The office christmas party

Last week we were very disappointed to be told by P&O that our annual Christmas party was cancelled. We were due to go on Arcadia on Sunday for a 2 night Christmas markets cruise to Bruges but the ship had been in dry dock for a refurbishment and was not going to be finished in time.

This was beyond P&O’s control as it was due to adverse weather conditions which delayed some of the maintenance but was disappointing to us ( and all other passengers ) all the same.

As we have staff working all over the UK who had trains and flights booked it was decided that we would still go to Southampton and within a matter of days a fantastic few days had been arranged for us.

We stayed at the Solent hotel in Fareham which was about 8 miles from Southampton. I would definitely recommend this hotel to anyone looking to extend their stay when taking a cruise.

The rooms we lovely and very spacious and the food was excellent.

The first night was at Eastleigh to a christmas company venue

It was a large marquee with the theme of one night in Bangkok.

The entertainment was very good and the quality of the food was very good considering the numbers they were catering for.

After the entertainment there was the usual disco and even a casino and dodgem cars before heading back to our hotel.  There was a coach the following morning to the Christmas markets in Winchester for anyone who felt they were missing out not getting to Bruges.

We did have a conference in the afternoon before an evening in the hotel which was hosted by P&O. They provided welcome drinks and a meal followed by a comedian.

We had a fantastic few days and being a homeworker was great to actually meet some of my work colleagues. I am already looking forward to next year’s and hope we do manage to get on a ship next time.