A Day in the Life…

People often say to me, ‘Wow it must be a doddle working from home. Bet you spend all your time watching TV and drinking Tea.’

I have heard it all before.

So I thought you might be interested to know what it is that I do in my Day!

An average day for me can be anything from 5 Hours to 12 Hours and that is just what I am supposed to work. It does not take in to account the extra Hours I work as travel is never an easy thing to time manage with countries being in different time zones etc.

I typically log on at 8am and check my emails. If I have been out of the office for a day there can be lots of these.  I then check my Diary for things that need to be done that day and lastly, I check for people who are due to travel to make sure I have contacted everyone and they are all set for their cruise as well as those who are returning so I can see if they had a good time.

Then I check to see who needs calling from previous days before starting to answer calls and emails about new enquiries. All pretty standard, but believe you me it is very busy and despite what people think there is no time to sit about and drink tea.

Well not all the time anyway!

Don’t get me wrong, this may all seem very mundane but it is far from it, and every enquiry is different which is why I love the job so much.

I am a typical Yorkshire lass. I like to chat and like to think that most of my customers see me as a friend as well as a consultant who books their cruises. I am nothing if not honest and will always tell you like it is. This may not be what you want to hear but honesty is always the best policy. If you have any problems I will do everything in my power to resolve them so you can be assured of my best attention at all times.

As customers, you do not always see what goes on behind the scenes so to speak. Talk about wearing your pants outside your trousers! Wonder Woman has nothing on me. To give you an example I had a customer who wanted a specific apartment booking on the beach in Australia and they were only available to book direct and had just one left which could not be booked online. So as not to disappoint her, I stayed up and logged on at 2am in the morning to call them and get this confirmed for her.

I also have a lady who will not use lifts so everywhere she books I research the hotels to make sure she can access the room via stairs or arrange for her to use staff stairs instead. This means time spent checking out the best hotels to begin with and contacting them directly and making sure everything is in place for her arrival.

These are only a couple of examples of the many things I do when going that extra mile for my customers.

It is true I do get to sample the Cruises, and Visit ships so that I can give you that first hand Knowledge which is vital to my role.

It’s a hard job but someone has to do it!

It gives me chance to see the ships and meet some interesting people.

As a Cruise Specialist, it is not all serious and I have had some rather hilarious moments when customers have asked me the strangest questions.

Some of my favourite ones are:

I love the Ice carving, they are beautiful, but what do they do with them after they melt?

Do I put my luggage outside my cabin before or after I go to sleep?

Is an outside cabin outside of the ship?

Do I have to leave the ship to take a shore excursion?

I wouldn’t have booked a cruise if I knew the ship was going to be completely surrounded by water?

Don’t laugh they are all questions I have been asked over the years!

Ask anyone in the travel Industry and they will have so many tales to tell that will shock, amuse and amaze you.

I am sure from your travels you have plenty of funny tales as well and I would love to hear them.

So, next time you call me, spare a thought for me and the extra things I do behind the scenes to make sure your holiday runs smoothly and bear with me. Getting you the right Cruise is my number one priority.