Need help!!!

[Steelermoose]

I'd like to book a cruise for a large group of people without having to go through a travel agent. Does anyone know how I would need to proceed or if i just need to contact Carnival?

[missypriss19]

You can contact carnival to get the prices. Have the info of how many people going and they will give you prices. Be sure to check the regular prices also because sometimes they are cheaper

[B and C Blake]

I'd like to book a cruise for a large group of people without having to go through a travel agent. Does anyone know how I would need to proceed or if i just need to contact Carnival?

 

http://www.carnival.com/grouprequest.aspx?icid=CC_Footer_70

Group Sales Department

[klfrodo]

As a former one time "group leader", save yourself time, hassle, and headache.

Let a TA do this.

 

Or,,, second option,,

pick the cruise you want,,, then tell your friends, family, or whomever,,,

this is the cruiseline, this is the ship, these are the sailing dates,,, if you want to join us, please do so. Here's my booking number,, make sure you "link" your booking number with mine so we can all sit together at dinner.

[Almost Packed]

as a former one time "group leader", save yourself time, hassle, and headache.

Let a ta do this.

 

Or,,, second option,,

pick the cruise you want,,, then tell your friends, family, or whomever,,,

this is the cruiseline, this is the ship, these are the sailing dates,,, if you want to join us, please do so. Here's my booking number,, make sure you "link" your booking number with mine so we can all sit together at dinner.

 

 

ditto!

[golfadj]

If you want to do it you have the info but I would think long and hard about being group leader and if it is worth the potential trouble.

[pe4all]

I agree with everyone - being a group leader is sometimes stressful. I had a hard enough time coordinating flights, hotel rooms, cabins, activities for 3 families (12 altogether). Can't imagine doing it for a "large" group!

[semichigan]

Or,,, second option,,

pick the cruise you want,,, then tell your friends, family, or whomever,,,

this is the cruiseline, this is the ship, these are the sailing dates,,, if you want to join us, please do so. Here's my booking number,, make sure you "link" your booking number with mine so we can all sit together at dinner.

 

 

This is what we always do. Then when we find out who is going, we give them our flight and hotel info, etc. so we usually stay at the same place the night before and have dinner together. Enjoy! I love cruising with a large group!

[Irishlinny]

You can arrange a Group Cruise directly through Carnival. The advantages are that you will get perks (they give you a number of points to use to buy a perk, such as $100 on board credit per cabin if 5 cabins book). If you get 8 cabins, you can get credit for a full fare. The people going on the cruise can be told to call the Groups dept and book it themselves, so you're not involved.

The down side is that you have to deal with the Groups reps, and that can be a large challenge:eek: The prices won't be as low as ES rates, so if your people are willing to book ES, you may be better off that way. The rates are better than most of the other rates, though. To be honest, I got so fed up with dealing with the groups reps, I vowed to never do it again (if that gives you any indication!:eek:;))

[serene56]

I agree with everyone - being a group leader is sometimes stressful. I had a hard enough time coordinating flights, hotel rooms, cabins, activities for 3 families (12 altogether). Can't imagine doing it for a "large" group!

 

 

you are looking at one huge headache if you take this on yourself.

 

Are you ready to be blamed in case of a problem crops up.

 

Let an agent/PVP handle it. Let each person book their own so no money changes into your hand.

[mrpayroll]

As a former one time "group leader", save yourself time, hassle, and headache.

Let a TA do this.

 

Or,,, second option,,

pick the cruise you want,,, then tell your friends, family, or whomever,,,

this is the cruiseline, this is the ship, these are the sailing dates,,, if you want to join us, please do so. Here's my booking number,, make sure you "link" your booking number with mine so we can all sit together at dinner.

 

We always go with the second option.....Don't need the headache of trying to please all the others.....( this time we have ten going )

[vacruizer]

You can arrange a Group Cruise directly through Carnival. The advantages are that you will get perks (they give you a number of points to use to buy a perk, such as $100 on board credit per cabin if 5 cabins book). If you get 8 cabins, you can get credit for a full fare. The people going on the cruise can be told to call the Groups dept and book it themselves, so you're not involved.

 

The down side is that you have to deal with the Groups reps, and that can be a large challenge:eek: The prices won't be as low as ES rates, so if your people are willing to book ES, you may be better off that way. The rates are better than most of the other rates, though. To be honest, I got so fed up with dealing with the groups reps, I vowed to never do it again (if that gives you any indication!:eek:;))

 

I said the same thing! Not a great experience dealing with the group reps. On top of that the 12 cabins of people who swore they were going on the cruise suddenly became 3 cabins once I set everything up and had 30 days to get everyone under deposit. When it came time to ante up some money the interest dwindled greatly. So we lost out on the perks since we no longer qualified to be a group. Early saver rates were cheaper so I switched. My mother almost decided not to go after dealing with booking through the group rep who was rude, pushy, and often didn't return calls when asked to. It was her first Carnival experience after Celebrity and Princess - thankfully she loved the cruise itself!

 

Our next cruise is with a small group. We picked a ship and date and said "book it however you like" to anyone we wanted to invite. No official group. But if you do go the group route, use an experienced group TA to deal with the headaches.

[Kryssa]

We always book through a large, online travel agency that matches the ES price and gives us a nice OBC. Then we tell family & friends the name of our personal agent, our booking number, and my loyalty club number through the agency and they link the bookings together.

 

A bonus is that everyone new to my agency gets a bonus $25 OBC per cabin and I get $25 for each cabin I refer :D

[kicia]

I just returned from a group of 10 cabins that I (as a TA) booked but you can do the same thing with the groups department. We booked the ES group rate and that was $12 per person more than the ES individual rate. This was for a 3 day cruise. For that $12 we got 4 amenity points which we used for a bottle of wine per cabin, a tote bag per person, and a one hour cocktail party. With 8 or more cabins you get the cost of one free berth rebated to spend how you choose. This is the cruise cost only and not the miscellaneous charges.

 

Since this was under ES everyone got price drops mostly in the couple of weeks prior to sailing. We chose to have everyone pay the $100 deposit per person (remember it's a 3 day cruise) so everyone could pick their cabin. You can just pay a $25 per person deposit but cabins cannot be assigned until you pay the $100 per person. There is a chart of when payments must be made. You can book cabins that are not in your original allotment and you just have to call the groups department to do this.

 

You can have the groups department take care of everything for you and I think it is worth it to do it as a group.