Large group on our cruise.

[BillOh]

As for your sarcastic attitude, this is one of the reasons I don't use these boards for much anymore. Too many folks on here who think they "know it all" and are the only ones with opinions.

 

Get over yourself!

 

Amen. Check out the ignore feature where you can can shut off individuals. Frequently people who make those remarks are cruising around the forum reading every thread and spreading their venom. Though in this case, I think that guy just got offended and thought that was directed at him. Most group functions on ships use under utilized areas at odd times. Whoever threw in the roll call groups pulled that one from the hip, it was a pretty pool example.

 

At least this annual thread reminded me to go google my next criose. I'm good to go.

[N41EF]

My employer books group trips on cruise ships through our travel agent. Usually about 75 families, and we book a Ship like Alure for 5 or 6 consecutive weeks with that 75 room block. we do a LOT of Disney cruise because of families, but book an Alaska trip every other year, one or two med cruises a year and ocasionaly a Panama Canal or west coast. We book RCCL, Disney or Celebrity because we get the level of service that we want. Windstar is another favorite but due to scheduling it only comes up every three years or so, those are exclusive trips where we book the whole ship.

 

I don't think many of you would even know we are on the ship! They give us plastic wrist bands usually green for family members and red for us so that we can reccognize each other. We come from all 50 states and Canada so there isn't a lot of us that know each other, typically we know one or two families but don't see much of each other or hog chairs. We have a service desk set up, usually in a small office near the ship's customer service. On Epic our desk was on a landing near an elevator bank. We have a coctail hour first day an hour before first dinner seating. We have a meeting on the first day underway, for 2 hour 3 hours, that is finished before we pull in if it is a port day. On Dream this spring we met in the small Disney theatre at 7am. Cruise ships usually have a conference room somewhere in the bowels of the ship with AV equipments and such. We eat as a group, always early seating. On Dream we used one of the niteclubs for our coctail meeting, and there was a sign and a ships staff there to act as door guys. We had a private character meeting with photo ops for the kids. Yes the wife, 24yo daughter and I got our pictures with captain Mickey. On Allure we went in the main dining room and peeled right all the way around and there was an alcove that have a group of tables that seated 100+. On Disney we do rotational dining with everyone else. The only time we didn't always eat as a group was on Epic. Any specialty dining is up to us individualy, though any first time trip qualifiers are taken out to a specialty dinner as a thank you, usualy as a group of 6 or 8 people. We have another coctail hour an hour before final night at sea dinner to discuss disembark and such. Our agent arranges bus service so our disembark is as a group, and usually very, very early.

 

We don't have red tote bags or purple t-shirts, just wrist bands. Again, if you don't happen to see a sign during a meeting you'd never know we were on board. I don't think them closing one of 6 niteclubs from 5 to 6pm is inconveniencing anyone.

 

The 7 day trips are free to us for two people, we have to pay for airfare and ship charges to take kids on those. We do what we call 4x4 trips, 4 day Disney cruise for 4 people. While the trips are "free", the full fare and cost is added to our W-2 and we pay fed and state taxes on the taxable value. Still an incredible deal. For the spring Disney trip I paid taxes on $2800 of income and got 4 days on the ship for 3 of us.

 

We use these trips as a recruiting tool, we can qualify for two of these trips a year and the trip book has 20 other trips not just cruises. We have ski trips, safaris, stuff you can't imagine. We ARE hiring people with people skills, career changers, a 4 year degree is nice, and people with sales skills. We hire alot of ex-military, teachers, small buisness owners, and sales reps from pharma and medical device companies. If you are interested in more information contact me privately.

[Desert Cruizers]

antsnanny, I personally haven't but can tell you back in 2011 during our 2011 Barcelona TA, our Roll Call numbered 500 and 477 were at the M&M. They finally had to put us in the Sphinx Lounge because it was the only place large enough. During our activities, I don't think we numbered over 50 at any one time. During our recent Transpacific cruise, we had a large group that were deaf and they were at most events during the cruise, but never noticed them taking over any one area.

Edited June 8, 2014 by Desert Cruizers

[counsdr]

I was on a cruise last year that had a group of over 1000 rock and rollers. There were several other groups ranging from 100-250 in number. The smaller groups were fine and no problem, however the ship and main venues were overtaken by this 1000+ group. Our reservations for the ice show were cancelled so they could have their proms, the theater cancelled evening shows or scheduled them at alternate times, so they could have their concerts, the bars and cafés were so crowded I felt sorry for the wait staff and anyone else who might like to get a slice of pizza etc, only late seating and late time slots for MTD were available, our Welcome back RCCL party and Meet&Mingle party were scheduled at the same time 10 AM on sea day because this group was using the space for the Welcome back party every night. That meant we had to choose which party to attend. That might not seem like a big deal, but I felt cheated. When I questioned the desk about it, they would just shrug and say they had an extremely large group to accommodate. They represented over 50% of the ship. Had I known in advance, I would have said no thank you to this cruise. I would just like the opportunity to make the choice to cruise or not with an enormous group.

For this coming year I've tried to do research to find out if there are any 500+ groups on board so I could choose a different cruise.

[antsnanny]

We had a situation with a large group on board a ship last year. I learned about it well in advance. While any large group (50% of the ship) concerns me, we decided to stick with the cruise. I can't recall any of the ship's public rooms being closed because of the group but what was really impacted was the bar and lounges. They were slammed. So much so that bartenders couldn't possibly keep up; they were running out of items very early in the cruise; the only way to get a drink anywhere on the ship was to wait in long lines - there was no regular service where bar staff had time to take drink orders and serve people.

 

To everyone's credit, no one got upset. I was concerned for the crew that passengers would start complaining about the long waits for drinks and things that ran out. But everyone was pretty kind.

 

Cruise lines do close venues for large groups. I'd want to know in advance if there was one on our cruise so I could decide ahead of time if I wanted to stick with the cruise or rebook.

 

I'm guessing the University at Sea group on your cruise would be fine. Wishing you a great cruise!

 

Thanks Host Anne. I appreciate you sharing your experience. So far, were sticking with the cruise, its the only week we can make it and want to sail on the Quantum before she goes to China.. I guess the cruise line was happy with all that liquor they sold!

[antsnanny]

I was on a cruise last year that had a group of over 1000 rock and rollers. There were several other groups ranging from 100-250 in number. The smaller groups were fine and no problem, however the ship and main venues were overtaken by this 1000+ group. Our reservations for the ice show were cancelled so they could have their proms, the theater cancelled evening shows or scheduled them at alternate times, so they could have their concerts, the bars and cafés were so crowded I felt sorry for the wait staff and anyone else who might like to get a slice of pizza etc, only late seating and late time slots for MTD were available, our Welcome back RCCL party and Meet&Mingle party were scheduled at the same time 10 AM on sea day because this group was using the space for the Welcome back party every night. That meant we had to choose which party to attend. That might not seem like a big deal, but I felt cheated. When I questioned the desk about it, they would just shrug and say they had an extremely large group to accommodate. They represented over 50% of the ship. Had I known in advance, I would have said no thank you to this cruise. I would just like the opportunity to make the choice to cruise or not with an enormous group.

For this coming year I've tried to do research to find out if there are any 500+ groups on board so I could choose a different cruise.

 

I do wish there was a way to find out how large this group will be! As I have said I really want to go on the ship and we cannot do another week. I will keep trying, thats for sure...

[SPacificbound]

So sorry you did not understand my point, which was dealing with the issue of "large group" which will be defined differently. You mention 1,500 passengers with red totes. On a a ship carry 1,800 passengers, that would be a large group to almost all readers. On a 5,000 passenger ship it might not. One ship I am still hoping to sail on one day has a capacity of 793 passengers, so 75 people would be 10%. Large group on that ship. Where would you draw the line of when the cruise line should tell you about this large group? A wedding with 1,500 people? We can discuss this.

 

My second point was they are constantly shutting down portions of ships for this group or that group. No problem, I have never heard of them shutting down the entire ship for a group. When they shut down an area, I just go elsewhere.

 

I was also responding to the OP original post and I don't see where they mentioned 1,500 red tote carrying people. In fact, other than your post, I don't see it mentioned anywhere. There are constantly groups, one I know of is the red hat ladies. You guessed it, they wear red hats everywhere they go. They are actually lots of fun. Not sure how many are in their group, but I guess their red hats could become annoying.

 

Perhaps I need to make my points a little clearer and dial back the examples to make my intended points. But in the end, it still boils down to what percentage of passengers have to be in the group to make the cruise line "warn" other passengers and then the discussion would have to held about what information to provide about the group. Just listing Bobs fresh produce group with 1,500 people might not tell you that they are going to walk around the ship dressed as peas and carrots, which could get annoying.:D

 

Might need to work on your math too. :D 1,500 "group" people on a ship holding 5,000 is waaayyy more then your 10% example.

[counsdr]

Antsnanny, I lived in Hackettstown for 35 years! We were practically neighbors! I have family in Greenpond!!!!

I am sure you're medical group will be fine. Good luck!

[DannyDriscoll]

Honestly, not freaking one little bit. Yes, the cruise line has every right not to disclose the group or the amount of people in it but I have every right to cancel my cruise if I feel the group is too big. It has nothing to do with who they are, its more a concern that there will be areas of the ship that will be off limits to those who are not in the group.

i agree, im not a fan of these big groups hogging and closing off venues. hmmm now i need to be research on my Quantum trip to make sure im not on with any big groups

[antsnanny]

i agree, im not a fan of these big groups hogging and closing off venues. hmmm now i need to be research on my Quantum trip to make sure im not on with any big groups

 

Ill be interested to see how you make out! What gave me the first clue is that we tried booking another cabin on our cruise and kept getting the message that there were no cabins available. This happened when the cruise was well over a year away… We tried other dates and there were cabins available..

[antsnanny]

antsnanny, I personally haven't but can tell you back in 2011 during our 2011 Barcelona TA, our Roll Call numbered 500 and 477 were at the M&M. They finally had to put us in the Sphinx Lounge because it was the only place large enough. During our activities, I don't think we numbered over 50 at any one time. During our recent Transpacific cruise, we had a large group that were deaf and they were at most events during the cruise, but never noticed them taking over any one area.

 

Wow! I think that roll call wins the award for the largest! I am not worried about small groups, Im worried about a high percentage of the ship being a group… We had a great CC group on our Celebrity Summit cruise in May and at times we would meet at the aft bar on deck 10 but it was just that, people meeting up at a bar, this didn't stop other guests from using it too!! With groups, they close venues down… Again, I am only worried about a very large group, like 50 % of the ship….

[GetMeOutOfMN]

Now I'm worried about something I didn't think about... I googled my sail date March 8th on AOS and came up with this conference on the sailing prior. Looks like some networking receptions that might impact certain venues, but no mention of the # in the group.

http://www.legalnurse.com/certified-legal-nurse-consultants/naclnc-association/naclnc-conference

I guess like any cruise (or any day for that matter), you take the good with the bad and make the best of it.