Cruise.co.uk Annual Xmas conference 2018

As you know from previous years, as well as looking after all you lovely customers one of the big highlights for me working for cruise.co.uk is our annual Xmas conference. A gathering each December for all staff dotted all over the UK and Europe to get together for a well deserved catch up or in some cases meeting new staff that may have joined throughout the year and also spend some time with our top cruise lines to find out what the following year will bring us.

This year we enjoyed 3 nights with Cruise and Martime Marco Polo From Bristol Avomouth to one of my all time favorite cities Dublin.

My colleague Danielle and I share a twin outside cabin on deck 8 which I was quite surprised at as we had a lot of floor space. Overall the cabin was comfortable and clean and had plenty of storage space with a triple wardrobe my only concern was being a much older ship there were a lot of random steel steps/beams around the ship including one to our bathroom which for someone as clumsy as me could be quite tricky. 

Our first evening on board historically is our cruise.dot fancy dress night this year the theme was “movies from the last 100 years”. This trend started  a few years ago on a Fred Oslen themed weekend where the whole ship dressed up however we have adopted this and every year my colleagues pull out all stops to think of new and Unique ideas.  #

Here are just a few

My costume from the Great Gatsby

Our Sales Management team as the cast of Mary Poppins

Our Cruise.co.uk Directors as the very beautiful cast of Wizard of OZ (possibly my fav)

Ghost Busters

Pink Ladies (and Mary of course lol )

We arrived in Dublin the 2nd morning (after a very very choppy night on the rough Irish sea)  and after a few hours of cruise line presentations we all headed in the city.

Our first stop was the Guinness factory tour, where we experienced the tale of Ireland’s famous beer. The tour itself was fascinating and what i really liked was that you walked through the interactive tour at your own pace instead of following group. 

During the tour we found out about the history of the Guinness family, what goes into making a perfect pint of Guinness and obviously got to sample along the way.

Our tour finished with a full size pint in the roof top bar with stunning panoramic views of Dublin.

Once we had seen Dublin biggest attraction, cruise.co.uk had arranged for a private party for us in Temple bars “Bad Bobs” including drinks, food and a live band (who were amazing) we spent the evening and long into the morning dancing, singing , and having a great time.

Our return to the UK on the final night was as expected very choppy leaving Dublin around lunch time, we were aware that we were going to hit gale force 9 winds, with the captain setting alarms bells off by announcing that ladies should even avoid wearing high heeled shoes. This was probably the worst bad weather i have ever experienced in my years of cruising and I really felt for my colleagues who suffered from seasickness. We lost a lot of staff from around 3pm who were left no choice but to go to their cabin until we were back in Bristol.

Despite bad weather and questionable steps we had a fantastic time away with the Marco Polo. I think as a company we all go away with the understanding of ” work hard play hard”!