Large group

[deanswife1990]

I did a little research and couldn't find anything on this. I'm sure it's out there I just couldn't find anything on it. Now for the question.....is there any way to tell if there is a large group booked on the same cruise as us? We ran into this issue on our first cruise and I don't remember it being that big of a deal but some things were closed for private parties, etc. Just wondering if we may run into the same thing this time. Thanks!! :D

[cb at sea]

Really, there are large groups on every cruise...and you probably never knew it! Most groups confine their "group activities" to meeting and conference rooms....that shouldn't affect you at all. I can't imagine what might have been "closed" to you on your last cruise!

If the entire ship is taken over by a group, then it will be chartered, and they'll cancel your reservation.

[Bruin Steve]

I did a little research and couldn't find anything on this. I'm sure it's out there I just couldn't find anything on it. Now for the question.....is there any way to tell if there is a large group booked on the same cruise as us? We ran into this issue on our first cruise and I don't remember it being that big of a deal but some things were closed for private parties, etc. Just wondering if we may run into the same thing this time. Thanks!! :D

 

On another thread, someone posted this link to a site that helps find groups:

 

http://themecruisefinder.com/index.html

 

But, it's certainly not all-encompassing and somewhat difficult to use...

 

I also just google a lot of combinations into Google.com--searches with variations of my ship name and date and key words such as "Gay", "Christian", "Singles", etc. and sometimes links to group cruise come up...

 

...not that there is anything particularly negative about people in any of these groupings...or that it's necessarily a negative to be on a cruise that has groups on it...

 

The major issue most of us look to avoid is where there may be a group so large as to affect the quality of a cruise for others...when a group gets large enough, they tend to dominate certain venues--or even get the cruise line to allow them to reserve some venues for "Private Functions"...

 

If your ship has 3,000 to 5,000 passengers on it, you will hardly notice MOST groups of 50, 100 or 200...If a group gets materially larger than, say, 10-20% of the passengers, it generally starts to infringe on others...

 

And the cruise lines will never tell you if a group is booked...

 

Also note that many "groups" really aren't cohesive groups at all, merely a volume of cabins sold by someone at a group rate...

 

Good luck...

[SciFiCruiser]

Back in the 90s I went on a Carnival cruise as part of a large group of Star Trek fans. I think we were about half of the ship. I don't recall that we caused any problems or were disruptive...but I am sure that there were some stories to be told after it was over.

 

For some reason (which I was not privy to) one gal, whom I did not know, thought it would be acceptable to paint her face blue to resemble one of the alien characters from the show (on one of the formal nights). It is always the extreme ones that give fans of anything a bad rap!

 

But you should be OK. As mentioned, you will probably not be aware of any groups on board.

[ATG]

On one of our cruises there was a large motorcycle group. They were very nice and lots of fun in the bars. But, on one sea day the Solarium was reserved for them - that did not make us happy.

 

On another cruise, the week before had been a large singles group. Some of the staff we talked to were VERY happy to have "regular" people back. They had been amazed what went on in public places!

 

Our next cruise (on Allure in October) has a large (800) group of travel agents. I somehow don't think they will be noticed.

[deanswife1990]

On one of our cruises there was a large motorcycle group. They were very nice and lots of fun in the bars. But, on one sea day the Solarium was reserved for them - that did not make us happy.quote]

 

I'm looking forward to using the Solarium so that would not make me very happy. LOL :eek:

[cruisegirl1]

We’ve been on a few curses with fairly large groups. (100-300 attendees). A few times, but never more for an hour or so during a particular day or cruise, most of the Schooner bar was “closed” for private functions. You could still walk through, to get to another area of the ship. Other functions seem to be held in an empty theater or a portion of the Viking Crown lounge. Some ships have dedicated conference areas - really out of the way so perhaps functions are held there too. We’ve seen a specialty restaurant used for a particular evening.

 

I’ve never seen the pool or solarium closed for any private group during a time (say daytime) when these areas would be used by the majority of passengers.

 

On embarkation day there was several areas closed as they are used for weddings. No one seems to mind.

 

 

M