Group cruise--had to share

[mountainmare]

So...we generally book HAL cruises 10 days or longer and never really had a group cruise issue because we tend to stay away from the popular 7-day Carribean or Mexico routes.

I confess that we jumped ship and booked the Celebrity Millennium for the Med in October, we booked 14 months in advance and got a great price. This is our first non-HAL since we our very first Carnival (yes we had fun and it hooked us on cruiseing)

 

Our rollcall is sort of slow even though the cruise looks filled up. Today a member of the rollcall mentioned that she and her DH are attending a medical conference on the ship. I don't mind a ship full of doctors but I think that its amusing that I've been so smug about avoiding groups that on a very port intensive and sort pricey cruise we have a large conference. I think its great, maybe I'll have Rome all to myself!!!

[trubey]

If you already know there will be medical people on board, the only reason you might want more information is to find out the size of the group and what facilities their group might be using to the exclusion of other passengers. I will recommend that you google as follows:

 

Use the ship name.

Use the month and date (with and without an abbreviation (i.e. Nov. and November).

Use the word medical.

Try the word join.

 

If you get nowhere, come back and give me the information and I'll try it for you.

 

As for your apparent smugnesss, let's try to remember the old adage, "May all my words be sweet and tender, for tomorrow I may have to eat them"--now if I could just remember that for myself .susana.

[kryos]

I don't mind a ship full of doctors but I think that its amusing that I've been so smug about avoiding groups that on a very port intensive and sort pricey cruise we have a large conference. I think its great, maybe I'll have Rome all to myself!!!

I don't think this particular type of group will be that intrusive. Sounds to me like they will be attending lectures onboard during sea days and then doing the normal stuff on port days ... touring, whatever. I attended a conference onboard the Rotterdam back in 2004 ... for writers ... it was the same sort of thing. Other than a cocktail party, we really didn't "tie up" any areas of the ship that others couldn't use. The areas where we had are various workshops, etc. were places that are not in use during the daytime anyway. And, we really didn't have any nighttime activities other than group tables in the dining room.

 

I wouldn't imagine a medical convention would have that many people (in relation to the total capacity of the ship) involved anyway ... so they won't impact on other passengers' cruise experience at all.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Jules1]

We went on a group cruise in January - my husband was attending a conference. They did use the large theatre during the day (don't know if there would have been movies, etc shown in there or not-but there were no movies shown on this cruise, which surprised me). They also used some of the lounge areas for breakout sessions.

[chasetf]

I think its great, maybe I'll have Rome all to myself!!!

I am sure the pickpockets will be there. Protect yourself and have a great time. We loved Rome.... and all of Italy. :D

[kryos]

We went on a group cruise in January - my husband was attending a conference. They did use the large theatre during the day (don't know if there would have been movies, etc shown in there or not-but there were no movies shown on this cruise, which surprised me). They also used some of the lounge areas for breakout sessions.

I know that during my writer's conference cruise, we used the Queen's Lounge for an hour or two ... maybe the Wajang Theater for an hour or so, as well as some of the smaller rooms like the Half Moon Room, the Hudson Room, etc. I'm sure the bigger showrooms are not used all day long for lectures and such, so the group using them for an hour or so shouldn't impact the cruise activities schedule at all. And ... I think the whole purpose of those smaller rooms like the Hudson Room, the Queens and Kings Room, etc. ... are for meetings and such that are held onboard. So, the use of those rooms by groups should not take away anything from the other passengers' experiences. I believe there were movies shown on the writer's conference cruise, because I remember one in particular that I kind of wanted to see, but couldn't because of scheduling of my workshops.

 

When a group becomes intrusive is if they take over decks for their private cocktail parties or take over an entire dining room seating so that no one else can have that seating, even if they had it confirmed. As for these smaller private group conferences, the ships are designed to accommodate them without impacting the other passengers' cruise experience.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[BM64]

My husband attended one of these conferences aboard the Zuiderdam back in November. This company that arranges these uses primarily HAL. On our trip there were about 75-100 healthcare providers, it wasn't limited to only physicians. They met on sea days and never in public lounges, the first evening they had a cocktail party in the Crows Nest but that was it. I can also tell you that we were seated in the dining room with others attending the conference. Although our tablemates were lovely, it would have been nice to meet other passengers and talk about things other then medicine. I don't think you will find it intrusive on your trip. Enjoy!!

[the2ofus]

A couple of years back we met a fellow on the Maasdam who mentioned he was a lecturer for medical conferences which had been held on three consecutive 7 day cruises. Ours was the last of the scheduled conference cruises. We occasionally saw small groups of people in and around Half Moon or Hudson room but otherwise never noticed any large group activity.

 

Some CC members might remember that JimV and Ruth often did med. conference cruises to meet their continuing ed requirements. Has anyone heard from them lately? Hope they're both okay.

[mountainmare]

Thanks-I did Google it and its sponsored by the Ontario Med Assoc. You all are correct, its probably a smaller group. The only concern that I had was the taking over entire decks, like for the sail in to Venice.

 

I never gave this a second thought until the reports about the Oosterdam earlier this year.

[lougee1043]

found out there is a group aboard our cruise --with a little homework i found out that they are crossword puzzlers and the group is expected to be around 25 pax-------------------------at least they are not clog dancers