I'm not gloating and I don't mean to sound like an ungrateful moaning bitch, but cruising really isn't my preferred type of holiday. I'm going to tell you why I went on two in one year, and my experience on board.
Summer Cruise
I went on my first ever cruise in summer 2012, I wrote about in in one my earliest post. This was a family holiday, me and my five siblings plus four of their kids, sixteen of us in total. It's very rare for the six of us and partners to get together, let alone go away on holiday. When my sister found a very good cruise deal to Iceland and Norway, initially I wasn't keen at all as I'm really not a fan of cruises. But then, I've never been to these two countries before, and more importantly, I didn't want to turn down an opportunity to spend time with all my family. So off I went on my maiden cruise.
I have to say, if I wasn't with my family (my sisters cruise all the time) the whole onboarding experience can be quite overwhelming for a newbie. In fact, thinking back, it's probably on par with coming onboard to Hive.
We embarked from Southampton, UK's largest and busiest passenger cruise terminal. Our cruise ship carries over 3000 passengers and I remember their check in operation runs like a clockwork to handle the mass volume of passengers within a short time span. Most passengers drive to the dock, arriving right in front of the check-in terminal, drop off their bags and the rest of their party. Then the driver drives a short distance to the car park opposite the terminal, leaves their car and keys with the attendant and returns back over to the terminal. Imagine 3000+ passengers and hundreds if not over one thousand cars, plus a few thousand pieces of luggage coming through during the day. You'd really need things to run like a clockwork.
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Within a few hours, we had registered, checked in our luggage, and boarded the cruise ship. Despite my resistance towards cruises, I have to admit it was quite an experience once I got on board. Newbies like me roamed around, admiring in awe the public spaces on this 17 deck cruise liner. The focal point is the Atrium that is three decks high, hard to believe that this isn't in some grand hotel on land. Then I went outside to check out all the pools and the outdoor massive movie, a place that I was to spend quite a few nights, under the moon and warm blanket with free and freshly made popcorns.
The next evening is the formal dinner, dress up is required if you're having dinner in the main dining room. I had to get myself a nice evening dress for this trip as I don't party or attend any formal functions. How do I look? 😊 There was a pouring the champagne waterfall event, bit of a novelty for me. Passengers can queue up and get on the stage to pour the champagne down the waterfall. I figured why not, since it's my maiden voyage. There's an official photographer in front of the champagne waterfall. You're supposed to look and him and smile so he can take a nice photo of you, then you can buy the official print off them. Of course, I looked sideways towards my family who took this photo for me!!!
Fast forward ten days, this is our last night on board and a party to round this off. My first cruise actually turned out a lot better than I expected!!!
Christmas Cruise
I'd been there and done it in summer, and figured that would be my cruise experience done and dusted. How wrong I was! Because I went on another one a few months later in Christmas. And it was free!!!!!
My sister, the same one who organised the summer cruise for us, loves her cruises. She also loves to enter a lot of contest. A few months after our summer cruise, she told me she won a cruise to the Mediterranean over Christmas. The thing is, she had already booked her Christmas holiday (I think it was another cruise!!) so the prize was of no use to her. She asked if I would like it? A free holiday? I haven't been to the Med before, of course I would like it!!! I'm not too fussy when it comes to a free holiday even if it's a cruise. And that's why I went on my second cruise in the same year.
Our cruise started off down the Bay of Biscay to the Med. This stretch of bay alongside the west of France is famous for the rough seas, and boy was it rough! You can see the waves in the sea and I'm standing on one of the higher decks. It was so bad that even some of the passenger who often does this route says it's one of the worse they've seen.
Being Christmas, the cruise liner was in full festive swing. There was a massive Christmas tree in the Atrium that was nearly two decks tall. Everywhere I went, I could feel the Chrismas ambience, so it wasn't really a problem for those who still want to spend Christmas on board, though it may be for those who were planning to get away from Christmas!!
We even got a Chrismas present from the cruise liner. These are massive beach towels and are very good quality. I've actually used them many times as picnic mat. Sometimes, it's these little touches that make all the difference in customer experience. Particularly when the freebie is something practical instead of say a teddy bear which is nice, but most people would probably throw away when they get home.
My experience on this cruise was very different from the first. It was just the two of us instead of sixteen all the time so we were able to spend some quality time together. The cruise experience was less of a novelty for me, but still very nice, as there was quite a lot to explore on the ship. And best of all, this was all free of charge, of course I would enjoy myself even if it's not my cup of tea.
By the way, I made sure I got more mileage out of my one and only evening dress!!!!