Great-grandmother booked luxury cruise with stranger

A great-grandmother who booked a £3,700 luxury cruise with a 91-year-old stranger 45 minutes after meeting him in a pub says people should live life without regrets. 

Vera Burrell, 90, stopped for lunch in Winchester during an organised coach trip to the south coast from her home in Suffolk.

The great grandmother ordered a glass of wine and shared a table with an elderly gentleman who wandered in for a bite to eat.

Talk turned to holidays and the mystery man – himself 91 – asked Vera if she’d ever been on a cruise, suggesting it was about time she did.

The great-grandmother booked a £3,700 luxury cruise with a 91-year-old stranger 45 minutes after meeting him

After leaving the pub the pair strolled into a nearby travel agents and stunned staff as they booked a Mediterranean Cruise.

Vera was left in a fit of giggles when her new pal had to turn and ask her name.

The mystery man, who Vera initially knew only as John, splashed out an incredible £3,700 for the lavish 11-night Mediterranean cruise onboard the Azura – a 290-metre luxury P & O liner – complete with pools, casinos and spas.

Nonagenarian Vera returned back to her coach party friends chuckling to herself and left them agog with her antics during the lunchtime stop-off en-route to Bournemouth.

When the coach party stopped again in Winchester on the return leg five days later Vera returned to the travel agents to find more details about her travelling companion and ‘just to make sure it wasn’t a joke’.

Two weeks after meeting the unlikely couple saw each other again – this time onboard the ferry in Southampton where they were shown to their shared cabin.

Vera and great grandad John, took in a host of European cities on their unlikely adventure including Lisbon, Porto, Cadiz, Cartagena, Malaga and Gibraltar and became “quite notorious” as word of their fast-fire booking spread.

Although there was no romance, Southampton pensioner John, who does not want to give his last name, even asked Vera if she would like to go on another cruise – to the Caribbean.

Now back home on dry land near Sudbury, Suffolk, Vera admitted she was not a fan of being cooped up on a liner but said she has no regrets about the trip of a lifetime.

The retired singer said: ‘I’ve had a good life, I don’t regret anything – least of all the cruise. Life is for living. I am not dead yet – you have got to get on with it, haven’t you?

‘I am a bit tottery, my balance is not very good – my hearing is not very good but I am a damn sight better off than a lot of other people.

‘I would say to people, seize the day, seize the day.

‘Before I left I got an e-mail from my cousin in Australia saying “haven’t you been told about stranger danger?” – John was not the Southampton strangler. He was a gentleman.’

She told her youngest daughter Caroline who thought it was a ‘huge joke’ but encouraged her mum to go for it.

An e-mail was sent to her eldest daughter, Elizabeth, the ‘one who would worry’ – with news of the trip the evening before she left.

Vera revealed how John’s daughter actually tried to cancel the trip, thinking her dad had been the victim of some kind of online fraud.

Recalling the moment she first met John, she said: ‘I found this very nice pub called The Old Vine. It was full so I thought it must be good as there were a lot of people in there.

‘The gentleman sat down, ordered his lunch and we got to talking, as you do.

‘We were talking about holidays and I told him how I go on coach journeys around the country, how I used to go abroad but don’t anymore.

‘He said “my late wife and I really enjoyed cruising”. He’d been round the world several times but his sight was now so impaired he can’t see anything.

‘”Have you ever had a cruise?” he said.

‘I told him I couldn’t afford it and secondly my late husband would never have gone on a cruise.

‘We finished our meal and came out of the pub together and on the other side of the road was a travel agent and before I knew it we were in there.

‘I don’t know what I was thinking at the time but I certainly didn’t think he was going to book a cruise.

‘Before I knew it the worker was asking his name and then she asked what my name was – and at that point he leaned over and said “what’s your name, my dear?”

The Azura cruise boat is one of the largest in the company and Vera booked a tour on one after knowing the mystery man for just 45 minutes

The Azura cruise boat is one of the largest in the company and Vera booked a tour on one after knowing the mystery man for just 45 minutes

‘I’d only had the one glass of wine with lunch – I was not intoxicated.

‘I knew he was booking a cruise but I had not assumed it was for the two of us until he asked me what my name was.

‘The lady at the travel agents asked how long we had known each other and John said “well, about three quarters of an hour”.

After returning home to her home the reality of what she had done started to sink in – but rather than cancelling, Vera’s mind turned to her passport and whether it was in date and other logistics of the trip.

‘A voice in my head said “what are you thinking about?” and another voice said “why not?”.’

Ground rules for the trip were quickly set out over a cup of tea.

Vera said: ‘We were sharing a cabin but not sharing a bed, or words to that affect, and he was quite amenable to that so that was fine. It was twin beds.’

The pair shared a top deck room with balcony.

‘We knew the same tunes, we remembered the same comedies from the radio, the same films. 

‘The programmes like the Navy lark – as we did not televisions in those days. We got on surprisingly well.

‘We had a very pleasant trip.

‘We both remembered from before the war. He told me about when he was in the Army with the Royal Engineers in the war and I told him about how I had been evacuated.

‘We were strangers but did have quite a lot in common. It was just a lovely leisurely holiday,’ Vera added.

At one point during the journey, the ship’s officer said to the couple ‘you are quite notorious’.

Speaking at her home, Vera, said: ‘Word had got around the boat. It started off on the very first day when we went to one of the restaurants and I was pouring a coffee – I passed it over to John and asked him “is this how you like your coffee?”

‘The people on the table next to us looked stunned. Quite a few did know. Maybe the travel agent had told them.’

Sadly for John, Vera decided her life back on dry land was simply too busy to warrant taking up the invitation of a free Caribbean cruise next year.

‘He asked me if it was the company but I really did enjoy it because it was an experience but I don’t have the time to do it again.

‘I just haven’t got the time to waste, especially as I am 90. You think to yourself, “I could pop off tomorrow, I have got things to do”.

‘We had a very pleasant time, but the thought of actually doing it again – I really haven’t got the time.

‘I have got things to do, people to see and places to go. Drifting round on the ocean doesn’t come into it.

‘One of my friends said “you’re mad – you should go” but no.

‘John could afford it and I couldn’t and that was also one of the things in my mind, that I would be taking advantage. I didn’t really want to go cruising again. I’ve been there, done that.

‘It was an adventure. My grandchildren were very impressed.

‘They were saying “look at nan – 90 years old and going on a cruise with a strange man” but I have no regrets about it at all.’

Vera and John enjoyed their cruise last month.

The couple plan to stay in touch as friends but Vera has said they won’t be holidaying together again.

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