come up about 50 cases apart? In 100’s of flights so far we’ve had one lost case and one bag that didn’t come up on baggage re-claim because it was still in the hold of the plane, that's not bad going.

From the airport it’s a short bus ride to the port, a simple check in and then onto the ship. Now it’s time to relax.

We were lucky enough to get the all inclusive package, which means that all our alcoholic drinks on board were free.

The last thing to get out of the way before you can finally settle on a cruise is the lifeboat drill. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a complete drag, but if a ship was ever to sink, I would like to know which lifeboat had my name on it.

One top tip about lifeboat drills is when you have to go to it, don’t rush, you can be sure that by the time you get there most everyone else will have been standing there for about 10 mins, when you hear the signal, just take your time. Then once it’s all over you can look forward to sailaway and the beginning of your cruise.

Returned yesterday from a cruise on the Thomson Celebration, as always we had a great time. The itinerary was one that I’d fancied for quite a while. The flight was out of Cardiff, although other airports are available and the cruise went from Sharm el Sheik in Egypt, through the Suez Canal and ended up in Palma. So the flight out was about 5 hours yet the flight back was only just over 2 hours.

I don’t know about you, but when you go on holiday, the flight out never seems to be too long but when you come back, it seems to go on forever, so doing it this way was a dream.

The full itinerary was.

13th March, Thursday - Fly Cardiff to Sharm el Sheik – Disembark 10pm
14th March, Friday - Port Sokhna, Egypt, for trips to Cairo
15th March, Saturday – All day transit of the Suez Canal
16th March, Sunday – Alexandria, Egypt
17th March, Monday – Day at Sea
18th March, Tuesday – Messina, Sicily
19th March, Wednesday – Naples, Italy
20th March, Thursday – Day at Sea
21st March, Friday – Palma, Majorca – Fly back to UK

As this itinerary is the first one that I have blogged, I will be doing each day by memory over the next 8 days. In future, I will keep notes to make sure I give you everything that you need.

Please feel free to post any comments or questions.

Well just a general post to introduce myself to everyone, I'm a 40 something guy with his own business based in Blackwood, Gwent. Married to Amanda for the last 15 years and my passion is cruise holidays.

Now I know that there are some among you who are now yawning but wait, cruising can be for all ages, not just really old retired folk.

I may be new to blogging, but I'm not new to cruising, in fact the cruise that we just completed was about our 30'th cruise.

As the memories of these past cruises fade, I thought it was about time that I started recording all my experiences and offering some help and encouragement to the world at large about something I enjoy, otherwise the experiences may be lost forever.

If you have a question about cruising, please feel free to contact me.