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On the Monday morning following the barbecue, Jinnie was sat at her desk compiling a list of people she was going to have to brief about, firstly, the new corporate identity and then style book every company was going to have to use, and, secondly, the expanded ‘retirement meals day’. She had started with a single list and had rapidly realised the while just about every company needed to know about the new corporate identity and style, not every company needed to know about the expanded retirement meals day.
Jinnie saw Nigel passing her office and called him in. ‘Would it be possible to brief a load of senior managers about the new corporate identity simultaneously over the network,’ she asked. ‘I don’t see why not,’ replied Nigel. ‘I think it might be a good idea if we set it up in the Board Room. We have a proper camera in there and we could set it up with you, Caroline and anyone else with a nice background and decent microphones. I think our company Teams business contract allows for 300 to participate in a meeting, is that enough.’
‘That sounds good,’ said Jinnie. ‘I think I am going to need two meetings. One with representatives of every company to talk about the corporate identity and another with just our restaurants for the pensioners meal day. Can we set it up for late this week, as you know I’m on holiday from the weekend. But I have drafted an email, and I just need to add in the date, time and access code.’
‘Let’s call it Thursday,’ said Nigel. ‘Morning for the Identity and afternoon for the Restaurants. Give me half an hour and I’ll be back with the access code, let’s say 10 am and 2 pm. I can have the style guide, and the Logos set up for everyone to download by then. But I have an idea, I’ll set up the Logo on your email signature and so it’s on all the meeting invitation and let’s see who notices.’
***
At ten am on Thursday morning, Jinnie, Caroline and Nigel sat in the boardroom in front of a background of the London skyline. The hired-in professional cameraman focused in on Jinnie and held up a thumb to show they were live across the world, even if it was six in the morning in the Americas. Jinnie smiled into the camera and said, ‘Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I know it is a little early for some of you, but I have an important announcement for you. I think all of you know me, but today I’m joined by Caroline, who oversees group publicity, and Nigel, who is the group Information Director.’
‘I’m going talk you around the background to the announcement, Caroline will take us through the implementation and Nigel the technical details, and then we hope we can answer any questions.’ Jinnie explained how she had recently read an article that described the group as ‘secretive’, something that was never intended. How on her travels around the group every company had a unique identity, so much so that many employees hadn’t realised they were a division of a much larger group. The first step down the line of bringing the group together had been the quarterly newsagent letter, which Caroline was in charge of. As an aside, she said that the second edition would be out soon. Like the first edition, it was going to be four A4 pages, but she had authorised the 3rd edition to double in size.
Jinnie explained that now was the time to introduce the second phase of make the Group more homogenous, by every company using some common items, which Caroline would explain. Caroline took up the story, saying how there was no clear connection between, say, Aunty JoJo’s and the Sybaritic chain or Dark Kitchen Limited and Franks Ice Cream, when in effect they were all sister companies.
Consequently, the Group board had decided to implement a common identity across all Group companies. From now on all letterheads, memos, emails, bills, orders, drawing, in fact any document would have a similar appearance, with the new company Logo and Name in the new standardised corporate font centred at the top of the page and the Strap line comprising the Logo and the wording ‘A TT SuperBurger Group Company’ at the foot of the page, centred right. Of course, it was recognised that some of the Group Companies where not 100% owned and their strap line would say ‘A TT SuperBurger Group Affiliate Company.’
Caroline then switched to a pedestal camera and showed the audience several documents in the new style, before explaining how they had tried to cover all situations but there may well be some they had thought of. So, the style manual was available to download immediately from the company network and that Nigel would tell them from where shortly. She then said that the body all letters, memos and emails was to be in Arial 12 fonts. This had been chosen because it was a clean, modern font and available free on Word, the company standard word processing program. The Strap Line and Company name were in Montserrat Bold, another free font also available in Word, and the Logo was in Navy Blue on Letter Heads but could be black if the document was printed on a monochrome printer.
Jinnie took over again and told everyone that they were expected to use the new corporate style as soon as possible on any document they produced in-house. That included under the signature line on emails. But so as not to waste money, if you had a stock of pre-printed documents, like Letter Heads, then the old stock should continue be used and only replaced when reordering.
Nigel message was simple, he told everyone where on the network to find the Style manual and how to download it, saying it included all the information necessary for a printer setting up his press for any corporate document, including the exact position of the strap line on a sheet of A4, A5 or a compliments slip. He also pointed out that document templates registered in the SAP Central depository were being modified by head office staff and would go online at 12 noon GMT that day, so everyone could start switching as soon as they left the meeting.
Nigel then added that the IT department of each company should have enough knowledge to upgrade to the new standard, but his Head Office experts were available to help should any problems crop up, and he gave them a special number on the internal telephone network. Jinnie then asked for questions and between them she, Caroline and Nigel seemed to have answered them, and Jinnie called the meeting over at about 12:15.
***
Jinnie, Caroline and Nigel retreated to Jinnie’s office for a sandwich lunch and coffee. While eating an Egg and Tomato Sandwich, Caroline said, “I thought that went well. I hope this afternoon goes as well.” Nigel said, “My people tell me there have been 223 downloads of the Corporate Style Guide so far, that’s more than one a company, I didn’t expect that.” “That is a bit of a surprise,” replied Jinnie, “but I’m not complaining, it’s not costing us like if we were to send out printed copies where there is the cost of printing and postage. If companies want printed copies they can print them themselves.”
Jinnie asked Nigel, “Did the 12 o’clock change over go ok.” “I believe so, it certainly did here in Group HQ. We don’t use many pre-printed documents; I can only think of letterheads and compliment slips. I had a word with procurement earlier this week and managed to stop an order going to the printer for fresh letterheads. I suggested he wait until this afternoon as things were changing. He said we were low on old letterhead, down to the last few reams, so I suspect we will be one of the first to change over completely.”
“Who prints our Letterheads,” asked Caroline. “I believe it’s the Potters Bar Press,” replied Jinnie. “That’s good,” replied Caroline. “It makes things easier for me when I change the heading on the Newsletter. It also gives me a decent story to fill up the additional pages with.” “I thought you were getting load of contributions,” said Jinnie. “I am,” replied Caroline. “But some are a bit light and fluffy. This and the expansion of the retirement day meal programme are a bit more substantial.”
Nigel drained his coffee and said, “Right ladies, I off to make sure everything is still OK. I don’t think you will need me to sit in on this afternoon’s meeting. I send one of my team to sit in the wings just in case something technical goes wrong.” “Thanks Nigel,” said Jinnie. “Let me know if anyone comes up with a major problem. I can’t see this one taking as long as this morning’s meeting, although I expect a few moans about the cost and lots of people asking exactly what to expect.” Caroline said, “I have had a long chat with Alberto and he has written a briefing on how Trattoria Trevi handles it, and he makes it sound enjoyable.”
“My experience of the first few was they were wonderful occasions,” said Jinnie. “Perhaps I was biased, as I had old friends in the retirement home that we started with. We even had special surprise guests, the Prime Minister and the King and Queen appeared. The oldies adored it when the King and Queen worked the room.” “Gosh,” said Caroline, “what a story that would have made.”
***
Jinnie and Caroline stood outside the Board Room and talked about how the meeting had gone while watching a couple of Nigel’s team strip out the equipment that had been specially installed. Caroline said, “Thank goodness I had got that briefing document from Alberto, it answered a lot of questions.” “I agree,” said Jinnie. “It was strange, the Continental and the Sybaritic were convinced right from the get-go, but it took a bit longer to get some of the chains onside, but we did it. I think that Brian’s report that it drove customer numbers was what finally did it. That and the Canadian Aunty JoJo’s coming on board.”
“Well, you can go on holiday tomorrow evening knowing that at least all the restaurants are onside,” said Caroline. “I loved it when Trevor said he was already drawing up a list of Retirement Homes in the various locations they served.” “You are going to be very busy briefing media all over the place,” said Jinnie. “While I’m on the ship I think the best thing is if you email me. If I remember, the ship’s Internet is pretty good, but phone on board isn’t so good or cheap. We are at sea rather a lot on this cruise, I suppose it’s crossing the Bay of Biscay twice and sailing right up to Toulon.”
“I asked the twins where they were looking forward to visiting most and they said ‘Barcelona’, because we have booked to go on a tour of Barcelona’s stadium, the Camp Nou,” continued Jinnie. “It is enormous and I must admit I am rather looking forward to seeing it myself, even though I am not really a football fan. I think the twins get it from Paolo, he is football mad.”
“My girls both like football,” said Caroline. “I think it is because Arsenal Ladies played locally and their dad took them a couple of times. But they play most of their games at the Emirates now, and Tim is away a lot, so they don’t get to go and must make do with watching on TV, but they say it’s not the same.” “My two have been luckier,” replied Jinnie. “Paolo got the Embassy Box at the Emirates when we had the Bakers’ over from Canada. We all went and I must admit we had a wonderful time, the kids absolutely loved it.”
“I understand that the Embassy has also taken the box for all the home ladies’ games,” continued Jinnie. “I wonder if he can get it for a game, then you and the girls can come with us. I bet they would love that, the kids all get on so well.” “The girls would love that,” said Caroline, “but I won’t say anything to them yet, as it might not happen.” “I think it’s between seasons at the moment,” said Jinnie. “They don’t start playing again until September. If Paolo can get the box then, Tim will be home and can come. It’s a 15-person box, so there is plenty of room for the two families. Sir Nigel came last time and he loved it, perhaps I should ask him again.” “Please do,” said Caroline, “the girls really liked him.”
***
The next day was Friday, and the twins were excited as it was their last day at school before the summer holidays. They had a very easy day, they were meeting Mr Excell, who was going to be their class teacher for the next year. They didn’t know much about him, except he was deputy head and supposed to be strict. They knew there was to be a leavers’ assembly and a disco in the hall and no lessons. School finished at lunch time, and the last thing Willie said to Izzy before getting into Mummy’s Lexus was, “Don’t forget to collect us at 12:30.” Izzy laughed and said, “I think I’ll remember.”
Jinnie stopped to drop off the twins outside the main entrance, let the twins out of the back of the car, kissed them both and stood watching as they skipped across the playground to a group of their friends. Jinnie climbed back in the Lexus and headed to the office. As usual, Jinnie’s coffee arrived seconds after she entered the office and she was quickly behind her desk checking her emails. As she looked down the ten or so emails she saw several from her fellow directors. The first she opened was from Brooke, who said that her IT people had set up the new corporate identity on all the Divisions branches and it was all going well. She had signed off an order for the strap line printed on clear sticky film and Belinda’s people were going to apply it to all the groups outlets.
Jinnie read on through the emails and was happy to discover that the vast majority of them were reporting on the implementation of the new Corporate Image, saying it had gone smoothly, and every single email had the senders name, position, and the company TT logo, the company name and strap line in the signature as per the Corporate Style, she was delighted.
Around 10:30, as Jinnie was enjoying another cup of coffee, when Belinda slid into one of the meeting chairs at table that teed off her desk and said, “I do rather like this arrangement. I might copy it for my own office, but I don’t think it is big enough. I suppose I could move my Sales Director and incorporate his office into mine. But I would have to find a space for him somewhere. I think I’ll get Willow to do a reshuffle, now Andrew is here much of the time it’s another reason for an office reshuffle. Right oh, that’s not what I popped in for. I wanted to say I was a bit doubtful about this corporate image stuff, but my, has it taken off quickly and does it look good. Everything is consistent, Roger was telling me that he has adapted our formal Tender format to comply and our operating manual for big jobs.”
“The documents on the network changing automatically were brilliant,” Belinda continued. “Lucy was sending out a batch of invoices and even they looked good. I hear our overseas companies have fallen in line without complaining, even in Slovenia, and they can be bloody difficult sometimes. So, I think congratulations are in order. Now I will be in Barbados while you are there. Melissa and Miranda and their families are popping out and staying with me, so I thought I might throw Brian’s Birthday party, on the last Saturday in August, and of course you lot are invited. I’ll ask everyone we know on the island.”
“Won’t that be a lot of work when you are on holiday,” asked Jinnie. “Yes and no,” replied Belinda. “I have been talking to Bearcat Outside Catering, and they are going to handle everything, one of their film catering trucks will do all the cooking and it will be a massive Barbecue, a couple of huge awnings in case it is raining, August is the rainy season. I want to have a steel band and of course the Pool will be ready by then.” “I thought you had a pool,” remarked Jinnie. “We do,” said Belinda, “but it is really small, it is becoming a 25 metre pool with a big pool house, so don’t forget to bring your Cozi, I have bought a load of beach towels so you can leave yours at home.”
***
It was early afternoon when Jinnie left the office and headed home. As she got out of the Lexus she heard Millie call out, “Mummies home,” before they rushed out of the front door to greet her. Willie accepted a hello kiss on his forehead before saying, “We are ready to go, what time are we going?” “When I am ready,” replied Jinnie, “I need to change and I need a cup of tea and a biscuit first. Daddy can put the cruise suitcases in the car while I get ready. Then we can drive down to Southampton and have dinner in the hotel.”
Willie said, “Freddy came round and he and Daddy put the Barbados cases in Uncle Nigel’s car. Is he taking them to Barbados?” “No,” said Jinnie, “he’s going to take them to the Ennios Heathrow when we come back from the cruise. He will meet us there and we can swap over our cruise cases with the Barbados cases. He will bring them back home and Uncle Nigel will keep them for us until we get home.” “Why?” asked Millie. “Well,” said Jinnie. “We can’t get all the cases in the Lexus so we will only have the right ones for the trip.”
Jinnie headed into the house where Larry was waiting and said, “Hello my friend, I’m sure you know we are off on holiday later and Nigel is looking after you while we are away. He says he has lots of Felix ready for you and has promised to give you all your favourites like roast chicken and lots of cuddles. You can sleep here or next door, the cat flaps will all work so it’s up to you. I know the twins will miss you so I’ll get them to phone Nigel, and they can talk to you.” Larry gave a loud meow and went to look for the twins.
***
When the family were ready to go Larry was nowhere to be seen. Jinnie asked, “Has anyone seen Larry, I wanted to say goodbye.” Willie replied, “He’s gone to Uncle Nigel’s. He says, ‘have a good holiday’.” Jinnie was still laughing as Paolo drove out of the electric gates and they closed behind the Lexus. Jinnie asked, “Do you want me to set the Satnav?” Paolo answered, “I know the way from here to the M25, round to the M3, but not through Southampton to the Ennios, so yes please.”
They were away by four o’clock, but it was busy on the M25, with traffic crawling along the M4 past the Heathrow junctions. It had speeded up by the time Paolo turned off onto the M3, which was flowing freely, and he pulled up outside the Ennios at six fifteen. The doorman jumped out to open Jinnie’s door, saying, “Good evening Dame Jinnie, it’s lovely to see you and the family again. Mr Rick warned me you were coming.” With that he blew two blasts on the ACME Thunderer hanging round his neck and a bell boy with a luggage trolley and a parking valet arrived. Jinnie said, “Can you put the cases in the Luggage Room please, we are only staying the one night, we are joining the Arvia in the morning and we have overnight bags. We will be leaving the car at the hotel and using the hotel shuttle bus.”
“That’s perfect,” said the Doorman. “If you wouldn’t mind telling the receptionist what time you need the shuttle bus when you check in, they will sort it out. I can sort out the parking and Jimmy, the bell boy, will give you a ticket for your luggage.” Paolo led the party to the Reception desk and checked them in. The receptionist sorted out the shuttle bus to and from the Ship, made a booking for the restaurant for seven o’clock and used the Ennios reservation system to confirm the booking at the Ennios Heathrow on the night they arrived back.
The receptionist pinged a bell on the desk and another bell boy arrived, took the 3 access cards from the receptionist and led them to the lift. Rick had obviously got involved in the booking, as the bell boy took them to 3 executive rooms at the front of the hotel with a view of the Docks. Izzy pointed out the Ocean Terminal, where they would be boarding Arvia in the morning, to the twins. Willie asked, “Where is the ship now?” Paolo said, “It is probably sailing up the English Channel and will arrive early tomorrow morning. After all the passengers have had Breakfast, and all the suitcases are taken off, the passengers can disembark and collect the cases. Then they go through customs, just like you do at the airport, and then they go home. Some people have their cars over the road in the car park, others have friends collect them or get on coaches, some get a taxi to the station or the airport and some, like us, will get a Hotel Shuttle bus.”
Willie was intrigued and asked, “Daddy, how many passengers are there?” “I can answer that,” said Izzy. “I remember from last time we were on her, it’s normally 5,200 but it can be over 6,700 when absolutely full of children in their parents’ cabins. That’s a lot of Breakfasts to serve before the people get off. A lot of cabins to clean and beds to make before we get on and another load of lunches to prepare. When we get on board look on the Dock side and you will see all the containers loaded with fresh food and drink and the forklifts moving huge pallets on board. Of course, they have to load all the food needed for two weeks, until it gets back here, that’s 3 meals a day for all those passengers and 2,000 crew. If everyone was like you two and had a boiled egg for breakfast every day that a lot of eggs.”
Willie laughed and got his phone out to calculate what 6,700 + 2,000 x 14 days was. “That’s 121,800 eggs,” he said triumphantly. But Paolo said, “Just suppose some of those people asked for two eggs or the chef made a starter of Asparagus and hard-boiled Egg and another day did a Gammon Steak with a fried egg, you would need thousands and thousands more eggs.” Jinnie joined in, saying, “Then there are all those desserts that need eggs, like sticky toffee pudding or sponge pudding.” “I give up,” said Willie.
***
The 3 adult and 2 children arrived at the restaurant just before seven and were shown to their table. It was a big round one by a window looking out onto Town Quay and over the road to the busy docks. Within seconds the waiters were fussing around, and they were presented with menus. Before she could order Jinnie spotted the familiar face of Rick Earle coming towards the table. Rick stopped by Jinnie and said, “Hello, as I’m visiting here for a few days I thought I should come over and make sure everything is alright.” “So far everything is perfect, thank you,” replied Jinnie. Looking around the nearly full restaurant Jinnie said, “It looks like business is good.” “It’s excellent, thank you,” replied Rick. “I’m told we have sold every table in the Restaurant twice this evening and the Hotel is full, I’m going to have to have room service meal tonight as they would rather sell the table than have me occupy a table for two.” “Why don’t you join us, I’m sure this table is easily big enough,” said Jinnie.
“Are you sure,” asked Rick. “Of course,” said Jinnie. It only took a moment for the extra place to be laid, and a chair found, and Rick was seated next to Jinnie. Rick asked, “Do you mind if we talk work for a few minutes?” “I don’t mind,” replied Jinnie, “provided it is only a few minutes.” Rick continued, “You are probably aware that the Division is doing well and all our hotels are making a profit, even our newest hotels in the Lake District and York. The new wing in Miami should open in the autumn and we have around an 80% bed rate for the first two months. That will make it on course to recover the expenditure in the first year.”
“It’s where we go next I want to talk about,” said Rick, “I think we could afford to build our own luxury hotel, and I have found a site and got some costs a 300-bed high class hotel in Edinburgh. The numbers say it will be making money after 12 months. But for the same investment I can pick up three hotels in Los Angeles, California with about 600 beds in total. One is near Disneyland, and the others on the beach at Malibu and the other at Laguna Beach.”
“My first question is are they profitable and if so why are they up for sale,” asked Jinnie. “According to the accounts they make money but, not a lot. They operate about 75% full and I would want to increase that,” replied Rick. “I have been trying to work out why they are for sale, and I think the answer is easier than I first thought. They are leisure resorts and all the others in the selling group are business hotels in cities. They have 500 bed hotels in New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh and so on. These are too small and don’t just fit in the group. Also, they need a bit of Belinda’s magic to give them a bit of sparkle.”
“So would you have to spend much over the cost price,” asked Jinnie. “It’s a bit early to know,” answered Rick, “my guess would be £500,000. But I would want Belinda’s input. But taking that into account I still think we could make good money.” “How,” asked Jinnie. “It was completely by chance,” said Rick. “I was visiting Ennios Heathrow and I got chatting to a bloke in the bar. He didn’t know who I was and I didn’t know who he was, but it turned out he was something high up in Virgin Holiday’s and I got taking about our Ennios hotels in Miami, Clearwater, and Barbados. He asked if they were business hotels like Heathrow and I said no they were tourist and he said they were trying to set up packages from the U.K. and was I interested. I said of course and we are setting up a deal for this winter season. Only small at first,10 rooms a week in each hotel to begin with and the option to double up if it works.”
“Anyway, we have done a deal, and we are in the Virgin Winter Sun Brochure,” said Rick. “So, when the three hotels in LA came up I remembered Bob and we had a phone chat. If I buy the hotels we have agreed to look at setting up series of deals. Virgin has 3 flights a day 7 days a week to LA so that’s a lot of seats to fill. We talked about several possibilities including two hotel breaks with a few days at Anaheim for Disneyland and tens day at the beach, straight beach holidays and fly drives with a few days in a hotel at the beginning and end. But it all depends on us getting the hotels to meet their standards, which I’m certain we would exceed.”
“Don’t forget I haven’t seen these hotels, or your plans for Edinburgh,” said Jinnie, “and I haven’t seen your costings, but going purely on what you have told me I think California is a better bet. Ok, you would need to sort out where you were going to manage them from, locally, Potters Bar or Tampa, but with the Group comms network it could be anywhere. Now unless you have anything else, I am on holiday.”
***
Willie wiped his mouth on his napkin and said, “That was good, nearly as good as Uncle Alberto.” Jinnie smiled and said, “but you had roast lamb and I can’t remember you ever having that at the Trattoria Trevi.” “We’ve had rack of lamb and that was a bit like that, but without the bones to chew,” replied Willie, “and the ice cream sundae was good, we like chocolate sauce, nuts and a flake.”
Before they got into their beds the twins insisted on one last look out of the window to ensure Arvia had not crept in to the Ocean Terminal while they were eating dinner. Of course, the dock by the Terminal was unoccupied, as were ever other terminals they could see.
The following morning the twins were awake very early and were watching when Arvia chugged up the Solent and edged very slowly into it berth. At 06:45 Izzy tapped on their door and as she had been taught Millie called, “Who is it?” before the answer came, “Izzy,” and she was let in. The first things the twins did was tell her how they had watched ‘their’ ship arrive with another ship close behind, but it had gone further down the docks out of their sight. Izzy told them it was going to be a very busy day in the port with 5 cruise ships in. Although one was only visiting and lots of the passengers would be going on coach trips.
They packed the rucksacks with their pyjamas and wash bags before putting their dirty clothes in plastic bags and they looked to see if they could see anything happening at the Ocean Terminal, but they were too far away so gave up and watched cartoon on the TV instead. Jinnie and Paolo arrived a little later and they all went down to breakfast. They were shown to a different table and set about getting Breakfast from the huge buffet. The twins walked the long table, ‘to see what there was’, before returning with bowls of Rice Krispies.
Now they were eight the twins had decided to drink tea with breakfast, and like Mummy they took it strong, with a little milk and no sugar. They were also putting less and less sugar on their cereal and someday didn’t have any at all. With empty cereal bowls Jinnie asked, “Are you two having your usual boiled eggs?” Willie shook his head and answered, “We would like a Mushroom Omelette.” A surprised Jinnie said, “That’s different.” Millie said, “We saw the man making them and they looked good.” “Why Mushroom?” asked Paolo. “Because that’s what Izzy had when she got married,” replied a very serious Willie.
The family sat in the lounge waiting for the shuttle bus to the ship. A bell boy had already taken the luggage ticket from Paolo and explained the luggage would be load on the shuttle bus at a back door and they would be called when the bus was outside ready for them. They had an 11:45 boarding time and the receptionist had said the shuttle would pick them up at 11:25. Of course the twins were worrying that the bus had forgotten them and kept looking at their watches.
At exactly 11:25 a bell boy informed them that the bus was outside, and they grab their bags and followed the twins out to the street. The Shuttle turned out to be a very smart 14-seater mini coach painted in Black and Gold with ‘Ennios Hotel, Southampton’ on the side. Jinnie was delighted to see it also had the strap line ‘A TT SuperBurger Group Company.’ The coach had a covered luggage trailer meaning that the coach was uncluttered internally. As Jinnie was climbing aboard she found the twins in the front leather seats chatting to the uniformed driver.
The coach pulled up opposite the appropriate bag drop and as the twins waited impatiently the driver and Paolo unloaded the cases and wheeled them across the pavement to the men checking the luggage labels and heaving the cases through the opening onto a conveyor belt.
The party headed to the entrance to the terminal where a girl in a P&O uniform checked the boarding passes and said to the twins how this was a good early check-in time, as the coaches bring lots of people from the north and midlands didn’t arrive until the middle of the afternoon when it would be extremely busy. They were directed into the terminal and up a flight of stairs to the first floor. All down one side was a row of check-in desks and a girl sat at each with hardly any doing anything. They walked to the head of a snaking queue where another P&O girl directed them to a check-in desk.
Paolo handed over a pile of passports and boarding passes, and the check-in girl compared them all to the details on the computer. Eventually she stamped each boarding pass with ‘OK to board’ and directed them to the security check. The security check was just like an airport, the hand luggage went through an X-Ray machine while the people went one by one through a metallic arch. At last they were on the air bridge to the ship and the twins were itching to be on board, but Jinnie insisted they walk together as a group. They stepped off the airbridge onto the ship and had their boarding passes scanned.
A ship’s officer looked at the boarding passes and said, “Good afternoon everyone and welcome aboard. Arthur will show you to your muster station where your boarding pass will be scanned, he will then show you to the Zenith restaurant where an early boarder lunch is being served while your cabins are being prepared. Of course, if you prefer to eat elsewhere, you can. An announcement will be made when the cabins are ready. As they walked to their muster station in the Glass House, Jinnie asked the twins, “Where do you want to go for lunch, the Buffet, the Quays, a hot dog, or the restaurants?” Very quickly, and much to her surprise, the twin opted for the Zenith.
Chapter 16 – Cruising in the Med
© WorthingGooner 2026
