Large groups but not a charter

[OrtonPark]

Hi! I’m curious as to others’ experiences with large groups at sea; things like conventions, reunions, common interest groups, etc. 

 

Our last cruise was back in 2014, so it’s been a while, but we did have a large group of some sort of wellness multilevel marketing affiliates on board. I was hit up at the gym a couple of times with a sales pitch, and the entire group decided to dress up in wacky 70s costumes for formal night, but other than that, it wasn’t too disruptive.

 

any stories to share?

 

 

[Georgia_Peaches]

I haven't had any cruising experiences with large groups on Celebrity but once on an NCL cruise out of New Orleans, I had the pleasure (not) of being surrounded by a TON of Saints fans cheering on their team because they made the playoffs...or some such thing.  It was loud and obnoxious...or maybe I was just jealous bc my team didn't make it 🤣.

[Lena11033]

I have, it was not good - loud and obnoxious is a good description.

 

It may be different if it was something you are interested in, mine was Tampa bay group - if it had been the cruise before that was disco related I would have had a better time.

Needless to say I won't be doing that type of cruise again.

Edited May 20 by Lena11033

[Essiesmom]

45 minutes ago, OrtonPark said:

Hi! I’m curious as to others’ experiences with large groups at sea; things like conventions, reunions, common interest groups, etc. 

 

Our last cruise was back in 2014, so it’s been a while, but we did have a large group of some sort of wellness multilevel marketing affiliates on board. I was hit up at the gym a couple of times with a sales pitch, and the entire group decided to dress up in wacky 70s costumes for formal night, but other than that, it wasn’t too disruptive.

 

any stories to share?

 

 

If the person hitting you up in the gym was not an employee, you should report it to guest services.  I think that’s prohibited.  EM

[OrtonPark]

46 minutes ago, Essiesmom said:

If the person hitting you up in the gym was not an employee, you should report it to guest services.  I think that’s prohibited.  EM

Thanks! That occurred to me, but they weren’t persistent at all, so I wonder if the higher-ups on the cruise told them to cool their sales pitches, lol.

 

It was two separate women on two separate occasions, both in the gym, and both started with “striking up a conversation about how healthy I looked“ and wouldn’t I be interested in hearing about supplements to get healthier?

[leaveitallbehind]

The biggest issue IMO with large groups can be their dominance of certain venues, such as bars, hot tubs, pool areas, sometimes with booking specialty restaurants, etc.  When this occurs it can be frustrating if a given venue was somewhere you wanted to go and it was too crowded or dominated by that group and their activities.

Edited May 20 by leaveitallbehind

[mrgabriel]

We were on a cruise last September with an Abraham Hicks group. There were several hundred members of the group onboard and I read a lot of concerns prior to the cruise (they sail on different ships every year). They weren't an issue at all. The group used the theatre for their sessions during the day, and they all lined up at Cafe al Baccia at breaks, but otherwise they weren't an issue. A few of them loudly shared their beliefs but that's no different from non-group passengers.

 

A more impactful issue was Christmas on Ascent when large family groups booked most of the specialty dining well in advance. 🤷‍♀️ The positive was that there were so many family groups in SD that Blu was empty and we never had a wait. 

[OrtonPark]

My husband reminded me that we had a large group of Harley motorcycle enthusiasts on our second cruise - I had forgotten because they were not noticeable at all! Except for their branded shirts and distinctive dress in the buffet. 

[mahasamatman]

3 hours ago, OrtonPark said:

Our last cruise was back in 2014, so it’s been a while, but we did have a large group of some sort of wellness multilevel marketing affiliates on board.

 

They're on every ship under the guise of the spa.

[crslover]

One week of a three week cruise with Regent about ten years ago was spent with Mr Bollywoods 50th birthday party. One third of the ship (about 250) were his guests. Including all of the suites. The day they disembarked the entire crew celebrated. They were the most disrespectful group I have ever met. Special foods. They did not think they should abide by dress codes. They spent millions in the casino and were angry when we were in a port.  We always make sure now there are no groups like that on a cruise.

[cruisestitch]

I don’t know of any way that you can avoid large groups.
 

On silhouette last week there were over 350 customers of one particular Belgian Travel agent. They had a couple of private parties in the Sky Lounge which meant that no one else could use the lounge at that time, but otherwise they were not a problem 

[NutsAboutGolf]

11 hours ago, OrtonPark said:

Hi! I’m curious as to others’ experiences with large groups at sea; things like conventions, reunions, common interest groups, etc. 

 

Our last cruise was back in 2014, so it’s been a while, but we did have a large group of some sort of wellness multilevel marketing affiliates on board. I was hit up at the gym a couple of times with a sales pitch, and the entire group decided to dress up in wacky 70s costumes for formal night, but other than that, it wasn’t too disruptive.

 

any stories to share?

 

 

 

Life is too short, just interrupt them and say "No thank you"; if you want to be social can follow up with the usual "Where are you from?".  For us, a couple of times we've had other passengers pitch us to join their independent tour presumably to get their costs down.  We usually have our tours booked well before stepping foot onto the ship

[NutsAboutGolf]

9 hours ago, mrgabriel said:

We were on a cruise last September with an Abraham Hicks group. There were several hundred members of the group onboard and I read a lot of concerns prior to the cruise (they sail on different ships every year). They weren't an issue at all. The group used the theatre for their sessions during the day, and they all lined up at Cafe al Baccia at breaks, but otherwise they weren't an issue. A few of them loudly shared their beliefs but that's no different from non-group passengers.

 

A more impactful issue was Christmas on Ascent when large family groups booked most of the specialty dining well in advance. 🤷‍♀️ The positive was that there were so many family groups in SD that Blu was empty and we never had a wait. 

 

We were on the same sailing, was a very rough crossing and I personally was sick of hearing how disappointed folks were about Maui being canceled.  Their group was a good group, I don't believe recruiting others was part of their group.  Spoke to several who shared their life event reason for joining the group 

[leaveitallbehind]

3 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

I don’t know of any way that you can avoid large groups.

Sometimes if you google your ship and sailing date you may find large groups that are booked on it.  Or if you google different groups or organizations that you may be aware of and would like to avoid. they will publish upcoming cruise dates that they have booked for their membership. FB is another alternative for this.  You can then avoid them by looking at alternative sailing dates.

Edited May 21 by leaveitallbehind

[Mark_K]

11 hours ago, crslover said:

We always make sure now there are no groups like that on a cruise.

Other than hit or miss with Google, how does one find out whether there are large groups on a cruise?

[chemmo]

We were on a Mediterranean cruise with some sort of Doctors convention on board. It was fantastic! Sea days 10 - 12.30 they were in conference in the theatre. They dined as a group in the MDR (own area) at lunch. Afternoon back to their own groups. Never had such quiet sea days poolside or in the buffet! Early evening they were all over the ship (still wearing badges) but no trouble, no special venues booked. They were all second fixed dining too so no blocking first seating or select…

Nice people and well organised by the cruise ship.

[leaveitallbehind]

3 hours ago, Mark_K said:

Other than hit or miss with Google, how does one find out whether there are large groups on a cruise?

As I indicated in my previous post, google or FB would be the only ways I am aware of to see what groups may be on any given itinerary, assuming the groups would make that public. The cruise lines do not release that information. For these same reasons I am also not aware of any websites that would have this information.

 

Even full ship charters are advertised by the group or organization chartering the ship - typically not the cruise lines.  Large groups also tend do advertise directly to their memberships or through their organization, but not by public announcements.

 

Also as mentioned, you could try proactively searching groups or organizations you would be concerned with to see if they have published upcoming cruises.  Many do.

Edited May 21 by leaveitallbehind

[Mark_K]

9 minutes ago, leaveitallbehind said:

As I indicated in my previous post, google or FB would be the only ways I am aware of to see what groups may be on any given itinerary as the cruise lines do not publish that information. Even full ship charters are advertised by the group or organization chartering the ship - typically not the cruise lines.

My bad, when you said you “always make sure …”, I thought that meant more than try to find out.

[leaveitallbehind]

2 minutes ago, Mark_K said:

My bad, when you said you “always make sure …”, I thought that meant more than try to find out.

I don't believe I sad that - crslover did.  But no problem - LOL.