Tips for group cruise

[Gayl4b]

Diana Hall at dhall@princesscruises.com can let you know if there's a new rep.  I had been emailing somebody for Caribbean Princess who was now at cunard.

Edited February 4, 2019 by Gayl4b
Organizing a group mtg for 70 on Sapphire & 80 on Caribbean

[Aus Traveller]

We always have Anytime Dining but go around 5.45 every night. At that time we can usually get into the show that is around 7.15. We have found that we are usually at one or two particular tables - they seem to open up tables in the same order each evening. With Anytime, you can even book for a particular table and time, although we have never done that because we like the flexibility of Anytime, even though our personal flexibility is only within a 10-15 minute time frame. 

[Gayl4b]

That may be but it is quite different to have a group of 2-4 versus a group for 100. She needs 12 dedicated tables together. Unless half go at 5 & half go at 7:15. Then she would need 6 dedicated tables together. The 1st time I had to do this it was only 18 of us. So we were only looking at 3 dedicated tables. That was difficult on board. The next time it happened I did it before. And it was simpler.

[Gayl4b]

FWIW: although the maitre d can set up the dining room embarkation day to have everybody sit together I'm pretty sure he would prefer to know ahead of time

 

I dont like the new dining times 🙂 can anytime dining accommodate large groups ? 😞

Edited February 4, 2019 by Gayl4b

[Colo Cruiser]

10 minutes ago, Gayl4b said:

FWIW: although the maitre d can set up the dining room embarkation day to have everybody sit together I'm pretty sure he would prefer to know ahead of time

This for sure. ^^^^^

Embarkation day DR is very limited on staff.

[Aus Traveller]

30 minutes ago, Colo Cruiser said:

This for sure. ^^^^^

Embarkation day DR is very limited on staff.

I think Gayl4b was suggesting that the OP see the maitre d' in the dining room on embarkation day.

[Obsi]

We don't really need to have all tables in the same area (although it would be better if we did - as it would make it easier to give out any notices/plans at dinner), but if we can all eat at the same time (except for those who don't want to), then it would make it easier I think - rather than having to work out which bunch of people dines at one time and which dines at another time.  I think that would be needlessly confusing.  If everyone knows dinner is at 6pm at a certain dining room, then that is way easier.

 

That's why I asked my TA to ask if we could have our own 6pm traditional dining seating if the normal times are 5pm and 7pm.  I figured since we're taking up a lot of room, it would be easier for Princess if we were in the middle of the 2 dinner services, so we're not trying to all get seated while the normal passengers are, and I thought it might be a bit easier on the kitchen too.  But apparently not (or my TA didn't actually ask).

 

If we can go anytime then that solves the issue of the people who might want to eat at a different time, or elsewhere, and those who didn't book with me so wouldn't be allocated spots with the rest of the group.  Because basically we would take up however many tables/seats we need, and if we had leftover spots then it's possible that other passengers could be given any left over seats (if we don't scare them off 😄 )  So if I'm able to do anytime, then I'm happy to book in for that at 6pm each night, so they know to expect us.  

[Colo Cruiser]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

I think Gayl4b was suggesting that the OP see the maitre d' in the dining room on embarkation day.

Ah that makes sense.  Thanks.  Didn't think of that angle.  👍

Can you imagine the MD's face if someone asked for a lunch for 100 on ED.  

[Coral]

1 hour ago, Obsi said:

That's why I asked my TA to ask if we could have our own 6pm traditional dining seating if the normal times are 5pm and 7pm.  I figured since we're taking up a lot of room, it would be easier for Princess if we were in the middle of the 2 dinner services, so we're not trying to all get seated while the normal passengers are, and I thought it might be a bit easier on the kitchen too.  But apparently not (or my TA didn't actually ask).

 

Oddly - I think 5 pm or 5:30 is easier than 6 pm. 

 

Most people want to eat at 7ish in Anytime dining on most cruises I have been on. If your 100 people eat at 6 pm, it ties the tables up until 8 or 8:30.  

 

[Aus Traveller]

I doubt that you would be able to arrange a 6pm traditional dining time. Princess needs to be able to use the tables twice during the dinner service. If you are allocated 6pm, that would mean arrive by 6.30, and by the time you are finished, the demand for tables has ended. Also, if you have 6pm, by the time you have finished dinner (allow an hour and a half) you will miss the first show.

 

If you decide to go with Anytime, when members of your group turn up, they simply have to assemble enough people for a table and request a table to suit. It might be four, 8 or 10 people. You won't have to share with people outside the group unless you want to. The main difficulty I have seen with people getting a table is when they want a table for two and there aren't any available or if they arrive an hour or so after the dinner started and the first group haven't finished yet.

[caribill]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

If you decide to go with Anytime, when members of your group turn up, they simply have to assemble enough people for a table and request a table to suit. It might be four, 8 or 10 people. You won't have to share with people outside the group unless you want to. The main difficulty I have seen with people getting a table is when they want a table for two and there aren't any available or if they arrive an hour or so after the dinner started and the first group haven't finished yet.

 

The main problem I see with anytime is that 100+ people wanting to be seated at the same time will first have to line up together and then hope there is still room for the entire group without some needing to wait with pagers.

 

Unless they have 100+ seats reserved in advance (either fixed or anytime), it will not work.

 

In any event they will likely be scattered across whichever dining room is picked. Remember that tables in each section are of differing sizes (10,8,6,4 and 2 seats each). Princess will not re-configure the dining room so that only larger tables are in one area.

 

Since some of this group like dining early and some like dining late, I again suggest letting them select which fixed dining time they want. Forcing everyone to eat at one fixed time will leave a number of them unhappy at being forced into dining at a time they did not want. Again, remember that it is unlikely that the early/late times listed in the personalizer will be the actual times once on the ship. 

[Aus Traveller]

I wasn't suggesting the whole group turn up at a set time. I said "when members of your group turn up, they simply have to assemble enough people for a table and request a table to suit. It might be four, 8 or 10 people". The advantage of Anytime is that those who want to turn up at 5.30 can do so and those who want to dine later can also do that. I would imagine that dinner for the group would spread out over most of the time the MDR is open - as it does for other passengers.

 

It is up to the OP and her group how they want to organise it.

[Obsi]

12 minutes ago, caribill said:

Unless they have 100+ seats reserved in advance (either fixed or anytime), it will not work.

 

That's why I wanted to have this sorted out before we get onboard, so we're booked in.... If we stay traditional we'd have our reserved seats.  Unless we can book ahead of time in anytime and switch to that.  If we were to go anytime, I'd imagine booking 80 spots would be best (in case we have people late or go elsewhere) and any overflow could be slotted in wherever there is space?

 

As far as I know from last cruise (that I was on but didn't run), we were set for 5:30 dining, which some (maybe 4 or so) ladies felt was too early, so they didn't eat with us.  Another 2 decided the specialty restaurants were what they wanted to do.   

 

However - last time we also had the problem that the TA the previous organiser booked through (the same company I used at first) stuffed the bookings up and some of our group were set to anytime and some were set to traditional.  So since we also had no way to communicate on board other than if we happened to find each other, the first few nights were madness as we were trying to work out how to get us all to dine together, and I think the 2 people who ate at the specialty places were possibly also trying to give up their spot at the table for someone else who wanted to join us but was set to anytime.  Those that said 5:30 was too early were already on anytime dining and hadn't been allocated a traditional dining spot anyway - so just decided to continue doing anytime.  So this time it won't be the same situation (hopefully :) )

 

If everyone had been set the same dining time to begin with, I imagine everyone likely would have just eaten with the group even if they felt it was too early.  So while I'd not force everyone to eat together, and if people wanted to do something different they could.  I imagine most of the ladies would prefer to eat together or at least in large groups.  In our social club one of the main activities we do is go out to meals together.... 😄    The last cruise our evening meal was the only time we actually met up.  Some of us had a loose plan to meet in the buffet at 8am for breakfast and we sometimes bumped into each other during the day and sat down for a drink together, but the evening meal was our together time.

 

If I was to split the group in half to allocate half the 5pm dining and half the 7pm (which I checked the email, it's 7:15 actually) - how am I going to decide who had what time, and there is sure to be some people who won't like whichever time I've set for them and want to swap - and that would be challenging to work out.

 

I also know most of the ladies don't like staying up too late, so want to see the early shows - so a 7:15 dining spot is too late for that.   So while 5pm I think is too early, if that's what we have to do, then so be it.  It's the better of the 2 unsuitable options and at least makes sure we're not missing the early shows.

 

-- The other option is to set everyone to anytime dining and let them sort out tables for themselves and they can eat whenever and wherever they like.... but I'd run the risk of people complaining that I didn't even bother to book restaurants for us all...  especially when we have the communication issues, how are people going to (easily) arrange group dining plans while on the ship?  Some chapters have only 1 person coming and don't know anyone else, some chapters have 8 or so people coming and are close with other chapters.  So to help out those solo people and make sure they don't feel left out, I'd wanted to make sure we have dinner together.


Honestly, I feel leaving it as is - with us all set traditional, seems to be the easiest option.  If a couple of people booked in to traditional don't turn up because they are eating elsewhere, then that's their decision/problem.  Surely I can't be held responsible to force people to eat there...?   And if someone knows they definitely don't want to eat there, and one of the ladies who booked privately definitely does - then they can swap, surely....?

[Aus Traveller]

Have you managed to get early traditional for the whole group?

[Obsi]

Yes - we're all already booked in for the 5pm traditional dining.

(all but the 16 people who booked through their own TA so aren't on my bookings)

 

Princess likely doesn't yet know that it's all the one group, because the bookings are split over my 2 TA... but both are booked in.   But I was going to do that linking thing that was suggested.  

[Aus Traveller]

Great. 🙂

[Coral]

5 hours ago, Obsi said:

Yes - we're all already booked in for the 5pm traditional dining.

(all but the 16 people who booked through their own TA so aren't on my bookings)

 

Princess likely doesn't yet know that it's all the one group, because the bookings are split over my 2 TA... but both are booked in.   But I was going to do that linking thing that was suggested.  

Yes - keep them all Traditional. Easiest solution.

[X1HYCB]

Wow! Such an overwhelming, enjoyable task.  As for group communications, has anyone suggested to use the Princess Patter? The Patter announces the next day's  happenings and the colorful flyers will be in the staterooms the night before.

[Aus Traveller]

7 hours ago, X1HYCB said:

Wow! Such an overwhelming, enjoyable task.  As for group communications, has anyone suggested to use the Princess Patter? The Patter announces the next day's  happenings and the colorful flyers will be in the staterooms the night before.

However, it is unlikely a group of around 100 people would be able to have a notice or notices included in the Patter. The CD always has to snip entries to make everything fit as it is. The Cruise Critic groups can rarely get a mention in the schedule.

[Ombud]

the patter will not list 'private events.' Even though it looks like all of those groups, friends of Bob / military / solo / Religious, are closed events and only open to certain cruisers… they are open to anyone on the ship. If you choose to open your event to everyone, like we did with  Hanukkah, they most certainly will listed in the patter.

Edited February 6, 2019 by Ombud

[Obsi]

Since our group is an International one (Red Hat Society), the last cruise we did we had a meetup advertised in the patter.  Mostly as a way to get us all together, but also in case there were others onboard who wanted to meet with us  (sometimes we find other members who just happened to be at the same place).  We had 2 ladies who had seen us around and were interested in joining came to chat to us, so that was nice.  I'll try and see if we can do that again.

But the main communication we'd be needing is things like if some of us decide to go to the nightclub one night, or to a certain show and would like to let others in the group know to join them - things like that.  Something that could be easy to arrange if we all met up for breakfast/dinner,  but if we decide it during the day or don't catch up for breakfast then it might be tricky to spread the word around other than just telling whoever you meet during the day and hoping it gets around.

We do have a few clusters of cabins around the ship, so I think the idea to assign someone (trustworthy) to be a message point in each of those areas - and they can hang a small noticeboard on their cabin door - might do the trick.  For those chapters who have several members coming, they can sort out amongst themselves who can keep the others in the loop.

Some of us will probably use the onboard messaging app - but realistically trying to get 100 people (some of whom aren't net savvy) to find their ID numbers to then give out to everyone in the group, would be a nightmare.  If there was a way to set up groups beforehand it would be handy, but the way it's designed isn't really practical for a large group like us.   Also not all of us have smartphones or will be wanting to carry them around all day.   But if we can try and hook some people up (especially those in charge of their sections), then that can help spread messages around as well.

[Grburkart]

4 minutes ago, Obsi said:

Since our group is an International one (Red Hat Society), the last cruise we did we had a meetup advertised in the patter.  Mostly as a way to get us all together, but also in case there were others onboard who wanted to meet with us  (sometimes we find other members who just happened to be at the same place).  We had 2 ladies who had seen us around and were interested in joining came to chat to us, so that was nice.  I'll try and see if we can do that again.

But the main communication we'd be needing is things like if some of us decide to go to the nightclub one night, or to a certain show and would like to let others in the group know to join them - things like that.  Something that could be easy to arrange if we all met up for breakfast/dinner,  but if we decide it during the day or don't catch up for breakfast then it might be tricky to spread the word around other than just telling whoever you meet during the day and hoping it gets around.

We do have a few clusters of cabins around the ship, so I think the idea to assign someone (trustworthy) to be a message point in each of those areas - and they can hang a small noticeboard on their cabin door - might do the trick.  For those chapters who have several members coming, they can sort out amongst themselves who can keep the others in the loop.

Some of us will probably use the onboard messaging app - but realistically trying to get 100 people (some of whom aren't net savvy) to find their ID numbers to then give out to everyone in the group, would be a nightmare.  If there was a way to set up groups beforehand it would be handy, but the way it's designed isn't really practical for a large group like us.   Also not all of us have smartphones or will be wanting to carry them around all day.   But if we can try and hook some people up (especially those in charge of their sections), then that can help spread messages around as well.

In my opinion you’re asking for too much by trying to change things up on the fly or “off the cuff”. If everybody has a detailed itinerary including onboard activities pre cruise, then they can plan for things like nightclub activities. If you decide last minute to do something that involves the group, you’ll be asking for the impossible. 

Just trying to help. 

 

Glenn

 

[Obsi]

I'm not planning any onboard activities other than dinner and hopefully (if I can get in touch with Princess to organise it), a birthday party afternoon tea for our 90 year old, and another get together I'd like to have - on each of our sea days.  If I can do those, they will be added to the itinerary everyone will be notified of before we go.  

 

The idea is to enjoy the cruise, and our club famously has no rules :P  So I don't think the ladies really want their days planned out with scheduled events.  Also with 100 people, we can't all meet at the pool or something like that - we'd not all fit 😄  And we'd also take up too much space and prevent other passengers being there.  (Although we might scare off all the splashy kids, so that would be a bonus! :D)  We can't arrange beforehand to all go to the theater as we don't know what day/time anything will be on until we get onboard.  So as much as possible the time spent on the ship will be up to each person to decide what they want to do.    

I do expect though that smaller groups of us will want to do activities together - so those casual plans are what I'm wanting to be able to facilitate. 

We may not ever actually need to contact each other - but as event organiser people will expect me to have some plans in place, and since the greatest complaint the last cruise had was lack of communication I did promise I would have that sorted out for this cruise.  So I want to make sure I do.

 

We have 4 port days (2 sea days), and I have people from our club who live in/near those ports organsing activities for those port days.  But those too will be an optional thing, since we won't find venues that can accommodate all 100 of us + however many from the local groups as well, and some may want to stay on the ship (or do their own shore tours).   But I'm not organising those port days, I've delegated that to the locals who know the area (and so I don't have to do it 😉 )  So I think that will be plenty of scheduled activities enough to leave the cruise itself schedule free (mostly)

Edited February 6, 2019 by Obsi

[Aus Traveller]

I think you will find it easy to arrange to have a group afternoon tea (as you mention) or a dining room lunch on a sea day. I suggest you see the Maitre d' one evening. He is usually to be found in the dining room on deck 5 and can be identified because he is the one wearing a black suit. I have sometimes been part of a CC group that has a large group to lunch or a birthday celebration. For the lunch, the Maitre d' asked us to assemble outside the doors at 11.45 so we could be escorted in a few minutes before the 12 noon opening time. The only problem we had was other passengers who didn't realise we were a 'private' group who would be seated together.

[Obsi]

I want to ask Princess about the afternoon tea before we get onboard because I'd like to know if we can have a cake and balloons or something since it's such a special occasion (even if I have to pay extra, but hoping they will do it free).  Since her birthday is on that last sea day we have, so it's perfect timing!

Also if it's arranged beforehand I can add it to the printed itinerary so everyone knows it's on.  If I only arrange it while onboard then I have to get that message out to all 100 people somehow.