Who is responsible for planning the activities?

[Boriiiing]

I am interested in getting feedback in regard to how a cruiseline comes up with the daily shipboard activities. Are the daily activities planned by the cruise director each sailing, or are these activities primarily set up by the head office, who also books the nightly entertainment and speakers? Does each sailing vary considerably in what is offered to choose from? How can a person find out what will be offered to choose from prior to booking their cruise? Do the activities vary considerably between the various ships, or are they basically the same trivia, bingo, crafts, etc to choose from?

[Jemima]

Activities are mostly the same from one ship to another and from one CD to another. There seem to be some added activities on the vista class ships and also some added activities on some longer cruises. Exactly how the activity is run depends on the CD and the CD's staff person who runs the activity. For example, trivia procedures are mostly the same on every cruise, but there are little variations depending on CD.

From your other thread I'm aware you didn't care for the activities on your last cruise.

In six HAL cruises I don't recall hearing complaints about the types of activities offered. People seem to find activities they enjoy. We enjoy trivia and some of the other games. The number of Mariners on each cruise would indicate that most cruisers aren't bored.

 

Our age averaged is 43 and neither of us is close to 80.

[kryos]

I am interested in getting feedback in regard to how a cruiseline comes up with the daily shipboard activities. Are the daily activities planned by the cruise director each sailing, or are these activities primarily set up by the head office, who also books the nightly entertainment and speakers? Does each sailing vary considerably in what is offered to choose from? How can a person find out what will be offered to choose from prior to booking their cruise? Do the activities vary considerably between the various ships, or are they basically the same trivia, bingo, crafts, etc to choose from?

I would imagine certain activities are staples of every cruise ... games, bingo, trivia, etc. ... but others probably vary by the makeup of the passengers on each individual cruise. For example, you can have one cruise where passengers don't go in for sporting type activities at all, and then the next cruise everyone shows up for basketball, pool games, etc. You could have a ton of single and solo passengers on one cruise, thus necessitating a host of special activities just for them, and then on the next cruise it's all groups and couples. I guess it's the mark of a good CD to gauge the makeup of the passengers from the very beginning of the cruise and then tailor his activities program to them.

 

I do know that the more experienced CD's are assigned to the longer cruises since those are the most work. After all, a seven-day Caribbean itinerary with four port days is not gonna need a whole lot in the way of a customized onboard activities program. The basics of bingo, trivia and deck games will easily suffice in that case.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Krazy Kruizers]

They have meetings each cruise to make the final decision about activities. But for the most part, they don't change much from cruise to cruise. Having done a lot of back-to-back cruises, we have seen the same activities - bingos at certain times everyday - rarely changes; trivia at certain times every day - rarely changes; kitchen tour on a sea day at a certain time - rarely changes; wine tasting on a sea day at a certain time - rarely changes; etc.

 

Have also sailed on other cruise lines - same thing.

[Krazy Kruizers]

On the longer cruises we have had a few different things, like the international food fare.