Today I wake up in Barcelona at the hostel Benidorm before making my way to the port & boarding the Costa Favolosa for my cruise to Brazil.
Departing from Barcelona.
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 & 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 & woke again at 8:30 am. I had a shower & 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 & took my things down to reception to wait for Gail. We went outside & 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 & dropped off.
We joined a queue to check in our bags & after about 20 minutes I had my case all checked in. We then went to be checked in onboard & to get photos taken for our cruise cabin cards. As we walked through we were pulled to one side & shown to the priority queue because of my bad legs. We were soon seen & ready to board the ship. After going through another security check & having another photo taken, because the first one wasn't very clear, we were onboard.
We sat down & had a cocktail, a Costa Sea. After finishing our drinks we went to the ship safety briefing & located our evacuation point in case of an emergency. We then went to the buffet & 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 3 of the 5 cruises I had pre-booked had been cancelled.
The cable car that was to take me to the top of the Teide volcano on 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 & I am now going on 5 excursions again. Gail booked 1 or two for herself before going to one of the dance lessons onboard the ship.
In the evening I went to dinner to find I was sat at a table of eight on my own. I had asked to be sat at a small table, I guess the booking website doesn't send any requests to the ship. After a while, 4 people were 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 did join me & I introduced myself to Mal. We sat & had dinner which was quite nice but they took 40 minutes from when I sat down, to take my order. The food was very nice & after the meal, we were joined by Gail who had originally gone to the wrong floor of the restaurant & was then sat at a different table to me with some other English people.
When we had finished dinner we went to a bar & got a drink before going to the theatre to see tonight's show. At the theatre, Gail & I were joined by Mal whom I had met at dinner & Dwight & Tessa whom Gail had been sat with. A singer called Netzi entertained us, he was a good singer who sang songs in Italian, Spanish, French & English to entertain the multi-national audience.
I enjoyed the show but after all yesterday's walking & the walking today I was in quite a bit of pain & decided to get a bottle of water & go back to my cabin, take some painkillers & go to bed.
I had sat down near a bar & ordered my drinks when Gail joined me & got herself a cocktail. She was quickly served 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 & that I couldn't have a big bottle unless I paid for it. I exchanged heated words with her, explaining it had never been a problem before but she wouldn't give me a large bottle. She did say that this one time she would bring me two small bottles of water. She gave me my water & 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 & I asked why I could drink alcohol all day & night but couldn't get water or coffee without paying.
When she left I picked up the water she had left & returned to my cabin to go to bed.