The Cruising Bug

The cruising bug started in 1997 when we were convinced to join a group of friends on Norwegian cruise lines out of Houston Galveston Bay USA on the Norwegian star. There were 7 of us and in those days money was tight so we shared a cabin with our good friend Carole. The other 4 shared one cabin which although were mini suites were cramped and really only for two people to be comfortable. After that cruise we took Royal Olympic's Triton on a cheap deal around Europe starting off in Rome and visiting Katakolon-Athens-Corinth canal-Santorini and Mykonos. We had an outside cabin to ourselves and loved it. All for £250.00 each as with our airline discount it was a huge saving. However the cruiseline went bust in late 90's and ships bought by other cruiselines. My next two cruises were taken with our great friends Peter and Stuart who live in Belgium but are English. We did a 14 night Baltic cruise in Fred Olsen Black Watch. Now this is renowned for carrying 90% English people and a lot older with an average age of 105. This is the only cruise where the chocolate on the pillow was replaced by a prune!!!! We met some fantastic people who remain good friends and Ged ( partner) won £250.00 on fruit machines and had a presentation made a photograph taken. Our next cruise was Norwegian Fjords on Fred Olsen's Braemar. I call it a flat bottomed boat but it's proper title is shallow draft. It bounced from Dover to bergen and the dining room was only a third full one night as so many people had seasickness. It was a boring cruise as every port was a carbon copy of the last....mountains and waterfalls.!!!!!!Plus the weather was very cruel to us and rained most days. Two day time lectures were "walking stick whittler" how to make a new walking stick out of a piece of wood. The one that made us laugh was "how to make your will"!!!

In 2006 we took out first cruise since 1999 alone on Norwegian Jewel out of Barcelona. A massive new ship with the choice of 13 restaurants to eat in the evening at any time you desired. They call it "freestyle dining". It was great. We had a suite and the room was enormous and the fact the ship was only a year old it was prestine in every way. The evenings were always finished off well with entering the room and finding the towel animals on the bed made by the room steward. My favourite was the crocodile with the 2 green chocolate wrappers as eyes.

We visited Barcelona-Messina-Naples-Rome-Livorno-Villefranche-Barcelona and travelled on my free ticket which i get yearly for working for British Airways. ( more of that later).

This year we are going to New York to pick up Carnival Victory on 15th September for a cruise:- New York-Boston-Portland-Saint John-Halifax-New York and we have one of the biggest suites on the ship. There are only eight category 12 suites and we are on 7299.( more of that after cruise)