The Intrepid Explorers are off to sunny climes again! I arrived at The Elms by 3.45a.m. to make coffee and await Andrew�s parents Carole and Peter. We set off to Stansted by to catch our 6a.m. flight to Sharm el Sheik in Egypt, where we will be transferred to the Thomson Spirit cruise liner, our home for the next week.
It started snowing as we sat in the departure lounge and we waited while they de ice the wings of the plane. We were all glad to be heading for the sunshine. The flight was predictably boring and 5� long hours later we landed at Sharm el Sheik and walked out into wonderful bright sunshine!
Our cabins 816 for us and 834 for Carole and Peter were fairly large, with a porthole in each and plenty of storage. The luggage arrived about an hour after we did and I unpacked before we explored the ship.
Spirit has 9 decks, 5 bars, 3 restaurants, 2 pools, a jacuzzi, a sauna, a beauty parlour , a cinema, a casino, some shops and a library cum internet room. Enough to keep us occupied for a week.
We checked the agenda and discovered that we sail overnight to Aquaba, Jordan and can book a � day outing to Wadi Rum which is Jordans largest Nature Reserve, after conferring we booked this for all of us.
Then we strolled around the ship trying to familiarize ourselves with the lay out, failed miserably, got lost, gave up and headed for a bar instead!
Later we went to the Compass Rose restaurant for a formal dinner. The starters and soup were good but I found the steak disappointingly tough!
Carole and Peter retired to bed afterwards and Andrew and I found a nice bar, Horizon�s, on deck 9 which served decent scotch, nice cocktails and played jazz music quietly.

Thomson Spirit	Promenade Deck
Sharm el Sheik Port	Sun Deck

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