Help me plan my group cruise.........please!!

[crazycruzer68]

We currently have 26 booked on the Fantasy for Oct.15. I am trying to get a list together for everyone of words that they will need to be familar with such as porter, sail and sign, capers, you get the idea. Has anyone ever done something like this before? Anything you can think of would be a big help. Also any other ideas you might have to help plan this would be appreciated.

[Wennfred]

We currently have 26 booked on the Fantasy for Oct.15. I am trying to get a list together for everyone of words that they will need to be familar with such as porter, sail and sign, capers, you get the idea. Has anyone ever done something like this before? Anything you can think of would be a big help. Also any other ideas you might have to help plan this would be appreciated.

 

 

Have you sailed on a Cruise before? Go to Carnivals Website, they have a FAQ section that pretty much answers alot of questions. Also on Carnival Front page there is a section called Cruise Control, it has various levels of Cruisers, from First Time Cruisers and Experienced Cruisers, take a look at that section for great info.

 

First time Cruisers: http://www.carnival.com/CMS/Static_Templates/FirstTimeCruiser.aspx

 

Experienced Cruisers: http://www.carnival.com/CMS/Static_Templates/ExperiencedCruiser.aspx

 

FAQ: http://www.carnival.com/CMS/FAQs/FAQLanding.aspx

[Moondawgie]

Great idea!

 

Port

Starbard

Bow

Stern

Aft

Forward

Cabin

Ship

Deck

Embarkation

Debarkation

Muster

Lido

Formal attire

Spa

Tender

Steward

Maitre'd

 

 

Tell everyone that they don't HAVE to do everything together and can do things on their own if they please. You can't please everyone!

 

Have fun.

[Ladydee]

Hi Josie,

 

You need a newsletter! I organized a cruise for 29 of us a couple of years ago and that's what I did. I wrote some articles and copied some from various websites too. There was a Q and A section, weather report from the different ports, a "What You Need to Know" section to cover payments, passport info, etc., Excursions - you get the idea. It was fun and kept everybody excited.

 

The other thing I did was make beaded lanyards for all the ladies and I passed them out at the airport.

 

Good Luck!

[PlanoDebbie]

Something else fun to do is have t-shirts printed up for everyone to wear on embarkation day. I wished we had done that with our group cruise for the in-laws 50th anniversary cruise to Alaska. Think of a theme or something and have eveyone order their sizes. Find out where your local schools get shirts screen-printed for their band or whatever clubs. There's usually a flat set up fee of around $50.00, then a cost of about $8.00 per shirt unless you order really nice shirts. Just spread that set-up fee evenly across all of the shirts ordered. We've seen some awesome shirts while standing in lines.

 

Something else you may want to do is coordinate a list of who is in which cabins, and what their cabin phone numbers would be. That would certainly make it easy for everyone to find each other if all of your cabins are not easily grouped together. You also might want to make some cute door signs for everyone to put on their cabin doors so they're easy to spot. All of the doors start looking alike after a while.

 

The bigger the crowd, the more fun you'll have.

[TennisLover]

I did a newsletter for our group on Navigator last month (19 people). Not everyone knew each other so there were introductions. Also -- times for each ports, group activities that many had committed to (and what time we had to meet in the morning to get our private excursions), things not to miss on the ship, pointers for making spa and supper club reservations, passport/ID/water shoes reminders, fun facts about the ship. Signed it "from your cruise director." Some loved it, some thought I was over the top (but I'm sure they were glad to have the info). It was really fun putting it together. (I emailed it to everyone about a month before the trip.)

[RWolver672]

When we did our Victory cruise with my brothers and their wives and another couple, I made booklets of our cruise information. It had all the ports listed and their excursions. Then I made copies of all the information I could find on the ship like how much food is consumed on a typical cruise, the size of the ship, when it was built, etc.

 

I made a t-shirt transfer with the name of the ship and all our names under it with each specific person's name in red and the others in black and gave one to each person with instructions on how to transfer it and included them in the book.

 

We all met for breakfast at a restaurant and our Travel Agent came and handed out the tickets and a huge poster of the Victory. (The ship was new at the time.) The TA answered any questions that the group had and explained how the transfers worked. We went a day early so they took us to the hotel first, then the next day they took us to the ship. We stayed at the same hotel for a night when we returned from the cruise. The transfers took us from the ship to the hotel, then the next day picked us up and took us to the airport.

 

We all met again about a month after the cruise for breakfast and each of us had made two copies of all the pictures we took. Then we passed them around and anybody that wanted to traded pictures.

[sandsand]

Whoa Josie - 26 people! Good for you. I have 13 booked for the same date (and we're still recruiting). About half of them are new cruisers. I've been working on a website but I haven't felt like doing the "know before you go section" yet. I started a roll call for our sailing if your interested.

[GoinCruisin]

We currently have 26 booked on the Fantasy for Oct.15. I am trying to get a list together for everyone of words that they will need to be familar with such as porter, sail and sign, capers, you get the idea. Has anyone ever done something like this before? Anything you can think of would be a big help. Also any other ideas you might have to help plan this would be appreciated.

 

We usually have 100+ in our groups, and organizing it can be a task. Plan a "meeting" place... somewhere people can go when they want to relax and others can find a "familiar" face. We have mimosa parties in the morning at the same spot... whoever shows up shows up. We also try to stay around the same location for "sunbathing" and have crowds there every day. We also make tshirts and nametags for the group, as well as door signs. There is generally at least one thing we plan each day, and whoever wants to join can join... and we try to plan something in the ports (plan a meeting place and meet about 45 minutes before you want to get off the ship) Groups are alot of fun, but a little organization will make it so much better!!

[crazycruzer68]

Whoa Josie - 26 people! Good for you. I have 13 booked for the same date (and we're still recruiting). About half of them are new cruisers. I've been working on a website but I haven't felt like doing the "know before you go section" yet. I started a roll call for our sailing if your interested.

 

 

Great we're on the same sailing!!:D

What's your website, if you don't mind my asking.

 

All of these are great ideas, thanks everyone for your imput!!

[sa7776]

I did a group of 65 last year and have two groups of 35+ going this year. Keepin touch often through newsletters and email (just make sure you remember to snail mail those without email addresses). Use your group list to see if anyone has any special occasions during the cruise and plan accordingly. Think up a group name or slogan (Ours was "what happens with girlfriends, stays with girlfriends"). If all the docs are coming to you, make sure to set a date in advance (10 days to 2 weeks) for a precruise meeting. Make a packet for each cabin with tickets, map to port(if driving), ship layout etc. I even mark the cabins our group has and put a line beside it with who is in the cabin. Keep an eye on this website and send articles that you think would be helpful to all your group. If you are booked through Carnivals Groups, you will get a call from the Dining coordinator, work with her to make sure all dining arrangements are set. If you have anyone with special needs be sure to make sure that is taken care of. If you are working with a TA she can help you with some of those things. We didn't have tshirts but had buttons made for everyone to wear. We cruised from Mobile and I alerted the embarkation personnel monitering the doors to come get me if there was a problem (I was upstairs). Pick a topic for each newsletter ie. check-in, different activities, debarkation, shore excursions.

 

Hope these suggestions help. My groups are also going on the Fantasy but in August and November.