Anyone Been To A Shared Group Cocktail Party?

[jdhw]

We have a small group going on the Sensation on May 20 and we are having a shared group cocktail party. Can anyone tell us what to expect? It is an open bar for an hour will you have to stand in line to get a drink? Will they have only a few choices or anything you want? Thanks for your help.

Joe

JDHW

[LHP]

No personal experience, but I have read of some groups that issued "drink coupons" to be used during this time. Just a thought...

[Glama]

We've been to many of these. You'll walk in, they'll be serving drinks on trays (yellow birds, beer, wine), but you should know that you can order ANY drink you want from the bar.... anything!!!

 

No lines usually, just waiting around the bar to be served, like usual. Most of the other people there will just take the drinks off the trays, not realizing they can order anything. Several people order a couple at a time, so they don't have to wait again.

 

We usually tip the bartenders afterward, $5 each. :)

[GoinCruisin]

Have been to several shared cocktail parties... sometimes it is easy to get a drink, sometimes not. We usually have a large group, and a large group of drinkers, so sometimes it is difficult. They walk around with a tray of I believe 5 different drinks (same ones as the captains party and past guest party), but you can order just about anything you want... I always order a tray of them so I don'thave to wait, LOL... we also tip extra. If you take the ones from the trays, you have a much better chance of getting drinks timely...

[Glama]

LOL, or you can take one (or two) from the trays while you are waiting in line at the bar for your "real" drink. :D

 

We consider these cocktail parties a great perk of booking into a group, we love them, they are tons of fun, and a great way to get everyone in the group together for a last hee-ha before it's time to go home. :( For this reason, we request ours to be held on the last sea day, if possible. Carnival usually accomodates us, but a few times we've had to go when they said, which was fine too.

[serene56]

I have done two shared group parties and they were the best. Last one we were supposed tohave 48 people inmy group alone.

there was only 6 people that showed up total.

The party before that was supposed to be shared by 5 groups-- and only our grop showed up on the Liberty Maybe 10 of us.

 

Waiters walk around and took our orders for the whole hour. About 15 mintues before our hour was over the waiter said the BAR is closing so order correctly...lol people ordered two more drinks and we sat there for another hour.

 

We tipped accordingly

[cruiseco]

I've been out of this for a couple of years so any current TAs might correct me.

 

Shared cocktail parties come in several forms:

 

Open bar with hot and cold hors d'oeuvres

Open bar with snacks (pretzels and those little goldfish things)

Theme party with hot and cold hors d'oeuvres

Theme party with snacks

 

If you've set up a theme party your costs are less and your drink choices will be limited to whatever the "theme" drink is -- rum swizzles or soft drinks, margaritas if you're sailing to Mexico, etc.

[kristikae]

I think you're referring to the cocktail parties that you can pay for. When you're paying for them, you can have pretty much whatever you want.

 

When you have a group one of the ammenity choices is a cocktail party...shared or private.

 

The shared party uses one ammenity point and is open bar for an hour.

The private one uses 2 points and requires a minimum of 50 people in your group and is open bar for an hour.

 

Neither one includes any hot snacks and it seems that the cold snacks are pretty random. We've had them at some and not had them at others.

[serene56]

my cold snacks consisted of Pepperidge farm fish crackers..nothing else.

No chips, no pretzels..and i dont think any one ate any.

[mc'smom]

I hosted a private party on the Valor in Jan. for my group of 28, it was a private party at a cost of $11.45 per person, ( gratuity Incl ) open bar, no limits, one server, and dry snacks such as pretzel mix and chips....

[Barkingowl]

I've been to a couple of them. Its generally no problem getting drinks if someone is willing to wait at the bar for them. I've come to prefer having the group party in our cabin...

[cathyz]

Our group of 33 had a shared group party with one other smaller group in the Piano Bar on the Pride (the piano part was closed at the time, we were just using the room and bar, but each group sat in different areas). It was held on the 2nd sea day - Tuesday. There were 2 waitresses and a bartender and there was no problem getting a drink off their trays or ordering anything you wanted form them or the bartender. We had potato chips for snacks.

[773 Miles Away]

I went to one for a wedding group. There were 4 other groups sharing the party as well. It was hosted in the dance club. They walked around with trays of fruity drinks - mostly alcholic mixes but some were virgin.

 

I didn't even realize I could get drinks at the bar though! Oh well I had plenty fun without.

 

The party also had cups of snacks... gold fish, pretzels, and tortilla chips.

 

I thought it was fun but that's because my group was the only lively ones dancing on the dance floor and requesting songs from the DJ. Every other group just sat in their chairs on the side and drank. Oh well.

[jdhw]

thanks for the help folks.