Reflection to be taken over by Sect on 09/09/13

[Scrapnana]

Make sure you request a table for 6 so you are not placed at a larger table with unknown personages.

[keesar]

I think I would rather be on a cruise with a group coming to listen to inspirational speakers on sea days than a "sect" of sports fans from a particular team or an American Doll contingent.

 

On one of our cruises, there was a group of 700 from a Detroit Baptist Church and a group of 500 Chinese from Canada. There was no problem and it was fun meeting people from different backgrounds. I like meeting people from different backgrounds.

 

However, if someone is not comfortable and don't think they will be able to have a good time, then they are probably better off going on a different cruise.

[The Big Booper]

Due to strict privacy laws, a cruise line will NEVER announce that a large group has booked a particular sailing.

 

Just google the ship name and sailing date to do research on any possible large groups on a sailing.

 

Me, I always hope for a hooters reunion group on any cruise we take. Or maybe a swimsuit photoshoot with many hopefuls.

 

My wife calls me harmless and encourages my fantasies.

[VioletHorse]

DH and I sailed on a HAL cruise several years ago and had a similar group onboard. I don't recall exactly who this group was, but they had several psychics doing private events on the ship.

 

We were also in the position of not being able to cancel the cruise, and I approached this vacation with more than a little trepidation.

 

As it turned out, the group literally became invisible on the ship. I totally forgot about them, and saw no evidence of the group or their activities at all. DH and I had a great cruise. :)

[happy cruzer]

If the group is really as large as 1000, then there could be dining issues, show room issues, closed off lounges, etc.

 

I would talk to the TA. Europe has different consumer protections. Maybe there is another RCI owned ship sailing in the same time period. Maybe instead of a cancellation, a change??

 

Celebrity decided to make some money with the large group booking, maybe they can fix it so you will be happy??

 

Good luck.

[H2OH!]

I disagree. A ship full of supermodels would be quite OK with me.

 

ok, got me..you and my DH would be happy.

[ghstudio]

I am sure that your suggestion that supermodels would be OK is the realization that with 1000 supermodels, the buffet would be empty :)

[cruzeluver]

I am sure that your suggestion that supermodels would be OK is the realization that with 1000 supermodels, the buffet would be empty :)

 

 

Good one! ;)

[msweebee]

 

If the truth be told, I once ran screaming from a cruise because Celebrity had scheduled an "American Girl" event with about 1,000 dolls, little girls and mommies! It was Thanksgiving 2010, on the Solstice!

 

I find it interesting how few groups I can actively imagine holding a prejudice (pre-judgiment) against.... but Abraham Hicks and American Girl dolls (on a cruise).... I stand my ground:eek:!!!

 

You were probably good to "run screaming"; we were on the Thanksgiving 2011 Eclipse (pretty sure that is the date & ship) with the American Girls, their mamas (few papas) and grandparents and even some great grandparents. The dolls were pretty quiet bunch and well behaved but however some of the other relatives were not so considerate. We got the first clue at check in and yes we were in a special line and at first were surprised to see so many girls (and a few boys) with dolls but it was a school holiday. Never have I seen the theatre floor covered in popcorn and popcorn boxes at the end of a AG movie (quite by accident we walked in while crew was cleaning and complaining) mostly the dolls the g'parents were pretty self obsessed and pushy lot in general (please note I did not say all) and I was quite pleased that they mostly seemed to have early seating and yes some did take up chairs although I am pretty sure it must have been an empty one at the table but most were in the highchairs hanging from edge. We did have early but quickly made a switch after 1st night. This was not at all what we experienced on prior Thanksgiving cruises (most in Med) but it was frequent a tad annoying and yet more tolerable than a cruise we took many moons ago in South America that the whole late seating in MRD was taken over by boisterous S/A smokers.... and they moved everyone else to early and that was back in the days of only one specialty dining venue and no "google" to check groups bookings prior to final payment.

 

Policy even then was non smoking in public areas but Capt and crew could not control the problem; ship was underbooked and had been advertised heavily and very competitively (we were told) in SA cities. We ended up with apologies from cruise line (not Celebrity-think higher star rating) that we were mostly not able to use public areas and spent a lot of time in our cabin. I have never seen so many cheese plates and free wine delivered to cabin - we actually had to asked that no more be delivered as the fridge was full of them! There was smoking in all public areas including theaters but no compensation (but we did not ask our T/A) but we never booked that top end cruise line again. I would say as long as you could book Select dining or an alternate venue you should be ok, find small compact bars and use buffet at odd times. You should be able to see posted near guest relations where they are holding events in advance so you can avoid the stairs and elevators in that location. Good luck.

 

ps - please note for the few of you who have assumed we are old fogies - we are not. We are 50's and early 60' and have g'kids in elementary shool and at time we had 3 g'girls with American Girl dolls who were pretty much clones aestecially and our g'girls are quite pampered but do know and exhibit proper etiquette and manners and they were not with us this trip. Most of the young girls we encountered were wonderful pleasant young women but it was the 1/3 parents and daughters who felt they were "special" and gave the AM group a bad rap; I apologize if any American Girl g'parents are reading this and are offended but expect you will not believe I have been referring to you... so just sayin', b4 you decide to blast me think about you may have behaved recently.

[LOP]

Will they be serving punch??????????:confused:

 

If so, I recommend not drinking it...just sayin':rolleyes:

[SeagoingMom]

On my next cruise, there will be a very large group of a scam organisation called " Abraham Hicks".

More than 1200 followers of this scam, invented by a couple claiming to channel Abraham and other fictional or deceased persons, will have "seminars" onboard, for which they have to pay 400$ a person for twelve hours of brainwashing .

Now, I am frankly appalled that Celebrity cruise lines is first of all encouraging scam artists like this to feast on their victims' money, and secondly, allows such huge group which will no doubt take over many parts of the ship thus decreasing the cruise experience of those enlighted souls NOT willing to be scammed by Abraham Hicks and " Esther", the surviving female part of the couple.( husband Jerry died from cancer although they claimed all diseases can be cured within days by focussing on the Abraham Hicks teachings:eek:)

 

All of this is happening on the 09/09/13 sailing of Reflection.

 

Would you like to cruise with over 1000 Sect members?

 

Soltice has a capacity of over 3000 pax, so maybe 1/3 will be in the group you refer to. Otherwise, what are you concerned about? Why are you afraid of these people? I doubt they are violent, nor kidnappers; they probably don't smell, or have bugs. Approximately 2/3 of the pax on your cruise will NOT be these people!! Look at it that way. Just sail! You will be with family members, so you can enjoy their company at the dinner table and in general throughout the cruise.

 

Who knows, this may be the quietest, most polite cruise anyone could be on. Perhaps little (if any) loud drunkenness, few mini-swimsuits at the pool, little problem with smokers (in case smoke offends you), no pushing in line, etc.!

 

BTW, Celebrity (like any cruise line) is in the business of making money, not judging the validity of people's opinions about anything. Just be glad you are not on a sailing with a group of arsonists. :)

 

And people in the A. Hicks group are thinking to themselves, "I don't know...should we sail with 2000 non-sect members???" :confused::p

 

JMHO

[boogs]

No fairies, elves and pixies...now your just being silly!! Everyone needs something to believe in!!

 

I believe in cruising! Does that count? ;)

[jfer8580]

I believe in cruising! Does that count? ;)

 

 

Ha, absolutely.....maybe with a fairy, elf or pixie!! :D

[Waihekean]

As someone that is booked on this cruise I would just like to say that it is a bit unrealistic to say "cancel immediately".

Because it is a Med cruise many of us have booked flights (paid for) and accommodation a year ahead and now finalizing all the last details like transfers and excursions etc.

 

Personally, I think that as a group it most likely will be one of the least annoying groups to come across and it will actually be interesting to see how as a group they will behave.

I just hope they all "visualised a fantastic cruise":D "with perfect weather":D

 

Plus it is good news that the seminars are on the seadays, love the idea of more space by the pool.

[jackdiamond]

SeagoingMom, your observations are spot on. Sadly, there are some folks who just sweat the small stuff.

[CI66774]

Will they be serving punch??????????:confused:

 

If so, I recommend not drinking it...just sayin':rolleyes:

 

Or Kool-Aid - don't drink......

[DancerOT]

Last year my family was on a cruise on RCCL which after some research I found had two groups on them. One was an Elvis Fan Club. I promptly emailed my brother that we had clearly picked his dream cruise - there was supposed to be all kinds of events including impersonators. Needless to say, he was extremely disappointed when he couldn't find a single one of their events!!

 

I wouldn't sweat that there is this large group on the cruise. You aren't going to be sitting with them at dinner as you will be with your family. I think everyone else's points about poolside and other things are spot on. I would go and have an amazing time with your family as it truly sounds like a once in a lifetime kind of cruise!

[tomcat3791]

This topic fascinates me because several years ago I was on the other side of the issue, cruising as part of a very large 'Post-Thanksgiving' group cruise. Our group made up more than 1/3 of the capacity on that ship, and I feel we had a definite impact on other passengers' ability to enjoy the cruise.

 

There were several private parties for our group held in public venues (closed to other passengers) and contracted entertainment for our group took over the main theater a couple nights. For several days early in the cruise our group also co-opted the spa area, but that ended after complaints from other passengers. Perhaps Celebrity handles things better, but I was rather embarrassed to be part of something so disruptive.

 

On our final day, my partner and I were talking to a nice couple up on deck who said 'You all seemed to be having so much fun, I wish we could have joined your parties. How much did you pay for all that?"

 

Alas, our group rate was hundreds of dollars (per person) less than they had paid for their week.... I felt like such a jerk.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Seems to me they are likely to have many lectures/receptions/etc. for their 1,000 passenger group.

 

How many venues does this ship have for a group that size?

 

Granted, when they are in their meetings the pool should be empty, but will you have the usual access to the lounges? Will entertainment be curtailed in the main theatre? These are all questions to ask Celebrity (in writing), so that if your cruise experience is ruined or limited you will have a paper trail for recourse.

 

Note: I am one of those who posts against people who seem to be trying to get something for nothing when things go wrong that are beyond the cruise line's control. This is different, because Celebrity has chosen to accommodate this very large group--there's no way they can say it was beyond their control.

[Project_gal]

A sincere thank you all formthe advice...

Like with all things in life, we will make the best out of it...

 

I will talk to,the travel agent and Celebrity Belgium and see what can be done to make our cruise as enjoyable as possible:)

 

I think that you have one thing going for you if you are approached. Just pretend that you do not speak English!

 

More seriously, I think that you should be OK on a ship as large as Reflection. We will no longer consider Azamara because a ship as small as theirs IS a problem with large groups on board. On our second cruise on Quest, there were three large groups organised by TAs. There are few areas where groups can gather on the small ships and the noise in a small space is dreadful. Groups like this are more of a problem that those with a common interest because they never disappeared into conference rooms.

 

I know that as you are from Europe, cancellation would be expensive, and from your other post about this cruise, I know that you are trying hard to make this a great cruise for your in-laws. I understand why you are worried but I alos know from other posts you have made in the past that you are a level-headed and intelligent person who is not going to be looking for problems once on board.

 

I had lunch with my cousin on Saturday. She was on the pre-transatlantic Reflection cruise last year when the ship developed problems. Many people were complaining because of itinerary changes and/or because they did not like the changes made to the S-class design but she had a great cruise and is still talking about it.

 

Sue

[jwm51]

 

I doubt that any would be as bad as the "american girl" cruise where dolls who took up their own seats in the buffet, etc.

 

-shudder-:eek::p

 

Now I'm Going to have nightmares tonight!!!:D

[Andy]

Hi Everyone,

 

As several members continue to take this thread off topic, and discuss religion, and items unrelated to Cruising, it's now closed.

 

Thanks very much for your understanding.