MEET YOUR NAVY EVENT - 25th - 27th July 2008

CCS & Ocean World Travel were riding high on the crest of a wave at the weekend, with the Royal Navy at Portsmouth’s ‘Meet Your Navy Event ‘at The Historical Dock Yard. 30,000 visitors flocked to the event to see what the modern Navy has to offer and visit aircraft carriers HMS Illustrious along with foreign navy vessels from Japan, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, and France. The event was a chance for the public to see the Royal Navy past, present and future and CCS & Ocean World Travel provided the public, who were interested in all things nautical a chance to see what travelling on a cruise ship is all about. The stand proved popular with families and couples alike and was a chance to talk to people who had never cruised before.

During the weekend of festivities that included a dramatic air show from the Red Arrows and the Royal Marines Beat The Retreat CCS & Ocean World Travel dealt with various enquiries and bookings including a couple on a cruise of a lifetime on Oriana Round The World Voyage. There was a lot of family interest in Ventura The Superliner built for Britain alongside Ocean Village, Princess Cruises and Cunard.

Travel Weekly Agent Excellence Awards

Last week, Polly Lyons, National Regional Sales Executive for Complete Cruise Solution attended the Travel Weekly Agent Excellence Awards for the Southwest & Wales. Looking as gorgeous as ever, Polly was actually shortlisted for an award herself; Best Dressed!

There is also a video of the night available to watch by following the link below...

http://http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1676042928/bctid1676042590

Anna Baxter from the WEST region is simply the Best

Anna Baxter from the WEST region is simply the Best, as she communicated the Princess Caribbean 09/10 Special Departures to the rest of the Sales Team. Donning her Tina Turner wig and claxon she made sure the rest of the team did not forget what day it was.



Don't forget Princess Caribbean 09/10 goes on sale on Monday 28th July

Success At The Three Peaks Challenge!

On Saturday 5th July, Giles Hawke, Haydon Williams and Bob Dixon from Carnival UK together with Simon Robinson, Marc Bennett and Steve Vaughn from Thomas Cook took on the challenge of climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Mt. Snowdon within 24 hours. The day was to present us with many challenges, some natural and others quite unnatural. One of the unnatural challenges was transport between the peaks. Even at the height of his record-breaking powers, Roy Castle wouldn't have attempted to cram 6 large fellas and all their mountaineering clobber into a Vauxhall Zafira. Poked in the ribs by each others walking poles and taking it in turns to inhale, it was as cosy as an iron maiden.


But of the five climbers four were ex-holiday reps, men toughened by seasons of flight delays and hotel overbookings. Heroes of this calibre laugh in the face of hardship and chortle at the prospect of discomfort. (Marc had never been a rep but he used to play rugby for Harlequins which is nearly as tough!)

Our first peak was Ben Nevis, which was a delight. A very pleasant tab (Paratrooper word for 'walk') up a beautiful mountain with some well marked paths. The recommended time was 6 hours and we polished it off in 4.31. Scafell Pike on the other hand is a piece of hell that has burst through the earth's crust and just kept on growing. Every one of nature's best ankle-snapping devices thrives in great abundance on this accursed peak and we were very happy to be off it but still managed to chip a half hour off the recommended climb time. We started our ascent of Snowdon at 11.30pm, wearing head torches. Looking like a delegation from the NUM, it was a solid yomp (Royal Marine word for 'walk') to the summit, part of which was along the track of the railway, the head beams reaching eerily into the foggy gloom. At the summit we established that we had two hours remaining in which to reach the foot of the mountain.

Exhausted after nearly 22 hours of climbing everyone knew that it would take a supreme effort to make the deadline. At this point, the weeks of training kicked in as we unsheathed our muesli bars and popped our dextrose tablets with practised ease. Charging off the mountain everyone closed their minds to the complaints issuing from respective feet, knee, calf and thigh departments, arriving at the finish post more or less on our chin straps but crucially in time to complete the challenge in 23 hours and 46 minutes. We felt that there was a certain cavalier panache in cutting it so fine!

Standing: Steve Vaughn, Marc Bennett, Giles Hawke, Bob Dixon
Crouching: Simon Robinson

Our success was in no small part down to the navigational skills and nerve of the driver, Haydon Williams who navigated unerringly (well almost) between the peaks as speedily as possible. Bearing in mind that Haydon is normally a Porsche driver, he extracted a level of performance from the Zafira (kindly donated by AVIS) which you won't ordinarily find in the owner's manual.

In all it was an amazing experience and the muscle aches were soon replaced with the warm glow of achievement. Most importantly, thanks to the generosity of those people who sponsored us, we have managed to raise a substantial sum for Action Medical Research and know that this will be spent wisely in funding further advances in medicine. If you would like to sponsor us 'after the event', you can make a donation at www.action.org.uk/~gileshawke

This coming weekend, Giles Hawke, Haydon Williams and Bob Dixon join a team from Thomas Cook (together we're the 'Carnival Cooks' - we spent hours dreaming that one up!) to take on the challenge of the Three Peaks. Starting at 4am, the team will climb Ben Nevis before navigating unerringly to tackle Scafell in the Lake District and then proceeding to Mt. Snowdon in Wales, which we aim to ascend at about 11 pm that night. The Three Peaks Challenge is a supreme test of physical endurance and team work, undertaken only by the supremely fit or the hopelessly insane. (We're still not sure in which camp we belong.) Every year, many people who attempt the feat never return and the shrieks and wails of the lost souls can often be heard echoing off the valley walls. Even some of those who do make it are never quite the same again, adopting the thousand yard stare of the terminally bewildered and often given to bouts of speaking complete gibberish (e.g. Peter Shanks, Michael Whales, Rachel Noel and Katy Rabjohn who have all done this before!)
This year, we will be walking in aid of Action Medical Research. This is a charity which has been making medical breakthroughs for over 50 years improving the health and quality of life for millions of people. Among the advances Action Medical Research has been wholly or partly responsible for:
The first British Polio vaccine
Artificial hip replacement surgery
New treatments for epilepsy
Specialised treatment of burns injuries in children
New tests to improve the chances of successful bone marrow transplants
Utrasound scanning in pregnancy
Action Medical Research continues to make important discoveries and advances. The Charity is currently looking for answers to premature birth, sickle cell disease, cerebral palsy, stroke, epilepsy and osteoporosis.
Any one of these medical challenges puts climbing three peaks in 24 hours into perspective. But with your support and a little bit of sweat and foot odour on our behalf, we hope to make a significant contribution to advances in these areas.
We would be really grateful if you could sponsor us on our quest. To make an on-line donation, please click on the link below, it's perfectly safe. Because Giles occasionally errs on the side of egocentricity, he has created the donation site in his own name. However, I can guarantee that any donation made on that site is in support of the whole team!