Advice on a sizeable party

[themanwithahat]

We are considering a 'family cruise' next year which will probably be 11-12 people.

 

Q1: Is there any issue with the dining rooms having this many people who want to sit together ? Primarily, I would think, fixed dining at night, breakfast/lunch would be difficult, perhaps ?

 

Q2: Is this feasible on saver fares ? We have had no problems with two bookings linked together for dining, what are our chances with 5 or 6 linked together ?

 

Thanks for anyone who has any knowledge and/or experience.

[Big Foot]

We are considering a 'family cruise' next year which will probably be 11-12 people.

 

Q1: Is there any issue with the dining rooms having this many people who want to sit together ? Primarily, I would think, fixed dining at night, breakfast/lunch would be difficult, perhaps ?

 

Q2: Is this feasible on saver fares ? We have had no problems with two bookings linked together for dining, what are our chances with 5 or 6 linked together ?

 

Thanks for anyone who has any knowledge and/or experience.

 

P&O have large tables of 12 I believe so all sitting together shouldn't be a problem on fixed dining as long as the bookings are linked.

 

On one of our cruises there was a very large family party (celebrating Grandparents Wedding Anniversary) & they had 3 / 4 tables all in an alcove area of the restaurant & they had a brilliant time.

 

However, with a saver fare, whilst you can ask for your bookings to be linked there is no guarantee that you will all get the same type of dining i.e. fixed or freedom.

 

Personally, given that you're looking at such a large party & I suspect the dining all together is going to be a large part of your cruise then (assuming you can afford it) I'd go for the select fare & select your dining choice.

 

As you say breakfast, in the buffet restaurant might be an issue but again you could always eat in the main dining room.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Joan

[the english lady]

We are considering a 'family cruise' next year which will probably be 11-12 people.

 

Q1: Is there any issue with the dining rooms having this many people who want to sit together ? Primarily, I would think, fixed dining at night, breakfast/lunch would be difficult, perhaps ?

 

Q2: Is this feasible on saver fares ? We have had no problems with two bookings linked together for dining, what are our chances with 5 or 6 linked together ?

 

Thanks for anyone who has any knowledge and/or experience.

 

I concur

With this size of party really select fare is the only way to go. You can request cabins near to each other, you can request the dining option and table size.

With early saver or saver fares you risk the cabins being on separate decks at either end of the ship. Remember with those fares you are having what is left ,so things cannot be made available as if by magic.

Dining there is a good chance you would not even be on the same sitting, let alone the same table. This would be even if bookings are linked.

Especially with saver fares you are having what is left, and with such a size of party it will not be a case of seeing the restaurant manager on boarding day and requesting what you want, as with a party of 12 you would stand very very little chance of him being able to do it.

Breakfast/lunch would not be difficult at all, its open sitting so you just go down and request a table for 12.Might have to wait a little for them to have that spare, but not too long . Also there is the option of the buffet for those meals.

I would also book with P and O direct. Stops the Chinese whispers of going via a TA. You tell then directly what you want and they will do it. Any problems you speak directly to them.

I hope it happens and you have a wonderful wonderful time..

[john watson]

I should think for breakfast the MDR is best as you can go as a group and ask for a large shared table together.

 

Having travelled on holidays in large family groups I have found that it is difficult to all do the same thing all the time. We never manage a full English breakfast and lunch and dinner! That would be a tough regime to maintain. I think you are better saying that you intend to do breakfast in the main dining room at 8.30 and lunch similarly at 12.30 daily. If people are not there bash on with whoever has arrived. You need to communicate with big groups but allow sub groups to do variations. If you do not you get a lot of waiting about to form a posse. When everyone has joined the posse they split up and do different things same with shore excursions people are interested in different ones and those that go on the same one want to do different shops etc.

 

What I am saying is that the main group should be doing something which everybody knows about but different people on different occasions in varying smaller groups do something else and this be welcomed by all.

 

Regards John

Edited April 22, 2015 by john watson

[dsrdsrdsr]

If you do one big booking for everyone, as opposed to separate but linked bookings, there won't be any problem with the dining. You'll all be together.

[the english lady]

If you do one big booking for everyone, as opposed to separate but linked bookings, there won't be any problem with the dining. You'll all be together.

 

Only on a select fare. On a saver fare they can move 2 people around into spaces. 12 they would not be able to do the impossible.;)

[Wiz201]

you may get a large group discount if you book select fare so it might work out just as cheap as saver fare?

[molecrochip]

you may get a large group discount if you book select fare so it might work out just as cheap as saver fare?

 

Not likely on P&O.

 

We booked 40+ for a wedding in 2012 and the best they could do was an extra £30 OBS.

 

We then took 30+ for a further cruise in 2014 (again booked as soon as open) and no agent/direct could get us more than an extra 1% off. This time we settled for an extra £25 OBS.

 

Its a shame when you are spending, say, £80k+ per group.

[KarenR_UK]

re group bookings - seems they are available on EARLY Savers, as well as Select fares, but they are a bit coy about what they will do for you - however, they dont consider you to be a 'group' until there are at least 16 people (I thought it was 10people with a fixed % off - so either its changed, or I made it up :D)

 

https://ask.pocruises.com/help/before-you-sail/group_bookings

 

Q. Do you offer discounts for group bookings?

 

For passengers in a group of 16 people* or more, we can offer a group booking promotion. The terms and conditions and benefits available will depend on the size of the group, therefore, for full details, please call our Customer Contact Centre on 0843 374 0111 (calls charged at local rate).

 

(* minimum group size to be 16 passengers occupying lower berths)

 

Group bookings are combinable with P&O Select Prices and Early Saver Fares but not combinable with Late Saver or Other Promotional Fares.

[Dryce]

We booked 40+ for a wedding in 2012 and the best they could do was an extra £30 OBS.

 

We then took 30+ for a further cruise in 2014 (again booked as soon as open) and no agent/direct could get us more than an extra 1% off. This time we settled for an extra £25 OBS.

 

I think the lesson P&O learned from this is that their discounting strategy got them repeat business - so hardly an incentive for them to try harder !! :D

 

Did you get any better or worse offers from their competition?

[dsrdsrdsr]

Only on a select fare. On a saver fare they can move 2 people around into spaces. 12 they would not be able to do the impossible.;)

 

Are you sure? I can't imagine any holiday company accepting a booking from a family party and then separating them for dinner. It certainly isn't mentioned as a possibility in the booking conditions, though I've never travelled in a party bigger than 4.

[the english lady]

Are you sure? I can't imagine any holiday company accepting a booking from a family party and then separating them for dinner. It certainly isn't mentioned as a possibility in the booking conditions, though I've never travelled in a party bigger than 4.

A saver fare is brought in when they have sold as many cabins as they can at the higher fares. The people who have paid the higher fares have first pickings as to what seating they would like for dinner. From what has been posted 1st sitting seems to be the most popular now...so lets take that out of the equation as select fare payers would have nabbed them.

Next you have 2nd sitting, that is our choice...possibly a good many others .

A table for 12 would be an entire table. It is quite possible that after you have accommodated all the select and early saver fares wishes you do not have a table for 12 free.

That leaves freedom dining. That you may be able to have 12 people decend at once saying we would like one table please.

However you are taking a chance ,to get a cheap fare , that you would all get the same dining option. Saver fares are slotted in where there are spaces cabin wise and dining wise.

2 people who have been given a dining option they do not like, they may be able to slot in..however don't you agree asking an md to move assorted other people to accommodate 12 people sitting together is a bit much.

It is mentioned in the T and C. It is explained that saver fares have no choices whatsoever ref cabins (except type-inside/outside/balcony etc) or dining. Might not spell it out that if you do one booking for 12 people you may not be seated altogether, but it does state no choices.

One should also add finally that saver fares do not always appear for every cruise and also not for ever grade of cabin.

So lets say you have 12 people ,1 booking , all want balcony cabins(so 6 cabins). On a saver fare you only have 3 balconys left....what do you do?

For peace of mind in would go for select. You would have the cruise you want. You would all have the cabins you want. You would all be sat for dinner together.

[themanwithahat]

Yes. They can split up fours in theory.

 

We went on a saver on Azura, the four of us as two linked bookings. The P&O lady (and people here) said it was highly likely we would have a table together at the same time and place (possibly with someone else) because they try their best to arrange that. but that it wasn't *guaranteed* and we had no control over what time/type of dining (she also pointed out we could use the buffet, and if we ate in the speciality restaurants every night we'd still be ahead financially....) - we got a table for 4. I suspect 9 times out of 10 we would. But I can see 12 is optimistic.

 

For the cheap fares, you get the leftover choices, and that's fine by me normally. (Sometimes it's worth it, we stayed in an AI hotel a couple of years ago in Cyprus for £400pp inc flights. I reckoned it was so cheap we could eat out all the time and still be ahead. It was actually decent...)

 

I think everyone is right, to sit together (especially) we need select fares, thanks to all who responded.

[dsrdsrdsr]

A table for 12 would be an entire table. It is quite possible that after you have accommodated all the select and early saver fares wishes you do not have a table for 12 free.

 

They allocate whether you get first or second sitting with the saver fares last, but I doubt the restaurant is arranged the same way. The maitre d' will have a list of all the people eating there, and will allocate tables to the large parties first. It's not as if there's a limited number of tables for 12, because they can make large tables by pushing smaller ones together.

[my marina bay]

We have travelled as a party of eight all late savers on Azura. Our super TA linked all the bookings and we ended up with four insides all on A deck, two fore and two aft. We all were allocated Freedom dining and dined together most evenings. The Restaurant manager allocated us a table to ourselves every night and we only got a pager once on a formal night.

[bee-ess]

I would say in this instance with a party of 12 that you should book Select to get what you want. I do think however that there is an element of scare tactics employed - I don't imagine that they would split up a party of 4 or family parties. We have always used saver fares (in whatever name) on P&O and we travel as a 4 (2 couples) and have always got which dining option we wanted and always on a table for 4. Also we have always got good cabins. You book with an open mind but booking saver has always worked for us.