Here is the first 'proper' vlog of our recent cruise. We began with an early start so we could have a leisurely morning, dotting Is and crossing Ts, before heading the East Midlands Airport. We'd booked meet and greet for the car because we were landing in the wee small hours of the morning and, having done that once, did not fancy standing shivering while waiting for a shuttle bus to take us to the car park. It went very smoothly and I would recommend it.
Once we checked in we went through security of the pre-booked Fast Track and found the Lounge and sat in the comfy seats to have a hot lunch. Both Fast Track and the Lounge were subject to a charge but were worth every penny. It didn't seem very long at all before we were called to the Gate.
The flight was a bit late taking off but managed to land pretty much on time at Dalaman. Apart from our cases taking a very long time to appear, our passage through immigration and customs went without any trouble and we walked outside to find a good number of reps to guide us the the right bus - vital because there were a lot! It's around 90 minutes driving to reach Marmaris and the bus dropped us right next to the embarkation point. It went very well and we quickly found ourselves boarding the ship, doing the muster drill and heading the buffet, Islands, to grab a late bite before we found our cabin and had our first night's sleep.
Next day was a sea day and was very windy. We spent most of the day exploring the ship and it didn't take long at all to get our bearings. It was Dress To Impress night on both sea days so we poshed ourselves up, let two of the professional photographers try to make us look presentable and ate in 47 degrees, the Main Dining Room. It was a great start to the cruise.
I mention that I fell seriously ill in February 2023. To add a bit of detail, in two weeks I went from being able to walk five miles without thinking about it to struggling to walk from one room to another. I was rushed into hospital by my GP and was there for almost a month before a diagnosis was made. I had developed a rare auto-immune disease called vasculitis; in particular the GPA form aka Wegener's Disease. I'm effectively in remission now, hence my consultant letting me off the leash in January. We were Googling like mad the same day! The cruise came up as a Facebook advert and it ticked a lot of boxes so here we were, on our second cruise some 17 years after the first!