Decisions. Decisions.

We’ve been looking at cruises with the company our disabled friend & his wife have suggested. They certainly look more easily accessible than the company we went with, for all their good words. However, after our recent experience we’re wary of suggesting we all went on this cruise without actually testing the wheelchair facilities of the ship & the transport down to Southampton. Although we know we can cope with inadequate facilities somehow, I’m not so sure our friends would manage. We want them to come away with a positive experience so they feel able to go away by themselves another time.

Our problem is that we’re not convinced cruisers. Being in port, often a different port a different day, is fine provided I, with my wheelchair can get off. It’s the days stuck all day at sea that get to us. On the whole the entertainment provided on ship doesn’t do much for us. We get bored, rather than relaxed.

Normally, on holiday, we spend part of each day going out exploring. We visit churches, museums, art galleries, pretty villages, lovely countryside etc. Even on a very wet day, we will sit somewhere where we can see the world passing by, people scuttling in & out, wildlife flitting across. On a ship, there is nothing but sea &, for us, one bit of sea looks like any other bit of sea. Okay you may see the odd passing ship but that’s about it. Even birds don’t often fly far from land.

For all these reasons, we’re uncertain about cruising. We have found a couple of Christmas cruises that only have 2 full days at sea. They are both in the Baltic area. We then worry about how cold the very short days of December would be. There’s sure to be snow in Norway by then, & probably Denmark too. It would solve the question of what to do for Christmas itself but do we really want another holiday so soon after we’ve got back from Italy? We’re only just beginning to feel we’re getting back from our last cruise in July.

If we were to go then, & all worked out well, we could then consider a trip to Norway in May or June. Again we hadn’t intended to see the fjords again quite so soon, but there are a few different ports to visit & it would be a different season & a different ship.

What to do? What to do? It all keeps whirling around our heads. We’re aware if we don’t decide soon, it will be too late to organise a disabled cabin. There are not that many on a ship so they quickly go.

Decisions. Decisions.