FRONTLINE
in association with
SIAN JONES, YOUR HOLIDAY BOOKING, WIGAN
Homeworker Sian speaks to Benjamin Coren about her first visit to the US and the Bahamas
Q. How did it feel to win a place on the trip? I was at work when I received the phone call to say I was going. I didn’t think I would win, however I did share my entry a lot on social media and I was very surprised and excited as I had never been to the United States before, let alone Miami. I had never been to the Bahamas either. I had always fancied going to both destinations, which was one of the reasons I entered.
Q. How were the flights? They were great. We flew with British Airways from Heathrow. The staff were brilliant and I would really recommend them, we were all giddy and excited, drinking gin and tonics all the way.
Q. How did you find Miami? The Eden Roc in Miami was gorgeous. I had an amazing Ocean View room. The sea views really blew me away. It was a beautiful room in a great location on the beach. When we got there, we went to Dolphin Mall where we spent a couple of hours on a shopping spree buying all sorts as the sales were on, it was great fun and I bought a lot of stuff for the kids.
Q. What did you think of Norwegian Sky? We couldn’t wait to get on the ship and have a tour around it. I was really excited to see what the cabins were like as we had balcony cabins. I couldn’t fault the ship, it was like a party ship! It had brilliant daytime entertainment, everyone was having drinks in the pool and it was a good laugh and the team are great at getting everyone up dancing and playing games.
Q. How was the food on board? The food was amazing, we had a wonderful steak one night at the bistro and I particularly liked breakfast as it
travelweekly.co.uk
was delivered to the cabin each morning and that was really good. It was better than I thought it was going to be and I loved every minute of it.
Q. How were the shore visits? It was great eating some of the local food on Grand Bahama, we tried lots of different types of street food – which was all really good, especially the fried fish. One of my favourite experiences was swimming with the pigs. We tried to get selfies with them, but they were stamping on our feet. In the end, we did get a picture – we used apples on sticks to get them to come closer to us. I thought they would be little pigs, but they were huge.
Q. What were the other people on the trip like? The people on the trip were lovely and we all really got on well. We laughed the whole time and we have all stayed in touch.
Q. How was your photoshoot?
My photoshoot was held in the wine cellar of a really old hotel called Graycliff in Nassau, which we were told had the world’s third-largest private wine collection with about 275,000 bottles. It was very dark in the cellar and all the rooms were filled with history. I’d never done anything quite like it before and I was quite nervous, but the photographer made me feel at ease and made me laugh a lot, so in the end I didn’t think about it too much. It was also nice and cool, so a break from the heat.
Q. What were you overall thoughts? I loved the Bahamas and have since recommended it to a few customers. The cruise was brilliant, and it was great to wake up in a different place every day. There was also a lot more to Miami than I expected.
19 SEPTEMBER 2019 45
Sian’s career and Your Holiday Booking
I started out as a holiday rep for Thomson in 2001. I was based in the Costa del Sol at Torremolinos Beach Club for a season. It was on this job that I got the travel bug. I came back and started working for Wardle Travel in Standish, near Wigan, as an agent. I did that for about a year and then I worked at Thomas Cook for five years. Between those jobs I did two more years of holiday rep work in Majorca. I had a spell of seven years when I didn’t work as my husband worked away and we had young children.
I became a homeworker
in 2018, as it fitted around the kids. I’ve got 13 years’ experience as an agent. Your Holiday Booking called and I thought I would give it a go, they are part of Vertical Travel Group and it suits my lifestyle perfectly, I love homeworking.
PICTURES: Steve Hockstein
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