Glamorous job ………

Since I stepped down from management I really think a lot of my family and friends think my job is sitting at home watching daytime tv (never Jeremy Kyle though )and just booking cruises in between hanging washing out and making coffee.This is far from true at the best of times and although working in travel is an amazing job making dreams come true and never one day the same , there is also the other side of dreams THE DISASTERS !!!

I am sure everyone who works in the industry will back me up with this , and sympathise with all those people whose lives have been turned upside down, the last few weeks have been challenging to say the least.
We have had devastation in the Caribbean and Florida and whilst it wasn’t the peak cruising season at this time we are now coming up to the popular months where the ships swap the Med for the Caribbean.We have been inundated with itinerary changes where the cruise lines are redirecting the ships away from the worst affected islands for the safety and enjoyment of passengers.

In the middle of an exceptionally early launch from P&O they then go on to announce the sale of their smallest ship the Adonia next March. This left guests who had already booked a cruise up to March 19 without a cruise !! The Adonia I suppose you can say was a unique ship , being adult only and the smallest in the fleet getting to ports that the monster ships cant there are no ships to match in the mid range cruise companies.The Adonia has only just returned to P&O uk this year but already has captured sailors hearts again and there are some extremely disappointed customers out there some are still yet to find a replacement cruise to match their needs. A huge loss to P&O but a massive gain to Azamara who will be the new owners lets see …..

We then have had the chaos of Ryan air cancellations. They announced its first wave of over 2000 cancellations a couple of weeks ago after it rearranged it’s pilots flying schedules to comply with new aviation rules which required a change in how their flying hours are logged.They have gone on to extend cancellations in the winter months affecting over 700,000 passengers in total.

Then this weeks absolutely devastating news about Monarch whom ceased trading on Monday morning leaving over 100,000 passengers overseas and 800,000 passengers with future bookings all without flights and their 1800 staff members without Jobs. Such a shame for a lovely airline luckily all my customers are rebooked on alternative flights to get them on their holidays.
This is when the reality of booking with a travel agent becomes so apparent and expecially the atol protection as there will be passengers out their that will of lost out financially..

This is before you include the ongoing tensions of certain places in the world and also a threat of a bubbling volcano !!!!!

Please no !!!! I would just like a normal week at work where my only challenge is to book my lovely customers a cruise.


About Me

Hi my name is Erica although most people know me as Betsy which is my work name, welcome to my cruise page. I  have been in the travel industry for coming up to 30 years. I started my career in a small independent travel agent, where I went on work experience and…

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