large groups on a cruise?

[caber]

I have been reading about a Royal Caribbean cruise on which 2500 out of the 3600 were made up of a biker convention.

I was wondering if this would happen on Princess and if so, do you get prior warning?

I am not saying all bikers are wild but this sounded horrendous.

The passengers quoted in the article eventually got full cruise credit from Royal Caribbean.

[caribill]

It is possible on any cruise line to get a large group which has booked a high number of cabins. Usually, the cruise lines will not let you know when you book that such a group is on your cruise.

[Mikey22]

I have been reading about a Royal Caribbean cruise on which 2500 out of the 3600 were made up of a biker convention.

I was wondering if this would happen on Princess and if so, do you get prior warning?

I am not saying all bikers are wild but this sounded horrendous.

The passengers quoted in the article eventually got full cruise credit from Royal Caribbean.

 

Any large groups on a Cruise or not what we like.

Whether its a Cruise Club that think they own the Ship and try and take over every Bar or area they are at on the ship or a several hundred travel Agents that have Ships facilities closed for their own seminars etc.

 

 

Large groups are best avoided in my opinion.

[Shogun]

Hi Caber,

 

What you been up to, had a good Christmas,

 

have sailed we a number of large groups but only into the hundreds,

 

apart from one cruise we were on, on one sailing due to the high number

 

of non English speakers, everything was broadcast in Spanish as well as

 

English, same with menus, the issue was there was knowone to chat too,

 

even at a bar it was hard to find some one speaking english.

 

yours Shogun

[catsforkids]

I was on a BTB Caribbean in Nov. The first voyage we had an Adventure Bear group (300 or so) which did not impact my cruise experience in any way.

 

The second voyage we had an Expedia group (800, I think) and Princess gave them their own dining room in the evening. That did impact my experience as the service in DaVinci was defintiely v-e-r-y slow and the Waiter we had was very nice but he had way too many tables to wait and no Junior Waiter that I saw. He was pouring our water and getting our drinks. It was evident they had pulled help from the DR for the group.

[funinthesun86]

Is there a website to check to see the schedule of group cruises?

[Shogun]

Hi funinthesun86

 

Best place for info is here, no real site for info, always best to ask for TA when booking any cruise if they have heard of large groups,

 

however the cruises I have been on with large groups we did not know before hand,

 

 

we were once on at art cruise thre was about 6 artists onboard painting away extra talks shows about art, but did not get informed when we booked,

 

as it was did not cause us any issues,

 

yours Shogun

[paul929207]

Is there a website to check to see the schedule of group cruises?

You can also try googling the ship and sail date. You may find info on a group joining you.

[caber]

 

 

the issue was there was knowone to chat too,

 

even at a bar it was hard to find some one speaking english.

 

yours Shogun

 

Or Scottish!:D

 

We once had a well known English boxer and his entourage onboard. They sat round the pool drinking and taking over. Luckily there were not too many of them to spoil things.

[dot73]

I always cruise for 10 days or more and have never encountered a large group. I thought it was safe to assume that most groups just do 7-day cruises. I booked a 14-day HAL cruise for January aI assumed that there would be no large groups. I was shocked to find out that a large dixieland group had booked this cruise. Just before final payment I decided to switch to the Emerald Princess. I don't like the idea of being barred from public areas on a ship because a group is using it. It takes a bit of sleuthing on the internet to find out if there is a group on your cruise and pretty well impossible to find out how big a group is. I think a cruiseline should disclose to all passengers before final payment if there is a large group on board.

[highheel girl]

The Bear goup on our Crown cruise was 800+.

[dcruisers]

I always cruise for 10 days or more and have never encountered a large group. I thought it was safe to assume that most groups just do 7-day cruises. I booked a 14-day HAL cruise for January aI assumed that there would be no large groups. I was shocked to find out that a large dixieland group had booked this cruise. Just before final payment I decided to switch to the Emerald Princess. I don't like the idea of being barred from public areas on a ship because a group is using it. It takes a bit of sleuthing on the internet to find out if there is a group on your cruise and pretty well impossible to find out how big a group is. I think a cruiseline should disclose to all passengers before final payment if there is a large group on board.

 

How did you "dodge the large group bullet"? Did you call Princess or did TA tell you? I, too, feel more confident that we will avoid large groups on longer cruises. I was surprised to read your post that it isn't so!!

Thanks.

[wickedwitchofthewest]

I have been reading about a Royal Caribbean cruise on which 2500 out of the 3600 were made up of a biker convention.

I was wondering if this would happen on Princess and if so, do you get prior warning?

I am not saying all bikers are wild but this sounded horrendous.

The passengers quoted in the article eventually got full cruise credit from Royal Caribbean.

 

And this particular group are sailing on the freedom of the seas in nov 2013! and their tour is fully booked so would guess another trip of 2500 bikers