Mediterranean Cruise - Day 1

I've been waffling about these posts for two weeks, since we got back off our cruise. I couldn't decide exactly how I wanted to post about our cruise, because loads happened and I wanted to document it, but I also didn't want to write everything in minute detail. I kept a pretty good journal which is for me (and also features hilarious additions by Lee), and I wasn't sure how much I wanted to share on my blog. I've never felt this way before, so I've had a good old think about blogging and exactly what I put out here.

I think I'm mostly comfortable with what I do share - outfit photos, places I've been, good times we've had just relaxing around the house, all that stuff. I don't think the blog will change at all. But equally, I'm not going to dissect the cruise like I would usually, and I hope that's okay. It was just very special and lovely, and I'm okay with not sharing all of it.

Anyway, the cruise was my mum's idea. She's been talking about it for a while and earlier this year decided to do it this year to mark her 60th. To begin with we were talking about a friend of mine going with us, because Lee gets very motion sick, but then he said he wanted to come, so we booked it. I have to admit I was worried he'd be sick, but people kept saying that it was different on a cruise ship, especially one as big as ours. More on that later!

We flew to Barcelona on the Sunday and got aboard the Norwegian Epic. When it was built it was the third largest cruise ship in the world, which is not surprising because it's huge! It's more than a 1000 feet in length and has fifteen full decks inside. It carries 4100 passengers and around 1700 crew, and we were sailing at near to full capacity.

I'll write more about my tips for cruising in a different post, because it really is a holiday unlike any other. There were Brits on board, but tons of Americans, Canadians, Australians, Chinese, Japanese, all kinds of people. People were so friendly, we spoke to a bunch of strangers! Plus all the staff were so courteous, nothing was too much trouble for them. I really enjoyed that aspect.

We set sail and watched that from the sun deck (where we spent most of our time), and then went to Taste restaurant, which ended up being our favourite. We were all tired after a long day travelling, but really excited to be aboard!

My photos are a mixture of: my phone, my camera, Lee's camera, my mum's camera, my stepdad's camera. I can't differentiate (except all the square ones are off my phone), so thank you to my travel companions for taking such lovely photos!

This first photo was taken at 3.30am and was to prove to my mother that I was awake and up. I actually hadn't managed to sleep all night - Lee had about three hours but I couldn't drop off because I was paranoid about waking up! Oh well.

Leaving Barcelona. I actually would've really liked to see Barcelona, Lee and I should go for a weekend

Also Barcelona

Our ship from the coach as we first approached it

Cheers on the sun deck!

Leaving port

Me and my mum

The pilot boat. Honestly all four of us really enjoyed watching us arrive and leave places, it is so well done!

Sun setting - we saw quite a few sunsets which was glorious

After we'd eaten on Deck 5 we went back to the fresh air; we were in the minority which was fine for us as it was quiet! The bar up here was really nice and had about fifteen cocktails on its menu - I think I tried most of them

Finally I took this of myself because although I was exhausted I was really happy and relaxed.