Large group on ships

[Watson's aunt]

Hi

 

I was reading another site. A person was writing he was trying to book a tour in port. He had a large group on his cruise. Most of the tours had been pre-booked of by the group. Do not know the cruise.

 

Mary

 

 

Also

 

Another cruise Westerdam July 7 Has a group of Harry Potter fans. One of the actors from movie will be on board.

[Krazy Kruizers]

We try to avoid cruises with large groups. They can take over too many things. And like you mentioned -- exursions.

[KirkNC]

We have never had a problem with large groups but I guess it might depend on the group and the size of the group. We rarely take ship excursions so that would not impact us. The only negative I ever remember was on the Nieuw Amsterdam where a group booked the entire Silk Den one night.

[sail7seas]

We have never had a problem with large groups but I guess it might depend on the group and the size of the group. We rarely take ship excursions so that would not impact us. The only negative I ever remember was on the Nieuw Amsterdam where a group booked the entire Silk Den one night.

 

 

You are very lucky.

We've had groups inconvience us a little but we've also had a group that had Crows Nest to themselves every single night of the cruise. We had to leave aft pool on a bright, beautiful sea day around 1 P.M. because they were having a private pool party, there have been times when the group took over a whole dining seating and all others got what was left over and too bad if it was times they never, ever chose to eat. There are extremes when groups totally impact the enjoyment of others on the ship not a part of the group and other times when you barely notice they are there.

 

It doesn't matter the nature of the group. It isnt a question of whether you 'like' what they have in common and what makes them a group but only matters there shear numbers and the fact the ship makes so much money from groups that all who are not a part of the group are insignificant to the group's needs and wishes.

 

It irks me that even if asked, cruise lines will not honestly answer if a large group is booked. I think if asked they should answer honestly.

 

[Watson's aunt]

Hi

 

This is why I posted my post. I don't think many groups 2 week tours. I am hoping my 2 week Alaska will not have a large group on it. I know that last one took over the MDR for the embarkation lunch. They also took over other places I forget which ones.

 

 

 

Mary

[wander]

In my experience the type of group it is makes a huge difference on the impact, good and bad impacts in my opinion.

 

One very large group did use the Lido and Crows nest for a few gatherings around dinner time, but during sea days and sea time they had events in the Show Room. While this tied up the show room (except for Bingo which followed their sessions), they did leave the rest of the ship almost vacant during the day when at sea. No problem finding deck space, pool space, gym space, etc. It was like having the ship only 2/3rds full.

 

Some groups will be more intrusive in public spaces like when they have a music affiliation and take over spaces in the evening.

 

Someone mentioned a large group with a travel agent recently, well there will probably be a few parties but usually they do not take over an excursion as a group, or in some cases I know they arrange for their own buses for similar excursions. Neither of these has impacted my ability to take excursions.

 

Now, I can only imagine the impact some groups may have on the overall ship atmosphere, but I have been fortunate not to have experienced such.

 

One funny (to me) experience was when a national magazine had a set of speakers on board with sessions on sea days in the show room. I was on a Trivia team with the girl friend of one of the group, she did not go to the panels, lectures, etc. We threatened to report her to the group as she had no idea what the initials GOP stood for, not even a guess as to what it was related to.

[sail7seas]

What does it matter if the group is a football club, a sci-fi group, a religious group, jazz music group or whatever?

 

If they take over aft pool on a sea day and it's closed to all others, what's the difference what interest is shared? :confused:

 

The bottom line is all who are not part of the group get told to leave..... they don't care we paid for use of the whole ship for the whole cruise. We were told to leave. That is indefensible IMO

 

[Hlitner]

We have found the only near-sure way to avoid large groups is to simply book longer cruises. Few groups do anything longer then 10 days. Otherwise, you just have to roll the dice as all the mass market cruise lines cater to large groups, and they all try to keep the presence of these groups very secret.

 

Hank