Pub Crawl questions ...

[Suna]

I am running the pub crawl on our Breakaway cruise. I am making it a poker pub crawl. Would love to hear any suggestions from anyone who has done this before. Thanks

[drvmywifecrzy]

1 hour ago, Suna said:

I am running the pub crawl on our Breakaway cruise. I am making it a poker pub crawl. Would love to hear any suggestions from anyone who has done this before. Thanks

Either keep your group small or pre-arrange 2 or 3 drinks to choose at each bar.  You show up with 25 people and by the time #25 gets his/her drink the first 10 will be ready for the next stop

[smplybcause]

On the breakaway our group leaders either didn't arrange it with beverage or weren't clear how large the group was. After slamming one bar they tried to split us into to groups but the bars were still slammed and they quickly pushed us up to spice saying we couldn't do a crawl and yanked some bartenders from somewhere else to run up to spice. 

 

Now this was a huge group and it was unrealistic to begin with, but my guess is you need a min 20 minutes for every 10 people in the crawl per stop.

[Suna]

24 minutes ago, smplybcause said:

On the breakaway our group leaders either didn't arrange it with beverage or weren't clear how large the group was. After slamming one bar they tried to split us into to groups but the bars were still slammed and they quickly pushed us up to spice saying we couldn't do a crawl and yanked some bartenders from somewhere else to run up to spice. 

 

Now this was a huge group and it was unrealistic to begin with, but my guess is you need a min 20 minutes for every 10 people in the crawl per stop.

How many were in your group?

[smplybcause]

5 minutes ago, Suna said:

How many were in your group?

 

Maybe 100 🤣 I'm honestly not sure how many showed up and how many abandoned. (Our full group was almost 300, but no where near that many came.) I showed up with a drink knowing it'd be a disaster. And the beverage managers were pissed. 

 

But I was in one of about 15 on getaway and it took us over 20 minutes for everyone to get a drink. (And like was said by the time the last got their drink the first were almost done.) A lot of the bars are small and have 1 or 2 bartenders - and they likely already have orders from those there before you to fill. 

Edited December 29, 2019 by smplybcause

[Sauer-kraut]

Make it simpler for the bars, each bar makes one type of drink and do easy drinks....whiskey, bloody marys, etc.  Limit your group size.  Don't make it difficult for the bar tenders and get things set up 2 days prior with the beverage manager.

[Suna]

44 minutes ago, Sauer-kraut said:

Make it simpler for the bars, each bar makes one type of drink and do easy drinks....whiskey, bloody marys, etc.  Limit your group size.  Don't make it difficult for the bar tenders and get things set up 2 days prior with the beverage manager.

Yes this is what I was thinking ... one drink per bar so that it is easy (shot or whatever). I am thinking group size to be no bigger than 30 and I will definitely speak to the bar manager before hand. Thank you.

 

[All-ready2cruise]

7 minutes ago, Suna said:

Yes this is what I was thinking ... one drink per bar so that it is easy (shot or whatever). I am thinking group size to be no bigger than 30 and I will definitely speak to the bar manager before hand. Thank you.

 

TBH, I think 30 is too many, the bartenders may still have to serve other customers. I'd keep it around 20 and maybe offer it twice on your cruise.  This would keep everyone happy, including the bar-tenders. JMO (I've been on some which were way too big and just not manageable)

[ready2cruzagain]

8 minutes ago, Suna said:

Yes this is what I was thinking ... one drink per bar so that it is easy (shot or whatever). I am thinking group size to be no bigger than 30 and I will definitely speak to the bar manager before hand. Thank you.

 

 

I have done many of these on NCL, doing one next month on the Breakaway...you do not want to go over 50 but up to 50 is fine...did 46 on the Epic one time was awesome.  Not at home right now but when I get home will send you the logistics.  If you want.

[Suna]

6 minutes ago, ready2cruzagain said:

 

I have done many of these on NCL, doing one next month on the Breakaway...you do not want to go over 50 but up to 50 is fine...did 46 on the Epic one time was awesome.  Not at home right now but when I get home will send you the logistics.  If you want.

That would be great - thank you.

 

[ready2cruzagain]

16 hours ago, Suna said:

That would be great - thank you.

 

I found that 1:30pm on the first sea day is best.  That way if one wants to go to the MDR for lunch in the MDR, they don't feel rushed.  Here is how I have always done it in the past.

 

You can either do both the pub crawl and the poker run or just do the pub crawl is what I always say.  Buy in for the poker run is $5 pp.  We go to 5 bars and if you are in the poker run you draw a card at each bar.  Person with the best poker hand wins the pot at the last bar.  I plan the bars ahead of time and try not to use the elevators as much as possible because that can cause problems.

 

We have done a lot of these and they are always a blast. We have had several people go on the pub crawl/poker run that don't drink or play the poker run, they just wanted to meet people.  Great way to break the ice and talk to people you might never have talked to.  The more the merrier whether you play the poker run or not.

 

I have tried to warn the waiters or even the Bar Manager when we have had a large group but have always been told don't worry about it, just have fun.  So, I no longer bother with trying to inform them.

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by ready2cruzagain

[Dawnya00]

Have fun! We participated on a pub crawl on the BA this past March and had a blast. We started around 2pm and ended maybe 4:30 or so.

[coach jim]

Just a few thoughts, I have done 5 of these.  Just to involve more people I do cocktail/beer and music trivia to get cards and give a king/queen of trivia prize at the end.  We have tried to make arrangements with the bar manager but did not get any help.  15 to 25 is ideal, bigger than that gets a little unwieldy.  Stay about 20 min. at each bar, you should leave a few minutes early to "warn" the next bar.  Keep it to two floors, one early trip on the stairs or elevator.  Keep a tight schedule the first three bars, train tends to go a little off the rails after that.  Most do these first day at sea, I always ran mine right after sail away, personal preference and the fact that the M & G, slot pull and cabin crawl were scheduled first day at sea.  If possible be on the waterfront for sunset!  Have fun and let me know if you need any other info.  I have attached a simple schedule I am using on the Escape, one bar on 7 the rest on 8.

Escape2020CC.docx

[sanger727]

I can't help with organizing the logistics. But I participated in a bar crawl that turned out really well. The organizers per-arranged one drink per bar and must have warned them ahead that we were coming because as we arrived at each bar there were drinks pre-made and waiting for us. Not sure how they worked that out but we did tell them ahead if we had the beverage package or not. 

[cementhands]

On 12/29/2019 at 11:16 AM, Suna said:

I am running the pub crawl on our Breakaway cruise. I am making it a poker pub crawl. Would love to hear any suggestions from anyone who has done this before. Thanks

Break it down into smaller groups so you’ll get quicker service. Large groups are difficult.

Check with Ncl beforehand.

Side note telling them it’s a cruise critic event, that might help.

[Alantra]

This sounds like so much fun!  We are on the Breakaway Dec 6 /20 only a group of 6-10 going.  Is this something that happens on board that you can join someone's crawl?

 

[ready2cruzagain]

47 minutes ago, Alantra said:

This sounds like so much fun!  We are on the Breakaway Dec 6 /20 only a group of 6-10 going.  Is this something that happens on board that you can join someone's crawl?

 

 

Ours is for our roll call on the Breakaway, Jan. 11th.

[Sauer-kraut]

49 minutes ago, Alantra said:

This sounds like so much fun!  We are on the Breakaway Dec 6 /20 only a group of 6-10 going.  Is this something that happens on board that you can join someone's crawl?

 

 

If someone on your roll call sets one up you can join in, but you have a group of your own so you can set your own up!   Figure out what bars and what drinks you'll do at each one and have a great time.

[erdoran]

I participated in my first one on the Jade last spring.  We had an organizer and volunteer group leaders.  I think we ended up with 50 or so participating, so we broke into groups of 10.  As soon as 10 showed up, one leader would go with her group, then we’d form the next group and so on.  I think we all followed the same route, but we do want to try to allow at least 10 mins/group, so if there were lots of groups forming fast then I think we should alternate forwards and backwards.  

 

We told the beverage manager I think at the M&G and when we got to each bar, the bartender had a bunch of drinks pre-made, every bar had something different.  There was also someone discreetly following us around, facilitating things at the bars, which we didn’t figure out until the end 😆