Our First Cruise - Thursday 13/05/2010 Crete

We were back in Crete where we had joined the ship one week before. Some of the passengers were leaving the boat having done one week and some having done two; we had our second week still to come. The previous night we had noticed that luggage appeared outside cabin doors and more magically it disappeared during the evening. Now at breakfast about half the passengers were burdened by their hand luggage. In the internet café in the Village Square there had been three or four novels balanced on the window ledge now both window ledges overflowed with books as the more selfish readers finally returned their completed books rather than carry them home. All the above was explained by the simple fact - It was Change-Over day!
After breakfast we wandered into Heraklion and, using an internet walk and the ship’s map of the town, we explored quite successfully.
We returned to the ship in the early afternoon and found it to be more crowded than the previous week, in the hot tub we chatted to a couple who claimed to have taken the last cabin on the ship when volcanic ash stopped them flying out to the cruise they had booked.
On the subject of the Volcanic Ash Cloud, it closed the UK airports on a Thursday, Julia and I were in Edinburgh doing a basketball tournament but had driven there unlike many people who had travelled by air. Thursday was the Crete changeover for Ocean Village and let’s say half her passengers were due to fly home while none were able to fly in to join the ship. The company offered those due to disembark two choices, stay in a hotel in Crete until flights were restored or pay £200 pounds for another week on the ship. We would have done the second even if we had been on for two weeks but imagine the delight of people who had only booked one week!
Everywhere seemed more pressurized by the full complement of passengers but gradually things settled down. After an early dinner we watched “Sherlock Holmes” the Guy Richie film in the cinema, in my opinion this film needs a good leaving alone it was easily the worst film we endured on the cruise.
We then tried to catch the latest comedian, Martin Beaumont, but he was opening in Connexions and the place was packed. We retreated for a snack and tea in the Plantation restaurant before heading to bed.