Wave Awards ‘Favourite Cruise Blogger’ 2018!! I WON!!

Favourite Cruise Blogger

I can’t quite believe it but it’s true! I won! It still hasn’t sunk in but people keep saying congratulations to me so it must be real. I am so grateful to every one of you that makes this community an amazing place to be. This wouldn’t have been possible without you and I can never say thank you enough.

Look at my name in the “book of the night”! That makes it all very real… Jono’s very happy that he’s had a photo published (ha ha).

What is the Wave Awards?

The Wave Awards is the UK cruise industry’s premier awards. Now in their third year, they set a benchmark standard and recognise, reward and celebrate innovation and excellence within the sector. The Wave Awards are owned, organised and produced by Real Response Media – the owners of World of Cruising and Cruise Trade News.

Cruise blogger category

The cruise blogging category was a public vote, thank you to each and every one of you that voted. We’re definitely showing the world that Cruising isn’t just for old people! Now if somebody tries to tell me ‘you’re not old enough to cruise’ I can show them my trophy which has ‘Cruising isn’t just for old people’ inscribed (and I have 1000+ friends on the internet who will back me up!) The cruise industry is definitely starting to take notice of us youngsters.

Storm Emma/Weather issues!

The Awards Ceremony was held in the Grand Connaught Rooms, London. On the same night, a storm was set to hit London, aptly called Storm Emma! I was sat at work planning to get the train into London, refreshing my computer to see the trains disappearing before my eyes. I was already really nervous about the evening and this didn’t help. In the end, I managed to make it to London on time. Thankfully I have an understanding boss who let me leave work a little early.

A lot of people didn’t make it to the Awards because of the storm/snow but the show must go on! (Yep that’s me on the bottom right).

Evening Schedule

• Drinks!
• Welcome speeches
• Alex and the Horne section
• Dinner
• Raffle
• John Honeywell Award
• Awards
• Partaaayyyy!

Pre-awards

When we arrived at the venue I found Dave (ShipMonk) and Gary (TipsForTravellers). I’ve never been to an awards ceremony before so it was lovely to have some friendly faces to follow around.

We had a drink, partly to calm my nerves, and then headed into the grand hall. There were a couple of welcome speeches and the comedian Alex Horne had a little section which concluded with the audience doing a bit of Zumba. I do like a dance but the long red dress I decided to wear wasn’t exactly ideal for Zumba! All good fun though.  We had dinner which was yummy and there was a charity raffle, I didn’t win.

The awards begin

John Honeywell Award

In memory of John Honeywell (Captain Greybeard) who passed away last year a new award was created this year. The award this year, of course, went to John Honeywell himself. It was accepted by his wife Shelia and his sons Russell and Nick. I never actually got to meet John in person although we did have a number of conversations online. An amazing man by all accounts and the video that they played about his life really was moving.

Favourite cruise blogger award

I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the schedule and saw that our category was first! Immediately I began to panic a little because I have NO idea how award ceremonies work. I wanted to see how others dealt with winning/not winning so I could organise my face according! No such luck.

The winner is…

They announced the category and started to describe the winning blog. It took me a couple of seconds but when they said ‘young cruisers’ I knew they were describing my site. Immediately my heart started beating at about 200 beats per minute but somehow I managed to make it to the stage and had this photo taken. I’m pulling a bit of a weird face but to be honest I’m just happy I didn’t trip or drop the trophy!  I am holding it back to front though.

After party!

I honestly was relieved when the awards ceremony was over. Not because I didn’t enjoy it but because I had been so nervous for so long. They had a band playing and we had a dance, I chatted with a couple of people that I had spoken to online before and then before I knew it it was 1am.

This is one of my favourite photos from the evening. Gary, Dave and I caught with a selfie stick!

My outfit

There was a lot of black and white at the awards. I decided to wear a full ength red dress because why not! IIt’s not every day you get to go somewhere so fancy (not for me anyway). I had a sparkly bag and shoes, both early birthday presents as the awards were two days before my 24th birthday. Thanks Mum and Gran.  Winning the award was the best birthday present I could have ever hoped for.

I managed to find a couple of lovely ladies in red to take this photo with!

 

Thank you!

Thank you all so much for being a part of this community. I can’t ever tell you enough how much I appreciate you all! I still can’t believe it. It won’t be too long before I’m back nagging you about next years vote… (sorry).