Partial charters - tell me your stories!

[Honolulu Blue]

Hi everyone.  In various other threads scattered here and there I've heard about partial charters.  They've ranged from "fun group, 10/10, would hang with again!" to "not too disruptive" to "OMG!  They were EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME!!!!"

 

In my 21 cruises, I have not knowingly had a partial charter on any of them.  🤞 I get the feeling my time will be coming sooner or later.  I'm sure some of you have interesting stories of the parties you've shared cruises with.  Let's hear all about them!  Don't let me limit you, but here are items that I can think of to guide your story:

 

• What group was it?
• Were you a part of it?
• How big were they?
• What ship was it on?
• When was it?
• What facilities did they block? (e.g., MDR, pool area, buffet, theater, nightclub)
• What was your overall impression of the group?  Cool?  Meh?  Ugh??
• Did they influence you to join or not join their group in real life?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

P.S.  Full charters are another story, but we have a forum for that.  I've done two of those and have two upcoming. 

[CruiserBruce]

Some terms here...a "partial charter" really is just a "group"...that is the name usually applied. The size can range from well under 100, to over half the capacity of the ship.

[MCC retired]

A Charter takes over the itinerary and all onboard events.

A partial charter is a large group with private events onboard that may affect your cruise experience in a negative way.

[LHT28]

There  are usually some larger groups on most cruises

the size is dependent on the group & how many the cruise line will allow

Some ships may have 2 or more groups  of 100 pax   on a smaller ship it can create some issues

Sometimes you just cannot avoid the larger groups

Some lines handle the  large group booking better than others

JMO

[Mum2Mercury]

I think groups are super-common. I've encountered three: 

 

A church group on our recent 3-day:  

- December cruise on Indy 

- I was only aware of them at dinner and only because they constantly left their tables /went "to visit" other group members.  Examples of their constant up/down:  two little girls went around to all "their tables" giving candy canes to their friends  ... a couple times group members "switched tables" for dessert to sit with different friends ... another night it was someone's birthday, and the whole bunch congregated near our table to sing.  They were a little annoying, but -- again -- only at dinner in the MDR.  They weren't "enough" to keep us away from the MDR.  

- I suspect this is the most typical kind of group -- they numbered maybe 100 or so?  Not so big that you'd note them walking around the ship, but it was clear that they knew one another. 

 

A Buddy Cruise, which was a HUGE group of disabled children (and some adults):  

- September cruise on Explorer -- this is a yearly thing, and they vary their ships. 

- These guys were great cruise-partners.  They were family-oriented, weren't loud at night.  The only "problem" I saw was a young adult who was turned around /couldn't find his room -- and he was crying.  

- They did sometimes crowd the elevators with scooters or strollers (and folding wagons on island days), but I'm certainly not complaining --- just saying what I saw.  

- They did hold several events onboard:  They had a Walk-a-Mile event one day -- lots of non-members joined in.  They had a presentation /video /awards thing in the theater one afternoon -- I only knew because I had just finished watching a movie in that area.  

- I'd totally sail with the Buddies again!  

 

A pretty big Quinceanera group all sponsored by one travel agency: 

- July years ago on Mariner 

- In the terminal we saw a young girl carrying what appeared to be a wedding dress, and we said to each other, "Oh, look!  A bride!  She's getting married on the ship."  Then we saw another and another and another -- this was starting to seem unlikely.  We noticed that all the girls carrying dresses (and their families) were wearing matching tee-shirts -- and the shirts clued us into what their group was. 

- They were all nice people, and we enjoyed seeing the girls (and their families) dressed up at dinner. 

- They did "hog" the portrait area on formal night, as it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for these families.  Every group probably "hogs" some part of the ship.  

- We'd sail with them again.  

 

 

 

 

[George C]

We did a cruise that had two groups, the bigger group were first responders, police, fireman, medical people nice group played poker with them, they had a private midnight show , someone from American Idol , concierge informed suite passengers that we were included if we want , good show. 

[Markanddonna]

Kosherica does partial charter on two big ships a year in Jan. Cc would delete my post if I commented.

[ldubs]

On 2/1/2023 at 7:39 AM, Mum2Mercury said:

I think groups are super-common. I've encountered three: 

 

A church group on our recent 3-day:  

- December cruise on Indy 

- I was only aware of them at dinner and only because they constantly left their tables /went "to visit" other group members.  Examples of their constant up/down:  two little girls went around to all "their tables" giving candy canes to their friends  ... a couple times group members "switched tables" for dessert to sit with different friends ... another night it was someone's birthday, and the whole bunch congregated near our table to sing.  They were a little annoying, but -- again -- only at dinner in the MDR.  They weren't "enough" to keep us away from the MDR.  

- I suspect this is the most typical kind of group -- they numbered maybe 100 or so?  Not so big that you'd note them walking around the ship, but it was clear that they knew one another. 

 

A Buddy Cruise, which was a HUGE group of disabled children (and some adults):  

- September cruise on Explorer -- this is a yearly thing, and they vary their ships. 

- These guys were great cruise-partners.  They were family-oriented, weren't loud at night.  The only "problem" I saw was a young adult who was turned around /couldn't find his room -- and he was crying.  

- They did sometimes crowd the elevators with scooters or strollers (and folding wagons on island days), but I'm certainly not complaining --- just saying what I saw.  

- They did hold several events onboard:  They had a Walk-a-Mile event one day -- lots of non-members joined in.  They had a presentation /video /awards thing in the theater one afternoon -- I only knew because I had just finished watching a movie in that area.  

- I'd totally sail with the Buddies again!  

 

A pretty big Quinceanera group all sponsored by one travel agency: 

- July years ago on Mariner 

- In the terminal we saw a young girl carrying what appeared to be a wedding dress, and we said to each other, "Oh, look!  A bride!  She's getting married on the ship."  Then we saw another and another and another -- this was starting to seem unlikely.  We noticed that all the girls carrying dresses (and their families) were wearing matching tee-shirts -- and the shirts clued us into what their group was. 

- They were all nice people, and we enjoyed seeing the girls (and their families) dressed up at dinner. 

- They did "hog" the portrait area on formal night, as it was a once-in-a-lifetime thing for these families.  Every group probably "hogs" some part of the ship.  

- We'd sail with them again.  

 

 

 

 

 

I assume you are you putting "hogs" in quotes so as to not mean it as a criticism.    I enjoyed reading the summary of your experiences and appreciate your outlook.   I can only identify one potential group on a cruise.  It was a very large tour group of a certain nationality with personal assistants flitting around them all the time.  They were nice folks and obviously enjoying the cruise.  We saw them all the time.  And because they would go to things like the portraits as a group, it often meant longer wait times for everyone.   Just the way it is I guess.   

[mcollins3549]

On 2/1/2023 at 6:45 AM, Honolulu Blue said:

Hi everyone.  In various other threads scattered here and there I've heard about partial charters.  They've ranged from "fun group, 10/10, would hang with again!" to "not too disruptive" to "OMG!  They were EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME!!!!"

 

In my 21 cruises, I have not knowingly had a partial charter on any of them.  🤞 I get the feeling my time will be coming sooner or later.  I'm sure some of you have interesting stories of the parties you've shared cruises with.  Let's hear all about them!  Don't let me limit you, but here are items that I can think of to guide your story:

 

• What group was it?
• Were you a part of it?
• How big were they?
• What ship was it on?
• When was it?
• What facilities did they block? (e.g., MDR, pool area, buffet, theater, nightclub)
• What was your overall impression of the group?  Cool?  Meh?  Ugh??
• Did they influence you to join or not join their group in real life?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

P.S.  Full charters are another story, but we have a forum for that.  I've done two of those and have two upcoming. 

It was October 2018 on Princess.  The partial charter was a group of 300+ followers of Lt. Joe Kenda/Homicide Hunter - TV show.  REAL life cop/Lt. who had solved 387 murders out of 400 or so in his career.  Yes - I was DEF part of this charter.  We had locations reserved solely for our group for a set period of time throughout the cruise.  We had halloween costumes but so did most of the other cruisers.  We pretty much did everything in a 'group' ... so you could tell us apart from other cruisers.  It was SO MUCH FUN ... but Princess is not for me and I will NEVER cruise on them again.  I laid down one afternoon to take a nap before dinner and a steward (NOT my steward) came in my cabin with a passkey and was petrified when I woke up and ran him out of my cabin..  I reported this to Guest Services and requested a talk with Security and NOTHING was done.  I asked repeatedly to talk to someone and NOTHING was done about it.  NEVER again. 

[donaldsc]

11 minutes ago, mcollins3549 said:

It was October 2018 on Princess.  The partial charter was a group of 300+ followers of Lt. Joe Kenda/Homicide Hunter - TV show.  REAL life cop/Lt. who had solved 387 murders out of 400 or so in his career.  Yes - I was DEF part of this charter.  We had locations reserved solely for our group for a set period of time throughout the cruise.  We had halloween costumes but so did most of the other cruisers.  We pretty much did everything in a 'group' ... so you could tell us apart from other cruisers.  It was SO MUCH FUN ... but Princess is not for me and I will NEVER cruise on them again.  I laid down one afternoon to take a nap before dinner and a steward (NOT my steward) came in my cabin with a passkey and was petrified when I woke up and ran him out of my cabin..  I reported this to Guest Services and requested a talk with Security anbed NOTHING was done.  I asked repeatedly to talk to someone and NOTHING was done about it.  NEVER again. 

 

He almost certainly knocked and you did not respond because you were sleep,  Since you did not respond he assumed that the cabin was empty and came in to do whatever he had to do.  You could have just woken up and asked him to come back later,  This could happen on any cruise line.  You are over VERY much over responding. Did you actually "run" him out of the cabin?  What did you think that he was going to do to you?

 

DON

[Aquahound]

I’ve been on a couple cruises with partial charters and they can be very disruptive, usually because key venues get cut off to the rest of the passengers. 
 

On a HAL cruise, there was a religious group partial charter who had the Crows Nest reserved at various times during the cruise. This was an Alaskan cruise so to have that lounge shut down was a huge disappointment. 
 

Same goes on a recent RCI cruise where there was an Amway partial charter. They had the Solarium pool reserved a few times. Anyone who has been on Quantum Class ships understands how disappointing that is. 

[mcollins3549]

11 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

 

He almost certainly knocked and you did not respond because you were sleep,  Since you did not respond he assumed that the cabin was empty and came in to do whatever he had to do.  You could have just woken up and asked him to come back later,  This could happen on any cruise line.  You are over VERY much over responding. Did you actually "run" him out of the cabin?  What did you think that he was going to do to you?

 

DON

I was NOT asleep ... I had JUST laid down ... and he most certainly did NOT knock on my door.  But thanks for sticking up for sketchy employee who had NO business being in my cabin.  It was NOT my steward! 

 

 

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, mcollins3549 said:

It was October 2018 on Princess.  The partial charter was a group of 300+ followers of Lt. Joe Kenda/Homicide Hunter - TV show.  REAL life cop/Lt. who had solved 387 murders out of 400 or so in his career.  Yes - I was DEF part of this charter.  We had locations reserved solely for our group for a set period of time throughout the cruise.  We had halloween costumes but so did most of the other cruisers.  We pretty much did everything in a 'group' ... so you could tell us apart from other cruisers.  It was SO MUCH FUN ... but Princess is not for me and I will NEVER cruise on them again.  I laid down one afternoon to take a nap before dinner and a steward (NOT my steward) came in my cabin with a passkey and was petrified when I woke up and ran him out of my cabin..  I reported this to Guest Services and requested a talk with Security and NOTHING was done.  I asked repeatedly to talk to someone and NOTHING was done about it.  NEVER again. 

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm sorry about what happened to you in your cabin.

[dolittle]

While I know some can be a problem (bikers to much bro hugging) and such but have never had a problem , We have been with 500 or so Jewish group from L.A. (all the women wore long dresses) to a group of African American women who dressed in traditional African garb and many others. My favorite was female barber shop quartets who would sing all over the ship, got on the elevator it would in harmony sixth floor ,sixth floor ,sixth floor. All were three groups were lovely people having a great time. I know people in groups can act like jerks sometimes but for the most part this is not a problem. B.T.W. I like this thread I am going to steal this idea in a future post.

[mcollins3549]

26 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

Thank you for sharing your experience. I'm sorry about what happened to you in your cabin.

Thank you for your kind words.  NOTHING untoward happened and nothing was taken, although, if I hadn't been there, I do think some of my jewelry would have been taken.  I don't always put it in the safe.  Often I drop it in top drawer when I return. BUT I don't take any real stuff on vacations. 

 

I should say 'when I got up' ... I hadn't fallen asleep yet ... But Princess NOT handling it was beyond my limit. 

Edited February 4, 2023 by mcollins3549

[dolittle]

Just talked to Mr's Dolittle about this topic she reminded of the time we were on a ship with 100 or so blind people . At first it was fine but having all those dogs aboard got a little old the poor people were lost ALL the time (even more than the sighted people) and some of the dogs were not well cared for (odor) . Spoke to one of them out on the deck asked if he enjoyed cruising he said '' yes no streets to cross '' I said never thought of that . It did not affect our good time  BUT.

[Honolulu Blue]

Thanks everyone for sharing.  I found a nice article about how writer Ashley Kosciolek got stuck with a charter cruise that wasn't the team she was a fan of.  You can read about it at https://thepointsguy.com/guide/nfl-cruise-charter/ .

Edited March 16, 2023 by Honolulu Blue

[Hlitner]

Many years ago (late 80s) we had booked a cruise on the Sovereign of the Seas for DW, myself. and our 8 year old DD).  Because we were bringing our DD, we had confirmed early sitting.  A few weeks before our cruise, our TA called us and said that RCCL had changed our seating to late (there was no open dining in those days).  This was unacceptable to us because that meant our 8 year old had to eat dinner at 8:30.  We called RCCL and were told the change was because a large group had taken over the entire early seating.  They agreed to change our reservation to the following week.

 

When we boarded the ship we came upon a waiter who was an old friend from 2 other cruises.  We asked him about the "group" from the previous week and he told us it was a horrible situation.  Nearly half the ship's passengers were from a very strict religious group that did not drink alcohol. had their own strict dress code, brought aboard their own entertainment, and did not play well with others.  Some of their members were outwardly critical of other passengers for drinking, and a few made snide remarks to passengers who wore skimpy swimwear.  The crew really lost out because these folks were not big tippers and did not drink (less tips for the bar staff).  The large group took over many venues (including the main theater) for their own meetings and shows, thus depriving half the ship from enjoying those facilities to the normal extent.

 

The lesson we learned was to do our homework and avoid cruises with large groups (assuming we could find out that info).  

 

Hank

[sanger727]

On 2/4/2023 at 5:56 PM, mcollins3549 said:

Thank you for your kind words.  NOTHING untoward happened and nothing was taken, although, if I hadn't been there, I do think some of my jewelry would have been taken.  I don't always put it in the safe.  Often I drop it in top drawer when I return. BUT I don't take any real stuff on vacations. 

 

I should say 'when I got up' ... I hadn't fallen asleep yet ... But Princess NOT handling it was beyond my limit. 

how do you know that princess didn’t handle it? Are you expecting them to report back to you on their investigation/discipline of an employee? They could have asked the stew why he/she entered your room and they had a perfectly valid reason.

[Honolulu Blue]

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

When we boarded the ship we came upon a waiter who was an old friend from 2 other cruises.  We asked him about the "group" from the previous week and he told us it was a horrible situation.  Nearly half the ship's passengers were from a very strict religious group that did not drink alcohol. had their own strict dress code, brought aboard their own entertainment, and did not play well with others. 

Thank you for sharing your story and that of your waiter friend.

 

The full charter I was recently on... well, I guess we're kind of a cult.  We had our own dress code (different on different nights) and brought along almost all of our entertainment.  Our group drank a lot of alcohol, which I'm sure the cruise line was grateful for.  I'd say we played well with each other, but as for whether we played well with others?  You decide.  I think these guys kind of liked us:

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Honolulu Blue

[cruisemom42]

The only large charter or group I ever encountered on a cruise happened a long time ago and, as luck would have it, it was my honeymoon cruise on NCL. I never got a firm number but it appeared that at least half of the ship's passengers were part of a group of independent sales reps for Aloette cosmetics (like a Mary Kay operation based, I think, in Canada). 

 

Their presence was very disruptive. We boarded to find our dining time had been changed, unbeknownst to us, and what had been a confirmed table for 2 (rare back in those days, but it was our honeymoon....) was now a large shared table for 8.

 

They also took over public rooms for large chunks of time during the day. Most annoying of all, they would all meet out at the pool area, sit down side-by-side in a large ring around the edge of the pool (with their legs in the water) and then proceed to sing their company song (some changed-up version of the school-days classic "Alouette, Gentille Alouette...." Over and over. No one else could enter the pool without it being extremely awkward. Their motivational speaker would also shout out things to them (to which they responded "en mass"...... 🙄).

 

And that was only one of a number of things that went wrong on that cruise. Suffice to say we have never been back on NCL.... and as Hank says, I do all I can to avoid being on another cruise with a large charter.

 

[horseymike]

How can you find out in advance if a cruise has a partial charter ?

[Aquahound]

48 minutes ago, horseymike said:

How can you find out in advance if a cruise has a partial charter ?

 

Sometimes, you can just Google your ship and sailing date, and see if anything comes up.  

[horseymike]

Thanks

[cruisemom42]

7 hours ago, Aquahound said:

 

Sometimes, you can just Google your ship and sailing date, and see if anything comes up.  

 

The HAL board here on CC has a long-running thread where people add info about upcoming charters gleaned through searching (as mentioned above) and other methods.