Group Cruising with Carnival

[Snrmikels]

Hey all,

 

I joined this forum because I LOVE cruising and have been on several different lines!

My company typically does a group cruise (where our clients can book and come with us as a big get together...so essentially they pay for themselves.) and this year we are considering doing Carnival. They have a lot more variety for shorter cruises and are very affordable.

 

With Norwegian last year, we were able to get a bit of a discount for all our rooms, one free room per 8 rooms booked and then we used our points for a cocktail hour on the first night.

 

We were really excited with our itinerary with carnival, but when we called to book, we were told booking as a group would be an additional $40-$50 per person. Which takes our cruise per person from $279 ( as we originally thought) to almost $340. I totally understand that we get a few freebies as a group....but realistically....they aren't freebies....our group members are paying extra for them.

 

This doesn't sit right with me. Anyone experienced this before? Gotta say, I'm super disappointed with their group policy to the point that I'm considering going with a boring Nassau itinerary with either Norwegian or RCCL. Seems like they should appreciate groups a bit more like the other cruise lines do.

 

Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks all!

[gcooper]

Hey all,

 

I joined this forum because I LOVE cruising and have been on several different lines!

 

My company typically does a group cruise (where our clients can book and come with us as a big get together...so essentially they pay for themselves.) and this year we are considering doing Carnival. They have a lot more variety for shorter cruises and are very affordable.

 

With Norwegian last year, we were able to get a bit of a discount for all our rooms, one free room per 8 rooms booked and then we used our points for a cocktail hour on the first night.

 

We were really excited with our itinerary with carnival, but when we called to book, we were told booking as a group would be an additional $40-$50 per person. Which takes our cruise per person from $279 ( as we originally thought) to almost $340. I totally understand that we get a few freebies as a group....but realistically....they aren't freebies....our group members are paying extra for them.

 

This doesn't sit right with me. Anyone experienced this before? Gotta say, I'm super disappointed with their group policy to the point that I'm considering going with a boring Nassau itinerary with either Norwegian or RCCL. Seems like they should appreciate groups a bit more like the other cruise lines do.

 

Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks all!

 

So we are a family of 16 cabins (53 ppl) and went through this with Carnival.

We initially booked about 6 months out suing Early Saver with just a PVP, and linked all our reservations. The advantage of Early Saver (not Easy Saver) is that you get price protection.

 

We talked to group sales and they gave us 2 options if we wanted to convert to an official group:

 

1. rebook group with amenities/points
   
2. rebook group with Early Saver w/o amenities/points.
   

 

 

Option 1 is as you described, our rooms would have been about $40 more to get 3 "points" which could then be used for things like a party or wine in the room, etc.

 

Option 2 was basically option 1 w/o any amenities/points...however we would then be able to watch prices and apply for the Early Saver price protection for each room.

 

In both options we would get the "1 free cabin per every 8" discount (really it is the average of all cabins and doesn't include the taxes and port fees, but still it is a decent discount). They can pay out the benefit is a variety of ways such as giving a check to just 1 person or splitting the payback up among all the cabins as an On Board Credit.

 

I noticed that the amenities were just not extremely cost effective/beneficial. I did an estimate and we were getting what I figured was $50 worth of "swag" for about $40. Not everyone wanted wine in their room, not everyone cared about a party, and no one wanted a Carnival Bag! Perhaps you could pay for a cocktail party out of the 'discount' then split the rest? I don't know but it sounds like they should be able to do that.

 

It was a bit of a trick that Carnival pulled on my brother-in-law when he first converted us because they didn't explain the 2 options and automatically chose Option 1 for him....but after a couple of calls with Group Sales everyone was converted to Option 2.

 

We have already applied for Price Protection on 3 different sales. At this point we have saved over a grand total of $3000 before we even take into account the group OBC we will split.

 

From a pure price standpoint, we as a collective are very happy. But from a service standpoint and being one of the 3 main people organizing our family group, I have to agree that Carnival does not seem to appreciate groups.

 

One of my pet peeves is that as a group, we don't have a single agent assigned to us, it is whoever answers the phone for the Group phone number. Most times I get someone very helpful but a couple times I get someone who is ill-informed and gives me bad information or doens't seem to want to assist me in dealing with my 16 rooms! DONT call on weekends as they Group line is "covered" by people who don't really work in Group Sales. Before changing to Groups, we had the direct extension to Michael (or original Carnival PVP) and could almost always get in touch with him to ask questions or deal with problems. Overall it just seems to be a bit of a chore dealing with Group Sales :(

 

I am not clear on what kind of deals you made with NCL or RCC in the past but it sounds like you got

• a discounted room to start
  
• amenities/points
  
• an additional discount based on number of rooms
  

I am curious (for future family cruises) if you got some form of Price Protection with them? or perhaps you did not book early enough?

 

Good Luck to you.

[Snrmikels]

So, we only had 14 rooms. But we booked at a slightly lower rate, had our own cruise consultant, accrued points which allowed for onboard credit and a one hour cocktail party on the first night to bring us all together.

 

Norwegian did a great job in that area. However, the cruise we went on was just kinda sucky....and we sailed through Hurricane Sandy. 'Nuf said....

 

Because of the super poor communication from the captain after getting on the boat and the absolute chaos getting off the boat during that sailing....I'll probably never cruise NCL again. Obviously, you can't avoid weather in a boat. But the communication was TERRIBLE.

 

I've heard RCCL has great group rates as well....might be worth looking into. But it is a bit more expensive than carnival.

[SadieN]

We do an annual group cruise with Carnival using a travel agent.

 

When booked our rates are always between the highest guarantee rate and the lowest assigned cabin rate. We get assigned cabins.

 

As it was explained to me--

Each cruise has a certain amount of Amenity Points. Off season having the highest, some cruises have none (holiday cruises).

The points are given out first come, first serve. The first group doesn't necessarily use up all the points available. More points can be bought.

 

The points are then used for the gimmees-- parties, photo coupons, logo items, wine, etc. Our group uses them as a fundraiser.

The free berth is not dependent on the Amenity program.

 

Either use a TA or call Carnival and ask to speak with someone in the Groups dept.

 

 

***

Re-reading your first post.

Sounds like your group was last in line for the Amenity Points and now have to pay for them.

 

What gimmees are you looking for?

You could just book at the regular rate and add on.

(Book the group and add on the price of a cocktail party- 1 hour for around $12.)

 

If you want to all eat together make sure all the reservations are linked.

Edited March 14, 2013 by SadieN

[Cruisin'Doc]

I have not yet had the dubious pleasure of having to coordinate a group cruise, but I would line up all benefits/pros & cons, and go with whatever works best for your company, be it Carnival or another line.

 

As the PP said, there are other events that can be booked, such as the cocktail parties, etc. (such as are arranged for M&G's) for an additional cost.

 

Whichever line you choose, if it is more cost effective, you might consider using someone within your company who is a planner to arrange for certain events that would be within your capabilities, such as give aways, company logo print items, raffles, decorations on cabin doors, whatever floats your boat (pun intended). I'm a planner, so I would actually love doing it, rofl.

 

Enjoy!

[Engineerstar]

Hello Mr. Cooper. That is the coolest signature link I've ever seen!!! Would you mind if I copied it to my signature, too???

[janabm81]

This is the first group I've booked with Carnival (we usually take our group cruises on Royal) and it's been hell from day one even with later transferring to a TA.

Trying to book our group was hard because the "group specialist" I spoke with told me we could book at one price (the group price) but that the amenity points were gone for our cruise so we'd have to pay for points if we wanted them. The other option was to do each booking individually at the online discounted price and then roll it over into a group. Well since I had no intention on paying for points and thought it would be nice to save our clients some money I spent the extra time to book them one by one and then call back to roll it over to a group. When I called back I got a totally different person who told me, yes they can roll it into a group but that I shouldn't have needed to book each one individually..they could've done it all. :eek:

 

The second problem we had was that they never sent an email or anything about final payment. (Yes I looked over the initial paper work and it didn't say anything) Luckily, since I'm on CC all the time, I was able to learn of the final payment date through our role call. Carnival's is 75 days where since I'm used to using a different cruise line, I was used to paying at 50 days out.

 

The third issue was the dining room. Maybe it's because, once again, I'm used to the way other lines do it...but Carnival doesn't send anything out asking how you'd like to be sat at dinner. I had to call and tell them who should be at what table and what table sizes we would need. (We still haven't heard back on this yet though.)

 

After the 3rd issue we had I chose to switch the booking to a TA hoping that would alleviate some of the headaches. Nope! I was wrong! :eek:

 

Issue number 4: I went online to book us in the steakhouse for dinner and received an email back stating that only our TA could do that and that in order to book he would have to call the special events department and that we'd all have to pay in advance! Arg! Finally, after my TA was on the phone forever with them, he found a loop hole for us. We would have to split the group and book it under 4 different reservations. Of course when he tried to do that he was told that only We (the booking owners) can book it. :confused:

 

All in all, between calling multiple times and getting someone who has no idea what they're talking about to the hassle of just trying to get the details finalized, the whole experience has been a big disorganized mess.:(

 

I pray that the cruise goes better than this planning has.

[arf2005]

This is the first group I've booked with Carnival (we usually take our group cruises on Royal) and it's been hell from day one even with later transferring to a TA.

Trying to book our group was hard because the "group specialist" I spoke with told me we could book at one price (the group price) but that the amenity points were gone for our cruise so we'd have to pay for points if we wanted them. The other option was to do each booking individually at the online discounted price and then roll it over into a group. Well since I had no intention on paying for points and thought it would be nice to save our clients some money I spent the extra time to book them one by one and then call back to roll it over to a group. When I called back I got a totally different person who told me, yes they can roll it into a group but that I shouldn't have needed to book each one individually..they could've done it all. :eek:

 

The second problem we had was that they never sent an email or anything about final payment. (Yes I looked over the initial paper work and it didn't say anything) Luckily, since I'm on CC all the time, I was able to learn of the final payment date through our role call. Carnival's is 75 days where since I'm used to using a different cruise line, I was used to paying at 50 days out.

 

The third issue was the dining room. Maybe it's because, once again, I'm used to the way other lines do it...but Carnival doesn't send anything out asking how you'd like to be sat at dinner. I had to call and tell them who should be at what table and what table sizes we would need. (We still haven't heard back on this yet though.)

 

After the 3rd issue we had I chose to switch the booking to a TA hoping that would alleviate some of the headaches. Nope! I was wrong! :eek:

 

Issue number 4: I went online to book us in the steakhouse for dinner and received an email back stating that only our TA could do that and that in order to book he would have to call the special events department and that we'd all have to pay in advance! Arg! Finally, after my TA was on the phone forever with them, he found a loop hole for us. We would have to split the group and book it under 4 different reservations. Of course when he tried to do that he was told that only We (the booking owners) can book it. :confused:

 

All in all, between calling multiple times and getting someone who has no idea what they're talking about to the hassle of just trying to get the details finalized, the whole experience has been a big disorganized mess.:(

 

I pray that the cruise goes better than this planning has.

 

With all due respect, you need a better TA...

[gcooper]

Hello Mr. Cooper. That is the coolest signature link I've ever seen!!! Would you mind if I copied it to my signature, too???

Sure, be my guest.

[gcooper]

This is the first group I've booked with Carnival

 

All in all, between calling multiple times and getting someone who has no idea what they're talking about to the hassle of just trying to get the details finalized, the whole experience has been a big disorganized mess.:(

 

I pray that the cruise goes better than this planning has.

 

Sorry to hear about your experiences trying to book a group through Carnival. I can honestly state that the actual cruise portion goes waaaaay more smooth than the customer service/booking portion.

 

From my post above I think we had similar experiences. The "group" department appears to be staffed/manned by whoever seems to pick up the phone that day. And as far as using a TA...I think it is pretty clear on the CC boards that Carnival doesn't make going through a TA any less of a hassle for groups. Also your TA doesn't sound like they know very much about dealing with Carnival either (contrary to whatever they must have told you to get your business).

 

As far as dining arrangements for a group it sounds like your "group specialist of the day" neglected to give you the dining phone number for planning but it sounds like you got that taken care of. One thing about dining is they don't do the actual seating charts until about 30 days before sailing (which makes sense because of cancellations and such). For a group, be sure to ask to be in the same section as well and if you have a large group (over 30?) then you may need to get 2 sections served by 2 different teams.

 

Also...the steak house was an excellent decision! However they don't have large tables (we managed 6 ppl at our table) so a big group will have to be seated at different tables. Ask to be seated near each other well ahead of time (try visiting the day before and discussing the seating).

 

If I had to do it all over again with Carnival I would have stuck with a single point of contact...a PVP...and let that person keep everything in motion linked together as a group for us and not worry about the "group rebate" or "group points" and all that nonsense, we saved the majority of our money simply by doing Early Saver price drops ($12K savings through Early Saver vs $1.5K OBC for our group discounts). Frankly dealing with the group services department was all just a giant hassle that wasn't worth the time and effort we put into 'saving' money.

[Engineerstar]

Thanks a million Mr. Cooper!!!!

[Genesis803]

You definitely need a good TA for a group so you don't have to deal with the details yourself. The group program has recently been enhanced so that group rates are the lowest available, even lower than Early Saver. More amenity points are being offered on more cruises so you don't have to "buy" as many points as in the past. Carnival is really trying to improve their group program.

 

A good TA should be able to make dining arrangements for your group as we (TAs) have an email contact specifically for group dining. You should also find a TA that will make the booking process as easy as possible for everyone. I always set a website for the group will all of the cruise info, prices, etc. and a secure online booking form. This way each person can be referred to the website to see the info and make their booking. I book several Carnival groups each year and find this make it easier for me and my clients.

 

Group cruises are so much fun! Hope you have a great one!