recently went to bruges
on one of those mini cruises. it was all a bit last-minute, as a holiday to spain had fallen through. still, i'd never been to belgium, so i was looking forward to it.
i think we'll skip straight past the atrocious coach driver who turned up late, gave us no information whatsoever and let 5 elderly passengers(his dad being one of them) start getting pissed the second they got on the coach and start with the ship. i've been on cross-channel ferries many times, so i knew pretty much what to expect regarding dining rooms/bars/shops, etc.
what i wasn't expecting was the cabins. seriously, i thought they'd put me in the broom closet by mistake. those things are too small for even an experienced cat-swinger! i decided there and then that the less time i spent in my matchbox, i mean cabin, the better.
the ship itself was rather nice, the food was good and plentiful, although curiously lacking in taste. the shops were not as expensive as the ones on the channes ferries and the bars were extremely reasonable. this resulted in me getting rather twatted on tequila slammers in the lounge bar and almost heaving all over the deck. whilst waiting for my queasy stomach to calm down, i looked out over the still, moonlit sea. it was so quiet and peaceful. then, about 10 feet from the ship, i saw a curved dorsal fin. i'm pretty sure it was either a dolphin or a tequila-based hallucination.
bruges is delightful, quaint and picturesque and smelling of chocolate. i loved it there. sadly, i didn't get to see nearly enough before we had to leave.
now, i'd taken this trip with my parents as the whole thing was their idea. what wasn't their idea was an elderly couple, both with mobility problems, being given bunk beds to sleep in. the travel company hadn't mentioned bunk beds at all. being a gentleman(i.e, he got nagged into it), my dad took the top bunk.
he fell out.
the crew couldn't have been nicer. a doctor came almost immediately to make sure he was o.k, they were given a different cabin with both beds at a normal level, my dad was wheeled around by a steward until he managed to convince them he was fine and the captain sought us out to apologise and offer any help dad needed or wanted. really, you just couldn't fault them. the captain even apologised again as we were disembarking. apart from the cabin sizes, i'd definitely do it again.

tl;dr
went on a boat, got pissed, saw a dolphin, dad fell out of bed and the people were nice.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 5 Nov 2012, 16:00, Reply)