Group Perks?

[DEELOUX]

We have 40 people in our group (12 cabins). Our TA gave us one person free and a $50 OBC per cabin. What have other received? Just curious. 67 days to go.

[DASA]

Have received a coupon for a free group picture and some t-shirts. If you got $50 per cabin OBC i think you did great.

 

And yes for every 8 cabins booked you get on free cruise for that cruise.Depending on how many in my group i usually divide that amongst each cabin booked or buy a couple of rounds on the ship.The group leader will get a check from CCL after they return for that cruise only amount.The amount of the check will be the amount of the most liked cabins you booked.

 

Hope this helps. Never got $50 per cabin OBC. I envy you.

[bigsmooth12]

We have 40 people in our group (12 cabins). Our TA gave us one person free and a $50 OBC per cabin. What have other received? Just curious. 67 days to go.

 

 

We have 16 people in our group (9 cabins). Our TA gave us one person free same as you $75 OBC per cabin and everyone eats at the steakhouse free for dinner one night and a free 1 Hour drinking party:D, were on the NCL Epic and we booked and payed for the trip last July.

[peptobysmol]

Did you guys book ES on the Group booking?

[SlingBlade]

Yea was it booked Early Saver? We booked 17 people, 7 cabins thru Carnival. Had another couple want to book also. So 8 cabins later, 19 people & NOTHING. Carnival said since we booked Early Saver no can do. We cruise in Jan 2013.

[oo ee oo ee baby]

We're getting, per person, $25 OBC, a shirt, a tour of Kennebunkport, and 2 open bar cocktail parties. Also, one group photo per cabin.

[SadieN]

Group perks are based on Amenity Points. So many points are available per cruise and more can be purchased. Different sail dates have a different amount of points available. These points are used for the gimmees. Gimmees can be anything from OBC to cocktail parties to wine to logo items, etc

Also usually there is one free berth per 8 booked cabins, so when the 9th cabin is booked the free berth kicks in. The money is refunded about 6 weeks after the cruise and is the equalivalent to the commissionable fare of the most occurring berth rate. If the groups most occurring cabin is an OV then that is what is refunded. Some TA's will front this money and others will give it when they get it.

The ES rate people get the benefit of the Amenity points and do not count towards the free berth.

 

Your TA (and possibly the group leader) decided to use the Amenity Points for OBC.

Our group travels for our Temple as a fun(d)raiser. We do not individually get the Gimmees, but out Temple gets a nice check a few weeks after the cruise. It's one of the easiest fundraisers we have ever done. We are doing our 6th cruise in February.

[canjay95]

We booked thru Carnival and had 10 cabins. We got $100 OBC, and a free 1 hour cocktail party with all drinks, snacks complimentary. We also got the free passenger deducted from all of our cabins. Ended up sailing in January for $600 (2 people in a cabin) per cabin. I thought we got a great deal! No early saver.

[lady_cruiser]

We have 40 people in our group (12 cabins). Our TA gave us one person free and a $50 OBC per cabin. What have other received? Just curious. 67 days to go.

We've done group cruises before and have received NOTHING:(. By group I mean hundreds, between 600-800 people, so when you think about it, $50 for that many people would make the travel agency in charge of our group go broke.

Seriously, $50 is a nice perk.

[trvlqueen]

We've done group cruises before and have received NOTHING:(. By group I mean hundreds, between 600-800 people, so when you think about it, $50 for that many people would make the travel agency in charge of our group go broke.

 

Seriously, $50 is a nice perk.

 

 

As a previous poster stated, the TA doesn't pay for this - Carnival does. We have a group sailing in September - each cabin is getting a $15 photo coupon, $25 OBC and champagne and strawberries at sailaway ... depending on your sailing and budget, you can select more or less "points" which you then can allot to various perks.

 

If you've sailed with groups that large, they were probably charters or partial charters as there is a special department for groups over 250 people - and you may have received a price break or special use of the ship (lounges closed off just for you, etc) so that's a little different. If you'd rather have the OBC, let your group leader know - if they quote it for you like that, you may find you prefer things the way your group's been doing it already.

 

Also, if you all book separately, Carnival won't move you "into" a group just because there are now enough of you to warrant one. You have to set that up from the start - and as long as you get 3 cabins booked, you'll still get your group pricing. At 5 cabins, you get your amenities, and for every 15 passengers booked and paid for, you'll get one "free" as stated before.

 

there are benefits to groups, but you have to do the homework and legwork to make it work. If you can't/don't want to do that - there is nothing wrong with booking individually - you have to figure out which way is right for you.

[VickiD59]

Did you guys book ES on the Group booking?

 

ES rates and Group rates are two distinctly different animals. I found this out when booking our "group". We knew we'd utimately have 8+ cabins but everyone would be booking at their own leisure over the course of the year leading up to our upcoming cruise. The ES rates of course come with all their restrictions, but at the time of the initial reservation, it was at least 200.00pp less than the GROUP rate, so we were willing to take the chance on cancellations and non-refunable deposits, etc. With the group rate you will get the benefit of one free fare for every 8+ cabins, which we would have ended up with one free fare (we have 12 cabins), but overall.. we did better with ES price drops, especially in the past guest category.

[trvlqueen]

ES rates and Group rates are two distinctly different animals. I found this out when booking our "group". We knew we'd utimately have 8+ cabins but everyone would be booking at their own leisure over the course of the year leading up to our upcoming cruise. The ES rates of course come with all their restrictions, but at the time of the initial reservation, it was at least 200.00pp less than the GROUP rate, so we were willing to take the chance on cancellations and non-refunable deposits, etc. With the group rate you will get the benefit of one free fare for every 8+ cabins, which we would have ended up with one free fare (we have 12 cabins), but overall.. we did better with ES price drops, especially in the past guest category.

 

 

They are actually combinable - for future reference. But if you select amenity points, your ES price drops might not look the same after final payment - anyone who told you that you couldn't have both just didn't want to deal with early saver.

[bigsmooth12]

Yea was it booked Early Saver? We booked 17 people, 7 cabins thru Carnival. Had another couple want to book also. So 8 cabins later, 19 people & NOTHING. Carnival said since we booked Early Saver no can do. We cruise in Jan 2013.

 

WOW that's just sounds like BS:confused: I book my cruise for this December over a year and half ago but I'm on NCL and not Carnival and maybe that has something to do with it.:(

[VickiD59]

They are actually combinable - for future reference. But if you select amenity points, your ES price drops might not look the same after final payment - anyone who told you that you couldn't have both just didn't want to deal with early saver.

If this is true, I stand corrected... but I always thought, dare I use the word assumed, and always read on these boards, and when speaking to my PVP when we initially began the reservation process, that they were two distinct things. Hmm.