Disclaimer, all characters, scenarios, places, names etc are fictitious. If by chance they remind you of someone its all in your mind.
A winter cruise around the Mediterranean with my Grand parents was dropped in my lap with no way out of it. My dad David Watson had booked it for their 60th wedding anniversary grandad Bob and granny Jackie thought they had been given the best present ever. A 5 star luxury cruise with all the extras, a tour in every port, the top drinks package, tips paid for and two grand spending money. Our house keeper was going as well, to look after them, but she only got a basic package, the tours and a months pay for the 14 days on top of her wages.
Then she went and broke her shoulder 3 days before the trip, that's when Dad dropped his bombshell on me, I was going to have to take her place. He could manage without me at work for the two weeks, plus gran thought the sun shone out of my arse, his words not mine. All I had to do was keep them company, which was true as they did pretty much look after themselves. Once they were up, they mostly just sat about doing nothing. Mrs Jackson sorted out their meds, their clothes for the day, made meals for them and me and dad.
My mum was no longer with us, she had left 2 years previous to find herself as she told dad. But I knew she left to be with her hairdresser, ok maybe I was putting two and two together but he disappeared at the same time as her. Leaving his wife and daughter to run the business and she hadn't heard a word from him, since that day he said he was off.
I know all this because I was fucking his daughter at that time. We had since broken up not my choice, or maybe it was, but she wanted more, she was 22 and wanted commitment and I wasn't willing to give it. I was only 20 at the time and was enjoying my life to the full, I wasn't ready for moving in together, even though I know it would have had its advantages. I only saw her at weekends,mainly because I worked till late 3 nights a week in the club my dad owned.
Believe me I tried my hardest to get out of going, but gran wouldn't accept anyone from an agency to replace Mrs Jackson. it had to be someone she could trust and when grandad had suggested me to dad, it was a done deal all behind my back.
Dad told me he would try to get me an upgrade and a full drinks package but he wasn't sure it could be done at this late stage.
So there I was handing our passports over to the lady behind the desk in Gatwick aiport for our 10am flight to Barcelona, after a nights stay at the Hilton hotel. The two hours with gran and grandad at the airport flew by, me pushing gran around in a wheelchair and grandad plodding along with his walking stick, looking around the duty free. Stopping at the cafe for a quick drink, a bit too early for a beer, grans words not mine. Then a relatively quick flight to Barcelona, a taxi to the ship and thats when I saw the queue to book in, it was full of old people. The youngest person I could see was maybe 50, it looked more like a Saga Cruise than P and O. we got booked in and shown to our rooms, fortunately for me dad had got an upgrade, nothing as good as gran and grandads suite, but at least in wasn't the basic inside cabin. I now had a balcony with sea views.
I had thought that a reasonably looking 6 foot tall, fit 22 year old, would stand a chance of pulling a bird whilst we cruised the med. But I'm afraid Ben Watson, thats me by the way, was going to be disappointed, the only way of getting a bit, would be with a young female crew member.
Grandad also spotted it, telling me I was on the wrong cruise for a bit of fun, with a nod and a wink. Then he added, maybe all the younger passengers had already boarded. We went off to the welcome meeting in the gala hall,
from what I could see in here, I was on a Saga cruise. Ok a few of the female crew members in there, were, close to my age. But I didn't see one and think mmmm nice. The meeting finished and we went off to see if our rooms were ready. Grans and grandads was according to housekeeping, so off we went.
No wonder this room cost a packet, it was massive. There was a welcome basket of fruit, a bottle of champagne cooling in a bucket of ice. On the bed they had made 2 swans out of the towels and a silver tray with 4 chocolates on it. Gran had spotted these as well and told us both hands off they are for her, we both knew better than to protest. I help them get settled in and went back to housekeeping, where I got a very nice surprise, an upgrade to a small suite across the corridor from gran. The room was plush not as big as gran's but I had stuck gold as far as I was concerned, no bottle of champagne or fruit, but i did get the chocolates and a towel swan.
Once I had settled in I popped across the corridor to tell gran and grandad the good news. They was ready to go down for a look around and pop into the bar for a drink, then go straight into our 7.30 evening meal slot on table DC461 in the Golden days dining room. I was hoping not to be going into that one, it sounded like they had put all the old people in it. Unfortunately I was with them, Grandad had asked if it was possible, and they had changed it for the 14 days to be dining with them.
I needed to do a quick change, I had shorts and a tee shirt on which was not allowed in the dining room, it was trousers and shirt, luckily jackets were optional.
The ship was somewhat of a rabbit warren, corridors everywhere leading off in all directions. Definitely a case of gran holding onto the map we had been given at reception. We eventually found a bar close to the dining and settled down for a quick beer. One turned into two before we moved, to go for our meal, judging by the crowd going that way, I was wrong when I thought the golden room meant for the oldest lot. But I still hadn't seen anyone who looked younger than 50. Finding our table wasn't a problem, you had to file past a large board showing the table locations before checking in with the lady at the lectern, who was maybe in her 40's. A table for 11 people according to the chart in the far corner, the easiest route for the wheelchair was going to be round the outer edge. We had no problem finding our places there was only three chairs left. Gran was sat between me and grandad, opposite us was a couple in their early 50's Fred and Diane, next to them was a group of 6 ladies of varying ages from maybe late 40's to early 60's. I was sat next to a blonde lady called Grace, the table was already full of half full bottles and glasses of wine, it looked they had a head start on us. The meal was excellent and the company was surprisingly good, I seemed to get on well with Grace and the quiet spoken Janet who was next to her. Maybe it could have been the amount of alcohol that was consumed, if Grace wasn't filling my glass gran was.
All I can say is that I woke up in my room alone at 4am, fully clothed on top of the bed and busting for a pee. Job done I got stripped and back in bed, wondering if I had done anything bad. I was quite surprised I didn't have a bad hangover and that I made breakfast, with only 5 minutes to spare. There was only me at our allocated table, so it was a quick breakfast, a nice full English with plenty of black coffee. I wondered if I should check on gran and grandad before going back into my room, in the end I decided I just had too. I knocked on the door and grandad opened it, when he saw me he just laughed and ask how was I feeling. I had to admit I had been better and was unsure how I got to bed. According to him I pushed gran back their room and then went to mine, said goodnight and went in.
They all missed me at breakfast and called me a lightweight, they were all going to the back pool deck for the day if I wanted to join them, otherwise they would see me for tonight's dinner. Grandad asked me to push gran there if I didn't mind, it was no problem for me, but I did tell him I wouldn't be stopping, I was going exploring the ship. They had saved gran and grandad two loungers so I just said hi all and left them to it. I did manage to find about a dozen younger people in one of the bars but they were all couples. At the large pool in the bow area of the ship there was a large group of young men sat near the bar in the pool. I wandered over to join them when it became obvious this lot was a group of gays. By lunch time I had just about done a full tour of the ship, any hopes of finding some single female cruise passengers had long gone. I ended up having a cheese burger and a beer in one of the bars and struck up a conversation with the bar man. Unfortunately he confirmed for me this was the wrong cruise for me to have any chance of meeting single young women, but I should be very wary of the groups of the older ones. They hunt in packs looking for victims which are normally the cruise staff, get them pissed and take them back to their staterooms for a fuck. Most of the guys that aren't single avoid them but the others just fill their boots. So if was into shagging older women, I was on the right cruise.