Family Reunion - Dining & Excursions ?'s

We are hosting a family reunion for 16 - ages 70 to 16 on the Breeze in Dec.

Is there a Concierge position or similar position to assist with Dining and Shore Excursions?

The obvious answer is the Maître D'. However, the long lines of people trying to change their seating arrangements the first day is not a good way start to a cruise.

The Master Cruise Director's, aka my wife, only non-negotiable request is that all of us dine together each evening. We have selected Open Dining for all cabins.What's the best way to make sure we have a table for 16 in the MDR before we board?

Also any suggestions from anyone that has been on reunion type cruises for shipboard activities and shore excursions would be a big help. We have port stops at Grand Cayman, Falmouth and Cozumel.

there are no tables for 16 on any carnival ship. the largest table size seats 12 and there are very few of them. most likely, the best option for you would be two tables for 8 close to each other.

make sure you link your bookings so tables will be assigned together. you can try to contact the maitre d by email but be advised they are not required to grant or even review those kind of requests. you could also try through john heald, he'll probably actually respond to you that the requests have been relayed. really though you'll have to check the dining assignments when you boards to ensure any requests have been granted, or to change them.

with such a big group i'd recommend assigned, not your time, dining. your time dining would not work very well for such a big group wanting to be seated together.

for shipboard activities, if you're cruising on breeze you could use the carnival hub app to keep up with each other... if you're cruising on other ships bring some pads of post it notes :)

for shore excursions, i'd recommend looking into some of your own - your group is big enough you could plan some excursions just for your group, i'm sure.

Open Dining for that large of a group will work only if you're one of the first in line or want to eat after 8:30. (There are many threads about this very subject. The most recent one is 'Planning dinner around show times')

Assigned Dining is the way to go for large groups. Make sure your bookings are linked. Your TA or a quick call to Carnival will set this up. You will need everyone's confirmation number.

For ports look on the Ports of Call boards for info.

We have a family group cruise every year. Normally around 24 people.

You will need to get assigned dining not anytime dining if you want to all dine together. You will not be able to get one table for everyone as they do not have table sizes that large. My TA always handles this for me. I send him alist of the people that I want to sit at each table and he takes care of it. Never had an issue in over 10 plus group cruises. We sometimes switch tables on different nights to get everyone a chance to dine with each other

I've been where your wife is on several cruises, as our group of family and friends grew to twenty for a couple of cruises. Here is my advice, and it's repackaged from what is above.

Dining: you will wait, and wait and wait for dinner. You will wait for everyone to get ready, you will wait for an elevator to get all of your party together and once you downstairs plan on another wait. Fix this all with assigned dining. Link all the bookings together and tell everyone where and when dining is. See you there, find your own way to dinner, 6:00pm sharp. Trust me, trust me, trust me.

Excursions: It's like herding cats to get people off the ship and through a cab line if you book your own excursion. For a group that big I suggest using the cruise line for excursions. Let people decide for themselves and go their own way. If not then your wife will not enjoy the ports and perhaps most of the vacation.

Odds and Ends: forget sitting together in the shows. I was "that guy" trying to save a row or two of chairs and having the stragglers coming in 5 minutes before showtime.

I emailed all in our group the link to the shore excursions, we divided and conquered and went three separate ways in Cozumel. It was a blast, and people got to do their own thing.

Did I stress the trust me on this one enough? If not she will need a vacation after you get back. I had family members angry with me about the rain in port and they didn't know what to do. Grown people...

It's the hardest thing in the world to not do, and that's trying to make others have fun on vacation. In the past 12 months my wife and I have taken 4 cruises with no one else. That's a vacation!

So I scolded your plan without any answers. In Cozumel take them all to Nachi Cocum. Google it, it's paradise. We've been to Cozumel over 25 times, and the last three this is the place we made reservations for and had a super day.

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I see a lot of people saying that Anytime Dining doesn't work well for larger groups, but we did it on our last cruise and never had a problem. Just be a little flexible and it will be OK. With a group that size, you are not going to all fit at one table. So just tell them you will take whatever combination they can offer at that moment. Maybe it's two tables of 8, or a mixture of 6 tops and 4 tops, etc. Then just make sure you switch it up so that people sit with a different group each night. I actually think it is more fun that way, because then you get a chance to talk with others who perhaps did something different that day, or family you don't see as often.

Excursions are always tough with a big group. We have 10 people on our upcoming cruise, ages 2-88. Four generations! So it's hard to find something for everyone. Since I'm the main planner, I usually find a few options in each port, and share them with the family. We discuss and figure out if we want to split up into groups, or if there is something we all want to do so we can stick together. For example, on our last cruise, we all wanted to go whale watching, but not everyone wanted to do the ATV trip. So half of us did ATVs, and the others planned their own thing. We'll do the same again.

Our basic philosophy when traveling with a large group (which we do at least once a year, though not always on cruises) is to have your plan and invite everyone to come along. If they want to do something else, that is OK! We'll just see them at dinner. You don't have to spend every moment together (in fact, when we travel with one aunt and uncle, it's better if we have some time apart!).

My biggest concern with anytime dining with a large group is, who decides when everybody goes to eat? Seems like it would be a nightmare to coordinate everyday. Having a set time would cut out that headache.

We've done family groups of up to 20 ages 0-65 and my suggestion is to not try to do everything together. You will drive yourselves crazy. You are not going to find anything that both the 16-year-olds enjoy as well as the 70-year-olds.

We always schedule tables together for assigned dining and then will talk among ourselves as to who is doing what that evening or the next day. Some will decide to to activities together the entire time, others we see only at meals. Works wonderfully. Once we had a small group of 5 and decided to try anytime dining. Turned out to be more headache than it was worth. Can't imagine trying that with a larger group.

We also don't bother getting cabins next to each other. Just make copies of the ships map and highlight where everyone is. Phone calls, message boards and post its work wonders as a means of communication. Matching door decorations as well.

We are hosting a family reunion for 16 - ages 70 to 16 on the Breeze in Dec.

 

 

The Master Cruise Director's, aka my wife, only non-negotiable request is that all of us dine together each evening. We have selected Open Dining for all cabins.What's the best way to make sure we have a table for 16 in the MDR before we board?

 

Personally, I would not recommend Open Dining... Getting all 16 people together at the same time is going to be very difficult PLUS being the fact that you will need at least 2 tables next to each other, even if you can get all 16 people together at the same time, you are going to have to wait for 2 tables to become available next to each other..

If you can all change to confirmed early or late, at least that way all 16 people know what time they are expected to be in the dining room PLUS if you link all the bookings, and then make sure by seeing the Maitre'd on boarding day, you know you will have 2 tables next to each other every evening...

I just can't imagine waiting outside the dining room each night hoping/praying/waiting for all 16 people to show up.. At least with confirmed seating, you can go to your table and wait not standing around in the lobby waiting... And if 1 or 2 don't show up, at least you can start ordering your dinner unlike open dining where you have to wait for everyone to show up before even getting seated...

Family reunions on cruises can be very fun and enjoyable but, as I am sure the OP knows, can be very stressful.

We, too, travel with a group of 20 or so from young children, through teens, parents and grandparents...and the best advice I could give the OP has already been given: "and my suggestion is to not try to do everything together".

We always book late seating...sometimes a little late for the young ones but gives everyone more time between ports and dinner. We have always been linked and always ended up on two round tops for 10. We have switched seats every night and our servers have been very accommodating. By mid cruise they "knew" us all and always brought the correct drinks and knew exactly which extra sides the boys wanted. And "dinner" was the only commitment we expected from everyone (we're related, we can do that).

If the OP has open seating they may want to "set" a dining time keeping it the same every evening. As has been said just remember that they won't seat you until everyone is present and that you maynot be able to get the same tables or staff every evening.

Shore excursions: These become a bit more difficult especially if your group tends to want to do some adventurous activities. My suggestion...leave it up to the individual parents to worry about and book. Also ship board activities...don't, don't, don't worry about the group doing things together. Discuss options at dinner and let only those who actually want to do it tag along...mention breakfast options but let everyone choose for themselves or their individual families. Don't worry about getting deck chairs together, or seeing shows together, or eating at the buffet together.

Bottom line: You'll be amazed after a couple of days how everyone just seems to meet up as favorite places and activities are talked about at dinner. With no forethought or planning we almost always ended up running in to each other time and time again.