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