Ammar Kalia recalls a family cruise booked via Teletext that turned into a nightmare of seasickness for him and his father. For readers under 30, Teletext was a TV-based interface offering data like weather and news, but for Kalia's father, it became the portal to a holiday from hell.
The ill-fated booking
In 2001, Kalia's father took charge of the annual family trip. He stumbled upon a Thomas Cook advert on Teletext for a cheap Caribbean cruise and called the number to pay the deposit. “Well, it was very cheap and we’d never been on a cruise before,” he later explained. “Of course, I didn’t know then that we were both going to be seasick for the entire time.”
A rough start
The trip began in rough waters, sailing from northern Spain into the choppy Bay of Biscay. Seven-year-old Kalia, unaware of his propensity for seasickness, started day two with a swimming head. At the breakfast buffet, he vomited over the patterned carpet after the floor tilted, putting others off their breakfast.
Endless motion
Most cruises sail through the night and dock in the morning, but this one sailed through days and nights across vast oceans, docking only briefly. They supposedly stopped at Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica, but Kalia only remembers lying on the bed gripping the sheets, willing the motion to stop. He and his father took turns vomiting into the toilet.
A tale of two experiences
Kalia's mother and brother enjoyed the trip, attending the Captain's cocktail hour, visiting flawless beaches in the Dominican Republic, and sipping fresh mojitos in Cuba. They acknowledged the rough seas but blamed the haphazard booking. By the end, Kalia and his father were grateful for solid ground, vowing never to let him book a holiday via Teletext again.
