Jump to content

Let’s take 20 people on Oasis! June 6 2015 Western


Recommended Posts

It was the dead of winter, January 2014. It was brutally cold and depressing. That’s when I said why don’t we plan a big group cruise and invite anyone that wants to go. It can be a present for our 2 daughters who would be graduating high school and college in May of 2015. Thus began a 16 month planning process for our second ever cruise.

 

A bit about our first ever cruise. My wife refused to go on a cruise for 10 years. Just wouldn’t do it, didn’t want to do it. Finally she gave me an opening and I booked us on Allure in 2013. We took 8 people on that trip and had a blast. You can read all about it in my very lengthy review of Allure “10 Years in the Making…”

 

I’m not doing a day by day review for this Oasis cruise. Rather it will be a more topical review of things related to the trip and some of what I experienced in doing a group booking.

 

Who Wants to Go Cruising?

We decided to use my wife’s vocation as a jumping off point to invite people to go cruising. She is a Zumba Instructor and she has a lot of friends through Zumba that were interested in taking a trip. So we called it the Amy Zumba Cruise and started spreading the word to see who was interested. Of the 8 people that went on our first cruise 7 came back for round two (the eighth person was the adult son who went with his mom on trip 1). We also had DD1 and DD2 along with fiancé for DD1 and they were all in and all first timers.

 

Initially we had FamilyGoBoston in on the group! We became fast friends on our Allure cruise and they were booked with us until the 2015 school calendar came out and she realized that her daughter’s HS graduation would be the day after we sailed. We are all still so bummed that they couldn’t go with us. But she was part of our group in every other way, offering advice and tips to all the first timers. I know many of the CC community have read her reviews and let me just say that they are a terrific family and she is every bit as nice and funny in person as she is on CC.

 

Building a group like this takes some amount of work and communication. One thing I found was that many people were interested in cruising but intimidated by it or just didn’t know where to begin planning such a trip. Yes I know that’s what TAs are paid to do but somehow there is a big group of people who might be interested and just don’t want to go it alone. Two couples especially in our final group were that way. They were very happy that I planned everything for them so they could experience a cruise with people they knew and in a way that was less stressful for them.

 

If you are planning a group trip just know that there will be a thousand questions and no matter how much information you give people they won’t always read it or remember it. I tried to find creative ways to give information in an enjoyable format, so that made it somewhat easier. Initially I wrote up an email that contained the basic information of where, when, how and at what estimated price (because schedules were not open yet).It was part information and part marketing/advertising. You need to make it something people can get excited about doing. I sent this email to many people and talked to many people about the trip. It’s kind of like a network marketing thing, you never know who will be interested and want to jump on the opportunity to go. Your group will build and shrink in very dynamic ways you never expect. So if you don’t like to do a lot of communicating and if you can’t write or speak passionately about going on the trip in order to “sell” the trip then building a group might not work for you.

 

After the initial email stuff I then created a private Facebook group for our cruise. This turned out to be a very good way to get people excited and share information. We would invite people to the group that showed an interest in the trip. Then we posted pictures of our first cruise, pictures of the Oasis, information about the cruise and the excursions we were looking at, and just general fun stuff about the cruise. An email is great for specifics but it isn’t dynamic like Facebook, you can really get a lot of excitement built if you work just a little bit at it.

 

The other thing I did was newsletters. I have done writing and desktop publishing work so I was able to craft a monthly Cruise News publication that could be distributed in Acrobat pdf format to everyone on the mailing list and posted to the Facebook group. I used lots of pictures from our past cruise and from searches on Google for images of Oasis etc. I was able to give a lot of information out this way. I covered dining options, dress codes, pre-cruise accommodations, excursion options, what to wear, what to pack, tips and tricks, and general information about the cruise process of how the online check-in works. It was colorful; I used lots of photos and kept it funny while still getting the information out there. And people would go back and re-read them, especially as the cruise got closer.

 

The group grew to 28 people at one point! But life happens and some people had to drop out; job issues, deployment in the military, health issues, money issues, etc. In the end we had 20 people in 8 ocean view balcony rooms, 1 Boardwalk balcony and one interior room.

I have only read your introduction thus far and I am already enjoying this post. This August I will be hosting our 5th annual family and friends group cruise so I can already relate, especially with exactly 20 guest booked for this one. Looking forward to reading to the end...

 

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Booking a Group

 

I used a TA on my first cruise but it was just a random person I got of a website offering some OBC for booking. She was OK but would call me at all hours of the night with random information. I decided to book directly with RCCL and see how it went.

 

A word about TAs. I have a great one that we have used and I recommend to all my friends that want to do a Disney World trip. She has worked with our extended family in setting up at least four big WDW trips. If I could find a TA like that for RCCL then I would be happy. Maybe I need to keep looking.

 

In any case I was ready to go the day that bookings opened for our dates. I called at 9 am sharp and started the process. It wasn’t difficult to get the group set up and I had a list of the room requirements we were looking for, most notably a handicapped room with an interior room close by. (As it turned out my uncle passed away before we could go on this trip so we wound up not needing the handicapped room). My aunt did go with us and had a wonderful trip with her son.

 

Then the hunt for rooms was on. I really wanted to try for rooms right next to the public Aqua Decks on 11 or 12. When I inquired about them she said they were already gone. But then she said no, they were just not available to book without a supervisor’s approval. So she got permission and we booked my room right next to the Aqua Deck on 12 Port! Our DDs room was a BW balcony right across from us. Then everyone else was right there in that area. I was so excited to get those rooms! And you had to call to get them; I would not have been able to book them online. Flash forward to the post dry dock reconfiguration of Oasis when RCCL took all those public aqua decks away and turned them into suites. I was not so excited about that, in fact I was pretty upset that our premium rooms were now just rooms that I had paid a bit of a premium rate to get. It didn’t ruin the trip or anything like that but it was quite a bummer to realize that steps from my door would have been a great deck for us all to congregate on. Never even saw the people that wound up occupying that suite – not once. Did see their luggage on the last day, maybe they never left the suite?

 

Another thing about booking a group is that I was able to reserve all the rooms we were booking with one call. I was able to get a bunch of rooms in the locations I wanted and put names on them without making a deposit on them myself. Then once I had the bookings each couple could call in and pay their $500. That made things much easier to coordinate. Anyone who decided to book later just called group bookings and gave our group number then reserved a room. But you had to call the group booking number not the regular number.

 

This part of the process was pretty easy to accomplish. We got our rooms, everyone paid their deposits, and we kept recruiting people to join us. But we had a long 16 months to wait until we actually got to cruise. People were in and out of the cruise, booked and canceled etc. Sometimes they told me they were out other times I found out when I got our group bookings sheet. As long as we had at least 8 cabins we were still a group so that was fine.

 

I was able to use 2 accounts to reserve all our shows and link them together. You can only book so many linked show reservations per person. That’s when you need access to someone’s account so you can log in and make reservations. It was simple to do if you understand what you need to accomplish it. That way everyone had show reservations for the same times and I could do all of it without their involvement.

 

Reserving Specialty Dinning was not such an easy task. In fact I found it to be impossible. I’m sure someone out there in CC land has done it but I couldn’t get it accomplished. What I wanted to do was reserve 3 restaurants for 14 people in the group. I knew we couldn’t all sit at the same table but I wanted the same reservation times. It seemed doable at the start. I worked with my RCCL rep that I originally booked the cruise through. She sent me a form that had Giovanni’s, Chops, and 150 Central Park listed with spaces for times and number of guests that I was requesting. You had to make a request in this way for a group at these venues.

 

I filled out the form and then the waiting began. It was hard to get the restaurant side of RCCL to respond. They couldn’t respond to me directly so I had to get in touch with the specific RCCL rep that started the process, not just any RCCL rep in the group booking dept. That was an issue. Most of the time if you need anything regarding a group booking any group rep can assist you, but not for the reservations on specialty dinning. You must use one rep and only that rep has access to the email between you and the dining reservation people. Well, good luck getting in touch with your specific rep. Those people are jammed up on the phone non-stop every day. I called and called and could never get my rep. Then she would call me back when it was impossible for me to answer. It went on like this for weeks. When we finally connected the times the restaurants were offering were ridiculous, after 9 pm every night! And I would have to pay for everyone’s reservations up front on my credit card. And we would not be offered the discount for booking 3 specialty venues! At that point we were over 2 months into trying to book the dining and I just said forget it. Cancel my request and I will deal with it when we board the ship, it simply should not be this difficult for me to give RCCL $1,400 of revenue! But it was just impossible to accomplish.

 

Fast forward to embarkation day, June 6th. I walked on board with my group, we all gawked for a second or two and then I took out a piece of paper with 14 names and room numbers printed on it with the preferred times we wanted to dine in the restaurants. I walked over to the desk that was making dining reservations, handed the young man my paper and asked if this was possible. He took my paper and returned in less than 10 minutes with the entire thing completed. No muss, no fuss, all done promptly and easily. And we all got the discounted pricing for the restaurants.

 

One more thing about dining with a group; we could not do MTD only traditional dining. I understand that a group of 20 could cause real havoc with MTD but the early traditional dining times on Oasis don’t work well with some of the port days and the late dining clashes with shows. Just wondering if anyone had successfully had a large group booked on MTD? Another note for planners, we had 2 tables. One table had 12 and the other had 8. We were able to mix and change who sat at what table every night in the MDR. No problems with switching around, so that made it nice that we could rearrange each night.

I agree that booking specialty restaurant foe groups with RCCL really sucks. For our annual group sailing we always do the steak house. I have been able to book 1/2 the group at say 5:45 and the other 1/2 at say 6. As soon as we board I go to the specialty dining room and let them know that those two bookings are one group. When it's our day to dine they have our two table right next to one another and give us all the same arrival time. I've been successful at getting this done on the phone with everyone's name and cabin numbers. RCCL does however require the cost per person up front. I have collected money ahead of time from my guest and other times I've put it on my credit card and they pay me back on embarkment day.

 

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I mentioned doing a Cruise News newsletter for our group. It was a great way to communicate and fun to do. Here is and example of our newsletter:

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzpEC8hcNd-NdEhsd2MyM0tmRnc/view?usp=sharing

Love your newsletter!

 

We normally update the group with a monthly email and we also have a private Facebook group. The Facebook groups appears to be the better option for my group as people do reply to my postings. No one really replies to the emails.

 

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On Schedule - Sometimes

One thing about organizing a group, it takes coordination and inevitably something or someone throws a kink into all the well laid out plans you made. As a planner you know this, you mentally prepare for this and you just expect some things to go sideways at times. But in the moment frustration still creeps in…I tried to stay calm and my DW would give me that look when she could tell I was getting frustrated. And it doesn’t help when one of the points of frustration is your kid!

 

Here is the schedule that we worked off of for the trip. I handed this out when we got on the plane or when people came to Lago Mar. I found this spreadsheet to be very helpful in laying out a basic plan to follow. On Oasis ships you have so many dinning choices, shows and activities that putting together a plan is pretty crucial if you want to get lots of things done.

 

Of course the plan is never set in stone, except when it is. Shows are pretty much set, and dinner is not negotiable unless you just want to go to Windjammer. The other thing that requires coordination is shore excursions.

 

Here is our schedule as an example of what you can do for your group.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzpEC8hcNd-NWVdkR1loT1BCUUU/view?usp=sharing

This is great!

I always give out a new letter whish has events, dates and times but this is a better visually. I will probably add it as a pullout to my newsletter. It's good for posting in the cabin too.

 

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great review! How fun to go with a large group. Thanks for the info on tours in Jamaica that are in addition to RCCL. I can't believe your organization and newsletters. What a great director role you took!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I must give credit where credit is due

 

The original Schedule Spreadsheet was given to me by the uber vacation planner Familygoboston for our Allure cruise in 2013.

 

I did a bunch of changing to the format and made it a full page one that printed out on a single sheet.

 

If anyone wants the original spreadsheet I can post it or send it to you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
Great review... really considering Blue Hole for our cruise next summer.. What was the cost?

 

The Blue Hole is a great trip!! Our tour was $70/each which included lunch.

We were on tour pretty much the entire day.

 

We did need money to tip the guides at the Blue Hole and the tour guides too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
On Schedule - Sometimes

One thing about organizing a group, it takes coordination and inevitably something or someone throws a kink into all the well laid out plans you made. As a planner you know this, you mentally prepare for this and you just expect some things to go sideways at times. But in the moment frustration still creeps in…I tried to stay calm and my DW would give me that look when she could tell I was getting frustrated. And it doesn’t help when one of the points of frustration is your kid!

 

Here is the schedule that we worked off of for the trip. I handed this out when we got on the plane or when people came to Lago Mar. I found this spreadsheet to be very helpful in laying out a basic plan to follow. On Oasis ships you have so many dinning choices, shows and activities that putting together a plan is pretty crucial if you want to get lots of things done.

 

Of course the plan is never set in stone, except when it is. Shows are pretty much set, and dinner is not negotiable unless you just want to go to Windjammer. The other thing that requires coordination is shore excursions.

 

Here is our schedule as an example of what you can do for your group.

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzpEC8hcNd-NWVdkR1loT1BCUUU/view?usp=sharing

 

with a 6pm dinner time did you feel you had enough time getting to a 730 or even 8pm show?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The cut looked worse than it really was. I got up early to take some pictures of the ship when no one was around. Standing behind the car on the promenade I somehow sliced my knee on the bumper. It was a bleeder! Lucky for me we had a doctor in the group so he glued me back together.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had to laugh about your comment about what to do at 6am..."take pictures with no people in them"

 

I am an early riser while my wife is a late riser. Usually on one day of a cruise, when I wake up early I go around and take photographs.

 

A few cruises ago, my wife actually woke up early and joined me while I did photograph quest. One of her first comments was "Know I now how you pictures without people in them".

 

I must applaud you on the organization skills you displayed in herding a group of 20 people. I "arranged" a group of 14 for my parent's 50th anniversary cruise. However the extent of my organizing was telling everyone what ship and date we are sailing. Letting everyone know what time we should meetup for dinner in the MDR (Princess my time dining) and picking out the restaurant for the night before embarkation. Other than that everyone was on their own. Although I did gave them idea of what we would be doing in each port etc.

 

However unlike your group, most if not all my group had been on at least one cruise before.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...