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!