The Rebels - political activist group on HAL

[mancunian]

Just discovered to my horror that the first week of our two week Caribbean cruise on 20th November is to be shared by the above group - certainly would not be our choice of cruise companions. They have booked 120 cabins which will probably mean up to about 250 people.

 

does anyone know much about this group, or indeed has anyone done a cruise with them?

 

Many thanks

[Adoptionmsw]

Oy! http://www.therebelcruise.ca/ They seem to be a pretty opinionated bunch. I've been on political cruises as a participant and the group pretty much stuck together and did not proselytize to non members. These groups usually have fixed dining with each other and private lectures on sea days. The Nieuw Amsterdam is a good size ship. I'm guessing it won't be too much of a problem for you. Enjoy your cruise.

 

 

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[RocketMan275]

http://www.therebelcruise.ca/

 

Doubt they would much interfere with your cruise.

[CruiserBruce]

Agree with the others. Been on the N. Amsterdam, B2B, first week with a conservative group, about 500, then a liberal group, about 700 on the second week. Yes, they booked a few group sessions, but we noticed very little restrictions on our activities. And no public campaigning or other activities.

 

There were some celebrities an American would probably recognize.

Edited July 11, 2016 by CruiserBruce

[sammiedawg]

I've never heard of them.

The date caught my eye as it is Thanksgiving week.

The link has a lot of Canadian references. Must be a Canadian group.

[gpb11]

The date caught my eye as it is Thanksgiving week.

The link has a lot of Canadian references. Must be a Canadian group.

 

The .ca domain is a pretty strong hint too... :D

 

Date looks to be six weeks after Canada’s Thanksgiving,

[HELENPSL]

It's also after the election in the United States on November 8 so it will be too late for them to look for converts. I think groups tend to stay together so I think we'll be just fine.

 

Helen

[HarpHarp]

Just paving the way for the mass exodus north of the border for the supportes of the losing candidate.:D

[Hlitner]

Political groups are not normally a big issue onboard with one major exception. Anytime you have a relatively large group, they will often take over various public venues (such as the Crows Nest) for multiple functions. With a group of 250, one could expect them to use several public venues during sea days (and some evenings) for lectures, cocktail parties, etc. This means that those particular venues are then closed to everyone else :(. In addition, it is likely they will all dine at the same fixed sitting which does limit the seating availability for the remainder of the passengers.

 

Hank

[OlsSalt]

Last cruise on the Zuiderdam had a group of official "Craft Ladies" who literally stuck to their knitting and seemed rather benign, though they had full run of one of the function rooms.

 

Plus we had a Roads Scholars (former Elderhostel) group also on board who also used special function rooms and were distinguished primarily by their lanyard ID's.

 

HAL ships are great because they always feel so roomy that there are alway private places and quiet areas for everyone, and the NA is even larger. Agree, this group will probably not even be noticed.

[donaldsc]

Oy! http://www.therebelcruise.ca/ They seem to be a pretty opinionated bunch. I've been on political cruises as a participant and the group pretty much stuck together and did not proselytize to non members. These groups usually have fixed dining with each other and private lectures on sea days. The Nieuw Amsterdam is a good size ship. I'm guessing it won't be too much of a problem for you. Enjoy your cruise.

 

 

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They are Canadian so you are probably OK. Now if they were an opinionated American political group, I would either switch cruises or buy t-shirts making fun of their political opinions.

 

DON

[rafinmd]

The biggest potential conflict I would see would be in dining arrangments. I would suspect they would already have blocked 240 seats in the MDR for one of the seatings. I would expect that those seats would already be accounted for in HAL's inventory and if a booking shows early (or late) seating available that someone booking now would actually be able to get it. Is this right?

 

Roy

[mancunian]

Thanks everyone.

 

I feel that the biggest conflict for me is where they are going to hold all their events. 250 people will not fit in one of the smaller rooms which leaves the theatre and the crows nest. I guess the latter and this puts us right off. It is our favourite place after the library to sit and if one is out of action and the other you will hear every word they say does not hold much appeal. Not quite sure what to do.

[VennDiagram]

Thanks everyone.

 

I feel that the biggest conflict for me is where they are going to hold all their events. 250 people will not fit in one of the smaller rooms which leaves the theatre and the crows nest. I guess the latter and this puts us right off. It is our favourite place after the library to sit and if one is out of action and the other you will hear every word they say does not hold much appeal. Not quite sure what to do.

 

I may be completely wrong, but I wonder if this group will actually get to 250 members.... Ezra is a bit of a "fringe" guy.... and that may influence how many people sign on.

 

If you were in the US or Canada, I'd say put down your down payment, and check before final payment date to see what the group # is. Since you are in England, you can't book and cancel before final payment date, correct?

[chefestelle]

Ezra Levant is a right wing media type. I don't think Rebel is an actual organization but a media blog of some sort. Levant considers himself a rebel media personality because of his outspoken irreverent views. I'm surprised there are 120 such people in Canada but, apart from being loud, I doubt they would trouble you. Eh.

 

 

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[Fouremco]

An interesting collection of speakers, none of whom is taken very seriously by small or capital "C" conservatives. I'm not sure that even they take themselves very seriously, as you can tell by the name of their online media presence. Whether they could sell all of their cabins remains to be seen, but even if they do, I wouldn't worry about them.

[kevingastreich]

Just discovered to my horror that the first week of our two week Caribbean cruise on 20th November is to be shared by the above group - certainly would not be our choice of cruise companions. They have booked 120 cabins which will probably mean up to about 250 people.

 

does anyone know much about this group, or indeed has anyone done a cruise with them?

 

Many thanks

 

Maybe they are all just going to have fun and not to cause any trouble.

[Hlitner]

And here we thought that many Canadians use Conservatives as Curling Stones :(. We have actually enjoyed meeting some political groups on cruises (once were on a cruise with Judicial Watch folks) and their members were usually able to talk about subjects besides the usual Lanyards, slot pulls, etc. and many of that group actually would socialize in the bars after 10pm...when most HAL cruisers are normally in bed. But as we stated earlier, the problem for us is that these groups will too often take over public venues (on HAL it often seems to be the Crows Nest) which then denies us the use of that facility. When we book a cruise, we do it with the expectation that we will usually have "run of the ship." Losing the Crows Nest (especially when the ship is cruising in a picturesque place) can be quite maddening!

 

Hank

Edited July 11, 2016 by Hlitner

[Fouremco]

Thanks everyone.

 

I feel that the biggest conflict for me is where they are going to hold all their events. 250 people will not fit in one of the smaller rooms which leaves the theatre and the crows nest. I guess the latter and this puts us right off. It is our favourite place after the library to sit and if one is out of action and the other you will hear every word they say does not hold much appeal. Not quite sure what to do.

Why not write to them and ask. I've done that previously and received a very helpful response from the organizer. While HAL seems reluctant to provide information, I received a full rundown of the group's planned use of public spaces from the coordinator.

[kazu]

Thanks everyone.

 

I feel that the biggest conflict for me is where they are going to hold all their events. 250 people will not fit in one of the smaller rooms which leaves the theatre and the crows nest. I guess the latter and this puts us right off. It is our favourite place after the library to sit and if one is out of action and the other you will hear every word they say does not hold much appeal. Not quite sure what to do.

 

I think the only room they will fit in is the theatre if the group is truly that large. During the day time, it should be a non issue.

 

what ship are you sailing on? Even on the Vistas, the maximum # of people for the Crows's Nest or the Culinary Lounge is 160.

[wander]

two responses.

1st -the Wiseaxx response:

Perhaps they are a undercover group really on board to help interested folks initiate immigration applications to Canada - as no matter who wins the US election some folks will threaten to establish themselves outside the US.

 

2nd - the serious response

I was on a cruise where I combined several consecutive cruises. On the first cruise there was a group of several hundred passengers headed by James Buckley and organized through his News Magazine. If one did not read the notice near the ship's office about the daily activities exclusivly for this group (private lecture, panel presentations and other activities) one would not really know they were onboard except for 3 reasons.

1. They all wore group name badges that attached to distinct lanyards. This was their "key" to the numerous events they held. (Except for one evening a cocktail party around the Lido pool.)

2. They ate at both seatings and used up all the tables for 8. (This was before the open seating option in the MDR.) We like tables for 8 - but not this cruise.

3. As far as I could tell, they held all their events in the Show Room during times that it is usually empty. Speakers, panels and discussion events were all held at times such that was still available for Bingo, and a few afternoon programs.

 

While I must say that I was not in their political "camp" it was sort of interesting seeing their speakers lounging around the pool when they could. (They were all folks whose names we knew well from the Watergate events.)

 

The plusses - the ship was seemingly "less full" as several hundred were removed from the passengers roaming the ship, attending ship lectures, classes, etc. I would go on such a cruise again if I was serious about the cruise itinerary.

[3rdGenCunarder]

two responses.

1st -the Wiseaxx response:

Perhaps they are a undercover group really on board to help interested folks initiate immigration applications to Canada - as no matter who wins the US election some folks will threaten to establish themselves outside the US.

 

2nd - the serious response

I was on a cruise where I combined several consecutive cruises. On the first cruise there was a group of several hundred passengers headed by James Buckley and organized through his News Magazine. If one did not read the notice near the ship's office about the daily activities exclusivly for this group (private lecture, panel presentations and other activities) one would not really know they were onboard except for 3 reasons.

1. They all wore group name badges that attached to distinct lanyards. This was their "key" to the numerous events they held. (Except for one evening a cocktail party around the Lido pool.)

2. They ate at both seatings and used up all the tables for 8. (This was before the open seating option in the MDR.) We like tables for 8 - but not this cruise.

3. As far as I could tell, they held all their events in the Show Room during times that it is usually empty. Speakers, panels and discussion events were all held at times such that was still available for Bingo, and a few afternoon programs.

 

While I must say that I was not in their political "camp" it was sort of interesting seeing their speakers lounging around the pool when they could. (They were all folks whose names we knew well from the Watergate events.)

 

The plusses - the ship was seemingly "less full" as several hundred were removed from the passengers roaming the ship, attending ship lectures, classes, etc. I would go on such a cruise again if I was serious about the cruise itinerary.

 

You make some good points. The key issue is finding out which venues the group will use and when. Giving a group the theater in the daytime sounds perfect. Meeting rooms and/or the Culinary center work, too. These areas are not in demand during the day. And it does take the pressure off the pool and the Crow's nest, a "bonus" to the rest of the passengers. People would be a lot less worried about the impact of groups if HAL would be more transparent about group bookings.

[avian777]

... HAL seems reluctant to provide information, ...

 

... People would be a lot less worried about the impact of groups if HAL would be more transparent about group bookings.

 

We have never experienced these problems, but then we have a TA who knows our preferences and gets the info she needs to keep us off cruises that are/will not be to our liking, such as cruises with groups that individually or collectively have more than 50 people signed up. And, yes, we were alerted (by our TA) when a group (of 200) was added to a cruise on which we were already booked, so that we could make a decision to go or cancel.

 

If you this issue is important to you, I suggest you enlist the services of your TA. And if your TA can't (or won't) do this for you, I suggest you get a new TA - there really are plenty of good ones out there.

 

Smooth sailing ...

[kazu]

We have never experienced these problems, but then we have a TA who knows our preferences and gets the info she needs to keep us off cruises that are/will not be to our liking, such as cruises with groups that individually or collectively have more than 50 people signed up. And, yes, we were alerted (by our TA) when a group (of 200) was added to a cruise on which we were already booked, so that we could make a decision to go or cancel.

 

If you this issue is important to you, I suggest you enlist the services of your TA. And if your TA can't (or won't) do this for you, I suggest you get a new TA - there really are plenty of good ones out there.

 

Smooth sailing ...

 

A word of caution on the group's !!!

 

HAL calls a lot of things "groups".

 

There was one "large" group on our Westerdam cruise of 160 people - IT WAS OUR ROLL CALL :cool:;):D

 

Yes, roll calls with meetings, etc. Are considered a group. ;)

[taxmantoo]

A word of caution on the group's !!!

 

HAL calls a lot of things "groups".

 

There was one "large" group on our Westerdam cruise of 160 people - IT WAS OUR ROLL CALL :cool:;):D

 

Yes, roll calls with meetings, etc. Are considered a group. ;)

 

And none of us ever objected to any of our fellow passengers having a drink :D