Cruising with friends or NOT?

[searoses]

Griffy....are you impersonating me???....could have written that about my family when I went kicking and screaming to alaska with 18 family nrmbers....it was the only thing on my mother's bucket list so I finally caved....we had a great time....her only expectation was we meet for dinner....after a couple of nights she wanted to eat in the buffet so she could smoke like a chimney while she ate outside....we could be our loud,annoying selves without bothering anyone .....we live in a small resort town and have been asked to leave a restaurant or 2....it's complicated and messy but what family isn't in some way.... .the best part was getting an aft balcony cabin while being on the waiting list....I was so sure i wasn't going and ....poof....had no more excuses....my siblings were very jealous as they only had side balconies !!....I loved the scenery,the little towns and the 180 degree view from that aft cabin....some of my family continue to cruise regularly and always get afts since that cruise....glad i?went....glad I didn't have to do it again!..... my mom went to that giant casino in the sky the next year...

[sprint180]

Have cruised both ways. When we go with friends we do our own thing during the day and meet up for supper. It is nice to have someone to talk to about the exciting things we did that day. But love going with just me and the kids.

[hubofhockey]

There is no need to have every meal or do every shore excursion with friends. If everyone agrees to that from the outset, it works. The worst thing to do is to have people with different expectations. That leads to conflict. Our next cruise (next summer) will be the first in six years where we haven't taken the kids or cruised with friends. It's also on a new line (Azamara) for us. I'm looking forward to it.

[PEB]

We have cruised with friends but generally cruise on our own. When with friends it is understood that we do what we want and if that is together fine if not fine.

 

The fact is we get on alone and come off having made more friends.

[gymbomb]

We are happy either way. It is fun to cruise with friends/family, but only if you and they share the same idea of what you will do on the cruise!! For us this doesn't mean we have to want to do all the same things, but rather that we agree it's ok not to :) we usually plan to do some (but not all) shore excursions together and some (but not all) dinners together. Then if we happen to run into each other and want to catch lunch or a show or play cards or something then that is great too, but we are also ok going whole days without doing much other than saying hi if we bump into each other.

 

 

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[wwcruisers]

Over the years, we have cruised with various friends and family members -- including taking some co-workers on their very first cruise. Things have always worked well for us, due (in part) to our firm "Not joined at the hip" rule. We always arrange to dine together -- and, if we're in traditional seating, we get a table just for our group. We all go our own way, then we meet up at dinner to share our adventures. And, yes, sometimes we will book a shore excursion together, or meet onboard for a sea-day activity. But, everyone gets to enjoy their own cruise, and we don't waste time "milling around", trying to decide what to do -- or, getting on each others' nerves. :cool:

[calliopecruiser]

Just curious....

 

Do most cruisers prefer cruising with friends or just with their significant other?

 

If with friends, how do you handle the logistics of planning/meeting/canceling times for excursions, dinner, etc.?

 

Or the other option - cruising solo.

[MKJ87]

Our first cruise we went with two other couples and it worked out fine. But we set the ground rules before we left that it was not necessary to spend all of our time together. Anyone should feel free, without the chance of offending anyone else in the group, to do whatever they wanted with or without the group. We did a few excursions together, but some days we did our own thing. Some nights we ate dinner together, some nights it was just the two of us. It can be fun cruising with other friends, but I think you have to set it up before you ever leave we will not be spending ALL our time together.:)

[LOVINCRUIZIN]

We also cruise both ways. The largest was about 20 people. We all did our own thing in much smaller groups. It was nice to eat dinner together and learn about each others' day, but we didn;t let it consume us in terms of trying to please anyone except ourselves.

 

On the other extreme, I would cruise alone. I have not had to yet, but would not hesitate in doing so.

[cruznjan]

Just curious....

 

Do most cruisers prefer cruising with friends or just with their significant other?

 

If with friends, how do you handle the logistics of planning/meeting/canceling times for excursions, dinner, etc.?

 

I love cruising with friends. My husband isn't a night person, so it's good to people to hang out with. Dinner is no problem since we all sit at the same table. We just let each other know if we'll be eating elsewhere. We don't all go on the same excursions, so we usually agree to meet somewhere on the ship if we want to get together. We Enjoy each other's company, but we're not joined at the hip.

[bean24]

We've done both. Just ourselves and also with family up to a group of 14. Not joined at the hip. Next cruise will be my family and my brothers family. We really enjoy it

[ducklite]

We have cruised with just us and with friends. We don't have a preference, but have learned to keep sailing with others a casual thing where sometimes you end up on the same shore excursions and sometimes you don't, sometimes you have dinner together, sometimes you don't. To try to schedule every meal and every minute with someone else... I don't do that with my husband, certainly not doing it with others.

[Sue Do-Over]

There's probably a magic number. We're usually a group of 4, DH and me, plus some combination of mom, daughter, aunt and sister.

 

4 people are easy -- you fit in one cab, at one table, and are enough for a trivia team. 6 people was just a bit more complicated, but still manageable (some days we split 2/4 or 3/3 for excursions, depending on interest and physical limitations).

 

But, by the time you get to 8, it seems like you're always waiting for someone. Or they don't like <insert food category> or they can't <insert physical ability>.

 

I'm a natural organizer, and with a larger group I feel like I need to offer a set of options to the rest, and then try to find concensus... which is exhausting.

 

On a 14 day in Europe, we booked excursions for 8 and 'sold' the extra 4 seats to other passengers on our roll call. We were clear with the plan -- no shopping, no wineries, be on time. Anyone late for the appointed meeting time had to put $5 in the kitty, which went toward tips for the driver. It was a joke all week -- but kept the one SIL from holding up the day in her typical fashion.

[RICKnVICK]

We have cruised with friends and family and never have had any issues. I am usually the one that looks at a cruise that I think will be fun and then I put the word out. Whoever wants to come, does and there is no pressure or reminding...we are all adults. About the only thing we do together is eat dinner. It's a great way to catch up about the day we have all had. We have lounge lizards, casino people, people that like to sleep in and order room service, people that like to participate in everything on the ship and then some that like to do the occasional group thing. It works out well for all involved. When we are discussing ports of call, my husband and I let everyone know what we are doing and what time we are leaving. If anyone wants to join, they are welcome, but we do NOT wait around for late comers.....you snooze, you lose :D My husband and I have also cruised with just us, and we like that too!

 

Vicki

[SuiteTraveler]

We went on a cruise with my husband's parents and his youngest brother. We only met up for dinner or if we ran across each other on the ship from time to time. The rest of the time, they enjoyed the buffet twice a day and went to stuff we're not interested in (art auction and various raffles.) They are from a small town in Australia and don't like ordering off a menu, so they actually preferred the buffet and would have eaten all of their meals there given the chance. I kind of felt bad that they felt they had to eat with us at dinner in the MDR. They started out on the cruise making their own beds and I explained to them that they were taking their steward's job and it was not the right thing to do - my FIL was in a labor union for his entire career, so he understands that concept and I believe they stopped making their beds. We explained tipping to them, but didn't helicopter them. I'm not sure what kind of tips they gave but hopefully they followed our recommendation. I don't know. But it was a successful cruise in that everyone had a good time. My MIL won a Majorca pearl necklace with a raffle ticket she found on the ground and was thrilled. I know they really enjoyed the shore excursions and especially seeing snow, ice and glaciers for the first and only time in their lives. (Alaska Cruise.) All in all it was a very successful experience.

 

I would think going with a smaller group as opposed to a larger group would be better and if we ever cruise with them again, I'm going to tell them they can join us in the MDR if they like or eat in the buffet and we won't mind what they do either way.

[Azure Moon]

Hubby and I have cruised with family (different make up of family members on many cruises), a mix of family & their friends, with one other couple (our friends), and just the two of us.

 

We've enjoyed all of the cruises.

 

The key thing that's made all of the cruises work was knowing up front that we were not going to be connected at the hip.

 

If everyone wants to do something different - that's what we do. If some want to do the same thing and others want to go off and do something else - then they go do those different things. And if somebody didn't want to do either of those, then they'd go off by themselves or be joined by anyone left that wanted to do the third option. And anyone that didn't want to do any of those 3 found something else - whether it was taking a nap, taking a swim in the pool, lounging on a deck reading a book, or taking part in a shipboard activity, or whatever.

 

Sometimes we'd make arrangements to meet for breakfast or lunch or supper. Sometimes we'd just run into each other in the buffet. Sometimes we'd make arrangements to go to shows or entertainment together, and those that still wanted to do them when the time came would show up.

 

Just going with the flow, knowing up front that we could join together or do our own thing, kept us from feeling like we weren't in control of our vacation.

[rabbit72]

We have cruised several times with friends and we just say we don't have to do everything together....we usually eat in the buffett for breakfast so we will pick an area and that will be our meeting point. On port days we're usually all up and going at the same time so thats no problem. Also by the pools we tend to pick a meeting area or we try to be in the same vicinity. On a few cruises our cabins were near each other if not next to each other so it was easy. When we are next door to each other we have a little rule...if our balcony curtains are closed we aren't up yet so we know we can just go without each other. But in the long run its your vacation so you do what you want.

[OCruisers]

While we don't like to cruise with friends or family from home, we do very much enjoy cruising with "cruise pals" from previous cruises. :)

 

LuLu

[Tiggertastic]

We do a mixture of ones on our own and with friends and the level of contact differs depending who they are

 

With 2 sets we arranged 1 meal together and if we happened to book the same trip then great, otherwise we worked on the basis of bumping into each other for drinks etc

 

With another family we dine together each evening

 

When we're on our own we work to nobody else's schedule

 

All our cruise friends we met on previous cruises and don't get to see them any other time so this is our catch up time

Edited April 21, 2015 by Tiggertastic

[bus man]

We did a "group" cruise once. It was my family (2 adults, 2 kids) and one other (2 adults, 1 kid). We knew going into it that we wanted to do the shore excursions together, so we got together before the cruise and decided which ones we would all enjoy. We also chose to eat all dinners together, except for each of us trading off our kid(s) to the other set of parents for one night, so that each couple could have a date night sans kids. Other than that, we'd do our own things, though we did tend to bump into each other for many of the breakfasts and lunches.

 

It worked out fine and we all had a good time. Yes, I would do it again -- with the right people.

[geoherb]

A friend of ours joined us on one cruise. We thought it might be awkward at first, but she was very independent. We basically did our own thing except for dinner every night.

[simplelife]

Most of our cruises have just been DH and I. We have cruised with family once (siblings & spouses and our parents) and with another couple twice (different couple each time). All have been enjoyable - I think due to the fact that we had discussed ahead how much "together" and "Separate" time we wanted. In all cases we knew each other well, had spent much time together and knew each other's temperaments and habits.

In the case of the family cruise (which was for my parents' 50th anniversary). I am so grateful we did it when we did, as my dad passed away 6 weeks later.

[trish1c]

We usually pick a bar for happy hour where we'll be & everyone breezes through there just as a check in: Are you having fun? Are you safe? Nice to see you but we never try to force all sorts of people into a group thing. It doesn't work.

 

Next cruise will be a big group thing. The organizers are linking the reservations together for traditional dining but that's as far as the "group" will be shackled together.

[Navymom2x]

We love to go by ourselves. Helps us connect again.. There is nothing better than to go on a cruise with your kids and grandkids. So many memories of when we cruised with the kids and now we get to do it with the grandkids. Seeing my grandson's face when he saw that towel alligator on the floor and the cowboy in our bed next door was priceless. Our room attendants were wonderful. Oh and this was just in ocean view cabins nothing extravagant. Then we also do cruises with our friends that love to go to other countries and do port heavy tours. We are going to Istanbul and the Geek Islands. We are meeting ahead of time, sipping wine and hor doreves and planning our trip. The anticipation and planning are a lot of it. Makes it seem like our vacation lasts a lot longer. We do different slot of things on our own while on the ship as we both have different interests. Trivia vs a massage!