The not so Brilliance of the Seas pt 1

We arrived in Barcelona without any hassles. We found our hostel without any hassles but when we arrived, there was no sign of the family that were supposed to be there before us. We assumed the Spanish air traffic controllers strike got them too. The manager of the hostel wanted to charge us for them not turning up, talk about sympathy. We knew that our friend Jade was there, since she arrived the day before so we went to find her and to call my mum and get an update as to her situation. After checking a few times at her hotel and just missing her, we eventually caught up with Jade. When we called mum she said her flights were cancelled and they couldnt get another flight for 2 days. She had arranged to catch a ferry, thinking it would arrive in Barcelona at 6am, but as I was on the phone with her she found out it arrived at 6pm. This did not go down well. We all had a stand by booking for a cruise that would leave at 5pm the next day on the Brilliance of the Seas and we were all looking forward to seeing Greece, Sicily, Malta and Egypt. At this point it looked like only three of us going. Back at the hostel the managers had found people to fill the beds and so graciously didnt charge us. Since we had to be up early we went to bed straight away. At 2am one guy came in drunk and started snoring so loudly it vibrated my bed across the room and woke up the whole dorm. Nice. The next morning we made our way to the port, myself, Tanya and Jade. Since we were on stand by we had to wait until most of the passengers had arrived before we coudl find out if we had a cabin. So we sat in a nearby cafe and waited. Around mid morning we received a phone call on Jade's mobile from mum. They managed to get a flight, including my Uncle from England, and should arrive around lunch time. Things seemed to come together for them which was great and they arrived at the port, albeit without luggage since the airline had lost it. It was good to see family again for the first time in four months. Now we needed to wait (again) to see if we had a cabin. The lady looking after the bookings, Monica, was awesome. She went out of her way to get us on the ship, which she did. We managed to get two cabins, one with a balcony which is almost unheard of for stand by. So we were on and looking forward to a nice 12 day cruise. Or so we thought. To be continued.