Caribbean Cruise 2018 Day 1

Eighteen months ago, along with two of my sisters (Rosemarie and Jennifer), I booked to go on a Caribbean Cruise as a special trip to celebrate Jen’s 60th year.

We have eagerly awaited the trip over the past 18 months, looking forward to extended time together for rest, relaxation, pleasure and fun, since we live in three different cities in the south-east and south-west of England.

We booked an overnight stay at the Best Western Hotel near Gatwick, to ensure we arrived at the airport by 6.30pm – three hours before take-off at 9.30am to Barbados, where we will board the P&O Britannia cruise liner.

I was looking forward to a good-night’s sleep and booked a taxi to the airport for 6.00am. However, I might have known that our trip would not be free of drama.

The luggage allowance is 23kg and we each foot the bill for an extra 10kg which cost £100 each (courtesy of Thomas Cook). However, Rosemarie (aka ‘Rosiepoos’) arrived at the hotel with one huge suitcase weighing 33kg – somehow missing the small print which stipulates that the maximum weight for a single case should be 23kg!

Instead of a good night’s sleep, we tried to figure out how to resolve the crisis. Neither Jen or myself had room in our suitcases to accommodate some of Rosiepoo’s vast clothes and we worried that shops at the airport might not be open at 6am for her to purchase a suitcase.

So at 3am in the morning she ‘phoned a friend’ who kindly and stoically agreed to bring an empty suitcase to the airport for 5,45am. Needless to say she will be forever in his debt. Looks like we’ll all be sleeping on the eight-hour flight!

 

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