If you haven’t travelled with us before, you might not be aware of one of the most important members of our team – our coach, Serena!
She would probably argue that she’s the most important member – after all, we’re not getting far without her (lol). But if you’re new to our holidays, you might be wondering what she’s like and why she has a name!
THE TECHNICAL BITS
Serena is a 2012 Setra GT-HD 416 49-seat coach, on a Mercedes Benz chassis. She’s painted white with blue stickers showing our company name and a blue swish on the side.
Serena’s seats are super-comfy (it’s the first thing we check when we view a coach), with a lovely blue & red moquette. Each seat also has a drop down table and glove-net for your comfort and storage while you’re onboard with us.
EXTRA LEGROOM
She was originally certified with 53 seats, but when we bought her in December 2020, we decided to remove a row of seats to allow us to create our extra legroom seats for additional passenger comfort. We’d already had extra legroom seats on our previous coach, Hollie, which was very popular, so we were keen to give our passengers this option again.
A little job for Nigel to remove & rearrange the seats, a visit to the DVSA test centre to recertify the coach and we’re pleased to say that seats 25-49 inclusive all have additional legroom onboard!
THE CREW
You’ll be greeted by Nigel in the driving seat and me (Sandie) in the courier seat. We’re happy to welcome new and existing passengers onboard with a cheery smile, ready to enjoy a lovely smooth drive on our journey.
For your added comfort, Serena has an onboard toilet in the centre of the coach, as well as a hot drinks station. Drinks are normally served when we are stationary for safety reasons, and we have a selection of hot drinks, bottled water and biscuits available to purchase.
So how did Serena get her name?
Well, I blame my parents. When we were children, we always named our cars. One memorable vehicle was called Hockey because we were driving past a pitch where they were playing the sport soon after we got the car. My own first car was called Quasimodo, and he was followed by Esmerelda (so named because she was red!)
So, when I joined Nigel at Exclusive Holidays, it made absolute sense to me that we would name the coaches! I think Nigel thought I was a little bonkers, but we started off naming Dennis (the Dennis Javelin) and Dora (the Duple), which were both school buses, and later we had Verity the Vanhool for coach holidays. As you can tell, we like a bit of alliteration too!
Finally, Serena’s predecessor was called Hollie – which broke the pattern as she was a Touro – but it was Nigel’s choice, and she served us well on our coach holidays between 2016 and 2020.
When it came to naming Serena, it took a lot of thought (and Nigel wanted to call her Hollie II), but in the end we decided to stick with the alliterative names and call her Serena the Setra. It was also fitting as we like to encourage a happy, serene atmosphere on our holidays!
So, when you join us onboard Serena, we really hope she lives up to her name and you have a lovely, relaxing and enjoyable time with us!
See you soon!
Exclusive Holidays offers Market Harborough Coach Holidays and Kettering Coach Holidays. Pick up points throughout our local area for South Leicestershire Coach Holidays & Northamptonshire Coach Holidays. Coach Holidays depart from Kettering, Northampton, Wellingborough, Rushden, Market Harborough, Desborough, Rothwell and Lutterworth.
