Here is hiccup no2:
Just as we were approaching the wharf a representative of the cruise company joined the bus. He appologised to us and said that our cruise had been 'double booked'.
He hastily added that the company had booked us on another 5 star cruise ship; upgraded our cabins to deluxe status; complimentary flowers, fruit and a bottle of wine would be found in our cabins.
We all thought - "well that is very strange but however another 5 star ship should be just as good and we have got upgraded cabins. We all gave him a round of applause for resolving the problem.....that is until we saw what we got.
On arriving at the top of the wharf area in pitch blackness we found that we had to carry our hand luggage down dark, dangerous, uneven, wet & slipery steps that dissapeared into the darkness for what appeared to be forever. The fenicular was not operating so I do not know how our large suitcases materialised in the foyer of the ship. How we all got down all those steps without some injury is a miracle especially our people with bad knees and our plus 80 year olds.
Out of the darkness came a lot of men who tried to take our hand luggage & then grabbed us by the arm & took us down to the wharf level. I thought they were the ship's porters & thought at the time the Captain had sent them to aid us to the ship.
Not so! On arrival at the wharf they demanded 100 Hong Kong dollars from each of us & then dissapeared back into the darkness - obviously local misfits after a dollar.
We stepped into the ship's foyer and it was immediately apparent that this was not a five star cruise ship. Several of us confronted the shipping company representative who still unbelievably insisted that it was a five star (faded and worn carpets and all.)
I don't know what planet he thought we came from, and, why he thought we would ever accept this situation as being "allright". By this time it was close to 2 o'clock in the morning. We had no where else to go - so we decided to make the best of a bad situation & try to get some sleep.
When we got our bags upstairs to our respective cabins, more trouble was apparent. We decided to deal with that later in the morning.
All of our cabins were in the same area & at the end of the hallway attached to the "Presidents Suite" was a small lounge area which we decided to adopt as our own.
We had a few drinks in the little lounge to settle our nerves and decided to try and get some sleep as the ship was due to sail in about six hours.
Images attached: parts of the ship that were immediately obvious as worn & torn;
the presidents suites (the only one's with a double bed - but not much else);a plan of the ship's decks - not too hard to get lost on this ship; some of us having a quick drink to settle the nerves in our adopted lounge space.
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