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.
