Viva Espania!

Once again our plane left early morning, meaning a middle of the night dash for the airport. 

"Let's leave at 3.15" I said, in order to catch the 7.50 flight. Plenty of time. "3'o'clock", Ian demanded, "that's the time we told mum".  3'o'clock arrived with Chris and I sat packed and becoated ready to go. At 3.15 we set excitedly set off, collecting mum, a conservatively sized case, and hand luggage the size of a small planet, and dumping Misty on Sharon. 

The journey went smoothly till we reached a tiny problem, the M1 was closed just north of Luton. No worries though. Two sat navs and some winding roads later, we arrived at what Luton airport call loosely 'meet and greet parking', and what we like to call 'hell'. Kathy had phoned in a panic wailing about not knowing where to go and people abandoning cars, and we thought she was being over dramatic. She wasn't. It was chaos, building work meant that the car park was temporary, and no one knew what they were doing. After locating the other members of the gang we eventually just abanded the car keys in the hands of a couple of wide boys in high vis jackets and dragged our cases through the mud into the terminal. Next obstacle, 'The Thompson queue'. If you have never travelled with Thompson you cannot conceive how irritating this device is. All their flights are amalgamated into one horror queue which you have to join no matter what. "Do you know who I am? I am a cruise customer", I told the lady at the front, giving her my steely stare. "Join the queue with the other peasants" was the reply. Eventually the Malaga flight people were called forward to prevent a missed flight and a mutiny, and we were able to pass through security, leaving mum to her own devices (Who knew what she had in the hand luggage, or the extra handbag she had)

I had been planning to buy some Channel no 5 at duty free and spotted some as we went through. "Keep walking!" Yelled Kath. "Our flight is boarding". I was really thirsty and saw a W H Smith for water. "Look forward, keep going!" Screamed Chris.  Luckily I had two satsumas and the seven of us managed to survive dehydration on their juice. Sun hat. "Later!" bellowed Vicky. I didn't even mention the breakfast I was looking forward to. We reached the gate and joined the queue that appeared to be child heavy. Mmmm. Straight on the plane, where I had drawn the short straw, and Kathy and I settled in our seats with the soothing sound of crying babies in our ears. Mum had lost her passport but I found it in my passport file so all was well and we settled down for a noisy, but thankfully ( seeing who I was sitting with) very smooth flight. The landing was also smooth, but that didn't sooth the little fella right behind Chris, who's plaintive cries increased in volume all the way down, one of them being "my skin, my skin!" and "I need some quiet time".  Luckily his prediction didn't come true, we didn't crash, and landed gratefully in a very sunny Malaga, Espania. 

We piled off the plane and collected our luggage, Vicky rubbing her hands at the thought of the claim her broken case would result in. Our experience of huge crowds from the New York Stsdium came in handy as we exited, we managed to pick our way through the throng while simultaneously herding Alex ( who wanted to take a photo of the bar he had once got drunk in) and mum (who kept wandering off) in the right direction. After a short bus ride we arrived at the port and got our first look at Thompson Spirit. We were photographed for our set sail passes, had our credit card swiped for all the cocktail purchases we would make, photographed again by the ships photographer, then we were on. Yay!

We were shown straight to our cabins,us in steerage on deck 1 with Alex and Vicky next door, and the others on deck  3 with the toffs. The cabin is small with L shaped beds and a small porthole. Ian steamrollered me and chose the window bed. 

As were were all starving we rushed up to the Lido cafe for lunch, and most of us overfaced ourselves. We then explored the ship from top to toe, before retiring to rest and unpack, or go to the small gym. Guess which I chose? 

The lifeboat drill was next, we even got to try on our life jackets, i am sure I will remember how as the ship sinks and I run screaming to the boats. 

We all met in the Horizons bar at the top of the ship to have a pre dinner drink (or three in Vickys case) and to listen to a very pleasant string trio. 

Dinner was very pleasant with the tuna for main course particularly nice. I mentioned I wasn't overly impressed with the beef consume, only to be told that I shoul have known it would be salty beefwater. 

Time for a show now. Disappointingly the show lounge is in the style of a nightclub and all the good seats were taken, so we sat upstairs and couldn't see much of 'piano man'. At the end, Ted, the cruise director informed us that we were now at sea. We had missed sail away! We rushed on deck to see the lights of Malaga disappearing behind us. There was a group playing on the open air stage and lots of people about. It was quite magical. 

We listened to a few tunes, waved our arms to 'sweet Caroline', sang along to 'don't look back in anger', then decided to call it a night. Chris and Kathy had already departed so we escorted mum back to her cabin (after she found her lost key), and headed for our own, leaving Alex and Vicky to dance the night away. 

Tomorrow, a sea day.