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help with group bookings??


cblzaccie

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i have a new sail date of April 13th in mind, seems loads of people i talk to want to go, how much will i save doing a group booking? more importantly will i have more flexability on the NAMES of those gong, can i change them if someone drops out and i have to replace them? i hate carnivals no change policy on a lit of the bookings.

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I would work with a travel agent on a group booking. They can answer your questions, take care of problems, and advise you of incentives. Trust me, you don't want to be in charge of this thing!

 

Roz

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A travel agent or Carnival PVP can do this fairly easy for you. If you have more than 8 cabins you can even get the $25 p.p. deposit and your guests have the chance to pay full deposit later on.

 

Not many incentives for the group, but if you have a large group there are amenities the group will benefit from (free stuff) and every 8 cabins gets a "free" berth. So if you get 16 cabins booked, the least expensive cabin is free.

Have fun!

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I hear and feel your excitement.

I've felt the same way twice. Twice I've told friends about an upcoming cruise and twice I've had friends that wanted to go. Twice, Ive set up groups,,,,,

And TWICE,, when it came time to actually pay,, 75% have dropped out. Of the 25% who decided to stay,, 3/4 of them,, could have found better pricing, would have prefered a different ship, could have found better excursions, could have done a much better job all around.

 

Never again

 

Pick you ship and sail date.

Tell your friends, if you want to go, here's the information.

You want help from my TA, here's the information.

Make sure everyone "LINKS" their booking to your booking. That way everyone dines together.

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most times the ES rate is the cheapest rate.

 

I would use an agent and not try to do it yourself. If something went wrong you will be blamed. let the agent do the work.

 

You can set it up and have everyone call with their deposits and get what they want to get.

 

You need at least 8 cabins to get a group. 16 people. (not 16 people in 4 cabins)

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I hear and feel your excitement.

I've felt the same way twice. Twice I've told friends about an upcoming cruise and twice I've had friends that wanted to go. Twice, Ive set up groups,,,,,

And TWICE,, when it came time to actually pay,, 75% have dropped out. Of the 25% who decided to stay,, 3/4 of them,, could have found better pricing, would have prefered a different ship, could have found better excursions, could have done a much better job all around.

 

Never again

 

Pick you ship and sail date.

Tell your friends, if you want to go, here's the information.

You want help from my TA, here's the information.

Make sure everyone "LINKS" their booking to your booking. That way everyone dines together.

 

X 2 on this.

 

NEVER AGAIN for me.

 

It really dont save you any money most of the time.

 

If you dont like the no name change thing.... DONT book early saver.

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I also think you should work with an agent. When I did my group cruise, I got lower rates and onboard amenities from my agent, and he did all the work for me...

 

If you don't book using Early Saver, you can make changes till final payment. If you book with Early Saver, then you can't...so you need to think about cost and whether you have probability of last minute changes...

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I also think you should work with an agent. When I did my group cruise, I got lower rates and onboard amenities from my agent, and he did all the work for me...

 

If you don't book using Early Saver, you can make changes till final payment. If you book with Early Saver, then you can't...so you need to think about cost and whether you have probability of last minute changes...

 

 

was this for a recent cruise?

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I booked a Cruise for Nov. this year back in May. We booked ES and the TA said that because it was booked ES there were NO perks to be awarded. She said this on more than one occasion. I booked for about 10 rooms. One person/family of 4 decided not to go. They lost their $800.00. She said she didn't want her daughter to miss a week of gymnastics. I feel bad for her - sorta. Its like telling her daughter who is 11 that she'll never be able to take a vacation until she's too old to hopefully try out for the Olympics which at this point is quite a stretch.

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I booked a Cruise for Nov. this year back in May. We booked ES and the TA said that because it was booked ES there were NO perks to be awarded. She said this on more than one occasion. I booked for about 10 rooms. One person/family of 4 decided not to go. They lost their $800.00. She said she didn't want her daughter to miss a week of gymnastics. I feel bad for her - sorta. Its like telling her daughter who is 11 that she'll never be able to take a vacation until she's too old to hopefully try out for the Olympics which at this point is quite a stretch.

 

Ouch! What did she do book it and then cancel at the last minute?

 

Bill

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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A travel agent or Carnival PVP can do this fairly easy for you. If you have more than 8 cabins you can even get the $25 p.p. deposit and your guests have the chance to pay full deposit later on.

 

Not many incentives for the group, but if you have a large group there are amenities the group will benefit from (free stuff) and every 8 cabins gets a "free" berth. So if you get 16 cabins booked, the least expensive cabin is free.

Have fun!

 

 

odd, i was quoted $250 PP deposit on the dream 7 day

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I hear and feel your excitement.

I've felt the same way twice. Twice I've told friends about an upcoming cruise and twice I've had friends that wanted to go. Twice, Ive set up groups,,,,,

And TWICE,, when it came time to actually pay,, 75% have dropped out. Of the 25% who decided to stay,, 3/4 of them,, could have found better pricing, would have prefered a different ship, could have found better excursions, could have done a much better job all around.

 

Never again

 

Pick you ship and sail date.

Tell your friends, if you want to go, here's the information.

You want help from my TA, here's the information.

Make sure everyone "LINKS" their booking to your booking. That way everyone dines together.

 

Wow!! Same thing happened here. We had a group of at least 21 excited and ready to go, but when it was time to pay money for deposits everyone scattered. I said from now on when I book, I will book for myself and have everyone else call my PVP IF they are interested.

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odd, i was quoted $250 PP deposit on the dream 7 day

 

It is a $250 pp deposit for a regular 7 day cruise. If you have a group, however, the TA can hold the number of cabins for you and each guest has to pay $25 deposit.

With this, they don't get a specific cabin assigned yet, but the group of cabins is secured and the rate is locked.

When you're ready to make the full deposit, the cabins then get assigned to guests in your group.

 

Some TA's don't like doing this as they feel that for $25, a guest can bail out fairly easy. Personally, I don't mind. As long as I get a fun group going.

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I dont mind the $250 per person, as you say $25 is too easy to bail. however from talking to the group booking people at carnival i STILL am not seeing much benefit in the group deals, seems if i just book everyone individually ( must want different cabins anyway, balcony, interior , window ) then just tie all the bookings together though the online system , people may get different prices but that's just depending on how they book,

 

please let me know if im missing anything ( i still hate the annoyance of early savers NOT being able to change names, after all carnival gets the money either way )

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any good travel agents out there want to give me a shot at getting better prices? while still keeping the ability to change names. the $250 deposit is fine i like that, locks people in more

 

we will need 1 6N cabin for 5 the rest will be various cabins for 2's

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benefits of booking the group rate should include:

 

- rates: used to be that the group rate would be competitive / better than standard rates. not so much since early saver came out as they're typically less expensive

 

- amenity points: these can be used for a number of things. based on the number of cabins / people booked, you'll get a point / dollar value comparable to say $50/100. you can use that for things like:

+ bottle of wine per cabin

+ chocolate covered strawberries in rooms

+ private cocktail parties with drinks / appetizers included in private lounge

+ obc for each cabin

+ and lots of other stuff

 

- credit for # of bookings. as noted, you get 1 free berth (bed) per 8 cabins booked, in the least expensive category. you can either take this as a free fare / room, or have it pro-rated over all bookings for an effective reduction in fare

 

there's no doubt that the bigger the group, the better these benefits are, and it may not be worthwhile / equitable to pursue this for a *small* group. you might make out better with individual bookings via early saver (for price) or past guest / etc. fares if you value the flexibility. no doubt early saver comes with a whole host of 'what ifs'.

 

finally, there's one other benefit to group bookings - if you get 30+ people booked, you might qualify for the 'unlimited bar card' - which is available only to groups of 30+, all have to purchase (or soda card for those not 21). capacity controlled, not all will qualify, and somewhat moot if the 'my awesome bar package' goes fleetwide, but that's been one of the 'benefits' of group bookings.

 

but as noted, benefits are not so great for small groups. if you get a big group together, it is more so.

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any good travel agents out there want to give me a shot at getting better prices? while still keeping the ability to change names. the $250 deposit is fine i like that, locks people in more

 

we will need 1 6N cabin for 5 the rest will be various cabins for 2's

 

I'm sure any TA can help you. Unfortunately we cannot exchange contact info with you here on CC.

 

What you could try to do through an agent is get the group started (lock in the rates) and have him/her change the booking to ES per cabin as your guest become more certain that they will go.

So, you could have some cabins with the group rate and Past Guest rate (names can be changed up until final payment) and then some cabins with the low ES rates.

 

It sounds difficult, but it really isn't.

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I'm getting married on Carnival in December and can tell you the group bookings are not worth it. We let our guests book with whoever they want and once they were booked they gave us their booking number and we linked our reservations together. Much easier process, and way less stressful. =]

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any good travel agents out there want to give me a shot at getting better prices? while still keeping the ability to change names. the $250 deposit is fine i like that, locks people in more

 

we will need 1 6N cabin for 5 the rest will be various cabins for 2's

 

 

Carnival does not allow discounting any more- so any reliable agent or direct through the cruiselines is your best bet. The price is what is it

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any good travel agents out there want to give me a shot at getting better prices? while still keeping the ability to change names. the $250 deposit is fine i like that, locks people in more

 

we will need 1 6N cabin for 5 the rest will be various cabins for 2's

 

 

Carnival does not allow discounting any more- so any reliable agent or direct through the cruiselines is your best bet. The price is what is it

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Although you can block a group at ES rates with 0 amenty points ,

go for the group rate that best fits without the restrictions of ES .

Get the amenities and the TC .

Also , turn down the $25 initial deposit offer ,request full deposit instead.

You will attractte more serious guests as well as be able to choose

cabins for each .

Everybody seems excited until it comes time for final . Then watch the excuses fly . 17 years as a TA taught me that.

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