Booking A Group Cruise Question

[1BDNANA]

Anyone have any tips on booking a group cruise on Carnival ? Looking at putting together a family and friends cruise with around 25 to 35 people. 8 to 13 cabins more if the discounts are right. Any tips would be helpful😍. The web site is not helpful, will only let me look at 3 cabins at a time. Phone call not much better...how many...names...birthdays...first born...name of first pet...then they will give a price if I'm ready to book ( I will be paying for up to 18 of them so yup coast counts) . How do I even start this thing without the PVPs attacking like sharks?

[klfrodo]

Biggest tip?

Go to a travel agent.

Even family can be difficult. The TA takes you out of the family dynamic.

 

Know that group pricing is higher priced. Those amenities are not free as a group. They have to get paid for somehow.

[CJDepew]

1 hour ago, klfrodo said:

Biggest tip?

Go to a travel agent.

Even family can be difficult. The TA takes you out of the family dynamic.

 

Know that group pricing is higher priced. Those amenities are not free as a group. They have to get paid for somehow.

I agree with this totally. We did a group of 24 three years ago and I would have pulled my hair out if I would have had to wrangle all those people. Used a TA and she passed along extra OBC to us as well.

[ljslight]

i HAVE A GREAT TA that takes care of this. And I get a better rate!!!  She evens watches for price drops and makes sure I get them!

 

[klfrodo]

19 hours ago, 1BDNANA said:

Anyone have any tips on booking a group cruise on Carnival ? Looking at putting together a family and friends cruise with around 25 to 35 people. 8 to 13 cabins more if the discounts are right. Any tips would be helpful😍. The web site is not helpful, will only let me look at 3 cabins at a time. Phone call not much better...how many...names...birthdays...first born...name of first pet...then they will give a price if I'm ready to book ( I will be paying for up to 18 of them so yup coast counts) . How do I even start this thing without the PVPs attacking like sharks?

 

Let me just share what happened to us.

 

We were excited and planned almost exactly what you are doing.

My wife did months of research. She even created a website devoted to this cruise. She took the time to learn html coding. She had links for transportation ideas, she had hotel links, excursion links, pricing, etc.

She even organized pre-cruise parties.

 

We probably had 50 people excited to go. Everyone put down their $25 deposit to hold the group cabins.

 

Then the subtle backstabbing began.

So and so say's they can get better pricing. So and so spoke to their SIL and were told that if you do this, then so and so gets better amenities. The subtle hints that so and so thinks your adjusting the prices to get yourself a better deal.

 

When it came time for the remainder of the deposit, we were down to 25 people going.

By the time we were at Pay in Full time, we were down to 10 people going.

 

These 10 people had a blast and hold on to our lifetime memories,,,, but,,,, NEVER AGAIN!!

 

Now, we announce that we are taking a cruise, here are the dates, here's the ship,,,, please if interested,, we would love for you to join us. If you need a TA, here's who we use. Hope to see you

[CJDepew]

1 hour ago, klfrodo said:

 

Let me just share what happened to us.

 

We were excited and planned almost exactly what you are doing.

My wife did months of research. She even created a website devoted to this cruise. She took the time to learn html coding. She had links for transportation ideas, she had hotel links, excursion links, pricing, etc.

She even organized pre-cruise parties.

 

We probably had 50 people excited to go. Everyone put down their $25 deposit to hold the group cabins.

 

Then the subtle backstabbing began.

So and so say's they can get better pricing. So and so spoke to their SIL and were told that if you do this, then so and so gets better amenities. The subtle hints that so and so thinks your adjusting the prices to get yourself a better deal.

 

When it came time for the remainder of the deposit, we were down to 25 people going.

By the time we were at Pay in Full time, we were down to 10 people going.

 

These 10 people had a blast and hold on to our lifetime memories,,,, but,,,, NEVER AGAIN!!

 

Now, we announce that we are taking a cruise, here are the dates, here's the ship,,,, please if interested,, we would love for you to join us. If you need a TA, here's who we use. Hope to see you

Yes!!! This exactly. We have a FB page for the large group and post the link to the specific cruise we are taking and a message to comment when they are booked so we can add them to the actual cruise group. We tell them to book using whatever method they choose, so all of that griping and moaning is out of the equation. Life is so much easier that way, and we can still have fun with the know-it-alls without wanting to stab them with a fork.

[Poohbeck]

We recently did a family/friends cruise for 28 people. My friend and I were the ones responsible for all the fact gathering - we then decided to book through a travel agent. I typically don’t use a travel agent, but, figured with this many people is was best. It took the responsibility off of us and onto the agent. The travel agent was great, espcieally since everyone was paying on their own and the agent could coordinate all of that. Also, the agent helped with flights and hotels. Again, everyone had their own itenary. Some flew in 2-3 days early, sone 1 day early, some flew out the day the cruise got back and others stayed a bit longer. 

 

A few weeks after the cruise I got a check back from the Travel Agency, it was the group pricing savings. I cashed the check and split the money with everyone who went on the trip and showed my friend the check so it was all legit.

 

It worked for us to all use the same travel agent who then coordinated everything for us through the cruise line. Good luck and have fun!

[1BDNANA]

Thank you so much for all the info....We did end up booking with the one agent who was working with one of our group she said she would share the love ( discounts) with all. I helped most of them with room location ( many of them wanted to have cabins next to DH and I) and set it up so they could make there own payments. So far at this point we have 10 cabins booked. Fingers crossed she will pass on her savings to the rest of the group ,but for me all I care about is having a great time.

[AdGuyMG]

On 1/29/2019 at 1:53 PM, 1BDNANA said:

Anyone have any tips on booking a group cruise on Carnival ? Looking at putting together a family and friends cruise with around 25 to 35 people. 8 to 13 cabins more if the discounts are right. ...Phone call not much better...how many...names...birthdays...first born...name of first pet...then they will give a price if I'm ready to book

 

30 minutes ago, 1BDNANA said:

Thank you so much for all the info....We did end up booking with the one agent who was working with one of our group

Did the Carnival rep honestly ask you about first born and name of first pet???

 

Did the TA you ended up booking with ask you ANY of the same qualifier questions the direct rep at Carnival asked? Like the number of people you expected .. types of cabins you wanted, etc...

[1BDNANA]

42 minutes ago, AdGuyMG said:

 

Did the Carnival rep honestly ask you about first born and name of first pet???

 

Did the TA you ended up booking with ask you ANY of the same qualifier questions the direct rep at Carnival asked? Like the number of people you expected .. types of cabins you wanted, etc...

After I told them that each cabin would be taking care of their own payments they backed off of me and it was a walk in the park. 😁 Now lets see how getting all of this horde will do going to dinner at night 🤔🙄😱