Today, I woke up in Barcelona at the hostel Benidorm before making my way to the port and boarding the Costa Favolosa for my cruise to Brazil.
I was woken up by noisy Dutch people in the room next door talking to each other as they came in from a night out at around 3:30 am. I had just fallen asleep again when, at 4:10 am, they decided to have a shower and then blow dry their hair. I got back to sleep around 4:30 am but woke again at 6 am to use the bathroom. I went back to bed and woke again at 8:30 am. I took a shower and got dressed. I put my Kindle on charge for a while so that I would have something to read when I got onboard the cruise ship.
At about 9:45 am, I closed up my case and took my things to reception to wait for Gail. We went outside, and I ordered a cab using the Cabify app on my phone. Within 10 minutes, it had arrived, and we were driven to the cruise terminal and dropped off.
We joined a queue to check in our bags, and after about 20 minutes, I had my case checked in. We then went to be checked in onboard and to get photos taken for our cruise cabin cards. As we walked through, we were pulled to one side and shown to the priority queue because of my bad legs. We were soon seen and ready to board the ship. After going through another security check and having another photo taken because the first one wasn't very clear, we were onboard.
We sat down and had a cocktail, a Costa Sea. After finishing our drinks, we went to the ship safety briefing and located our evacuation point in case of an emergency. We then went to the buffet and had something to eat before going to the main bar for a cocktail, a Costa Dream. After this, I went to the Excursion desk as my app showed that three of the five cruises I had pre-booked had been cancelled.
The cable car that was to take me to the top of the Teide volcano in Tenerife would not be running, so they switched me to a different trip, which went to the park but didn't include the now cancelled cable car ride. The other two trips that had been cancelled had not been cancelled, but the ship hadn't received my bookings for them. The girl at the excursion desk rebooked them for me, and I am now going on five excursions again. Gail booked one or two for herself before going to one of the dance lessons onboard the ship.
In the evening, I went to dinner and found that I was sitting at a table of eight on my own. I had asked to sit at a small table, but I guess the booking website doesn't send any requests to the ship. After a while, four people sat at the other end of the table from me, so I still had no dinner companions. About 20 minutes after I got there, another English man joined me, and I introduced myself to Mal. We sat and had dinner, which was quite lovely, but they took 40 minutes from when I sat down to take my order. The food was very nice, and after the meal, we were joined by Gail who had initially gone to the restaurant's wrong floor and then sat at a different table to me with some other English people.
When we had finished dinner, we went to a bar and got a drink before going to the theatre to see tonight's show. At the theatre, Gail and I were joined by Mal, whom I had met at dinner, and Dwight and Tessa, with whom Gail had been sat. A singer called Netzi entertained us, he was a good singer who sang songs in Italian, Spanish, French and English to entertain the multi-national audience.
I enjoyed the show, but after all yesterday's walking and today's walking, I was in quite a bit of pain. I decided to get a bottle of water and go back to my cabin, take some painkillers, and go to bed.
I had sat down near a bar and ordered my drinks when Gail joined me and got herself a cocktail. She quickly received her cocktail, but the waitress told me that I couldn't have a large bottle of water unless I paid for it.
She informed me that my drinks package only included a small ½ litre bottle of water a day and that I couldn't have a big bottle unless I paid for it. I exchanged heated words with her, explaining that it had never been a problem before, but she wouldn't give me a large bottle. She said that one time, she would bring me two small bottles of water. She gave me my water and went away to get me my coffee but was soon back to tell me my drink package didn't include coffee. Heated words were again exchanged, and I asked why I could drink alcohol all day and night but couldn't get water or coffee without paying.
When she left, I picked up the water she had left and returned to my cabin to go to bed.