Hosted cruise question

[iamaqt2]

I'm currently booked on the Ruby which has come to my attention has a rather large group that's being hosted by a TA.

What venues might be affected during the day for meet and greets or hosted activities? Or even possibly evening activities?

TIA if you've ever been on one or experienced one of these cruises.

[cr8tiv1]

It all depends on what the "theme" is on the hosted cruise.  I am a dancer.  Not booked on a West Coast Swing group.  They took over all of the dance venues.  Closed the Club Fusion for private. parties. Took over the dance floor in the Wheelhouse and Explorer's Lounge, Piazza for group photos, etc.  It was not fun for the rest of us casual dancers.

 

I was on a cruise with the Raider's fan club.  They were very well behaved and quite friendly.  A little rowdy, but not mean.  Just very spirited.  

 

Been on a ship with a Sponsored Halloween Cruise (not me)...that was most interesting.  The participants were ALL over the place.  I wouldn't do that again.

[trbarton]

3 minutes ago, iamaqt2 said:

I'm currently booked on the Ruby which has come to my attention has a rather large group that's being hosted by a TA.

What venues might be affected during the day for meet and greets or hosted activities? Or even possibly evening activities?

TIA if you've ever been on one or experienced one of these cruises.

That’s a good question. I would contact Princess that handles all of these events on the Princess ships. 
 

Here’s the address to contact them….grouponboardservices@princesscruises.com.

 

I’ve done 2 Meet & Greets on the Ruby since the restart & both time’s we’ve been in Skywalker's so I wouldn’t worry about it. Where ever they put you will be fine. Curious if the location matters? 
 

Please let us know what you find out. 
 

Tom😀

[cr8tiv1]

Princess will not reveal groups that book.  I did a goggle search for group cruises by dates/ships.  They told me it was a "privacy" issue.  I think they don't want to scare away other passengers.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

We had a large group ruin our cruise once.  Where did you hear that there would be a group cruise?  

[caribill]

2 hours ago, iamaqt2 said:

I'm currently booked on the Ruby which has come to my attention has a rather large group that's being hosted by a TA.

What venues might be affected during the day for meet and greets or hosted activities? Or even possibly evening activities?

TIA if you've ever been on one or experienced one of these cruises.

 

Is this a theme group such as the ones listed by above posts or just a group of passengers that the TA has put together.

 

If it is the latter, it is unlikely that venues will be adversely affected.  At most a non-themed group might get together once or twice or use an outside area for a short time for a group photo.

[iamaqt2]

31 minutes ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

We had a large group ruin our cruise once.  Where did you hear that there would be a group cruise?  

Our roll call has a few posters who have shared that they're on a large TA hosted booking.  My understanding is that it's in the 100's.  I'm wondering how many 100's 🤔 

[iamaqt2]

16 minutes ago, caribill said:

 

Is this a theme group such as the ones listed by above posts or just a group of passengers that the TA has put together.

 

If it is the latter, it is unlikely that venues will be adversely affected.  At most a non-themed group might get together once or twice or use an outside area for a short time for a group photo.

No not a theme cruise.  Just a hosted cruise.  Wondering how much it might impact venues onboard.

[MsSoCalCruiser]

1 minute ago, iamaqt2 said:

Our roll call has a few posters who have shared that they're on a large TA hosted booking.  My understanding is that it's in the 100's.  I'm wondering how many 100's 🤔 

Why don’t you just ask the posters?  Which cruise are you on?  

[iamaqt2]

6 hours ago, MsSoCalCruiser said:

Why don’t you just ask the posters?  Which cruise are you on?  

I did, but none responded.  I'm assuming they have a group page elsewhere as our roll call has 24 followers and is very slow.  Many of the original posters have canceled the cruse.

It's on the Ruby 2/25 Panama Canal sailing.

[CruisinMinnie]

We have a TA group of 100+ on the Ruby now, and no venues have been impacted.  The TA has a hospitality desk away from public areas to hand out little daily gifts.  

[voljeep]

9 hours ago, cr8tiv1 said:

Been on a ship with a Sponsored Halloween Cruise (not me)...that was most interesting.  The participants were ALL over the place.  I wouldn't do that again.

I'll bet you could 'bearly' stand a cruise with a group you didn't know was going to be on it.  Happened to us also ... we found 'out' about it when we went to a favorite sailaway spot - the aft 'adult' pool ...

[paul929207]

We were on a cruise once where we were part of the group put together by our TA. As I recall there were 75 or so in the group. We had one late afternoon cocktail. It was in a lounge that would normally have been closed at that time. 

[skynight]

We were on a cruise that had a dance group. Occupied many of the dance/lounge areas for planned and unplanned sessions. Passengers complained. The group complained they didn't get enough scheduled dance time. Not one of our best trips. It depends if the group is themed with focused activities, or if the group.is just put together for better fares.

[phabric]

I was on a cruise with Group of 300 gay men, I think “Bears”.  They took over the back pool during the day.

 

Another cruise, I don’t know what type of Group it was, the theater was marked for a musical private party.

 

Another cruise, I talked to passengers from a large group from a retirement resort.  They did not have any activities planned just a group rate.

Edited January 13, 2022 by phabric

[CineGraphic]

2 hours ago, voljeep said:

I'll bet you could 'bearly' stand a cruise with a group you didn't know was going to be on it.  Happened to us also ... we found 'out' about it when we went to a favorite sailaway spot - the aft 'adult' pool ...

We found ourselves on one of those once.

[CineGraphic]

On the Majestic in November there was a dance club on board. They danced all day in the piazza, and if there was no music, they supplied their own via a laptop and Bluetooth speaker. The group filled at least 3 busses when they left.

[MissP22]

Large groups of any kind make really can make life unpleasant. 

We were once on a cruise where up to 150 or so ate dinner each night at 6PM sharp in our dining room. They all arrived at the same time & service slowed to a crawl. Besides that, the noise was overwhelming. You found yourself having to shout across the table just to have a conversation. 

[MsSoCalCruiser]

We found ourselves on board with a kickball group.  This was three days of hell. The sail-away started off with the group already trashed and a blowup doll if that tells you anything.  You couldn’t walk up to a bar for a drink or find a seat on the Lido the entire cruise. Their behavior and vocabulary were just awful the entire cruise.  I bet their families would be proud.  This was on a Princess Cruise.

[heathriel]

We ran a conference on our Antarctica cruise -- had 50 people there for the conference on a ship of around 1200.

 

They gave us the use of the wedding chapel during the days for our event, which caused the mass/FoD and other groups that would have meetings there to have to meet either earlier or later than they would necessarily meet on other ships, but there didn't seem to be any hard feelings. We posted announcements and other people were invited to watch the seminars.

 

We did end up dominating karaoke, trivia and voice of the ocean -- (ie, when you have numbers of people who you know you just end up having numbers of people cheering and voting for you) -- but we were respectful and for the most part I don't think our fellow passengers found us annoying. Quite the opposite, actually, as we ended up friends with many on Facebook.

 

So, I think it has to do with the group, itinerary, etc.

 

 

 

[Thrak]

12 hours ago, iamaqt2 said:

No not a theme cruise.  Just a hosted cruise.  Wondering how much it might impact venues onboard.

 

5 hours ago, CruisinMinnie said:

We have a TA group of 100+ on the Ruby now, and no venues have been impacted.  The TA has a hospitality desk away from public areas to hand out little daily gifts.  

 

 

We did a "hosted" cruise - 17 days from San Francisco to FLL through the Panama Canal - and it had pretty much zero impact on other cruisers. There is a TA that often offers hosted cruises and we took advantage of that. The TA picked us up in Sacramento and used a bus to transport us to San Francisco for the cruise. They took our luggage and we didn't have to deal with it at all. It just appeared at our cabin on the ship.

 

As @CruisinMinnie says above, the TA had a table set up in an out of the way area and gave out daily gifts to the passengers who were booked through that TA. The gifts were things like decks of cards, salt water taffy, and a copy of the book The Path Between The Seas which is about the creation of the Panama Canal. When I stopped by the table one day and they were giving bags of salt water taffy I picked up one for each of us and jokingly told them that I might have to keep both bags for myself they laughed and gave me an "extra" bag and said it was to make sure my wife got some. 😁

 

While this isn't our usual TA we may well take advantage of another hosted cruise simply because they provide transportation from Sacramento to San Francisco. We can leave our car at my wife's niece's house and avoid parking fees. It's also great not having to deal with the luggage.

[Papa Yoda]

59 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

7 hours ago, CruisinMinnie said:

We have a TA group of 100+ on the Ruby now, and no venues have been impacted.  The TA has a hospitality desk away from public areas to hand out little daily gifts.  

 

 

We did a "hosted" cruise - 17 days from San Francisco to FLL through the Panama Canal - and it had pretty much zero impact on other cruisers. There is a TA that often offers hosted cruises and we took advantage of that. The TA picked us up in Sacramento and used a bus to transport us to San Francisco for the cruise. They took our luggage and we didn't have to deal with it at all. It just appeared at our cabin on the ship.

 

As @CruisinMinnie says above, the TA had a table set up in an out of the way area and gave out daily gifts to the passengers who were booked through that TA. The gifts were things like decks of cards, salt water taffy, and a copy of the book The Path Between The Seas which is about the creation of the Panama Canal. When I stopped by the table one day and they were giving bags of salt water taffy I picked up one for each of us and jokingly told them that I might have to keep both bags for myself they laughed and gave me an "extra" bag and said it was to make sure my wife got some. 😁

 

While this isn't our usual TA we may well take advantage of another hosted cruise simply because they provide transportation from Sacramento to San Francisco. We can leave our car at my wife's niece's house and avoid parking fees. It's also great not having to deal with the luggage.

 

We've also been on a cruise when that TA group was aboard, no issues or impacts.  I heard that her husband works for Princess.

[skynight]

It isn't really about 'hosted'. It is about the theme and on board activities and venues being dominated by the group and of course the size of the group. The cruise described in post 21 sounds like most really did their own things. The group sounded fairly small with probably most in it just for the fare and the transportation. Senior communities frequently have these kinds of group packages. But once on board passengers go their own way.

[Papa Yoda]

Righto, an "organized group" can kill a cruise for you, whereas a "group" hosted by a TA would not necessarily.

[caribill]

6 hours ago, phabric said:

I was on a cruise with Group of 300 gay men, I think “Bears”.  They took over the back pool during the day.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, heathriel said:

We ran a conference on our Antarctica cruise -- had 50 people there for the conference on a ship of around 1200.

 

We did end up dominating karaoke, trivia and voice of the ocean -- (ie, when you have numbers of people who you know you just end up having numbers of people cheering and voting for you) -- but we were respectful and for the most part I don't think our fellow passengers found us annoying.

 

There is a difference between groups that end up reserving venues that would normally be used for other activities by other passengers and groups that do not have a venue reserved, but just like to gather at venues that other passengers also can also go to.

 

In the first example above, the back pool was not reserved for the group.

 

In the second example the events were also not reserved for the group, just well attended by their members.

 

You do not have to be on a cruise with a large group to find that a number of other passengers have chosen to go to the same venue/event that you want to go to.