Reservations Canceled due to a charter

[sweet angel]

I cancelled a cruise a few years ago because it was one that a bunch of Harley owners were going on...not because of the Harleys, but because I didn't want to be on a ship that was going to have "special" activities for a large group of cruisers.

 

I'm curious because my November cruise seems to have sold out of all of a certain class of cabins already and the prices have gone way up.

[iheartbda]

The only time this has happened to us was after Hurricane Katrina & Carnival was chartered to house evacuee's. We only had 1 or 2 days notice!! Talk about disappointing! They refunded our money but that was the extent of it.

 

I'm sure you were diasppointed but what else did you want them to do? It wasn't like you lost your home.

[Sundagger]

Can someone elaborate on this. On another thread a passanger's reservation was canceled due to another group chartering the cruise ship.

 

We are still confused about this practice.

 

The real question is ;can this be done, how often has it been done, and is this an general practice.

 

Cqs

 

Here is the thread to the HAL cancellation that I mentioned.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=697730

 

No, it doesn't happen often, and it happens on all cruise lines. But the adjustments each person has to make can be considerable. Since charters are so lovingly courted by the lines, it could happen to anyone.

[klct39lg]

Say a very large group is sailing on your cruise...how will it impact the cruise for non group cruisers?

[PhoenixCruiser]

Say a very large group is sailing on your cruise...how will it impact the cruise for non group cruisers?

 

They will close off areas (lounges, restaurants, etc) for the entire cruise, hold special events for members only, sometimes they will close off the dining room for a certain seating.

 

We traveled with a large, very loud and RUDE, group about 10 years ago, don't want to do that again :mad:

 

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[klct39lg]

They will close off areas (lounges, restaurants, etc) for the entire cruise, hold special events for members only, sometimes they will close off the dining room for a certain seating.

 

We traveled with a large, very loud and RUDE, group about 10 years ago, don't want to do that again :mad:

 

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Would non group cruisers be unable to use the pools or see shows?

[wrp96]

Would non group cruisers be unable to use the pools or see shows?

 

 

I know that with some very large groups in the past, they have closed off some pools for them (but not all the pools) and had shows in the main theater just for that group.

[MIZZ_K]

This just happened to me, I had booked The Facination for 6/30/08 for myself and my 11 year old grandaughter( her 1st cruise) a couple of weeks ago I come home from work and there is a message from Carnival saying my cruise was cancelled due to a charter ( bummer ) since I had promised my grandaughter that I would take her on a cruise I had to find another one for the same date since my vacation weeks are booked by the end of November and I could not change the date, so now we are going to Nassau, Half Moon Cay and Grand Turk, it's fine with me but it was just a pain in the you know what

[bluesea777]

Yes, it can and it has been done. There is generally at least a year's notice, but not always. We plan some our cruises carefully after researching for weeks, so it would be a major disappointment if it ever happened to us.

 

Fortunately, it is not something that happens frequently. I'll add that if the ship is dedicated to one particular group, so much so that they have enough people to charter the whole thing, you really don't want to be on that particular cruise. I've cruised with a group that took up perhaps 25% of the ship and had we known in advance, we would have changed sailings. I don't care what the group is, either, it can be anything from Amway to Motorcycles or beyond. Our particular group was a religious group, they were nice, but took over many of the public spaces and was closed to the general population.

 

But were the casino and bars empty? :rolleyes:

[bluesea777]

Rosie O'Donnell displaced an entire ship at the last minute (about 5 months, IIRC). http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=9&num=11726

 

I remember this very well. Rosie wanted the ship to go to Bermuda but after protests from the Bermudians, her request was denied! :eek: :D

[okgirl]

cruise_lover, I don't think anyone objects to large groups cruising; at least, I certainly don't. In fact, it sounds like a blast! (Can I join you? :p )

 

But it's another story if you've had a cruise booked for months, paid for it, gotten non-refundable airline tickets, made arrangements to take off work, lined up the cat-sitter, etc etc etc.... and THEN you're bumped because some spoiled celebrity can't be bothered to plan ahead the way the rest of us have to. Rosie and Oprah can have the whole darn fleet if they want it, I don't care -- as long as they go through the normal reservation process to get it. But they should not be allowed to disrupt the plans of thousands of hard-working folks who've done it the way they're supposed to. (I know... I also hope for world peace... a girl can dream!)

 

There was a large group 400 or so on my Med cruise, and while I think it's great to have some of the perks of pricing. I think that the cruise line shouldn't let large groups take over lounges or the casino or anyplace else.

 

On several evenings on the Freedom, various bars were closed for these "private" parties. I paid (more than they did), to have full access to the ship and I don't think it's fare to the other paying customers (who are actually the majority) to be restricted.

 

I just found out that there is going to be a large group on my next Glory cruise and if I could cancel now I would but I've already got restricted air and all that other stuff.

[KAWS]

I just found out that there is going to be a large group on my next Glory cruise and if I could cancel now I would but I've already got restricted air and all that other stuff.

 

How do you find out if there is a large group on your sailing? Googling doesn't work so how did you find out?

[greatam]

and while I think it's great to have some of the perks of pricing. I think that the cruise line shouldn't let large groups take over lounges or the casino or anyplace else.

 

I paid (more than they did), to have full access to the ship and I don't think it's fare to the other paying customers (who are actually the majority) to be restricted.

 

 

While you may have paid more than they did, as a general rule, the "themed" group cruises cost a whole heck of a lot more. Our friends have done a couple of the Harley cruises and we did a short doo wop cruise out of LA in 2005. I could have booked a suite for what I paid for a balcony. And our friends DID book a suite-at over 2 times the price of a normal cruise. Someone has to pay for the entertainment, speakers, etc.

[RoofingPrincess]

You can google "groups on cruises" but don't hope for too much.

Or, instead of googling the phrase "groups on cruises" try googling various combinations using the name of the ship and the date you're sailing. You might find nothing other than travel agency sites, but sometimes you hit paydirt. I remember finding out for one of my cruises that the week before ours had a gathering of undertakers!

[okgirl]

How do you find out if there is a large group on your sailing? Googling doesn't work so how did you find out?

 

I've never had any luck searching for these things either. I just lucked out since this cruise is so far out someone was starting the roll call and one of the next people that joined the roll call was from the orlando area and knew that Monster Radio was running a group tour promotion on air.

 

I logged into their website because I wanted to see what kind of station it was and the OP had said that this group was very wild and had run the ship out of beer on their last cruise. They are also into everything including lots of nudity and just general vulgar public behavior. The website I veiwed looks like it should be for somekind of swingers club, lots of cleverly disguised nudes, Babe of the Day, Thong of the Day....

 

Great!!!!!!!:( And here I am middle aged, fat and tired and well past my party years (but I used to be really good at it:p ;) ) I was and still am looking forward to my 1st B2B but this just kind of bumms me out.

 

I read a thread some months ago about a large group like this taking over a ship, getting in fights with each other and security, breaking things, driving the bartenders off in tears and it got totally out of control.

 

I don't think that Carnival or any other cruise line should put the wants of a special group over that of the majority of people on the ship, and particularly not allow groups to close a venue that would otherwise be available to all passengers.

 

Having said that Carnival is arranging a special venue for my Conquest 2/24 Roll Call group. There are about 25 of us participating. I don't know where they are going to put us, but there are plenty of lounges that aren't "open" during the day and I assume we will be in one of those.

[caviargal]

OK, being bumped by Katrina I can understand... not saying I'd like it, but I could understand. But being bumped just because some egomaniacal millionaire decides she wants a little vaca with 3000 of her closest friends???? Give me a break.

 

The cruise lines LOVE charters as they should, it is big money and all cabins are paid for as well as gratuities, drinks, etc. Great business and they market aggressively to that sector.

 

It is a fact of life that you can get bumped. I personally would prefer that to mechnical issues that ground ships with no notice and leave people hanging. That has happened to me and I would have loved to have had the benefit of notice that a charter bump provides.

[pokyd]

This happened to me a couple of years ago on RCCL. Our group (about 80) was bumped from a cruise because of a chartering about six months before the sailing. What ended up happening was they moved our whole group to another RCCL ship departing from the same port, same dates, but sailing another itinerary. So we went Western Caribbean instead of Eastern Caribbean which ticked me and others off mightily. My spouse only agreed to go on the trip because he was interested in the original itinerary and then we got stuck with another.

 

Our choice was to get our money back but then we would have missed the group cruise!

 

And you're right, if you've booked plane flights yourself, you couldn't change them without a penalty.

 

So we ended up with the group on the other itinerary and had a great time but did not really get off the ship. I don't think there's much you can do about it. The cruise lines go for the big bucks total-ship charters bring in and are willing to risk the ire of their regular customers. It will only change if we start voting with our wallets.