Cruise.co.uk celebrates in style

This weekend saw the culmination of lots of hard work with the 30th Anniversary Chairman’s Cruise. This was a special occasion to celebrate 30 years of Victoria Travel / Cruise.co.uk which was founded by Andrew Gardner back in 1984. At the start it was a small village travel agency with just 2 employees and now we are a huge cruise specialist with over 150 staff.

Over the years we became particularly well known for our ‘Gardens Themed’ cruises, working in conjunction with BBC Gardeners World and offering cruises and excursions to famous gardens around the world and hosted by top gardeners and TV personalities. We were lucky enough to have these hosts on board the Braemar and just under 300 guests were able to mingle with Alan Titchmarsh, Matthew Biggs, Will Giles, David Hurrion, Tony Russell and Ashley Stevenson.

I had a number of my customers on board this trip and it has been lovely to speak with them this week and hear their stories. Several people had met up with friends that they had sailed with in years gone by and had a great time catching up. I believe the Braemar which isn’t large in terms of oceans going ships looked a very impressive site sailing down the Seine towering over smaller vessels and when she moored in Rouen for the day on Saturday the guests enjoyed either an excursion to Paris or time exploring the historic sites locally.

The highlight of the weekend though was a speech and drinks party hosted by Alan Titchmarsh and Andrew Gardner and the cutting of an amazing ship-shaped cake, there was a special mention for Vanessa who has worked for Cruise.co for 25 years and been instrumental in organizing our Gardens cruises, as well as many others.  Everyone was presented with mementos of the weekend including the above card which was drawn by one of our guests.

I have worked for Cruise.co.uk for just under 8 years now and seen the company go from strength to strength. It is lovely to work for a company where everyone is happy and where our customers want to celebrate our achievements with us. I’m looking forward to the 40th Celebrations already.