Partial charters - tell me your stories!

[jamscckmc]

I had one cruise years @go on RC that had a large group and several lounges were closed for them though out the cruise.

 

I’m worried about my Australia cruise next March. There’s a group called Rockstar Adventures that states they have a private charter and it’s an adult intimate and sensual group. Sounds like a swinger group to me. 

wonder where they will be doing their swinging?

 

This is a bucket list trip for us with that’s a BTB. I know any cruise can change to a private charter if they can fill it.
 

 

[Honolulu Blue]

3 hours ago, jamscckmc said:

I had one cruise years @go on RC that had a large group and several lounges were closed for them though out the cruise.

 

I’m worried about my Australia cruise next March. There’s a group called Rockstar Adventures that states they have a private charter and it’s an adult intimate and sensual group. Sounds like a swinger group to me. 

wonder where they will be doing their swinging?

 

This is a bucket list trip for us with that’s a BTB. I know any cruise can change to a private charter if they can fill it.

Thank you for sharing your story.

 

As for Rockstar Adventures, if this is what you're talking about at     https://trips.rockstaradv.com/t/rockstar-adventures/australia-openingact-rsa ,  it doesn't look like you have much to worry about. It's a land adventure that's limited to 20 couples. 

[jamscckmc]

That’s the pre cruise land tour. I can’t find the cruise info. I hope that’s limited too. Just wonder where on the ship they will be “intimate and sensual”.

[Honolulu Blue]

11 minutes ago, jamscckmc said:

That’s the pre cruise land tour. I can’t find the cruise info. I hope that’s limited too. Just wonder where on the ship they will be “intimate and sensual”.

I can imagine, but won't say, for fear of grossing some people out. 😮

[patty1955]

On 3/18/2023 at 2:42 AM, Hlitner said:

 

 

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

 

Hank

Do you have any suggestion as to how to do our homework? There's rumors that our Asian cruise next year may become a partial charter and I'd like to research it. 

[CPT Trips]

On 2/2/2023 at 12:15 PM, Markanddonna said:

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

January cruises out of NY/NJ were problematic several years ago as a number of large private schools in theNYC area ran family charters during their winter break. 
Rumors on this board were that the cruise lines “ banned” those groups. 

[ldubs]

On our just completed cruise we encountered a "Reserved" sign and two ship's staff attending the door to the Vista Lounge.  Being a faithful reader of Cruise Critic, I says to Mrs Ldubs, "Ahah, there must be a charter group on board".  Then one of the guys invites us in.  Turns out it was a Captain's Circle get-together.  I guess we dodged a bullet.  😀

[Hlitner]

5 hours ago, patty1955 said:

Do you have any suggestion as to how to do our homework? There's rumors that our Asian cruise next year may become a partial charter and I'd like to research it. 

The Internet is usually your friend.  We have sometimes (not always) had luck by simply searching for a particular cruise (ship and date) on the Internet.  Many groups, that charter or have a large presence on a cruise, will advertise the voyage on their own web site.   Even when you do find a group on your voyage, it still is a crap shoot whether to take your chances or not!  We have been on cruises with large groups where it has not impacted the trip.  But there are some groups that are either too darn large, or who have their own agendas that can impact non-group folks.

 

Hank

[DarrenM]

On 2/4/2023 at 9:30 PM, Aquahound said:

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. 

I would be extremely cheesed off if part of the ship, sold to me as part of my cruise, was suddenly out of bounds, because they let someone book it for private parties.

 

Infact I would say I was mis-sold something. Good for a refund methinks.

[DarrenM]

12 hours ago, ldubs said:

On our just completed cruise we encountered a "Reserved" sign and two ship's staff attending the door to the Vista Lounge.  Being a faithful reader of Cruise Critic, I says to Mrs Ldubs, "Ahah, there must be a charter group on board".  Then one of the guys invites us in.  Turns out it was a Captain's Circle get-together.  I guess we dodged a bullet.  😀

Captains circle get-together sound a bit cultish. Definitely to be avoided.

[ldubs]

4 hours ago, DarrenM said:

Captains circle get-together sound a bit cultish. Definitely to be avoided.

 

I've been to them.  Not really cultish in my opinion.  Mostly just regular people with a lot of cruises hanging out.   I didn't attend the one mentioned in my post, but assume they still give free drinks.  

[DarrenM]

I wouldnt need the free drinks with my premium drinks package.😁

[ldubs]

11 minutes ago, DarrenM said:

I wouldnt need the free drinks with my premium drinks package.😁

 

 I had a soda package once. Otherwise, being a lightweight drinker, I'm among the pay as you go crowd. 😀 

[DarrenM]

7 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

 I had a soda package once. Otherwise, being a lightweight drinker, I'm among the pay as you go crowd. 😀 

I am an extremely lightweight drinker, but I love the alcohol free cocktails.

 

Her indoors isnt a lightweight drinker though😨, so the premium package is well worth it. 😉