What a picture of happiness and sheer relief on our faces that we all made it on our Xmas Cruise on the Fred Olsen Ship the Balmoral for our weekend cruise to snowy Amsterdam.
This was a weekend full of drama !!!
For me it had many highs and many lows as the story below will tell you.
Saturday 19th December
We all met up at HQ for Secret Santa before boarding our coach for the long awaited Xmas Party Cruise to Amsterdam. Many thanks to Richard for my secret santa some lovely M&S Choc truffles and a soap on the rope . (He put his name on it so there was no secret LOL)
Little did we know how the day was going to end we knew it wouldnt be easy as the news was full of congestion and road closures at Dover .
The journey down the M40/M25 was not bad we saw plenty of snow.... but then we received the news that roads were shut and there was a 12 hour delay getting to Dover.... but we were going to continue and see what happens otherwise we were going back home.
Just over 6 miles outside of Dover it appeared we were going nowhere, a group of us decided to be brave and walk ... but then the traffic started moving so we all jumped back on the coach apart from two very brave souls Richard and Iain who were up for the challenge of just keeping walking.....
Then tragedy struck... we were going nowhere and with the prospect of not getting the cruise... we all decided that to walk was the only way we would get where we needed to be .. otherwise we were going
home.
Our bosses were lucky enough not to walk they were travelling in a vehicle with heated seats !!!! They managed to get through by taking side roads but still only got there just before us ( Oh to be at the top of the tree) !!!
At this sign post this is where it went terribly wrong for me.... my knee was hurting and it was difficult to walk but I had to continue nobody was going to give me a lift as there was no traffic moving I had to keep trying....
I made it through the snow and ice, though as we caught sight of the ship I was having to drag my left leg as the pain was unbearable..... I was nearly there then I started slipping and had to be literally dragged the last section by Alex (Thank you Alex). Then word came that a minibus was coming to take us to the ship I was so relieved.... I was going to make it.....A big thank you to Andrew Gardner who carried my luggage on to the ship and made sure I could get to my cabin.
At last evening time....... see how relieved we all look.... surprising what a few glasses of white or red does to cheer you up after a fabulous evening meal....
Talking of white or red ......... there is always one isnt there !!!!
Red wine all over himself and Chloe who was sat next to him.......Staff on the Balmoral were great... suggested putting white wine on the red wine and even cleaned Faz's shirt and Chloes top for them free of charge was back with them the following morning... hows that for service.
Sunday 20th December
Amsterdam.......
This was the sight that met us first thing in the morning snow snow and more snow......
I had never visited Amsterdam before and was determined even with a bad knee I must not miss this else I will live to regret it.
Just to prove I made it......
There are some strange snowmen made in Amsterdam !!!!
Dont we look an attractive bunch
Alyson & Me enjoying our last meal (I had roast turkey and baked alaska scrummy)
Back in Dover and back home.
I would like to thank everyone at cruise.co.uk/victoria travel for a fab weekend and also to Fred Olsen Cruises the service was outstanding... the food was scrummy and I would also like to thank all my work colleages for helping me as I was hobbling around the decks and Amsterdam they were truly great and it shows what a fab bunch of work colleagues I have.... xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment