Onboard and away we go

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Extra hour in bed as clock went back but ‘clocks shmocks’ I was wide awake and excited to get ready by 7am much to Alex’s dismay.

The cruise line advises you get to the port no earlier than 11, we were there at 9, which was actually an hour later than the previous year!

Manage to check our bags in with the porter and prepared for a long wait.

As regular NCL clients we have a gold status so can check in in a dedicated area. During the wait we got chatting to a lovely funny gay couple, one Brit one Austrian but live in the US, had a good laugh with them before being told we had to move out of the area while they fumigated! (WTF!) One of the gay guys had a total hissy fit which was good entertainment and the staff were keen to get us checked in and get rid of us onto the ship.

Now despite our gold status, there are platinum clients ahead of us in the pecking order along with the clients who book the very exclusive ‘Haven suites” and there is usually a strict boarding policy with use being in the third group.

But… in typical Spanish fashion, the groups of security guys were too busy chatting to notice us walk right by them, bypass the holding area, take the escalator and board the ship before the staff were even ready to accept passengers! To be fair to us, a tiny Jewish lady with massive hair, also hot-footed it past them dragging her huge carry on bag and was right behind us!

There is method in my madness to getting there early. NCL offer 200 passes to the VIP sundeck on a first come-first served basis for a nominal fee and the last two years we have been lucky enough to enjoy these facilities so I was determined this year would be no different.

HOWEVER! I casually sauntered up to guest services obviously first in line to be told…”sorry a private group had pre-booked the VIP deck and we aren’t offering it to other passengers”.

Now if I was our gay friend from earlier I would probably have been forcefully removed from the ship, but I was calm, as was Alex and we begged, pleaded and cajoled the nice young lady, but to no avail, no meant no (like Brexit means Brexit?).

See my private email to my followers for the next bit of info!

So my point was A. The VIP deck is strictly not a pre-bookable service so why was it allowed and B. Why should they get some kind of priority over other guests, not just us, there were some very nice couples who were also disappointed.

So I felt compelled to register my complaint and politely filled in a comments card which goes to Richard the ‘hotel director’.

Went off for a bite of lunch at the garden café and then went to find our cabin which was same as before, lovely an luxurious and this time an extended balcony. Met our cabin steward ‘Vinoff’ a nice Indian guy who looks about 16!

Luggage hadn’t arrived yet and had a message to say our Circ de Soleil show and dinner had been postponed we were in no hurry to get dressed up so decided to make it a casual evening.

Went to the adults only H2o bar and got chatting to an older couple from Burnley. We had noticed a lot a Northern English voices during the day, many raised in a seemingly complaining tone. We discovered that a cruise agency ‘ Cruise First’ from Manchester had block-booked about 250 cabins (500 people) with the unlimited drinks package included but somehow the drinks package had not been registered. Now I have to feel sorry for the guest services staff who had around 500 Yorkshiremen and Mancunians demanding their free booze in the atrium lobby!

Luckily for the NCL staff, Cruise First had two reps onboard who had to deal with the thirsty bunch but it seemed it was not an easy problem to resolve and the complaining continued!

After waving goodbye to Barcelona and making light of the fact the Burnley bloke knocked his red wine all over his wife, we went off to eat in the noodle bar before retiring for a comfy night in the lovely bed.

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