We're Back! I experienced a drought in Belgium in NOVEMBER!

Here at http://www.cruise.co.uk/ we have all just returned from our Christmas party onboard P&O Aurora, and what a party it was! Amongst sailaway champagne, karaoke, casinos, theatre shows, spa treatments, round the clock dining and company presentations... I’m here to tell you about how we felt like we were in the Belgian desert this Sunday morning in maximum temperatures of -3°C!

After a wonderfully relaxed embarkation, (it’s so nice not to have to go through the whole airport rigmarole) we boarded and were wowed by the AURORA, I would always say, it is really nice to cruise from the UK to make your holiday start even quicker!

 Upon boarding AURORA I imagined her to be quite understated but I was shocked... she really is very elegant and a fantastic feeling of space. Upon arrival into my balcony stateroom, again I was very impressed...at 10years old, she is not the youngest of ships but everything was immaculate- gleaming carpets, polished wood, flat screen televisions and after bouncing around for a few minutes in the cabin excited... we wondered off to the buffet for a bite to eat and a well earned weekend drink. The buffet was incredibly busy, a completely different feel to everywhere else onboard but the food itself was fine. not mind-blowing but ok for a spot of lunch straight after 2000 passengers embarked with empty tummy’s! We then wondered past the various swimming pools, elegant teak decks dotted with Jacuzzis and headed to the one of the bars... the champions sports style bar reminded me of a pub in an airport, very busy with people very rapidly downing pints... we chose to move on passing through the casino and up to the Crows nest, this suited us a lot better, a really relaxed atmosphere and very pleasant surroundings with some light background music. By the time we had all relaxed we were almost ready to set sail across the channel towards our Belgian delight... Zebrugge, the gateway to chocolates, traditional buildings and sweeping Flemish fields.


The sail way was great, half price champagne (which was a really nice tasting champagne I have to say!)
and a band on the ground playing us out... the funnel made itself heard and off we went! Also the fact it was so cold outside gave everybody a bit of movement and we were all having such a great time already. The evening continued into the very early hours with the music playing, people laughing and everybody genuinely really enjoying themselves, myself so much I even took the plunge to serenade the sports bar with a karaoke version of The Killers, one passenger shook my hand after (He must have had a fair bit of that sail away champagne!) So later on, dancing the night away in Masquerade disco we had a great evening. Here are a couple of the Photographs including my slightly champagne fuelled karaoke! My colleagues found this quite amusing!

So, the next morning docking in a beautifully sunny and snow capped Zebrugge we headed to breakfast discovering more and more of the ship all the time before retiring for a chill out afternoon watching  few movies in our lovely cabin and heading up to the spa. Now this is where I’m going to tell you about how we gasped for hours literally just wanting a lemonade with some ice, we contacted room service and it was engaged, so I left it 20 minutes and tried again, to no avail of course. Following trying several times I began to feel a little angry that I could not even pay to have a drink delivered to my cabin? So I contacted reception who "transferred me" to a dead line. Room service this weekend was completely unobtainable! This really annoyed me as we were just having a lazy afternoon, I really didn’t want to have to put all my clothes on and walk up to one of the bars. We really were thirsty though and joked how we didn’t know Belgium offered desert style attributes in December! This is one of the only things I didn’t enjoy about the ship, I found the service not up to what I have experienced before. The fact it is just a 2night cruise may have something to do with it in my opinion!

So with regards to the AURORA, I have had a great time. I think she’s a lovely ship but a few things were lacking this weekend. So anything you'd like to know more, just ask me! If not...

Happy Cruising

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The REAL life of a holiday rep!

In the summer of 2010, I worked a holiday rep for Thomson on the island of Mallorca, starting off living in Magaluf, i have quite a few experiences to share: When i first began, I was working in a very nice adult only cruise and stay hotel where i greeted many customers who had the first week of their holiday onboard the Thomson Dream cruise ship. Ex. Costa Europa. It is no secret that when this ship first began sailing under the Thomson brand, it encountered a few problems- HARD work on my part as people were expecting something completely different to what they received, However, some intense work took place onboard the ship at the end of June and from what i witnessed, some MAJOR improvements took place and i am pleased to confirm i greeted a lot of very happy Thomson Dreamers.

This is the block i lived in in Magaluf

Aside from my hotel duties... walking to work was an event every single morning. June 2010, the height of summer is nearly here, the sun is high in the blue sky for 13 hours a day, the bars are full to bursting with drinks offers: Pint of vodka and coke €2, Free shots, zombie coctails- the list is endless. Also to my misery, The World Cup was in play, reeking more havoc across south western Majorca but Magaluf (europes largest youth resort) and every morning just after 8am on may way to work, walking through the rubble produced the night before, past the world famous superclub BCM I would see men unconscious on benches with their shoes missing and their last drop of Redbull in their hands, and have very wobbly people on their feet asking me the time as the sun began to really heat up. "8.15" I'd tell them to be greeted by nothing more than a scream of both shock and anger as they were positive it could not be later than 3am...

Oh dear!

   Above you can see Magaluf strip at 1am in June, in all its glory

Below, an example of those unconscious people...

                          

After working in Magaluf through the busiest times of year, living in a tower block surrounded by clubs and a very slight cocroach infestation... I WAS MOVED... to my favourite place in Mallorca, Cala D'or!

Here, I lived in a beautiful old spanish house right by the sea with a private pool! I also could walk to work in oeace and quiet across the beach and see nothing more than people just having a morning stroll looking much fresher than the tourists of magaluf. The work here was also really hard, having 4 hotels during the height of season. One of which had a major lack of sunbeds. Which of course was my fault... when i first walked into that hotel, i thought "Im going to come on holiday here, its lovely" I can honestly say, I will never walk in that hotel ever again! I hate the place! As the complaints were rolling in, I also met some really friendly guests which I was very sad to see go and have many photos at bus stops with some very tanned holidaymakers waiting for the coaches to take them back to the Airport- Which refers to my next subject... The dreaded airport runs!!!! I would visit the airport twice a week for a supposed "4hour shift" well by the time you have got to the airport which used to take up to an hour and a half, been given your spot on check in chatting away to all the people ready to go home, technically it should already be home time. But it just goes on and on with flight after flight departing or arriving, Palma de Mallorca is one busy airport! One day in Sepetmber, Howard from Take That checked in for one of our Thomson flights, he arrived at the very last second just before check in closed to be sure he wouldnt get hassled, of course he arrived just before the flight closed and didn't get his seats together next to his very beautiful travelling companion who hed enjoyed a week on the island with. Of course if he had paid the £6 per person to reserve seats together, this wouldnt have been an issue and we just waited for the famous line "Do you know who I am?" But they were very gracious and headed towards departures without any fuss. Then it was on to Arrivals as we greeted all the tired and confused passengers looking for their coaches to take them to resorts they had no idea of the name, despit booking the holiday maybe 12months in advance...MADNESS!

Being a holiday rep is definitely not just sun, sea and drinking.It is every now and again however. It is intense, hot work and long, long hours; Between airport shifts, resort transfers, weekly accounting, team meetings, excrusion guiding, welcome meetings and of course your standard 7hour daily hotel duties, you can get quite tired by the end of season! The most hours i have on record for a week in 67. As you might guess, this involves very little time for catching the rays. However, I have very fond memories of my time and i have made some great friends overseas. I also have developed such a passion for Spanish culture and the island of Majorca which is just 2 hours from the UK but is absoluetly beautiful, I am lucky to have got to know the whole island and if you have any questions about Majorca, Im your man! So, my overseas holiday rep experience was one that was different from expectations (very dull at times) intense, memorable and something I will always treasure however I do not wish to ever repeat that experience again, but what a great one to say i have had: Heres a few of my favourite memories from Majorca:

onder

This is a beach called Calo d'es Moro. I took this in August after we spent 40 mintes trying to find it.. Its a very long, forest road to get there and it is not signposted, as you can see. It was worth it! To actually access the beach, its about 60 steps down an incredibly steep sandstone cliff. I was a little shaky!



This is the beautiful marina of Cala D'or, Occasionally Id have time to enjoy the amazing restauarants down there! 



Here is a great photo, This was taken in September and shows a few members our our "rep" team. We had a barbecue on our roof terrace that evening and invited all our friends. Note our exclusive seating area on the air conditioning unit!

Heres myself and a friend Jess at Pirates, rated the second best show in the world... I really love this photo!

MY NEXT EMBARKATION!

In just 3 weeks; im heading aboard the P&O AURORA.
As you can see im boarding one of the more classic and traditional style cruise ships, the aurora for the http://www.cruise.co.uk/ christmas party. I am looking forward to this venture- to see how this mid size ship compares to the brand new, ultra modern Celebrity Eclipse which i visted several months ago.


Just to let you know P&O.. YOU HAVE COMPETITION!




I will be sure to let you know how i get on and list the antics of my fellow cruise specialists as we sail away to Bruges for the weekend. Keep Posted for the latest!

                                                Isn't she beautiful? I cant wait!