Cruising with friends?

[tomboyy]

any bad times had or has everyone enjoyed it?

 

Tom

[megansdad1]

We did one cruise solo and one with freinds. We had a much better time with our friends. We just made sure that we didn't book rooms next to each other. I don't want to know what some of them are doing at night :D

[PINEVIEW01]

We've cruise solo, with family and with friends. No regrets with any.

[2funcruzin]

We always cruise with our best friends. We always book suites next door to each other and have carnival open the partition between balconies so that we have one big balcony all week! It's the best. We do things together and then we do our own things as well so it's great!

 

Enjoy!

[sailgirl]

We've done both and enjoyed both. When we cruised with friends, the kids really enjoyed having their friends especially my shy 13 year old son. Although when we went with just us, he had a great time too. My 2 teenage daughters always had each other but they are very social and always make a lot of cruise friends. :)

[tomboyy]

We're going with some long time friends and their 18? year old and their 8 year old. we have 2 daughters 16 + 21. My friend said the youngest most likely wouldn't like being left at camp carnival, I'm thinking he will once he meets a friend.

 

Tom

[Chan_T]

We've cruised solo and with friends (we are cruising with family in December). Although we've enjoyed all of our cruises, we especially enjoyed the one with our friends.

[ala-kat]

any bad times had or has everyone enjoyed it?

 

Tom

 

We thoroughly enjoyed it. Most important thing to remember is that you are NOT attached at the hip. Do what you want to do, and they should do the same. Then everyone comes together and shares.

[bewitchedwitch]

We have never cruised with friends, but my Dh and I talk about taking a vacation with friends all the time though. Throughout our discussions we have always agreed that a cruise would be the simplest, least problem-some vacation. All the entertainment and dining options are right there on the ship. No worries about transportation etc. if you want to do something different than your friends. It's so easy to do things seperately as well as getting together on a cruise ship.

[gusandgidgetsmom]

We normally cruise with family members (from both sides) and friends even cruised once with my husband's ex-wife that has the same name as mine. Caused a lot of confusion and a lots of funny looks. We are taking a GS this time so will be very different as we are the only adults. Any cruise is fun!

[MamaParrotHead]

Cruised twice with my BEST friend and her husband and boyfriend (she was divorced in the meantime, LOL). They're super laid back like we are, we have the understanding that we're under no obligation to be glued at the hip. It's worked well.

 

THEN, I opened my big mouth and was telling a group of our "acquaintences" how much we love to cruise, and the good times we had, and how they should all try it atleast once. And that we had one booked for 4/07. And a couple of these "acquaintences" thought I was inviting them, and well, took me up on my non-invitation. :eek: They're a bit younger than we are (both are like 25-26) and pretty much drank their Sign & Sail sky high (then complained about how expensive the drinks are, when they're ordering DOUBLES at $12 a pop!). She got totally hammered in Jamaica and proceeded to brag to all of us how she puked for 2 hours in the middle of the night in her GARBAGE can :eek: , they pretty much slept and ordered room service all week. Which is FINE, but then complained about how bored they were (after admitting she hadn't even bothered to read the Capers).

 

So...I'd say yes, we'll definately travel with my best friend and her boyfriend again. No way are the other couple ever going to be invited along again. Just set any "ground rules" ahead of time and misunderstandings will be avoided. I honestly have so much fun with her (as sometimes she'll do things that my DH isn't into...like laying out on sea days and baking in the sun, swimming, spa treatments) that I don't know how much fun DH and I would have if just the two of us went. :D

[ShedQueen77]

We're taking our first with my fiance's nephew and his wife, who were both my friends before my fiance and I even started dating. I didn't even know they were related! lol The nephew and his wife are around our age. My fiance is the 3rd youngest of 11 children hence the weird age thing. Remember that the next time you complain abour your in-laws. At least you don't have to battle 11 of them like I do! :D He even has nieces and nephews that are older than he is.

 

I'm HOPING for a good cruise experience! They are rookies like we are. However, they are not taking any incentive and doing their own research for procedures, ship rules, excursions, the ports we're visiting, etc... Every time I mention something about any of the listed, they give me the blank "Duh, what are you talking about?" look. I sure hope they aren't expecting us to carry them through this or babysit them the entire time. I don't mind hanging with them every now and again, but we'll be on our HONEYMOON as well for Pete's sake! :D

 

I've told them where to find the information but they just blow me off or just ask me questions after I bring something up. I had to take them to apply for their passports!!! :eek: I'm really hoping I don't regret this!

[FitzLA]

We like to cruise with friends, too. Actually have a group booking on carnival Liberty for next year with lots of friends.

 

Last cruise, some of my friends did something they should not have, and almost got me into SERIOUS trouble. They are lucky all ended okay, but those few friends were not invited on our next cruise with us. I would never vacation with them again.

 

But the upcoming cruise will be great. Really looking forward to it.

[Maryutah]

Cruised twice now, first time my sister and 2 friends was a blast. This time, us again, our mom and 4 friends, and again, a great time.

On the med cruise we sometimes did same excursions, sometimes did different ones, as well as do different things on ship, then get together over dinner and enjoy discussing our days - great way to go!

[TakeMeAway1001]

We have cruised with and without and both were fine. I agree with what was posted with regards to understanding there are no obligations. This cruise we booked our own excursions and passed on the info to our friends and left it up to them if they wanted to join in. I got the impression on this cruise and the last that our friends wanted to be together all the time and that was frustrating. There were times we didn't want to go to the dining room or sit in a bar all night and the cabin phone calls and door knocking was a bit annoying at times. We declined to have our balcony partition taken out, thankfully our steward asked us before he took it out, there were just times we enjoyed "us" time. So as long as the expections are clear up front you should have a great time.

[cruisin' again]

we've done 2 cruises with the same friends and have another booked for October. We love it!!!

 

We make sure everyone knows that no one's feelings will be hurt if one person wants to do one thing and someone else wants to do another. We do what we want...it's everyone's vacation...we usually at least meet up at dinner (but a lot of the time we're all together anyway! lol)

[Luv2cruise14]

We cruised with another family in Feb on the Fantasy that DH and I met on our Conquest cruise last May. They were our tablemates and we all became friends and kept in touch so when we decided to take the family on a cruise we asked if they were interested in joining us. We had a BLAST and can't wait to cruise with them again.

[lrizit]

I've cruised with family, friends and with just my husband. All three definitely had their perks, but I did love sailing with my friends. Four of us got extended balcony, connecting cabins 7182 and 7184 on the Legend and had the partition opened. It was wonderful. Everyone did their own thing and we all had a blast.

I'd love to do it again, but everyone is broke! :)

[tomboyy]

They are rookies like we are. However, they are not taking any incentive and doing their own research for procedures, ship rules, excursions, the ports we're visiting, etc... Every time I mention something about any of the listed, they give me the blank "Duh, what are you talking about?" look. I sure hope they aren't expecting us to carry them through this or babysit them the entire time. I don't mind hanging with them every now and again, but we'll be on our HONEYMOON as well for Pete's sake! :D

 

I've told them where to find the information but they just blow me off or just ask me questions after I bring something up. I had to take them to apply for their passports!!! :eek: I'm really hoping I don't regret this!

 

Same thing happened here. My wife found the cruise,had to book it for them,had to do their fun pass cause they couldn't figure it out, I had to book their excursions and all this on a dial up connection and they had high speed access at home:rolleyes: I got high-speed access just so I could do the carnival and cruise critic faster:D This is our second cruise(first with the kids) and their first. My best friend called my wife and asked if they had telephones in the cabin and she told him yes and he said good cause he wanted me to call him and wake him up in the morning:cool: I have done all the research and have a box with cruise stuff in it ( duct tape, power strip) everyone here knows "the list" and made hime a folder with all the info.That said.. he's my best friend and his wife and my wife are best friends and everyone gets along great. I am just hoping their feelings don't get hurt if we don't want to do everything they do.

 

Tom

[Forchunut1]

I have cruised solo, as a couple, with another couple, with a group of girlfriends, and with a group of nine mixed friends. All have been different from each other, but all great. I tend to be the planner so for cruises with friends I play "cruise director" as far as planning and researching. But, I don't mind doing it. We've never had a problem with doing things together, or spending some time apart. As long as everyone know the "ground rules" up front, we've never had a problem.

 

We've had a lot of fun cruising with friends and I would highly recommend it. It they are people you already know you enjoy hanging around with, that makes a big difference.

[Wennfred]

any bad times had or has everyone enjoyed it?

 

Tom

 

We cruised with friends before, Never again... way too much planning to do things they want to do and or they are either late all the time etc. I don't have the patience or time to baby sit other people. We have more fun with the new friends we meet onboard or on our Roll Call.

 

 

Fred

[luv2cruise777l]

I am fortunate enough to have a best friend that shares my love of cruising. We cruise with our husbands and sometimes not :D (just girls trip). We share in the planning of our cruises although she is getting better than me at it now that she has discovered the Cruise Critic boards!:) I have never had a bad experience traveling with my friends. Family........ well that's another story or thread :eek:

[sea_u_onboard]

We have sailed with a group of friends and met MANY CC'ers on board.

 

First thing is that you make it clear (without sounding bossy or pushy) that you understand that this is everyone's vacation and that everyone is not going to want to do the same thing as the same time. Suggest that you have a meeting place on deck and in the showroom where you can meet up "IF" people decide to go to the same thing.

 

For example - we had an area on the Lido deck where everyone hang out (if they wanted to hang out with everyone) if they didn't want to hang out they could do there own thing. Someone was almost always there - or we would sit down and shortly along would come someone in our group. They/we would stay for as long as they/we wanted and then go to do other things. Same thing in the showroom. We always sat towards the back on the port side. If anyone showed up and wanted to hang they knew where to find us and others.

 

We did book the same dining time and requested seating together. This gave everyone a chance to share their day. If they showed up fine - if not that was fine also. By just showing up you don't have to be waiting on anybody. Even when we did tours we meet up on the tour - not on the ship - so we didn't have to worry about being late.

 

We had some folks who booked tours together. We had family that wanted to do something different from us - no problem - "go do your thing and we'll meet up later".

 

After all it is everyone's vacation and I know I would hate to be tied to someone else doing everything they did. Now - for the most part we (family) spent a lot of time together. Maybe not as a group - but us girls would take off to do something fun and the guys were just happy hanging out.

 

Just say it nicely. Say something like, "We don't want you to feel like you have to do everything we are doing. This is your vacation to and you should do what you want to do. There will be times when we will do things together but we don't have to do everything together. We may find that we want to do many things together but please don't feel the need to do something we are doing if there is something else you would rather be doing."

[babyher]

We always cruise with a group of friends (all couples) .

 

We always have a ball . We say the same thing , we are not joined at the hip, and we are each free to do whatever we want. In some ports we have all done the same excursion together, in others we split up and do our own thing. Either way we all meet up at dinner that evening, and usually all go to the show afterwards.

[reno3]

We have always vacationed and cruised alone. We ask friends and family but when it comes down to final arragements they never have the money etc. We had a cruise booked for this past April and had to cancel for injury. Our neighbors (age 70 ish) and their two adult children and their few children went the same week (different ship). For months before the neighbors kept telling us they wished they had booked the same ship as we had and gone with us and not their family:eek: (as I mentioned above we had to cancel anyway). Well....we are planning to do this same cruise next year and the neighbors and family loved their cruise so much they want to do the ship we had canceled. We are planning to do this ship next year since we canceld (haven't told them yet). My husband says that if they all go he will not:eek: They are nice people but I think they will want to "hang" with us all the time. I don't want to have to "hide" on the ship etc.

I told my husband I would talk to one of the daughters that went and try and see what she is planning for next year. We don't want to hurt anyones feelings. Changing ships etc for us is not an option. We want to cruise Western and have been to Jamica. Anyone have this problem and any suggestions:confused: