Time For A Pre-Launch Rest

I thought I would let my customers and readers know that I finish today until September. It’s time for a much needed rest after a busy 8 months!

I’ve not really had any time away from work since February so I am looking forward to kicking back and switching off for a couple of weeks.

Me and my wife were originally going away to Greece for 10 days but in the end we decided against booking in favour of buying a new kitchen, which has cost us an arm and a leg of course. So annoyingly whilst I’m off, I will be slowly dying inside listening to the dulcet tones of hammering, sawing and drilling for at least a week I assume.

So it’s more of a practical approach from us this summer. Much to my disappointment quite frankly. But once the new kitchen is in I’m sure I won’t regret it. I assume my house will suddenly become very popular for dinner parties if my Mrs has got anything to do with it!

So if you contact me in September when I come back to work, you’ll either get happy Freddie, who is pleased as punch to have a new room, or exceptionally angry Freddie, who wishes his builders would stop eating his god damn biscuits whilst they destroy his house.

Lets all hope it’s not the latter eh!

Anyway, before I go I thought I would also just drop the thought into your cruise addicted minds, and let you know that this September, one of the biggest events of the cruise calendar is also happening!

It’s P&O 2018 Launch!

Yes you read that right, 2018! Stupendously early right? Yes it is.

Why?

One word. Brexit.

Has to be doesn’t it?

The uncertainty when we leave the EU in 2018 is all consuming for the travel industry, and the cruise world is no exception.

Generally, and quite fortunately, the cruise industry has been relatively unscathed by downturns in the economy, terrorism, political problems, and natural disasters, but one thing that is for sure, us pulling out of the EU seems to be somewhat concerning for the bigger British lines.

Indeed Fred Olsen are releasing their program earlier too. Coincidence? I think not.

Cruise lines will tell you it’s that they want to give their customers the best chance of securing their place on their wonderful respective products, but lets be honest, P&O particularly are having a bit of a rough time of it when it comes to feedback at the moment, there seems to be a lot of negativity surrounding their overall service. On board and on land. Service levels seem to have dipped, perhaps down to less staff on ship, and on land have you tried calling them on the phone recently? Over an hour or more to get through, shocking. Something needs to happen. They need to pull their socks up, or risk losing the faith of their fiercely loyal client base, and the support of their agents.

Hopefully releasing 2018 earlier than normal will give them a chance to turn things around and give them the boost that I think they need.

So, if you have a special birthday or anniversary or similar in 2018, don’t feel that you are too early in looking and booking, as of next month you’ll be able to do it!

I’ll be back in a couple of weeks and ready to rock and roll again, and looking forward to 2018 P&O Launch!

Enjoy the rest of August folks!

Thanks for reading, and always, until next time…………