Paul Beale 'Gets Jiggy With The Wiggy'

Paul Beale, Account Manager fought off stiff competition to win the 'Get Jiggy With The Wiggy' award for 2007 at the Alternative Travel Awards on Thursday night.



Well done Paul!

HAPPY XMAS FROM THE NORTH WEST!!!

Click here for a Festive Message from the Great North West Team!!

Check out the latest & coolest place for Christmas parties!

The latest and coolest place for Christmas parties is onboard a P&O Cruises ship! Over the weekend Aurora was the venue for not one but two travel agent Christmas parties. 1st4cruising and cruise.co.uk both decided to take their staff onboard Aurora for a 2-night party cruise.


The ship set sail for Bruges at 17:00 on Friday evening, 1st4cruising had sailaway drinks in the Crows Nest, where we decided to Award the person that was most passionate and enthusiastic about our individual brands - P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Cunard and Ocean Village. These winners were awarded with a nice bottle of Champagne.
Both parties were on 1st sitting at 18:30, so after a few cheeky glasses of champagne we made our way to dinner and enjoyed a fantastic 6-course meal. After dinner people either headed straight to Champions for a few drinks and Karaoke or off to the Curzon Theatre to watch Aladdin.

The night was still young and with the majority of both parties heading to Masquerades, to dance the night away and most of the early hours as the last to bed was at 5:30!

Those that decided to brave the freezing cold weather and head off to Bruges came back bearing chocolates and beer, for those that didn't caught up on sleep and some even got pampered in the Spa!

At 17:15 Cruise.co.uk held their Awards for their staff and Cunard even won a prize for 'Overall Favourite Cruise Line to do business with'. With another 6 course meal and a few Vodka and Red Bulls everyone was up for another late night. with everyone heading either straight to a bar or to watch Frank Carson in the Curzon Theatre.

Looking around the ship on Sunday morning during disembarkation everyone looked very tired and I am sure they all had a Christmas party they wont forget!

Midlands Madness on Ocean Village Two Fam Trip

Georgina Morgan & Alyshia Bartlett escorted a Fam Trip on board the newest addition to the Ocean Village fleet. Read on to find out what they got up to....

4.45am a taxi picked Alyshia and myself up to meet 20 excited travel agents at Gatwick Airport, we were escorting a 7 night Ocean Village Two Caribbean cruise.

After an 8 hour flight we went to the muster drill, looking around at the faces of the agents and ourselves we were all very tired and I really didn’t expect to see any of them up on deck for sailaway drinks a few hours later. However I forgot what a shower and clean clothes could do for you! A nice glass of champagne to start our cruise and I could tell this was going to be fun. It was however an early night for all of us despite Sarah telling me ‘sleep was for geeks’. Then went to bed about 15 minutes after saying this to the group!

Our first day was at sea and Alyshia and I had our presentation to do! We started the presentation, by making everyone do a run-around task. We then started our training presentation talking about all Complete Cruise Solution brands. It was then time to set the team tasks, the group was divided into four and each group were set tasks to find out about either Families, Action Ashore, The Spa or ‘Cruise Virgins’ and present their findings back to the group at the end of the week. After our presentation we took the agents to a talk from the Action Ashore team, re everything they could do in the week. This was very informative and everyone booked shore excursions.

We next met for dinner – half of us dined in the Bistro and half of us dined in La Luna. I was with the Bistro crowd and we spent a very enjoyable two hours in James Martin’s restaurant. Having had an early night the night before we then made up for it most of the group didn’t see their beds till the early hours.

The following day we were at Isle of Margarita we had an early start as we took the group on the ‘Chiva Bus’. It started off very sedately; the tour guide gave us island history as we made our way to a beach. At the beach we all enjoyed some Rum Punch and Alyshia and Sarah got taken out by some big waves (this it turned out was to be a recurring theme).

After the beach the bus came alive with the sound of Latin American music and before you knew it everyone in the bus was in the aisles dancing like they were Ricky Martin! The guide gave us beer cans filled with sand so we could ‘shake’ as we moved. It is amazing how much fun a beer can filled with sand and some lively music can be! No one outside the bus was safe as we rattled our cans at everyone that we passed.

Grenada was for most people the favourite day for most. It started with most us hurtling through the rain forest on a circle of rubber (river tubing). I then went meandering around town with Sharon and Kelly whom needed a body guard (I think they were just trying to make me feel ‘important’!) The rest got a river taxi to a beach. As I didn’t go there I do not speak as an eye witness but the stories that have come from there are numerous. It turns out a lot of the group decided to get on a banana boat. It then appears that most of them fell off. Alyshia and Sarah apparently lost their dignity as they tried to get back on the rubber banana!! They were laughing hysterically. Carly was quite the hero of the hour volunteering to help people get back on. She also told the locals that she played for England which is not strictly true!!

St Lucia was the next stop and this was the day that I got to fly through the rain forest on a zip wire. Jen was the most nervous and yet she was the one that on the final zip wire was able to video it whilst holding on with one hand! It was exhilarating to say the least!

We had got week spa passes which most of us took full advantage of!! For me my favourite room on the ship was the relaxation room in the spa where I could go and lie down and watch the views from top deck whilst popping into the herbal sauna every now and again. Every time you went down there you found at least one member of the group. Several of the group had facials and haircuts and reported favourably back.

We all went to watch the Planet show up on deck which is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen – it was magical – we watched as acrobats flew threw the air and performed under the white arc. Set against the midnight blue of the sky and the tranquil sea it was one of the highlights of my trip.

St Vincent found some of us on a catamaran sailing thorough the Grenadines. We snorkelled and swam and just relaxed before sailing back to join the rest of the group. As presentations were the next day everybody was getting into their groups and rehearsing. The evening found us competing in the movie quiz in Connections before watching the Simply Red tribute in the Marquee.

We arrived at Martinque and it was presentation time! I was really impressed with how much everyone knew and they made their presentations really good fun and I was really quite sad that it was coming to an end. One of the best bits was saved for last as we all went up to the ship bridge to meet the captain and his officers. The captain did an informal question and answer session, where he was if he was in charge of the whole ship and even got a marriage proposal!

The last night saw us eating in La Luna and the Bistro again –I dined in La Luna. As it was Laura and Jens birthdays we had birthday cake , gave prizes to the winning presentation team which were the ‘Family’ team and watched a talented group of musicians playing in the square before going up to the disco to dance the night away!

On the final day we topped up our already considerable tans and got ready for the flight.


The following morning arriving at Gatwick was a sombre affair – we were all half asleep! We all had a great time but could not wait to get home to bed!

Queen Victoria Is Named In A Spectacular Ceremony In Southampton

It truly was a stunning & spectacular event!

After a very busy 3 days on board the Complete Cruise Solution team were incredibly fortunate to attend the spectacular naming ceremony of the brand new Queen Victoria in Southampton on Monday afternoon. Queen Victoria was named by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall and was witnessed by over 2,000 guests in a specially built auditorium next to the City Cruise Terminal where the ship had been berthed since her arrival in Southampton on Friday 7th December.

Famous names such as the London Philaharmonic Orchestra, the Band and Trumpeters of the Royal Marines, Sir Derek Jacobi, Katherine Jenkins, Winchester Cathedral choresters, the Bishop of WInchester & the three tenors - Alfie Boe, Jon Cristoc and Gardern Thor Cortez kept us all enthralled throughout the ceremony.

Alongside these famous names was a very special appearance by one of the local Southampton Beaver Groups who did a fantastic job of handing out Union Jack flags to the crowd & presenting flowers to her HRH The Duchess of Cornwall. Well Done Guys from all at Complete Cruise Solution, we thought you did you a great job!

See the First Pictures of Queen Victoria Arriving in Southampton

Queen Victoria has arrived in Southampton this morning from Venice in preparation for her inaugural celebrations & maiden voyage on Tuesday.

Taken this morning from Hamble Point by our very own Bob Dixon, we're able to give you a first glimpse of Queen Victoria as she sailed up Southampton Water around 8:15am this morning.

Southampton is now set for a very exciting weekend of events when over the next four days, Queen Victoria will play host to 7,000 guests from around the globe before she departs on Tuesday to Europe's Northern Waters. A spectacular firework display will wish Queen Victoria farewell as she sails on her maiden voyage.

Southampton 0 - Ipswich Town 2

Complete Cruise Solution's home team may have lost the match but a great time was had by all when some of the team were hosted by Reader Offers at the Saints v Ipswich Town match.

As well as watching the match, we were introduced to the Boat-iful game....Reader Offers & Ipswich Town are giving fans the chance to win an Ocean Village 2 week cruise for 4 people round the Caribbean. At half time through the season four Ipswich Town fans take centre stage on the pitch at Portman Road, testing their footie skills & their luck in an attempt to land the holiday of a lifetime. The fab four are asked to chip a ball through the funnel of an Ocean Village ship- all those who are successful will be entered into the Grand Final with the winner scooping the 2 week cruise thanks for Reader Offers & Ocean Village.

Dragon's Deck Update

Four agents came to present to the Dragons yesterday afternoon in Southampton in the 2007 Dragon's Deck finale.

I understand from the Dragons that the presentations were generally of a high standard and that the finalists responded well to the Dragons' questions.

The winner will be announced on Queen Victoria during the UK Cruise Awards.

By Mark Pilkington

Barrhead Travel Become Millionaires With Complete Cruise Solution

In September, Barrhead Travel performed fantastically to win P&O Cruises' Millionaire's Club. Barrhead were awarded with a £1k night out in their home town of Glasgow & were joined by their Complete Cruise Solution Account Manager, Elaine Robb.

Photo:Left to right - Kerri McCauly, Me (Elaine Robb), Nicola Murdoch and Ashley Phillips

The evening was a resounding success. I arrived at Barrhead Travel to discover that Bill Munro had hired 2 bright pink Hummer Limos and a job lot of pink and gold cowboy hats!! They sang karaoke the whole way and drank the champers on route!
The restaurant Teppanyaki in Glasgow was delightful. We sat round the chef cooking our food and were thoroughly entertained!
Photo: The Group Outside The
Restaurant With Our Limo

Great night overall - Barrhead are now all psyched up to sell more and do it all again!
By Elaine Robb

Complete Cruise Solution Welcomes New Regional Sales Manager

With Kirsty McIntosh's imminent arrival of not 1 but 2 babies, Paul Sharp has joined us as Regional Sales Manager for the North West & North Wales to cover Kirsty's maternity leave.

Paul joins us with an extensive travel background having worked both overseas & within the retail sector for Thomson, and also spent 5 years working on board P&O Cruises ships as Sales & Operations Manager.

Please join us in welcoming Paul to the Complete Cruise Solution team.

Spectacular Success at the British Travel Awards

Last Thursday saw the cruise lines of Complete Cruise Solution win another hatful of trophies, this time at the British Travel Awards.

In the Consumer Voting, P&O Cruises won awards for Favourite Overall Cruise Line & Favourite Mainstream Cruise Line whilst Cunard were voted Best Niche Cruise Line.

In the categories voted for by you, our Agent Partners, P&O Cruises were awarded Best Mainstream Cruise Line & Cunard Best Niche Cruise Line.

Finally in a category judged by travel industry leaders, P&O Cruises picked up the award for Cruise Line of the Year.

P&O Cruises Join Forces with Children In Need

Following our successful involvement with Children in Need two years ago, P&O Cruises has once again offered a prize for Terry Wogan's auction for "things money can't buy."

We have offered two invitations to the Ventura naming ceremony, gala dinner and overnight event, a cruise for two on Ventura during her maiden season and dinner with Marco Pierre White on board.

This will be auctioned on Wednesday 14 November during Terry's show from 7.30am - 9am

Let's hope it raises thousands of pounds for Children in Need.

Our New Home Is Taking Shape

2009 will see the Complete Cruise Solution team move to a new home in Southampton bringing us under one building with our colleagues from around the Carnival UK organisation.

Just like us, you can watch the development of Carnival House by clicking here anytime!

Welcome to the Complete Cruise Solution Blog!

Complete Cruise Solution are one of the BIGGEST Sales Teams in the UK Travel Industry, representing P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, Ocean Village & Cunard. Our Sales Team are based across the country to support our Agent Partners, with our Head Office based in Southampton.

Have you met any of the Complete Cruise Solution team? Click here to meet the Complete Cruise Solution Sales Team.

Dragon's Deck Is Back

Friday 2nd November saw the closing date for this year's Dragon's Deck competition. We've received a fantastic number of entries into the competition which is running for the 2nd time. It is great to see entrants range from some of our biggest cruise specialists to a number of agents who have never sold cruise before.

Look out for details of the winning Agent at the end of November. Remember the prize is a £20,000 marketing campaign from Complete Cruise Solution!

Noddy Came To Town At The Ventura Family Fun Day

We hosted a bunch of agents and journalists at Frankies restaurant in London last week. Hell's Kitchen's Marco Pierre White was there on the big day chatting with some of the agents as he co-owns the restaurant with Frankie Detorri and has a restaurant on Ventura.

The agents brought their kids with them, and CCS Sales Director Giles Hawke was there with his two sons. The restaurant had arranged for a special birthday cake as it was young Benjamin Hawke's first birthday last weekend.

We all enjoyed racing against each other on the massive Scaletrix, and also got excited when Noddy himself made an appearance. Other Ventura icons including Rock School and Cirque de Ventura were present, along with a junior art class from

Thank you to all our agent partners who came on the big day with their kids - click on http://www.virtualventura.co.uk/ for more information on our new ship, that we are all getting very excited about!

By Mark Pilkington

Liz Cardy's Diary of the Oriana Top Agent Trip

Oriana 17th –20th October

I have found a new favourite ship. Having spent 3 nights on board Oriana I can see how so many people just fall in love with her and return cruise after cruise. I was on board Oriana organising a Travel Agent Exclusive VIP group, so much of an exclusive group we had no other than the new Managing Director of P&O Cruises on board with us Mr Nigel Esdale.

17th October
I briefed the team in the office early in the morning. (8:15 is definitely a struggle for some!) I managed to produce another schedule of events for the team. May I note I went up to version 10.1! Having briefed the team we went down to the good ship Oriana where we were met by a rather jolly Eva who ensured our baggage was loaded on to the ship and got us checked in. Most of the CCS people then headed straight for the restaurant, myself and Giles held back to organise the room. I have never been so well looked after, you don’t even have to ask for anything when organising a function on board. There is a team to do anything for you! All the agents came to the sessions after they had been fed and watered and the trip began in true style with presentations from each of the CCS people in a nice kind of open forum environment.
We finished the sessions and each of the guests went to meet their families and friends (who we had invited in the trip too) then everyone donned their delightful orange jackets at the muster drill.
Food is definitely going to become a reoccurring theme for this cruise as half of our group were dining in Oriana Rhodes and the other half in the main restaurant. I was in the main restaurant and had a delightful meal with all the trimmings, not to mention the wine! A few of the group decided it would be a good idea to dance of the calorific value of the meal. I decided my meal would be better digested with a gin and tonic.

18th October
Early. My alarm woke me up at 06:00. The 1st 1-2-1 was at 07:30. Too early if you ask me. I put on my suit and went down to the 1-2-1 suite. Giles, Mark and Nigel were all looking perky so I made my best effort with the blusher and kept smiling. I organised the coffee and found the 3 of them becoming almost human for the 1-2-1’s.
At 09:00 Leanna Rice held a session on P&O Cruises and Elevation. Most of the agents attended and found it really worthwhile. After the session we went back to the 1-2-1’s and with several more gallons of coffee being consumed throughout the day and some tonnage of Danishes too!
At 10:00 we arrived in Rotterdam. Quite a few of the agents disembarked and went to Amsterdam.
In the afternoon Bob Dixon gave a presentation on profiling and sharing information. It was quite funny to see what “Profile” each of the agents had! We then had a Q&A session with Tim Yates (General Manager P&O Cruises) and he was able to share a huge amount about the ship and how much the ship has been elevated.
Still recovering from the sheer amount of food and the quality of the food we decided to go for the optional (but not really so optional if you work for CCS) game of football. I did think that as a girl I might not get attacked as much. I was wrong. Getting ready for the evening with black and blue legs was the highlight of my evening. Not to mention the looks I got in the gym.

Half of the group dined in the main restaurant and the other half dined in Oriana Rhodes. I dined in Oriana Rhodes with Nigel and Carol and Philip George from Traveland. We had a fantastic time and spent at least 3 hours eating. (Note to self – remember to make the delightful champagne cocktail I had in Rhodes – 40ml of sloe gin, topped up with British sparkling wine mmmm mmmm). I started my meal off with the lobster thermidor risotto, followed by a sweet corn chowder, followed by Monkfish on a bed of prawns and coriander salsa, followed by a mango cream, followed by a white chocolate dessert, followed by… I would love to go on but it will only make you hungry!

19th October
Another early morning and they say its all fun, fun fun. Dragging myself out of those delightful Egyptian cotton bed sheets is getting harder. The 1st 1-2-1 was a little later at 08:30 and they went all the way through. I was on hand with a big smile and more gallons of coffee.
We arrived in to Zeebrugge on schedule at 08:00;many of the agents disembarked and went in to Bruges. Lesley and Julie from Cumbria Cruise Club came back bearing chocolates, which have been very well received (Thanks ladies). In the afternoon we had our optional yet non-optional game of football. There was a fellow female playing so I didn’t feel quite so bad. We were winning (of course) then Justin Pearson (CCS) on the other team let out a yelp and couldn’t walk. Giles had to help Justin to the gym. After visiting the gym Justin and Giles were sent to the medical centre. I went down to see him and personally I am not very good with hospitals, sickness, injuries, anything involving blood or people looking ill. I managed to stay approximately 3.5 mins before finding out he had torn his Achilles tendon.


I made my apologies and left trying to make my way up to the gym. To my horror I realised it was 18:25 and time to get ready for the cocktail party.



Picture: Justin Pearson




I arrived back to my cabin to find some rather appealing canapés; I thought it would be rude not to so I inhaled each and everyone of them without even a thought for dinner.

At the cocktail party we all enjoyed a large selection of drinks and even more canapés. We hosted the Travel Agents and were also hosted by many of the ships company in Harlequins. We organised (with military precision) the group photo and were given a short speech from Nigel Esdale.
At dinner we all enjoyed the formal meal, with most of us indulging in every single course! I must admit that the Beef Wellington was the best I have ever tasted; the other courses were amazing too! From the restaurant we headed to back to Harlequins as it is the late night bar on board Oriana and started to dance the night away. It was even quite funny when Giles and Paul wheeled Justin in to the middle of Harlequins and left him there – talk about mocking the afflicted.


After several hours of dancing I decided to hit the hay. A good event, well done I thought to myself- I am ready for Queen Victoria now…. Bring it on!



By Liz Cardy

Do you know these people?

Friday 5th October saw many members of the CCS team as you may have never seen them before! There was an invasion of face masks, short skirts, long skirts, spam tin hats, Superman, Minnie Mouse & even a stripper in the "Cardy Household" for Liz's birthday- a quiet night as you can imagine- NOT!

Our host for the night was Medusa aka Liz Cardy who led the way in the fun & games including the Karaoke.

Picture: Stacey Richards(Mime) and Liz Cardy(Medusa)

A Shining Star for P&O Cruises

It's a hat trick for P&O Cruises!

Last Monday, Liz Cardy & Lucy Holliday attended the Travel Bulletin STARS Awards at the Landmark Hotel in London. The girls proudly collected P&O Cruises' 3rd award in a fortnight winning "Best Mainstream Cruise Company"

Wedding Bells

Friday 15th October saw the long awaited wedding of Paul Beale, Account Manager for Complete Cruise Solution to Clare Buckley, Berthing Executive for P&O Cruises.

Paul & Clare were married in Liverpool before jetting off to the Maldives & Dubai for their honeymoon.

Good luck Paul & Clare from all your friends at CCS!

Picture: Paul Beale

It's Been All About Giving at Complete Cruise Solution during September

Georgina Morgan, Sales Assistant in the Midlands 5 team raised £500 for the Marie Curie Charity by running 13.1 miles in the Great North Run. A fantastic achievement, well done Georgina!

CCS took part in the UK's Largest Coffee Morning for the Macmillan cancer support charity & raised just over £100. Organised by Liz Cardy, Events & Training Executive, Homemade cakes & biscuits were enjoyed by all!

100 Miles & £700 Later....

A bit sore, but still smiling...

Justin Pearson, Senior Sales Manager here at Complete Cruise Solution recently took part in the Tour pour la Mer cycle ride. Justin successfully finished the 100 mile ride in just under 7 hours, raising £700 for The Mission To Seafarers.

Well Done Justin!

Another Trophy for the Mantelpiece!

On 3rd October, P&O Cruises were voted "Top Cruise Operator" at the Elite Travel Group Awards. Robert Taylor our Regional Sales Manager for Midlands was there to collect the award.

Award Winning!

Last Tuesday, Jonathan Davies, Regional Sales Executive for the North West proudly collected on behalf of P&O Cruises the award for "Europe's Leading Cruise Operator" at the World Travel Awards.

Picture: Jonathan Davies & Graham Cooke

Complete Cruise Solution Sales Meeting (or how to sleep with most of your colleagues!)

Army Tanks? Quad Biking? The Mr Bean Style Minis?
Could these be the new CCS Company Vehicles?


Tuesday 25th September
10pm
It's the eve of the Complete Cruise Solution quarterly sales meeting. Everyone's a bit nervous as we are heading to a "secret location" which has been the subject of fevered speculation. As we are scheduled to celebrate our recent Travel Company of the Year Award win at the TTG awards, anticipation is high that the "secret location" will involve lots of champagne and a couple of days living in the lap of luxury. No-one knows what to pack (though rather ominously we have been told to bring clothes for cold weather; needless to say hair straighteners are "strictly verboten").
Picture: Lee Barker, Paul Ludlow,

Wednesday 26th September
7am
The 65 people in the sales team meet at our offices in Southampton for an early start. We all try to bribe the coach driver to tell us where we're off to, but he is under strict instructions to keep schtum. We've been told to bring our passports and a rumour goes round that we are being taken straight to Southampton airport to fly to Paris (seems unlikely, but France is the home of Champagne after all!)

730am
Bad news. We've driven past Southampton airport without stopping. Seems like Paris isn't going to happen. We are now heading west. No-one's in the mood for a sing-song. We get the driver to turn up the heat in the coach - it might be the last time that we feel warm for a while.

1030am
We've just arrived at a farm 10 miles south of Bristol. Our overnight accommodation is a group of tee-pees that sleep up to sixteen people. Apparently tonight is going to be the coldest night of the autumn so far and there is a big gaping hole at the top of the tent. There aren't any mattresses - we've each been allocated a super-thin rug to sleep on (more a bath-mat than a bed). The toilet facilities aren't great - all 65 of us are sharing one toilet and one shower.


4pm
The "conference" part of the sales meeting is over. We spend the afternoon on a treasure hunt and building racing cars from scratch. Needless to say Giles is cheating to make sure that he wins. Everytime we look up the teepees are in the background - they don't look very welcoming! An emergency shower block has been towed into the car park so that there are some more washing facilities for the morning. Still only one toilet though, and we have now been advised that we should "water" the fields in the night if there is a queue for the loos.

11pm
We celebrate our TTG award with a toast to our agent partners at the start of our hog roast dinner and then get stuck into the pub quiz, with the usual suspects cheating by texting their friends to get them to google the answers. After the evening entertainment we go back to the teepee field. The temperature has dropped to three degrees. Someone has been to the local off license to make sure there is plenty of booze to keep us warm and to continue the celebrations. At midnight we wake up the farmer and get him to build us a bonfire so that we can toast our marshmallows. At 1am we wake up the farmer again to get him to carry out some emergency repairs to one of the teepees that has an alarming hole at the top. At 130am the farmer comes back and tells us that the neighbours are complaining about all the noise we are making from the sing-a-long

Thursday 27 September
2am
Most people are in "bed". We started off with two teepees for the boys and five teepees for the girls. Some of the girls have mutinied (the hole at the top of one of the teepees was too big!) and so the remaining teepees are getting crowded. The gender-segratation seems to have disappeared, with two of the remaining three girls' teepees hosting some of the male colleagues for the night.

4am
Still awake. The farmer told us that once we were in our teepees and tucked up in our sleeping bags we would feel very snug and warm. I am still waiting for this to happen. Someone is snoring in another teepee so loudly that it sounds like they are right next to me. Someone is still singing by the camp fire.



430am
The last members of the sales team finally go to bed.

630am
The night is over. A queue is forming for the showers, but the logistical challenge of getting wet is too great. We head for breakfast. Some of the girls are struggling without hair straighteners - apparently wearing a hat is the best substitute to hide non-straightened hair!

830am
We start the day's team building exercises. During the day we will drive a tank (surprisingly complicated to drive in a straight line, and surprisingly easy to send into a ditch); shoot clay pigeons and race Minis. We learn that Paul Beale is our speed demon (he won the Mini racing); that Zoe Scott is a surprising good shot in the clay pigeon shooting challenge with a clear 10 out of 10 in the first round; that Gemma Robbins would have a fantastic career as a tank driver if she wanted to be in the army; and that the best team (ie my team!) won the team event!

Picture: Giles Hawke, Stacey Richards, Gemma Robbins, Katie Brickell, Nathanial Sherborne & Paul Beale

Thank you to TTG for awarding Carnival UK Travel Company of the Year for the second year running, and giving the sales team an opportunity to celebrate our success in such luxurious surroundings!

By Mark Pilkington