Scientific American group--anyone sailed with one on the ship?

[shrimp56]

We have a Scientific American group on two of our upcoming cruise; Iceland and New Zealand. I don't blame then. They're both fabulous itineraries. It would explain why the Iceland one is almost sold out (smaller ship).

 

Just curious if you have ever shared a cruise with this group. They have their own lecturers (who sound fascinating), but any sense of how they impact venues, particularly dining.

 

Thanks

[G&G]

We have a Scientific American group on two of our upcoming cruise; Iceland and New Zealand. I don't blame then. They're both fabulous itineraries. It would explain why the Iceland one is almost sold out (smaller ship).

 

Just curious if you have ever shared a cruise with this group. They have their own lecturers (who sound fascinating), but any sense of how they impact venues, particularly dining.

 

Thanks

 

We sailed with this group on the NW Amsterdam on a 7 day cruise. It was not good.

 

Queens Lounge and Crows Nest was reserved a lot for their special events.

 

It appeared HAL was catering to this group and not the passengers

[shrimp56]

Yippee Skippee! Not. Thanks anyway.

 

At least that leaves Ocean Bar and The Mix.

[jaspersmycat]

I've sailed on ships that had Scientific American groups twice. The experiences were totally different.

 

In October 2011, we did a Black Sea cruise on The Rotterdam. The SA group was large and took over 1/2 of the upper dining room for late dining. They seemed to drift in anytime from 8pm to 8:45pm. I am not sure why but it did impact our dining. Service was the slowest I have ever experience. Many times we had 30 minutes waiting between courses. I noticed our table stewards helping the SA tables to be served all at once. The Crow's Nest was closed off for "private functions" almost every night.

 

In August 2014, I did the 14-day Alaskan cruise on the Amsterdam. The SA group was hardly noticeable. They did take over meeting rooms during sea days but that did not inconvenience me. Service in the dining room was not impacted that I could tell.

 

So I guess my opinion is that it depends on the size of the group.

[shrimp56]

As they say, your experience may vary... Thanks for the feedback. And I certainly will report back my experience.

[Mary Ellen]

We've also done an Alaskan cruise with a Scientific American group on board. Not a problem in the least. We never noticed any areas closed for their use (other than the meeting room). Not to say that didn't have one at some point, but we didn't notice. From our experience, we wouldn't hesitate if they were on board in the future. Now, the NW weavers, spinners, whatever... we'd rather not sail with them again. ;). They had part of the Crow's Nest partitioned off (floor to ceiling) the entire cruise. We were told they had their spinning wheels set up in there.

[madera1]

We had a SA group on our South America cruise and really never noticed them.

 

 

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[POA1]

I'm sure you'll have a great cruise. They're nice people. On the odd chance it should come up - Schrödinger's cat will go to the bowl of kippered herrings 95.5% of the time.

Edited January 17, 2015 by POA1

[shrimp56]

I'm sure you'll have a great cruise. They're nice people. On the odd chance it should come up - Schrödinger's cat will go to the bowl of kippered herrings 95.5% of the time.

 

I'm sure I will. I always do:) I'll just impress them with my understanding of "Gödel, Escher, Bach."

Edited January 17, 2015 by shrimp56

[G&G]

Yippee Skippee! Not. Thanks anyway.

 

At least that leaves Ocean Bar and The Mix.

 

Great point !

[summersigh]

As jaspersmycat said ... I think it depends on the size of the group. Large groups of people who all know each other take up a lot of space getting together in the public areas. (Don't have anything against that ... just an observation) They are louder because they know each other and have stuff in common to talk about. We experienced this with a dance group aboard an RCCL trip. It became annoying after awhile since it became difficult to find places to relax at the pools or in our favorite lounges in the evening.:(

[take us away]

Have not sailed with the SA group but have sailed with a huge astronomy graduate class. They did take over the late night dancing and a few meeting rooms but the professor let us attend his evening class on the top deck which was awesome as the captain turned off all the lights for this. We were off So America so the stars were different from what we knew. He made a big point about not requiring that we take his exam.... whew.