So, it’s a not-so-little-known secret that I work for a cruise travel agency called World Travel Holdings. I’m not in sales (let’s be honest here, my phone skills are rusty at best), but rather I work a really great 7 – 4 job in marketing in which I pair up with all the brands we partner with to market cruises from all the fleets that we partner with. The logistics of it all will make your head spin, but basically I market and do all the writing for cruises under the US Airways, United, Best Buy, Hilton, etc. brand names. It’s great. I love it.
Anyhoo, every year around the holidays, employee names are put into a lottery and winners are selected at random to get a free cruise. Now, while I generally have pretty good luck, I also usually don’t win anything. However, this time I did. I won a free 8-night cruise to the Bahamas on this bad boy:
image via
This is awesome, right?! Well, yes, but here’s the thing. A free cruise is great, but the drinks and gratuities are where the cost really adds up, so I had to put my reasonable thinking cap on. I don’t have an immense amount of PTO because I travel so regularly to see Ryan in Arizona. We’re desperately trying to save up so that I can relocate sometime soon-ish, and I really just need to keep a lid on my piggy bank.
And so, I won a free cruise, and I gave said free cruise back to be replaced in the lottery and given to another employee. It was a sad day for me, but I’m also kind of proud. Maybe I’m actually maturing? Wonders never cease.
