Free Cruise? Don't mind if I do......

Ok, so yes, I know. I said I'd give you all the goss. Lots of pictures and all that jazz. Then I left you hanging.....for 2 months!! How rude is that!!!

The thing is, I was not expecting the trip to be what is turned out to be. So you have read my previous blog on the subject, right? So you know that I earned the Scentsy EU Incentive Trip, not by being annoying and power hungry but just by doing a few parties, building a team and helping them do a few parties too. Then all of a sudden I was just a few points away from actually winning this thing - then I did and I was amazed.

I left my family behind to embark on this holiday, my first abroad in 12 years, and I was scared. Sure I had met some of the girls that had also won the trip a few times before at Scentsy events and we chatted on facebook, but I didn't know them. I couldn't call them freinds...I was going alone and I didn't know how I was going to fill my evenings or if I'd be included in others plans to go for a drink or a meal - you know the kind of thing. I've always been a little socially awkward but my jolly manner and need to fill a silence in a room with a little witty banter has meant that I've hidden it well. Truth is - I've never really felt like I was a part of anything, a gang, a group, a happy collective.

Here I am, after travelling alone for 6 hours. I managed to navigate the airport and customs which to me is another world. The all of a sudden - it's there. This HUGE ship. HUGE! I've never seen anything like it. My heart starts pumping. But I'm on a shuttle bus with happy couples and groups of freinds and then there's me, alone, grinning to myself and not being able to share this feeling of awe, panic, excitement and expectation with anyone.

I'm on the gang plank. I'm actually going to board this ship.....I hand over my travel pass and I'm in! I bought a new hat for the occasion and I'm heading from the deck to the inner corridor. I arrive on the other side and there it is. Its a high steet INDOORS! I'm looking down at a glass bridge lit up with flourescent lights, bars on either side, coffee shops, clothes shops, a bakery with cupcake classes, it's all there. And its inside!

Now it's living up to the hype, this is mahoosive. I don't see anyone I recognise. Oh help. I'm on this thing all alone. My heart is pumping I need to hug someone or I'm actually going to implode. Then I remember there is a meeting point that has just opened. All Consultants are set to meet there from between 2 & 4pm. It's 1.55pm, I'm running up the stairs. At each level the view from the gallery down to the high street gets better and better. Oh wow. I just found the resaurant. It's JUST like Titanic. Spiralling stair cases, grand piano. The waiters all have a towel over there arms. I'm delighted and stop for a self portrait.

Then I ascend some more flights of stairs, a library, and then.....Dan. Mr Orchard our UK Manager who works from the USA is right there in front of me. I scream. I actually scream his name, how embarassing is that!?? "Dan!! Oh my god I'm here!! I'm actually here!!! I think I'm gong to have a heart attack!". He coped with a manic ginger quite well I thought. I met his wife Annie (too cute that one!) and the delectable Toni Budge our events co-ordinator.

Then bit by bit the others started to arrive. They all looked much more composed than me, I was glad to see my roomy arrive shortly after because Christine was as overwhlemed as I was! I couldn't talk. I couldn't plan. I didn't know what to do next!

We all met for dinner, and chatted. I'm so glad we did. All of us. I told my table straight out that I was worried I'd be alone - I even asked Claire who was sat next to me if I could tag along with her for the evening "Can I please be your freind tonight??". The rest is history.

 Together we all chatted about our families, Scentsy, what we found worked, what was hard, what needed to change. We saw amazing things! I saw Rome & Cannes & Pisa and so much more and we all talked and shared and laughed.

I have never laughed so long and so hard as I did on that trip. When I got home my sides actually ached. I thought that was a myth.

The first day on the ship I was guilt ridden that my kids couldn't come along. At every turn I saw a free icecream cone machine, or a fun swimming pool, a climbing wall, free unlimited puddings! All I could think that first night was that my boys would have loved this....then I got over it.....I found out what it was like to have a full meal uninterupted. To be able to make a decision and just go do it. This was what being a grown up was like! Freedom! I love those boys and I dearly love my husband but I had totally forgotten what life was like before I was the centre of the family, and became the go to person for everything.

On the last night, it started to sink in that the the freindships and bonds we had made were truly something amazing. That tomorrow, we would all have to go back to cooking dinner whilst helping the kids with homework & juggling the washing and the cleaning, oh and not forgetting the full time job and the Scentsy business building.

This has possibly been my longest ever blog - but I needed to get it all out, and this aint the half of it! I cannot wait to see all the girls again, we have a strong foundation to build on now, with our freindships and our businesses.

I thought I was going on a free holiday - but it was so much more than that. I will never, ever forget this trip. A wonderful journey.

 Scentsy Mediteranean Cruise
5th-10th May 2013
Royal Carribean Cruise Ships
Liberty Of The Seas