Group Cruise Bookings???

[CruisinJazz]

I've only sailed once on Carnival in which I booked through friends for a group cruise which knocked down our sailing price. Does Royal Caribbean have this same special deal if booking 8 or more cabins??? My brother would like to get a group cruise together for 2011 on Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas. Where can I find information on group cruise bookings? I've sent an email out to my travel agent, but wanted to check here as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[LMZinSC]

RCCL does not discount the price for group bookings. They may however offer you an amenity such as OBC,

[tracyanns]

You can find a TA that offers a group cruise and the cost seems to be a bit less...I believe you need 10 rooms on RCCL though opposed to 8 on CCL...

 

The only advantage of booking the group cruise is you get the reservations linked together for dinners and such....also I think you get a small discount and not sure if they do it any more but for so many rooms you used to get one persons fare for free...so if it were 10, for every 10 rooms you booked one person would get their fare for free(think they still have to pay taxes, port fees, etc)...you used to be able to take that amount and reduce all fares by that...so if value of 1 person was $1,000, you could break that up by the number of first and second passengers and reduce them by that amount...I stopped being the organizer years ago so not sure how they do this now but I know you can still book groups as we have one going 10/30 on the Oasis...

 

Let me know if you want a good group TA name and number and I will provide that for you...

[cruisinfanatic]

You can find a TA that offers a group cruise and the cost seems to be a bit less...I believe you need 10 rooms on RCCL though opposed to 8 on CCL...

 

The only advantage of booking the group cruise is you get the reservations linked together for dinners and such....also I think you get a small discount and not sure if they do it any more but for so many rooms you used to get one persons fare for free...so if it were 10, for every 10 rooms you booked one person would get their fare for free(think they still have to pay taxes, port fees, etc)...you used to be able to take that amount and reduce all fares by that...so if value of 1 person was $1,000, you could break that up by the number of first and second passengers and reduce them by that amount...I stopped being the organizer years ago so not sure how they do this now but I know you can still book groups as we have one going 10/30 on the Oasis...

 

Let me know if you want a good group TA name and number and I will provide that for you...

 

You don't need to be in a group to have bookings linked

Groups, when available, are usually at least 8 cabins on RCL

1 person gets their cruise fare (still pays tax and port) for every 8 cabins

Unless it's changed you can still reduce the cost of everyone's cabin equally by whatever the free fare is worth.

[MCC retired]

On a RCI 7 night cruise , it's 1 for 16 guests (8 cabins dbl occ.). 1 guest cruise fare (not port or tax) returned to the group leader "after " cruise returns.

 

Depending on the sailing date , there may be GAP points (or may be none on popular sailing dates) to be used for things like OBC etc.

Also , there has to be availability for new groups on that ship/sailing , so block your group early.

 

Your TA should be thorouhly familiar with booking RCI groups . If not , there are many who reply promtly , have no agency fee's , and would love your business .:rolleyes:

[retdon]

I am co-group leader for our high school reunion on FOS 10-10-10 and have learned all the lingo and ins and outs of groups.

 

No discounts to anyone, even groups.

1 "free bed" for every 8 cabins booked. The free bed is an average of the cost of the 8 cabins and does not include port or tax charges. This is calculated on the day you sail and your group leader will get a notice from the on board staff as to the amount. RCI then sends that person a check after the cruise is completed. You can do what ever you want with that money such as divide it between those in the group.....

 

Group Ammenity Points, GAP points are something your TA and RCI work out. It varies with each sailing, number of possible cabins booked, etc. We got $100 ship board credit which costs us 8 GAP points. RCI gave us 10 GAP points to use. Sometimes the TA keeps these and uses them as a commission (so I have been told). We still have 2 GAP points to use and will decide prior to the sailing how we are going to spend them.

 

Caution, only use a TA who specializes in handling groups. We had problems at first because our agent is not a group specialists. We now have things running more smoothly. Groups involve a lot of work on the TA's part and they need to know what and how to handle all the details.

 

Good luck, check with several agencies before deciding. We had 3 agencies after us and used one we knew, not know the person was not a group specialists.

[MagicMike]

I am co-group leader for our high school reunion on FOS 10-10-10 and have learned all the lingo and ins and outs of groups.

 

No discounts to anyone, even groups.

1 "free bed" for every 8 cabins booked. The free bed is an average of the cost of the 8 cabins and does not include port or tax charges. This is calculated on the day you sail and your group leader will get a notice from the on board staff as to the amount. RCI then sends that person a check after the cruise is completed. You can do what ever you want with that money such as divide it between those in the group.....

 

Group Ammenity Points, GAP points are something your TA and RCI work out. It varies with each sailing, number of possible cabins booked, etc. We got $100 ship board credit which costs us 8 GAP points. RCI gave us 10 GAP points to use. Sometimes the TA keeps these and uses them as a commission (so I have been told). We still have 2 GAP points to use and will decide prior to the sailing how we are going to spend them.

 

Caution, only use a TA who specializes in handling groups. We had problems at first because our agent is not a group specialists. We now have things running more smoothly. Groups involve a lot of work on the TA's part and they need to know what and how to handle all the details.

 

Good luck, check with several agencies before deciding. We had 3 agencies after us and used one we knew, not know the person was not a group specialists.

 

Correct in every respect, except that the "free bed" is not really a free bed, it's call a tour conductor credit and it's between you and the agency to decide who gets it, some agencies will keep it for themselves, mostly on groups that are not affiliated.

 

One of the good things about groups, while there is no discount, thepricing is protected on the first 2 passengers in each cabin until a specific date, so even if prices rise, your group rates will remain the same.

 

Some sailings will have no GAP points at all (mostly summer and more popular dates) and some sailings may not be available for group creation if RCCL decides that the sailing is too full to offer groups.