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We had an 8am train to Newcastle to catch so it was up early & down to get our money's worth at breakfast, then to the station & off we went. It was only 1 hr 20 to Newcastle so we were soon there, but only to find they didn't have any luggage storage at the station so we dragged our bags up to the tourist info where they said there might be some at the bus station, which there were but we had already paid when we found out they were too small for our bags!! Grr!! Heading out of the bus station we ran into Kobe Krew Jen who just happened to be visiting Newcastle that weekend from London. A quick hi/bye & we head back down towards the station to see the castle & keep plus the bridge which is a mini version of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I dropped Sean at the pub, which conveniently had the cricket on & went to check out some op-shops I had seen earlier. Four stores & I came out empty handed!! Back to the pub for a small snack to keep us going & we headed to the station to find the Thomson buses which would take us to our ship. It turned up before long but wasn't leaving for about 45 mins so we enjoyed a drink in a pub barely steps away & were soon back on the bus heading for the port through all the back suburbs of working class Newcastle. It wasn't too long before we had checked in & gone through a very quick security check then onto the Thomson Spirit! Our room was just down the hall from the gangplank so we were settling in before long. We had an outside room which was spacious enough although only featured a very small porthole. There was the usual pre departure drill which for this ship had us lined up on the deck with our life jackets on. Finally we set sail & we started our exploration of the ship on the top deck to see the ship leave Newcastle port, with some old castle & church ruins right at the port's entrance. The ship had ten levels & most facilities were on just two so we soon had the lay of the place just in time for dinner. We dined at the restaurant & shared a table with two other older couples. Not surprising given that 98% of guests were old enough to be our grandparents! The food was great & so far it seemed that Thomson slotted in somewhere between Celebrity & P&O in the cruise ship ratings. After dinner we enjoyed a baileys or two in the horizons bar before bed.
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H 4 oppy's & no purchases, what was the problem?