Hi, well yesterday we eventually managed to get on board the ship after what can only be described as a long and tiring road, actually I mean that quite literally. We arrived at the Port of Tyne at the allotted time of 1pm to be met by a guy in full personal protective equipment (PPE) who informed us to"follow the cones for check in". We duly did as instructed which resulted in us joining one of two queues of cars that stretched off into the distance. We moved along this road at a slow pace, in fact at one point we were passed by a snail who seemed to be the Linford Christie of snails it was moving so fast. Anyway eventually, having aged somewhat in the process we arrived at the point in the road where the two queues merged into one, luckily here was stationed another fully PPE equipment member of staff with the task of merging the vehicles. He achieved this with somewhat exaggerated hand signals reminiscent of those used by the men on aircraft carriers to assist planes when landing. Having merged we then endured further slow progress towards the docks. By this time we had been in the queue for approximately 50 minutes, my sense of humour was wearing thin and Anne was in a near state of collapse due to hunger, not good! Another eon having passed we made it to yet another fully equipped member of staff who was situated at a gated entrance, he waved us through, another important task filled with responsibility, where we were met by a youngish lady who required our tickets so she could check us in! I have to say that she was not fully PPE'd up so I would have felt confident in getting off at court had I taken it in mind to run her over. At this point I was pretty much at the stage of "don't make me angry, you won't like me if I get angry"! So fairly quickly she returned handed over an envelope contains various documents and a health and safety leaflet and told us to drive forward to unload our luggage. A simple procedure I hear you say, not on your chuffing nellie! I drove to the designated area where I was waved to a position behind another car by a man again not in any PPE, I was beginning to think they had run out of the required equipment at this point, anyway I then had to get out of the car, in the pouring rain, hand over the 3 luggage labels (these were sticky labels with our cabin number on them, 122), open the boot, identify the 3 cases to unload, wait while the staff member stuck the labels on and took the case out of the boot, it's still persisting it down don't forget, it was at this point I asked if they could take my suit(it was in a cover), oh no sorry we only have three luggage tickets you will have to take that yourself! Chuffing great, but I wasn't going to argue as I was now resembling a drowned rat, albeit a rather large one! Where now I hear you ask ( I've always had good hearing 20/20 apparently), well, back into the car and drive to the car park, where was that, oh about a mile away, the other side of where we were, we actually had to drive out of the Port and then back in again to access it. On the way out we passed yet another fully equipped staff member who informed us to turn left at the roundabout. Once back in the port there was yet another fully equipped staff member who told us to follow the centre lane to the car park, slight issue but there were only two lanes but hey I didn't want to upset him he was doing an important job, wrongly but at least he was fully equipped. Using my unerring sense of direction and the fact I knew where the car park was I managed to find my way there despite PPE mans attempts to get me lost! At the entrance to the car park was yet another fully PPE'd man who handed us a ticket informing us that we had to get it validated when we checked in otherwise we'd be charged for parking on our return! He then directed us to another fully equipped man who then pointed us to yet another who pointed us to a parking spot. I appreciate that reading this is something of an epic task but to be fair it is providing you with a flavour of what Anne and I went through! We now had a fairly short walk to catch a bus to take us to the terminal so that we could check in, still raining at this point. So not too happy as I'm wet, Anne is wet, my suit cover is wet as is the camera case. Following the shirt bus ride we were deposited at the terminal, entered to find a queue as long as long can be, it went on for flocking miles!! Anyway we joined the end of it, which was a story in itself, by now it was 2.10pm, still Anne was starving and I was building up a good head of steam! We were given some firms to complete, helped pass sometime (about 30 seconds) and when collected the pleasant young lady stated, with a smile on her face, "should take around an hour to reach check in" and wandered off. I was so shocked my voice failed to work which was probably just as well! Gradually time past, nations rose and fell, dinosaurs once again walked the planet, Bruce Forsyth still compared strictly come dancing, until at about 3pm we reached the check in desk, handed over all the documentation required and were passed through to Customs who were busy checking a couple of people so we were waved straight through, this was the quickest part of the day. Yet another bus ride, funnily enough, to the place where we had dropped the cases off, then a short walk to the ship, up the gang plank and we were on board!!!

We were escorted to our suite(122) the Kensington Suite to find one case had so far been delivered. The suite is lovely, lots of space, separate lounge area and a bathroom with a bath! I also have to say that the bed is the largest ever I have seen on a ship, the size of a small country and it certainly rivals some of those we had in America last year.

The rest of the afternoon was spent unpacking but of course we had to have food first as Anne was starving! Have I mentioned how hungry Anne was? If I haven't I probably should mention that at this time Anne was starving.

Having unpacked, all the cases had by this time arrived we decided to. Book Sirocc's for dinner, cheaper on the first night and also enrol for the drinks package. Having sorted these things out it was to the bar, to the bar, to the bar, bar, bar, bar time.

Oops forgot to mention the 4.30pm lifeboat drill, the alarm was sounded and off to our muster station we went having collected our life vests. Very fetching they look too especially when everyone is wearing them. I have mentioned on Facebook some of the comments regarding this drill most of which surrounded the captain! It was all quite jovial and didn't long which was a bosun, sorry bonus.

So back to the bar, here we were wending away a few minutes (couple of hours) having a drink, listening to the live trio playing, enjoying a drink, listening to the emergency siren going off, having a drink, listening to the cruise director telling us we'd be now sailing at 7.30pm, having a drink, listening to the emergency siren going off etc. you can probably see the pattern emerging here? Eventually we retired to the cabin to get changed for dinner.

The meal was lovely and very quiet so we enjoyed ourselves and had a few glasses of wine. We will eat there again during the cruise other things on the menu I want to try. Then of course during the meal we were informed that sailing had been postponed yet again and that our new sailing time would be 9pm, on this occasion we did actually set off at the proposed time, bosun, oops bonus.

At Anne's request we returned to the bar for a night cap and to sing along to the band. Actually I had two night caps so does that make it a bonnet or just a large cap?

We retired to bed and I slept really well waking up early about 5am but then remembering I hadn't put my clock forward an hour so it was actually 6am.