Should Carnival notify you if your ship has been chartered?

[Richjoxyz]

I can't imagine a bunch of pasty goth people to be using the pool area :D so you might get a much coveted lounger by the pool.

 

LOL You're right come to think of it! Most will be sleeping in their coffins all day! Too funny! Just wear garlic around your neck at night and you'll be fine.

[bobsfamily]

Can you tell me what keywords you used to google the groups that are on your cruise, please? I've tried with no luck. Thanks very much.

This site can help sometimes:

http://themecruisefinder.com/index.html

 

The best bet when using Uncle Google is to be simple such as...

 

Carnival Glory Nov. 1st cruise groups (not that there is a cruise that date).

 

or - Groups on Carnival Glory in Nov.

 

Have a wonderful Cruise!

[sanmarcosman]

You put in ship name, sailing date and see what comes up.

 

IF nothing but travel offers and cruise critic come up, then there no big group with outside bookings on that sailing. There still might be a group booked but they aren't opening it to the specific public there group represents.

 

For example if you put Norwegian Getaway October 23 into the search engine you'll get the normal NCL website, Cruise Critic and then scrolling down a little bit more you can see there is a jazz cruise planned for that sailing. (I only show this as an example as I knew about the group cruise I realize this is the Carnival board).

Thank you very much for this detailed and helpful information. Much obliged to you!

[buddylover]

I have never found a Carnival cruise to be quiet and relaxing. It is always LOUD, music, people etc. Someone please tell me where I can find one of these quiet relaxing Carnival cruises so I can book it for next time. Thanks!

 

There are plenty of relaxing, calmer CCL cruises Pusywillow. Just depends when you book and it looks like you cruise during March which is the height of Spring Break.....lots of kids and action. Choose your cruising time to a lesser family/kid oriented time frame and you will be surprised at the difference in atmosphere!! .....and that applies to ALL cruise lines, not just CCCL!!

Edited September 7, 2015 by buddylover

[ksy8384]

Nothing against true goths but I hope for your sake it is more Steampunk as was mentioned. We stayed on the Queen Mary in Long Beach before our Hawaii cruise. We coincided with a large Steampunk convention at the same time. The clothes were gorgeous and quite fascinating. I wanted some of them to be honest. I'm sure they are more afraid of you than you are of them. lol Go and have fun. That is what they will do.

[bluemoon12]

We are also booked on this cruise in 3 weeks....yes! 3 weeks! But anyway, I am looking forward to seeing their attire and just people watching. It will be me and my two daughters (21 and 26 year olds). My 26 year old was considered goth when she was in high school and looking forward to seeing their dress. Of course, she is wayyyy conservative now. Look for us, I will be the 5'4" Mom with the two almost 6' daughters. Probably with a drink in our hands also having a great vacation!

[Retired_to_Cruise]

LOL You're right come to think of it! Most will be sleeping in their coffins all day! Too funny! Just wear garlic around your neck at night and you'll be fine.

 

Sorry to disabuse you, but I do not think that Goths and Vampires are the same thing.

[CCLCruiser4321]

I believe they only inform if it's enough people or if it changes the general entertainment but I've never experienced this myself

[Richjoxyz]

Sorry to disabuse you, but I do not think that Goths and Vampires are the same thing.

 

If a Goth drinks a Bloody Mary, is he now a Vampire? Kicked out of the Goth Brotherhood? :D

[Bradburyesqu]

I don't think there is any obligation to tell you if a large group books, even if it is themed. I think we all know that we will be on the cruse ship with all manor of people and there is no controlling who is with us.

 

The OP said they were changing the entertainment for this group. I think in that case Carnival certainly should let people know.

[Gardeneroflove]

If Carnival books a large group, should they tell other customers about it before the ship sails?

 

I just found out today that our Sept 27th cruise has a very large contingent of Gothic passengers on board. It seems as though this group does a cruise annually and its members dress in black Gothic attire, and several Goth bands play throughout the cruise. This is beginning to look like this cruise in NOT going to be the quiet, relaxing cruise that I paid good money for. I believe Carnival should have notified all of those that booked this cruise to let us know. If I had known about this group, then I probably would have rescheduled my cruise.

 

What would you do???

hahahaha Carnival is NOT quiet and relaxing, there's your first mistake...and I traveled week before labor day, VERY few kids on board, not sure I saw and middle schoolers or teens. The little one didn't cause any problems, minus the two brats who were pushing at the slides, but I blame parenting for not watching them.

 

otherwise, it was adults who were the issue (in the hallway, I don't care about other areas of the ship, I wasn't there. :D)

[omarchs]

We are also booked on this cruise and didn't even think to goggle the date to see if anything was going on that week. I did look at the website and it did indicate shows in the back lounge in the afternoon and from 1-4am. They also talk about a deck party and that they can be dressed up for dinner.

 

They usually have the comedy club in the back lounge at night so I would expect that they can't have too many late comedy shows since they need to set up for the bands so there will be some impact on our entertainment. Who knows when their deck party would be.

 

This is where I have a problem with no notification when large groups take up public spaces. They have indicated in the past that there were only a few hundred people, but I haven't seen a number indicated this year. Many have mentioned that they were surprised this ship is sold out during this time of year so I think the group is larger than 200. They indicated that they wanted a cheaper cruise to attract more people than previous cruises so I think they will be a larger crowd.

 

We are also in the back of the ship so I would have preferred another location since my days of staying up to 4am are long gone.

 

Carnival can at least notify us that all nights are casual since I am wearing shorts on formal night if Goth attire is acceptable in the dining room. I will just state I am part of the Parrothead group onboard and this is my costume.

[Gail_Cruisefanatic59]

My daughter and I cruised on Glory several years ago and on that cruise a large group of Goth cruisers were present. Yes, they did dress differently but that was about the only thing you will notice. I almost cancelled by cruise when I first found out they would be on the cruise. The people with this group I encountered were very articulate and interesting to be around. They did have some concerts for their group but it did not disrupt the cruise. It did not affect our cruise at all. Keep an open mind and I am sure you will still have a good time! BTW...I had found out the Goth group was going to be on the ship by doing an internet search for special cruise groups.

[Gail_Cruisefanatic59]

When we cruised on same ship as the Goth group one night of the cruise they played the movie "The Rocky Horror Show" in the comedy lounge area and it was open to the public and we had so much fun there!!! If they have this activity again and it is open to the public and you like that movie I would recommend going!

[Maleeni]

Absolutely. I don't even like if there are large groups booked, as they tend to take over sections of the ship, and tend to be rowdy.

 

Last thing I do before booking is google my sail dates and ship just to make sure it's safe, and I can proceed.

[Twintowngirl]

There was a similar thread started a while ago by someone that found out there would be a large number of "swingers" on their ship! One of the travelers had everyone fired up about that particular group. Not sure how the whole thing turned out. I would recommend going on the cruise and I hope you have a great time. You might have some interesting pictures to share when you get home!

 

Happy trails!

 

Deb

[PAPERBKWRITER]

I wound up 3 times with large groups, once over 1k. Sadly, these groups are fun for them BUT they take over everything. I don't know what Carnival can do but I'd prefer to know so I wouldn't book those cruises.

[Buffettlovertina]

I booked a cheap cruise on Carnival I saw advertised through a local travel agency. $1.00 (yes I typed that right) price plus port fees and taxes. ..5 days Well I thought that was a hell of a deal. I booked. About two days before cruise I get a email from travel agency that they just wanted to let us know there was a DIVERSE group on this cruise .I say to myself "what the heck does that mean." so I got to the port and as I am standing there I look around all the way in front of me Guys and guys and guys...All the way behind me Guys and guys and guys. well low and behold Diverse means it was "Rupaul drag race TV show filming on board for the week. As one of the only about five girls on board I got one heck of a education that week. I did have a blast I must say. But I am thankful I had not booked my elderly mother on this cruise with me.

[Arthemise]

I think they should let you know. We had the opportunity to book a cruise with a Lionel Richie concert. While I think his music is OK, I didn't want a cruise based on that theme. I'm sure I'd get sick of hearing about him after a while, so we booked something else. I've purposefully looked for themed cruises (like JoCo Cruise), and they're hard to find sometimes.

[Drazil65]

I would be way more afraid or concerned about the people that are sitting right next to you in a deck chair and DONT advertise or talk about what they are into. You NEVER know what goes on behind closed doors with anyone so at least you know what the Goth's are into.

 

Relax....enjoy your cruise as that is not a huge group...:cool:

Edited September 8, 2015 by Drazil65

[MissyMac13]

I don't think they have the responsibility to tell other cruisers that a group will be onboard at the same time as you. But I now have an idea for future cruises - to search by date and ship to see if there is a group onboard!

I took my first Princess cruise last November and had heard that Princess was a mellow and slow paced cruise line. What I didn't know was that there was a group of Kickballers from all over the country on the same cruise. They were loud and sometimes obnoxious (in a kind of fun way - LOL) but there were so many other places i could go onboard that they didn't bother me at all.

[omarchs]

I think there has to be more than a few hundred people in the group since there are 5 different bands and the website indicates there are more than 15 private events in addition to the daily concerts/events in the rear lounge.

 

Many of the concerts are planned late at night, but who knows when the other private events are planned. Sounds like a lot of events for 200 people. The rest of us passengers probably don't get 5 different bands from Carnival!

 

Can't imagine these amount of events impacting not impacting the rest of our available spaces during the week. This is where I feel Carnival has an obligation if a group has a certain amount of events booked as private parties.

 

It was also interesting to see on their website that smoking is acceptable on balconies despite the Carnival policy of none.

[asalligo]

Wow, if I ended up on the Goth cruise, I would definitely invoke the cruise guarantee. Drop me off at the next port.

Edited September 9, 2015 by asalligo

[Pellaz]

Regarding the original question of notification.....

 

While Carnival (or any cruise line) is not required to notify passengers of partial ship-charters, IMO the cruise line should notify all passengers on the sailing if the number of people in the group-charter exceeds 20% of the posted passenger capacity of the vessel, OR more than 20% of entertainment schedulings will be affected/cancelled/restricted.

They should also offer a method of rebooking without penalty, i.e. full cruise credit with no cancel or change fees.

[Jana60]

I was booked on a cruise that ended up having a Drag Queen convention, I was bringing two other couples that were new to cruising. The convention involved over 1,500 people booked as part of the group. They had special shows in the main theater we could not attend during normal show hours. We were getting less entertainment than normal. I complained to my PVP, he took it up the chain and Carnival agreed, and we were able to switch to an 8 day cruise for the price of our original 7 day booking, and they waived the fees. My PVP said he had never seen a private group so large. He was checking his bookings to see if he had booked others on this sailing, he wanted to notify them. He felt it was the right thing to do.

 

Some of the drag queen stuff would have been fun, but not an entire week of it.

In this case I do feel Carnival should notify passengers about the booking, the standard booking wasnt getting the regular amenities they were accustomed to.

 

There is a travel agency in Florida that books a "singles" cruise every month with Carnival. I was on a sailing with one of these groups, no problems...they had maybe 200 (190 dork guys & 10 ugly chicks). No problems with that group, they have their own parties in private areas....

 

That was on the glory and thanks to so many people cancelling whether it was because they were homophobic or just didn't want to cruise with a large group I ended up getting about $500 in onboard credit due to price drops. It was a fun cruise and really cheap!