Blogging at sea… Unfortunately there isn’t a very strong
internet connection from the boat, and it costs quite a bit to use, so I’m
uploading a few days at a time when we can. Pictures will be added later so
hold your horses!
So at the crack of Sparrow fart on Saturday morning, up
we got. It did not feel real.
We got to the train station, collected our tickets and
boarded the train to Gatwick. It still did not feel real.
We arrived at the airport (which apparently means Field
of Goats?!) and went through to departures. Still not real.
Only when we went for our obligatory and very necessary
G&T did things start to sink in… You see, we have a tradition of always
stopping for a G&T on our way to a holiday. It gets you in the mood, it
feels all kinds of naughty* (we’re normally there way before the sun has kissed
the yard-arm) and it's generally a nice thing to do. This time we went to Jamie’s
Bar in the North Terminal... Just as we’d ordered, I noticed they
also sold Chapel Down’s Curious Brew – a really delicious lager made with
champagne yeast, but alas it was too late to change the order as the barman had
begun his work. Ahh well never mind.
Then, just as I was turning to leave he plonked a bottle
of the lovely stuff down in front of me, said “you’re absolutely right – it’s
delicious” and gave me a grin.
That’s right people – This honeymoon started off with
FREE BEER!
Happy days :D
Then we were off to the gate, through the last checks and
on the plane. Finally it started to actually feel real – we are going on our honeymoon!
Next stop – Lisbon. Now, some people may well know this
already, but Jo and I almost moved to Lisbon instead of Brighton several years
ago – so it’s long held affection for us. Unfortunately neither of us have ever
been, so we were really looking forward to making our first stop there where we
could meet up with some friends Rob & Maria, who would show us some of the
sights and generally send us off with a grin. Unfortunately Thomson had other
ideas, and we were expertly herded off like cattle from the plane to the coach
to the docks and into ‘the queue’…
Note the emphasis there. This was no ordinary queue – for
us it was big (and cold – Lisbon was not warm while we were there), but for
other, more experienced cruisists it was gobsmacking. We were lined up for
about an hour and a half outside, which was a shame – but once we made it into
the building it was more comfortable. First we were handed our room keys and
boarding passes, then we slowly made our way up to what we thought was all very
important information about the cruise, but was mainly just trying to upsell
some extras (a recurring theme).
None of that mattered however when we got on board the Thomson Dream and
found our cabin - number 5089: roughly amidships on the starboard side. It’s a
lovely room, with a big comfortable double bed, en suite bathroom (with bath)
and loads of space for all our stuff. This made us 2 very happy campers
(sailors?)!
That day was spent having a lovely time eating all manner
of foods and getting stuck in to our drinks package (which is very generous
indeed…**). We met some lovely people throughout the day, and even though it’s
a large ship (1500 passengers and about 600 crew) it’s nice that we see so many
familiar faces each day.
Sadly, things started to go a bit wrong later on the
Saturday night. I may have drunk a
teensy tiny itsy bitsy tad too much and, while I was a gentleman all evening –
making friends left right and centre, I also completely wrote off my first day
at sea.
*Sorry Ireland, I meant Bold
**Unfortunately
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