How do you find out if a large group is on your cruise

I'll be taking a "Christmas Cruise" this year with family. My Dad is 85 YO and I don't think he would be able to tolerate a Parrot Head type cruise. Actually, I don't think I would want to be on a cruise that had a majority of any type of "group" where I might feel like I am an interloper on "their" cruise. Do you k how I can find out if any Large groups are booked on my cruise?

Thanks....

I just "googled" the ship name and the date and it came up with info for our cruise. We had a group of "Goldwing" bikers with us on Freedom on the Eastern Carib. It was neat to watch them ride their bikes off the pier in port each day. Real nice group. Hope this helps.

Unless it's some strange group, you probably won't even KNOW there are groups onboard! Corporate groups generally don't even know each other--they are there because of a special price the corporation has come up with! Don't worry too much about groups--it's really a non-issue!

Maybe most large groups are ok...but I've seen groups take over lounges and different areas of the ship. If this happens, you feel like you are crashing someone elses party.

I just "googled" the ship name and the date and it came up with info for our cruise. We had a group of "Goldwing" bikers with us on Freedom on the Eastern Carib. It was neat to watch them ride their bikes off the pier in port each day. Real nice group. Hope this helps.

Technicques to find groups include: googling, checking group cruise threads and other areas of cruise critic, all balconies booked really far out, asking if you want smoking or no smoking (Usually indicates a large Europeon group), just reading Cruise Critic.

I don't think a Christmas cruise will have big groups. They fill the ship pretty well with families.

I'll be taking a "Christmas Cruise" this year with family. My Dad is 85 YO and I don't think he would be able to tolerate a Parrot Head type cruise. Actually, I don't think I would want to be on a cruise that had a majority of any type of "group" where I might feel like I am an interloper on "their" cruise. Do you k how I can find out if any Large groups are booked on my cruise?

Thanks....

You can go here to look also.

http://www.shoretrips.com/common/groups2.asp?grpsrch=GRPNAM

Thanks all

Someone on the Carnival Board has a list going at --

http://www.unofficialcarnivalwiki.com/wiki/Group_Cruises

HAL Groups can be found at

http://www.wa70.com/hdisplay.php

Both are unofficial lists and contain information contributed by CC Members.

I don't know of any lists for other lines

Rich

Let me say that I always travel in a group (400 plus at times) and I hope that the other people traveling with us never, ever, feel like they are intruding. If it weren't for all of our T-Shirts , with the name of the radio station that sponsors our cruises, you probably would not know we were with a group but just one of the other passengers on the ship. In fact my sister and I never wear their T-Shirts while on the ship and when we talk to people at the pool, in a lounge, at a buffet table, on a tour bus, etc they are surprise to learn that we are with the group. And 90% of the time they always ask for information on how they can join our next cruise.

If you all worried about group tours you might want to call the cruise line and find out if there are any large groups traveling on that date. Unless you are traveling on a smaller, more expensive cruise line, it will be hard to find any ship that does not have a group on it.

Just having my say.

On our last cruise Carnival Freedom there was a group (118 )from the Dominican Republic they were a lot of fun. They closed the disco for a private party, everyone that passed by loved the music merenge and salsa.

We ended up on a "Parrot Head" cruise once, 250 of them with their own Jimmy Buffet tribute band, A1A was the name of the band I think. They usually hung out together on the back of the ship during the day, really didn't see much of them(as a group) anyways at night.

All different ages from 7 year olds up to 70 year olds. They were a great bunch of people and not rowdy at all. Actually helped us from being bored to death on Sea Days (there 4 on a 8 day cruise). There wasn't a Sports Deck on this particular ship, they had 2 Ping Pong tables and ALL of the shuffleboard poles were bent beyond use.

They did show up one night at the Dining Room all dressed in Toga's, we found it hillarious but some the of the "Fashion Sensitive" folks may not have found the humor in it.:D That was the only cruise where we were even aware of any particular group being onboard.

I'd never thought anything of groups on the cruises either until our last Conquest cruise. There were a number of large groups on board, including one of 800. It was very hard to find open lounges during the trip as they'd be closed to group members only.

Normally, the cruiselines do not sell to large groups on their holiday sailings, so I doubt you will have a problem....there will be alot of kids, but not large groups.