Paul and Sandy on holiday: 10 December 2011

We all woke up this morning quite early and feeing fine. It was raining, but who cares, we're going on a cruise.
Paul and Adam ducked out to Coles for a bit of last minute shopping, then we had about an hour to spare before the shuttle came. Then, all of a sudden, disaster - Paul became violently ill - the sort of ill I've usually only seen after a night on the rum - but there was certainly no alcohol involved here!
We got onto the shuttle and started off to the port, but Paul had to get off the shuttle he was so sick. Adam and I continued on with the luggage, and spend the rest of the ride to the cruise port working out what we needed to do if Adam was to go on the cruise without us.
When we got there, Adam went and checked in, and I waited. Paul in the meantime managed to find a chemist who gave him the best wonder drugs a chemist can hand out, and eventually he made his way to the port - looking a lot better but still nowhere near well.
They're quite paranoid about illnesses on ship, particularly that sort of illness - they're not really set up do deal with hundreds of sick passengers. So, we knew there was a chance that they still wouldn't let him board. The nurse gave him the third degree but decided that it was ok for him to come on board. However, it was only on condition that he stays in the cabin at least until the doctor sees him, which won't be until later tonight. They were quite serious about him not mingling with the other passengers - we got a personal escort to the front of the security and Customs checks and right up to our room.
Paul has mostly been sleeping this afternoon, and we now just have to wait and see what the doctor says.
As far as the cruise itself goes - so far so good! Adam's cabin is small but quite nice, all of our luggage has arrived, I've had some food (which was good) and a welcome glass of champagne (which I stupidly drank - combined with the seasickness tablets it knocked me around a bit - but it's all good). Now, it's off to the internet cafe to sign up for internet access and post this, and some photos. Most other cruise ships we have been on have been upgraded to have ship-wide WiFi, but on this one it's only available on decks 5 6 and 7 apparently, and we're on deck 11. (Later note - this didn't actually get posted until we got to Vanuatu, as the ship's internet is the worst I've ever come across - more on this later!)
The minisuite is very nice - basically a bigger room than usual so there's a two-seater lounge chair plus two other comfy chairs and an extra coffee table. And, the bathroom actually has a bath - I have to enjoy this as it's certainly the only mini-suite we'll ever have!
Went to dinner with Adam at the main restaurant - all very nice and of course the price is right since the food there is all paid for as part of the fare :-)
We ate during a monstrous thunderstorm though - the captain actually warned us about it before we ran into it warning everyone to stay inside and not go out onto the decks. Most people took notice of it, except some smokers braved the storm of course!