Friday, December 16, Day 5 - Continued (With Better Internet?)
Alright - so, it's 5:15 AM here, so hopefully fewer people uploading photos and using the interwebz. Here's hoping.
The good news is, with my post yesterday we were basically at the point where we had made it to the boat. The thing that was interesting is that we utilized the AMAWaterways connection/transfer from the airport, and it was really smooth to get from A to B. However, the traffic was horrendous once we got down to the river. We were actually going to overnight on the boat IN Budapest, as our tours tomorrow were in/around Budapest. As such, they were offering a free shuttle from the boat to downtown and back again, with the last boat leaving at 4pm. Given the traffic, and the time, we weren't sure how anyone could actually get anything done in town, since you'd have to legit ride to town, step off the bus, and then step back on again to suffer in traffic to get back to the boat.
Boarding the boat was SUPER easy. Granted, it was starting to rain, and the ramp to get down to the boat was kind of steep, so I didn't get any exterior photos as we boarded. We were directed to the lounge area and told that we would have lunch and drinks shortly.
AMAWaterways is known/promoted for their top class food options. We were handed our "menu" which consisted of bistro sandwiches, a pasta dish, and some pastry desserts. Once the food was delivered to our table, we were either a) all hungry as heck, or b) the food was actually delicious. Don't let the expressions of Mom and Bill deceive you - we were actually glad to be on the boat, and I think Mom especially was elated to be off the plane.
In typical Andy fashion, I snapped a hallway picture. I always find the corridors of ships to be fascinating with their The Shining style elongation effect. AmaViola did not disappoint.
Once we finished our lunch, I decided to inquire about a room upgrade "offer." Depending on how full the ship is, you can sometimes score really good deals for an upgraded room category. We were able to do this on Celebrity for a nominal fee, and I figured what the hey, let's try here. Our original room was a Category CA (short for Cavalletto! Figured it was perfect for us!), but I knew we didn't have an actual balcony. Instead our room had the French balcony, which given that we are doing a Winter cruise should be more than sufficient.
We were in luck, as there were several vacant rooms available, one of which was a one category upgrade. CA to BA (Bill and Andy?!). We would be going from 170 sq ft to 210 sq ft rooms, and we'd be getting a balcony AND a larger restroom. She showed me a floor plan of our CA room, and then the BA room. The CA room has a weird corner bathroom, and a triangular shaped shower. Something about it just felt awkward. The price was a smidge more than I wanted to pay, so I said I'd talk to Bill and come back. I explained it all to mom and Bill, and mom was like "I'm totally upgrading," while Bill was like "I just want to see the rooms, let's go." So we met back up with Rika (cruise director - pronounced like the "rika" in Paprika), and went through the options. Above the CA to BA upgrade, there are actually upgrades to AB and AA categories, and then Suites after that. Mom totally jumped the ship and upgraded to AB, which is like 250 sq ft instead of the 170 that she signed up for. She dropped a floor, but gained a boatload (hah!) of room.We ended up with the CA to BA upgrade, and went from room 325 to 322. See below.
For reference, the "balcony" is the section on the left, while the French Balcony is the section on the right. Behind those two chairs are doors that open, so in good weather you have a full floor to ceiling opening to the outside world. When it's like it is this week, you don't open those doors.
Speaking of weather - backing up a smidge. I don't think I shared this, and if I did, well I still find it amusing so you get to hear it again. When we were flying in to Budapest, our Pilot informed us that we were all in for a treat, as the temperature in Budapest was DOUBLE the temperature in London. Being American, I fell hook, line, and sinker for the comment and was excited to have warmer weather. Unfortunately we're in Europe, and London was a balmy 2*, while Budapest was clocking in a 4*. Celsius. So yes, it was double the temp, but it was STILL cold.
Anyway, we spent some time unpacking and getting familiar with the room and amenities. Having not had a chance to explore much, I grabbed my camera, and Bill and I headed up to the Sun Deck where we were going to snap some photos and watch "push off" as we repositioned closer to downtown, or at least a little further down (up?) the river.
Hmm. As I'm sitting here writing this, I apparently didn't transfer those photos over from the camera, and I don't have my cord with me. I'll do another interlude, because I've YET to inform you of the good surprise Bill had when packing up the London hotel.
Speaking of Bill, we'll continue with Friday. Bill. So, we were checking out the sun deck, which is the tippity top of our super huge boat. I was heading back towards the stairs we came up, when Bill noticed some folks near the back of the boat. Being social, we went back to say hi and see what they saw. We then met Laren, Beth, and their group. From Texas, they were extremely friendly. They were cold, so they took their leave and went down the stairs at the back of the boat.
Having not been back here yet, we followed them..Bill grabbed the railing, stepped onto the top step, and in cartoon banana peel fashion, his foot went out from under him, his toosh hit the top step, and he slid on his backside ALL THE WAY DOWN the metal stairs. Similar to a cartoon, I was at the top watching with absolutely nothing I could do to help. From my perspective, I will admit that it looked like Bill was going down a slide. It did not appear to be a rough journey, at least until he got to the bottom. At the bottom of the stairs, Laren and Beth were still trying to get the door opened. Beth got the door open about the time Bill was halfway down the slide...I mean, stairs. Laren took a step, only to have Bill crash into his legs.
At this point, I want to interject a visual. Bill has both hands holding the handrails, his butt is on the steps, and his legs are spread WIDE open trying to stop. Laren is a taller, older gentleman. He has a beer in his hand, and is oblivious to Bill coming down the stairs. As Bill crashes into the back of Laren's legs, continuing the cartoon visual, the Beer goes up, over, and crashes all over Laren. Poor guy got soaked with a Beer. Bill surprisingly did not get ANY on himself.
Thankfully Laren wasn't injured - just lost a beer. We got Bill upright again, and tried to confirm that he wasn't hurt. We found ourselves on Floor 2, which was where mom's room is. We stopped by the reception area, and told the front desk what had happened, and Bill strongly encouraged them to rope that stair way off. If that had been an 80 year old woman sliding down the stairs, there'd be a broken hip or two.
We then proceeded to mom's room, and as we were waiting for the door to open, Bill started shaking and was holding back tears. He'd been holding back his pain reaction until he was in semi-privacy. After JUST getting his back squared away....it was now way out of whack. We grabbed some Aleve cream from mom, and went back to the room. I'd love to upload the photo of his backside, but Blogger has strict rules about publishing nude content, so sorry - you don't get to see Bill's toosh. No open wounds, but there were some welts that were pretty gnarly.
Bill laid himself down gently on his stomach, and just gave up. He wasn't moving, ever, he said and told me to go take pictures of Budapest.
Ok, so Blogger won't let me put the cursor between those two photos, but whatever. The ship pushed off the pier, and went about a mile downriver, only to turn around and come back upriver to the new pier. The above is the Parliament building, which was a wicked good photo opportunity. I took about a gazillion photos, and never could decide which one I liked best. I love the warm glow on the first photo, but Bill likes the second photo. Both are neat.
A couple more photos from the repositioning, and I went back downstairs to check on Bill. Dinner was set to begin at 7:30, so I wanted to check in with him and see how he was feeling. He told me he didn't want to go to dinner, which I understood. I met mom downstairs in the main (only?) dining room, and dinner got underway. About 1 appetizer into dinner, Bill texted that he was going to go see the doctor, so I abandoned mom, and met Bill in the lobby.
Rika, our cruise director, turned into an absolutely amazing human being at this point, and called for an ambulance to take Bill to the ER for x-rays. She encouraged us to wait in the room, and they'd come to us when the paramedics got here. TWO HOURS LATER, Bill said "nope, not going anymore, cancel the ambulance. If it takes this long for them to show up, what ghettoness awaits us at the ER?" So, he got undressed, crawled under the covers, and accepted the pain. About two minutes later (no joke), we get a knock on the door. The EMTs were here. Rika joined us in the room, as she had to translate for us.
The EMT looked at Bill's back (and toosh!) and then had Bill lay on his stomach. He proceeded to KNOCK on Bill's spine to assess the damage. After much Hungarian back and forth, he let us know that he did not think that Bill had broken/fractured anything. Even if something WAS fractured, there was legit nothing they'd do about it. So, absent Bill wanting to know for sure, he suggested some pain creams/medications and said "it'll hurt for a bit, but it'll get better...eventually."
Once they left, I called for room service since apparently Bill WAS hungry. They don't do room service, BUT they were serving late night snacks in the lounge. I headed out to grab some food for Bill, and ran into the captain AND the EMTs in the lounge, enjoying late night snacks together!! No wonder it takes two hours for them to show up! Hah.
Ok, laptop is about dead, but that also finishes up our Friday, and embarkation day!
My first reaction as I started reading about Bill's slip on the stairs was a visual but then said a Lil prayer that Bill was alright. Do they have message therapist on board that once he starts to loosen up & isn't hurting so much could possibly help.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your adventures!