Is there a way to find out if there is a large group booked for a cruise?

[terpshockey77]

I was just on the Freedom of the Seas with a large number of 15 year old girls on the cruise. My husband returned the first night from a show and said that there was a group of 400 girls on the cruise. I told him he was mistaken and the 400 number must include their families as we were on the Liberty a number of years ago and saw the girls with their families. Well, I'm not sure there were 400 girls in the group but there were a fair number on our cruise and I didn't see many chaperones with them. Unfortunately my daughter is a teacher and when we cruise with her we will have to go in the summer. Is there anyway to find out beforehand if there is a large group booked for a particular cruise?

[Clarea]

The only way I've seen is to do an internet search with the name of the ship and the sailing date in various forms. Even that would not show an unadvertised group.

Edited July 15, 2015 by clarea

[Retired LEO]

I was just on the Freedom of the Seas with a large number of 15 year old girls on the cruise. My husband returned the first night from a show and said that there was a group of 400 girls on the cruise. I told him he was mistaken and the 400 number must include their families as we were on the Liberty a number of years ago and saw the girls with their families. Well, I'm not sure there were 400 girls in the group but there were a fair number on our cruise and I didn't see many chaperones with them. Unfortunately my daughter is a teacher and when we cruise with her we will have to go in the summer. Is there anyway to find out beforehand if there is a large group booked for a particular cruise?

Try to google your ship name and date of sailing. Try different combinations.

[cb at sea]

There will be large "groups" on EVERY cruise...no getting around that. 99% of the time, you won't know who is in a "group" or if there is a group! In most cases, the "group" members have no idea who else in in their "group".

It will not affect you...promise!

[CVU]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincea%C3%B1era

 

This is when you will find HUGE groups of teenagers on a cruise celebrating. Been on some cruises with lots of girls and their families too.

We had this group in Jan/Feb on the RCL larger ships. I don't know if that is when they have their school break or not but there were a Lot on board!! Very dressed on formal night. We sat in the promenade and watched the fashion parade.

[terpshockey77]

I know what a Quinceañera is as my daughter was invited to her friend's years ago. I haven't heard of girls taking cruises in groups. I didn't have a problem with a previous cruise where the girls came with families. I wrote large group as I didn't want to cruise again with a huge group of teenagers and surprised that Royal would allow that big of a group of teens.

[Clarea]

We've seen the Quinceañera groups on Monarch many times, though I'd be surprised if those groups were more than 50 girls.

[marci22]

I was going to say, 'don't worry about quince cruises in the summer' but I just did a quick google and found these quinceaneras sailings-

 

Independence of the Seas

 

June 21, 2015

and July 5, 2015

Eastern Caribbean

 

June 28, 2015

Western Caribbean

 

Oasis of the Seas

 

July 25, 2015

Eastern Caribbean

 

August 1, 2015

Western Caribbean

 

Google 'quinceanera cruise' and some travel sites will have handy calendars of all quince cruises for the year. Can't post as we are not allowed to link to TAs.

[xxoocruiser]

Specific to the OP's situation. Because of the age group stated it was most likely a Quicnceanera Birthday Celebration. Because of the age of girls RCCL would NEVER accept the booking without chaperones. The problem with these type of celebrations the parents and or adult chaperones pretty much take a back seat and let the girls have the run of the ship.

Edited July 16, 2015 by xxoocruiser

[Havingfun2010]

I was just on the Freedom of the Seas with a large number of 15 year old girls on the cruise. My husband returned the first night from a show and said that there was a group of 400 girls on the cruise. I told him he was mistaken and the 400 number must include their families as we were on the Liberty a number of years ago and saw the girls with their families. Well, I'm not sure there were 400 girls in the group but there were a fair number on our cruise and I didn't see many chaperones with them. Unfortunately my daughter is a teacher and when we cruise with her we will have to go in the summer. Is there anyway to find out beforehand if there is a large group booked for a particular cruise?

 

I'm just a little confused. Are you asking if there is a large group of "kids" or a large group of adults? It seems that the issue is the "kids" and also based on the fact you stated you need to sail in the summer (unfortunately). It's the summer, and it's not unusual for ships to have 600 - 1000 kids on board. Also, at age 15, they can drive (in some areas) work limited hours, and very seldom, have a "chaperone" at their side. I haven't been on a summer cruise where I didn't see "packs" of teenagers roaming around.

 

I've been on other cruises where groups were, and occasionally, it was annoying because they tended to hang out together, taking up areas at say the schooner bar, but technically, they were drinking and having fun, so what?

[BillOh]

Whew, this thread comes up often enough to remind me to check on my next cruise. I'm good to go. So far my Allure 2011 cruise had 150 or so insurance adjusters. They reportedly met in a conference room a couple of times.

[bubba83]

You are sailing during the summer months which is prime time to sail as kiddos are out of school so there is always going to be a larger % of kids on the ship vs during non holiday sailings.

 

Royal would never allow that many 15 years to book without adults, so it just so happens that at this age group parents give them more freedoms and they go around the ship without the adults a majority of the time. And they are girls, they stick together like a flock of geese :)

 

If you want to try to avoid that many kids then try booking a smaller ship without all the kid/teen attractions.

 

Just a question...were the girls bothering you in anyway that you would like to try and avoid this on future sailings?

[klass2]

When I was in high school (in Texas) my dance team went on a cruise as a travel incentive for winning a dance competition.

 

I don't recall the ratio of adults to kids for the trip. But I know that there probably were not enough adults to spread it out one per cabin. This was in the mid 90s so I'm not sure what the rules were at that time.

 

I got in a minor car accident (my fault) and was not allowed to go on the cruise.

[tampacruiser]

We were on Oasis and there was a "Paula Dean" cruise that week, supposedly around 400 people. The only way we really knew they were there was they wore lanyards around there neck and a few times during the day some of the venues were closed for "Private Functions" albeit these were venues that were usually not used by the rest of the passengers during the day so it really didn't have any effect on the cruise. My guess there are groups of "specialty cruisers" on every cruise and with the size and passenger load of these ships they are usually not really noticed.....well... we did see Paula and her husband and her son eating in the Windjammer...lol

[moandbo]

I saw a few weeks ago that our Nov cruise on Brilliance has a group from Ante Up poker magazine. I doubt that will affect us. They'll have poker games and tournaments set up in the conference center every night and on sea days. Hopefully, they won't branch out and take over our favorite blackjack table in the casino, but if they do, they'll probalby be better at it than me! ;)

[BillOh]

There will be large "groups" on EVERY cruise...no getting around that. 99% of the time, you won't know who is in a "group" or if there is a group! In most cases, the "group" members have no idea who else in in their "group".

It will not affect you...promise!

 

Well, I guess you did say 99% of the time. I was going to accuse you of doing a "cowherd" . (ESPN reference) You are right, but looking can't hurt and a little education shouldn't hurt either.

[BillOh]

The only way I've seen is to do an internet search with the name of the ship and the sailing date in various forms. Even that would not show an unadvertised group.

 

Good point about the date in various forms. I just found a name of one of the acts that is booked on our upcoming cruise. adbacadabra tour.

[BamaEagle]

There will be large "groups" on EVERY cruise...no getting around that. 99% of the time, you won't know who is in a "group" or if there is a group! In most cases, the "group" members have no idea who else in in their "group".

It will not affect you...promise!

 

I was on this cruise, and believe me, it affected everyone. As you would expect with 15 year old girls, they travel in packs. I am just wondering how they got around the rule of having an adult booked in every stateroom. Guess they paid extra to have the rule waived.

[BamaEagle]

You are sailing during the summer months which is prime time to sail as kiddos are out of school so there is always going to be a larger % of kids on the ship vs during non holiday sailings.

 

Royal would never allow that many 15 years to book without adults, so it just so happens that at this age group parents give them more freedoms and they go around the ship without the adults a majority of the time. And they are girls, they stick together like a flock of geese :)

 

If you want to try to avoid that many kids then try booking a smaller ship without all the kid/teen attractions.

 

Just a question...were the girls bothering you in anyway that you would like to try and avoid this on future sailings?

 

I was on the cruise and talked to one of the leaders. I assure you, Royal did allow them to book with just a tiny handful of chaperones. The girls were almost all in staterooms without adults and their rooms were spread throughout the ship.

They were from Argentina and we're celebrating their quinceanera. Their tour company was called Expender Teen.

[BamaEagle]

I'm just a little confused. Are you asking if there is a large group of "kids" or a large group of adults? It seems that the issue is the "kids" and also based on the fact you stated you need to sail in the summer (unfortunately). It's the summer, and it's not unusual for ships to have 600 - 1000 kids on board. Also, at age 15, they can drive (in some areas) work limited hours, and very seldom, have a "chaperone" at their side. I haven't been on a summer cruise where I didn't see "packs" of teenagers roaming around.

 

I've been on other cruises where groups were, and occasionally, it was annoying because they tended to hang out together, taking up areas at say the schooner bar, but technically, they were drinking and having fun, so what?

 

This was definitely different than the usual teenage girls traveling in packs that you see on summer cruises. It was a VERY large group with very few adults.

[marci22]

Some of the quince groups travel with 'professional chaperones'. I am sure that they are not sending 1 adult for every two teens.

[BamaEagle]

Correct. They had 4-5 chaperones that were middle aged adults who worked for the tour company. They also had about 4-5 (handsome, lol) college age guys who worked for the tour company as their activity directors, organizing all of the girls' activities on the ship and on beaches. The group size was about 200.

 

The girls' staterooms were scattered all over the ship and there were no adults in their rooms.

Edited July 16, 2015 by BamaEagle

[mcatmcat]

It happened to me once but doesn't affect me, I will be sailing with the group ( they become more visible and noticeable ) but that's about it, if is not the group it will be somebody else but the ship won't sail empty anyways

[Scotty G]

We've seen the Quinceañera groups on Monarch many times, though I'd be surprised if those groups were more than 50 girls.

 

We had 400 plus on Enchantment 2 weeks ago. Up to 700 once on Monarch.

[Clarea]

We had 400 plus on Enchantment 2 weeks ago. Up to 700 once on Monarch.

Incredible. Must have been hard to miss them.