Arrived in Aqaba!

Most of the EasyJet planes at Gatwick were out on the tarmac with staircases needed to board.  Denise can't manage those stairs so we had to wait for a special assistance "ambulift" to take us out and connect to the door of the plane.   In the ambulift we met Peter and his wife Hilary (who also couldn't manage the stairs) and it transpired that they are also going to be on our cruise.  So we've already made some friends.

The flight out to Aqaba was uneventful.   We landed in Aqaba at 6.30pm local time, when it was still light.  Aqaba is surrounded by some very impressive mountains.  Aqaba airport is quite small and all the planes park on the tarmac - so again we had to wait for an ambulift for Hilary and Denise to disembark the plane.  I have to say this one was a bit rickety and I was wondering if we were going to reach the ground in one piece.

On the ground we were met by an entire entourage of young men to push wheelchairs, carry luggage and generally escort us to the (empty) building.   All the able bodied people had left while we had been waiting for the ambulift.   I lost count of the number of times we were wished "Welcome to Jordan".   All our luggage was scanned on landing (sort of the opposite of normal) and all of Denise's medications were inspected, but in the end we were allowed in without any issues.    An Emerald rep was waiting with a mini bus to take us to our hotel - the Intercontinental Aqaba.  By this time it was dark so we couldn't see much, but the hotel looked enormous. 

On check-in we were told we could go to the "Martini Club Lounge" and have free food and drink until 8pm.   So while our bags were taken to the room Denise and I headed straight to the lounge, where we were offered "canapes" - which turned out to be an entire full size pizza and some sliders.  We also had several glasses of wine.   I can't believe this was all free!

This is an incredible hotel.    It's quite late now,  so I can't do it justice with the photos I have so far - but I'm definitely going to explore all the facilities tomorrow.    In the meantime, after stuffing our faces with free food and drink,  Denise and I have retired to our extremely posh room.  The bathroom is about 3 times the size of the main bathroom at home and includes a shower that looks big enough to hold 6-8 people.   The view from our room is of the hotel pool - which looks amazing (definitely checking that out tomorrow).