planning a family reunion

[vail]

Planning a family reunion next year possibly on "Freedom of the Seas." Any help regarding cruise discounts, pricing, cabin location, best ways to coordinate with family, or any other comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Rosieo]

We did a family reunion cruise and it was great. We didn't book early enough to get our cabins together. We wished we were all within the same area.

[Shak]

The hardest part of doing a family cruise in my experience was date, ship, and itinerary. It appears you have that part under control. In our family we had people that preferred suites, some inside, others preferred outside so what I did was to get prices for all cabin preferences and go from there. It is nice if you get cabins close to each other but getting the cabins people want is more important. If you book 8 cabins you may qualify for a one fare reduction for a group rate. This reduction is for the lowest fare booked. If everyone booked a suite and one couple booked an inside cabin the credit is for the inside rate. If you are in charge of the group you get to control how that credit is spent. I always choose shipboard credit for each room.

 

The biggest suggestion I could pass along is to remember that you are going as a group but never forget that it is individually their vacation.

 

Shak

[debandbill]

Vail,

 

Here is the deal. It is impossible to get a consenses with a large group...everyone has their own agenda and ideas. Since you are the lead, the best thing to do is to pick the cruise and date...period. Then, send the information along with booklets and a cover letter to each family/interested party and let them decide yes or no. Collecting the funds for each party is a nightmare. That is why you would be better off using a TA that can ride herd on the group and if someone doesn't come thru with payments, the TA can be the "bad guy."

 

I had a lot of fun planning our ALASKA 2003 cruise. I used a logo that I created with Publisher and used it for all my correspondence, mailing labels, and even on the sweatshirts I got for the group. Its a lot of work, but the group appreciated it, and we had a ball.

 

Expect people to drop out and join like its no big deal and just roll with the punches. I just took the attitude, that " I was going to be on the cruise and whoever joined me....great!" Good luck!

[CruisinDawn]

Sure you want to do it on the Freedom? Reason I ask is it is already booking up leaving your group less cabin choices with higher prices. I check our date daily for price drops and notice that even into 2007 the prices have increased and several categories are already sold out. I have no faith that my price is going to drop and we are still a year out travelling in peak hurricane season. You may eliminate some amily due to price which would be unfortunate. I think any Voyager class ship would be a great choice for such an event. Since so many are running to the Freedom you may be able to get a deal on a Voyager class. Go to Royal pick a ship to check pricing, hit more 2006 dates and it will list all prices for the sailings for that ship for a year. Compare the two and see if the Freedom is really where you want to be. We have a group going on the Freedom but everyone booked 1 1/2 years out. Just some food for thought. I think a cruise ship is the great place for a reunion. Have a great time planning!

Dawna

[smrtypnts]

I just did this for my family and I disagree with the poster who said to pick a date and a ship and go from there.

 

When I did it, we hadn't even decided on a cruise. I did pick things that *I* wanted and went from there, but initially I chose several all inclusive resorts and several ships and itineraries. First we voted on an all inclusive or a cruise. (obviously, cruise won out.) Once we did that, I chose several several itineraries and several cruise lines. I did a lot of homework. We knew up front we were going Thanksgiving week. We live in NY so one choice was going out of NY. None of us wanted to fly to San Juan and we knew we wanted warmth, so Alaska was out. We also knew we wanted a 7-day itinerary. Some of the people going had done an Eastern Carribean, therefore the majority voted for Western. That considerably narrowed our choices. Each step along the way we voted. We didn't make a big deal out of it and although we tried to accomodate as many as possible, some were unable to go Thanksgiving week. Anyway, one thing I did do was mainly pick things that I myself could live with, since I was doing all the research and setting it all up. You only will get a 1person reduction in price based on the lowest cabin booked, assuming 8 cabins are booked. If 7 are booked, you're out of luck! I didn't reduce everyone's price by this amount as my family of 4 were paying the most, so I reduced my family's price. We have 1 balcony cabin, some oceanview and some inside cabins. All are on the same floor except the balcony, is 1 deck up. Planning is a lot of the fun and I've done all the research on these boards and passed the info on to everyone. I've booked trips for others that I won't even be taking as not all of us want to do the same things and we don't want to spend all our time together, either. Freedom of the Seas is expensive because it's so new and has so much to offer, so you may want to show your extended family a variety of ships and prices.

 

Good Luck.