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!