My friends and I decided to go on a Caribbean cruise that they had seen advertised in a travel agent’s window. It reminded them of a similar cruise they went on twenty years ago. We all decided to go before any of us got any older as we are all over sixty. There were three people in the group; myself and my good friends Sandra and her husband Chick. This was meant to be the holiday of a lifetime – little did we realise what was in store!
Firstly, we had to get to Glasgow airport to fly to Frankfurt and eventually on to New York where we would board the good ship “Enchanted Princess”. This was an entirely new experience for me as I’d never flown before, never mind sailed on a cruise ship. However, I was not reassured when the pilot announced that in the event of the plane crashing into the sea, on no account should anyone open the doors! But I needn’t have worried, the flight turned out to be really enjoyable, especially the in-flight food!
After our arrival in New York City, we were picked up at the hotel to go to the cruise ship. According to our boarding tickets, the ship should have been docked at Manhattan port. However, when we arrived, the ship was nowhere to be seen and we were due to board in ten minutes!
After asking one of the dock staff, it turned out that our ship was actually in Brooklyn! The driver was reluctant to take us where the ship really was as he had another hire. Brooklyn docks were a forty-five minutes’ drive away!
Sandra, being a good Scots lass, then told the driver in no uncertain terms that he would not be going anywhere until he got us to that boat!
He then phoned his office and was instructed to take us to the port in Brooklyn. We then arrived at the port about 1.00pm where our ship was moored. For all the haste we had made, we had plenty of time before the ship was due to sail, at 6.00pm that evening.
So, the panic was over - we could relax and enjoy ourselves knowing that we’d be going on our cruise after all! We passed the time happily meeting and chatting to the other passengers and possibly spent a little time in the bar!