It’s crazy but it’s been almost a year since Cruising Isn’t Just For Old People was born! (Not sure if websites are born but it is it’s birthday so makes sense). I started this site when I came back from a Cunard cruise onboard the Queen Victoria and there were SO many things that I thought ‘Why did nobody tell me that?!’. I wrote my first post called ‘8 things I wish I knew before cruising with Cunard‘ and the rest is history.
Since then we have created THE BEST community in the world (if I do say so myself). I am so proud of what we have made and so grateful that I have had a chance to meet so many amazing people. Nothing makes me happier than watching you guys chat in our Facebook group, helping each other out and sharing opinions about things. We have 550 members now which is insane!
First six months
I spent the first 6 months stumbling around the internet going a little mad with questions like ‘what is wordpress?!’ ‘how do I self-host a website?!’. This stuff was all completely new to me and it’s actually really confusing when you have no idea where to start! I do code for a job but sadly its a completely different language to the website building one (boo).
Last six months
After 6 months I had realised that I should probably have a Twitter/Instagram page. I set up our Facebook page and created our Facebook group. I made my first real friends in the community and started to get into a swing of posting content regularly along with a ton of guest bloggers.
The thing that I am most proud of is our community. A community built up of:
- 550 Facebook group members!
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20+ GUEST BLOGGERS!
How gorgeous are these lovely people?!
Facebook Page:
Facebook is a little bit of mystery, their algorithms are mean. I have over 658 ‘likes’ but some posts will only be shown to maybe 10 of my likers? Facebook seems to want me to pay it but that isn’t going to happen! Still, it is good to have and we do sometimes have good conversations on there.
Facebook Group:
This is the one that I am really excited about, we have 550 members in our group! I am so happy with how this group has turned out, we have a lovely bunch of human beings from around the world, all sharing their questions/photos/stories. Nothing makes me happier than seeing somebody ask a question and everybody else rallying around to answer it.
I also love taking part in GIF challenges where I ask a silly question like ‘How do you feel when you first get on a ship’ and you guys answer in a GIF. Some of your replies are absolutely hilarious. Here’s an example, I asked…
and you answered…
Onwards and upwards for this group I say! Thank you all for being a part of it.
Guest bloggers:
We have had 21 guest bloggers! Thank you all so much so being a part of the site. Each person has brought something new and interesting and sparked a new conversation. This site wouldn’t be anything without you guys and I am so grateful.
A bit about my personal accounts.
Twitter:
I have had some of my favourite conversations on Twitter, it is so lovely to be able to ask a question and get responses from around the world. I have 4000+ followers at the moment which is a little bit mad, I’m sure a lot of them are robots but some of them are real people. Really interesting and helpful people!
Instagram:
Instagram is one of the most fiddly games ever, you might have a certain number of followers one day… but they are in no way loyal and you can lose them FAST! That being said I have managed to hang onto over 1200! I love opening Instagram every day to see everybody’s holiday snaps, even if it makes me incredibly envious.
YouTube:
I am just starting out on the whole YouTube thing! It is a lot of hard work but I am really enjoying doing it. I hope to bring a film a lot of content on my upcoming cruising. Click here to be taken to my YouTube.
Number of cruises I’ve been on since starting this blog: 0
I am incredibly proud of everything that we have achieved in the last year, especially considering the fact that I haven’t been on a cruise since starting any of this! (Maybe that’s why I’ve been doing this, cruise withdrawal?!) Anyway, I have three cruises coming within the next year and I am SO excited. I can’t wait to bring you guys with me in the form of vlogs and posts. The fun has just started!