Host Parties in your cabin/suite

[Krazy Kruizers]

How many of you have ever hosted a party in your cabin or suite?

Did you have a large party or just a couple of people in?

Did you pay for everything? Drinks? Food? Did you order a couple of bottles of anything for your party?

Would you ever do it again?

[lvtotrvl1]

The size of the rooms generally will prohibit this. You can contact HAL and they will be able to work with you on a private area if you would like to do this.

[doone]

Unless you have a corner aft suite on one of the Vista ships. I know suite 5187's verandah was huge!!!

[fllcruiser]

I have hosted a small party, usually my table mates ( 8 people max). I order a bottle of red wine, vodka and hors d'oeuvres from room service. If their drink prefrence is gin or scotch etc.. I just make it from the mini bar.

[shonuf]

While on the "O" in January, we had 5187 and hosted a CC gathering one evening. Another of the CCers was across the ship and 5186 and she hosted the same night. She had wine at hers and we had ordered the Rum and Coke package and a Corona package from Room service. The concierge in the Neptune ordered hors d'oeuvres for each of us (so we had different foods in each room). It was delightful and Mr. Deering joined us.

Would I do it again? Absolutely!

In fact, in January '07, we'll be in 5186 on the Zuiderdam and friends who are travelling with us will be in 5187. We're hoping to convince some other friends to join us but if they don't, we'll just have to have some new friends in for a drink (or two).

[Krazy Kruizers]

I was just wondering what some of you did.

We have hosted a couple of parties in our suite. Order vodka and bourbon and the concierge took care of everything else.

[herb]

We ONCE had a huge suite with a big balcony on the Carnival Victory and we did invite everyone in our group (11 of us total) to our cabin for drinks and canapes. We even ordered sandwiches. It was alot of fun.

But other than that one time we book oceanviews or insides so a party of that magnitude is not even considered. We'd all end up lying in the beds and I'm sure that's not the kind of party that is being discussed here :D

[peaches from georgia]

The Concierge provide hors d'ouevres, hot and cold, the good nuts, prints and sends invitations and does all the party prep. We ordered bottles of vodka and scotch and then used the mini-bottles for gin, etc. if anyone cared for that. We had traded in our complimentary champagne for red wine, so we already had that.

Food and Beverage provided a bartender who wheels in a cart with the everything he needs- ice, mixers, juices, glasses, etc. He takes care of everything during the party and all the guests' drinks. He was terrific and DH and I could just enjoy our party and not worry about a thing. We had 12 in our midship suite with no problem.

[herb]

Food and Beverage provided a bartender who wheels in a cart with the everything he needs- ice, mixers, juices, glasses, etc. He takes care of everything during the party and all the guests' drinks. He was terrific and DH and I could just enjoy our party and not worry about a thing. We had 12 in our midship suite with no problem.

I'm telling my boss tomorrow that I demand a raise. DW and I would LOVE to have a party like that someday. Sounds very elegant...

[elmorejj]

I have attended and hosted some lovely parties in Suites. The concierge will go over and above to make sure everything is fine. Went to one last year in the PS, the Capt and his wife, HM and some other officers were there. The food was outstanding as was the service of the bartenders and waiters........jean:cool:

[bepsf]

Aboard Oosterdam this past Sept, I hosted a party on the verandah of my Deck 4 aft-corner suite for CC'ers and personal friends the afternoon if our first day at sea. It was perfect as we had the afternoon sun coming over the stern as we sailed north.

I had ordered a few dozen bottles of champagne and waaaay too much food (which I had to pay for beyond the minimum) Ferdinand was our waiter and he made sure that everyone had a full glass in their hands at all times! I even had non-alcoholic beer laid in for my non-drinking friends. It was amazing watching the catering staff march in with several trays of food led by the delightful young F&B Manager (I forget her name) - and see the abundance laid out on various tables around the deck and inside the suite.

We also received an invite later that cruise from another passenger who hosted Blender parties in their side-facing suite: As we entered, we were handed fresh strawberry or banana daquiris made by the stewards who had set up bar in the dresing room of the suite ;)

It's so much fun sending and receiving those nice little white and blue notecards with invitations for drinks, dinners in the grillroom, etc. tho impromptu parties are always fun... Did our own little private sailaway party in one of the two forward facing verandah suites on Opera as we sailed away from St Thomas - as we were leaving, we all looked over the front of the bridge and watched as the italian waters and stewards were sunning themselves on the bow... :D

...then there was the impromptu Speedo/Jacuzzi party on the portside PH verandah of Noordam during the inaugural :eek: (OOPs - I probably shouldn't have mentioned that, but Rev Greg was there to make sure that nothing improper happenned...) ;)

[crystal808]

then there was the impromptu Speedo/Jacuzzi party on the portside PH verandah of Noordam during the inaugural :eek: (OOPs - I probably shouldn't have mentioned that, but Rev Greg was there to make sure that nothing improper happenned...) ;) [/SIZE]

Now, Brian...the next time you plan a trip like THAT, let ME know! :D Thank goodness for the good Rev.!!

Paul
wait...what about the Westerdam?? Oct.??? Oh, yeah...that's right! :D

[GayleArc]

We usually host a bloddy mary party on one of the sea days. The Neptune
Lounge takes care of everything from invitations to food. We order vodka from
ships services and it is in our room when we embark. Imagine our surprise this
last cruise when we were informed that they now charge $75 per hour for a
bartender. Needless to say, my husband made the drinks. We had about 15 people and it was alot of fun.

[mushroom]

GayleArc, that's exactly what we are going to do. May I ask what category of stateroom you were in for your group? We'll have an SA on the Noordam and hope to host some sailaway parties for the group we will be with and I'm trying to get an idea of how many people we could handle. Thanks.

[elmorejj]

WOW Gayle!! That`s a month and a halfs pay for a bartender, I wonder who gets that money? Like you, I`ll tend my own bar..........jean:cool:

[Krazy Kruizers]

We had our own bar tender once - he was really good. We were told that we didn't have to pay him - but we did give him a BIG tip for the 2 hours that he tended bar and helped seve the appetizers. That was when we had invited 4 other couples. The other couple of times when we had just a couple or 2 we did everything ourselves.

[peaches from georgia]

That really is going to hurt the bartenders. We gave a very generous tip to our bartender and I know another party we went to on the same cruise gave the same as we did to the same bartender. Now that HAL is charging for the service itself (it's not like they were not already making a very nice profit on the food and booze), far fewer pax will add this nice touch to their parties and if they do the tips going directly to the bar steward will be far less. And there will be far fewer large parties if pax are tending bar themselves which will decrease booze and food revenue.

Quite short-sighted of HAL, I think.

[GayleArc]

Mushroon, We had an Sa catagory suite and we have had as many as 21 at our parties. Just make sure it is on a warm day so you can use the veranda.
Pat, we had already ordered the bartender(as we have done many times in the past) when we found out about the charge by accident. We were really
mad and talked to the F&B manager and he said it just went into effect in March. The bartender missed out on a large tip. Opps, forgot to tip my husband.

[etoile]

It's so much fun sending and receiving those nice little white and blue notecards
Brian, I still have the notecard from your suite party on Oosterdam! That was a true highlight of the trip for me. :)

[nashkan]

Several years ago on the Carnival Conquest, we and the couple rooms next to us had the front desk open the doors between the balconies, one of the rooms had an extra large balcony, we were in the very back of the ship.... We did a BYOB for a sail-away from Jamaica... Our room steward brought several trays of "complimentary hors d'ouevres" ...lots of glasses & ice, & pitchers of fruit punch ....(we had told him before hand we were having a party) (we did give him a big tip for that and the mess he had to clean up) ... we all put the same music station on so it would carry over.... at one point we had over 60 people! I am not sure where all the bottles came from :D but the booze flowed! (lots of Jamaican Rum....hummmm:rolleyes: ) it was a great party!! it was impromptu, but was a great success.... It cost us nothing but the tip to the steward and a few bottles of rum) (actually I think we ended up with more rum then we put out).... it was WELL-WORTH it!! we just invited everyone that we had met & had befriended so far on the cruise, as did the other rooms, and we had the doors all open.... we heard the rest of the cruise what a good time everyone had or "I wish I had been there" ..... happy cruising.... Dan ........ PS ... ZUIDERDAM 10-28-06 ...Party anyone!!?!

[twinkletoes4445]

Aboard Oosterdam this past Sept, I hosted a party on the verandah of my Deck 4 aft-corner suite for CC'ers and personal friends the afternoon if our first day at sea. It was perfect as we had the afternoon sun coming over the stern as we sailed north.

I had ordered a few dozen bottles of champagne and waaaay too much food (which I had to pay for beyond the minimum) Ferdinand was our waiter and he made sure that everyone had a full glass in their hands at all times! I even had non-alcoholic beer laid in for my non-drinking friends. It was amazing watching the catering staff march in with several trays of food led by the delightful young F&B Manager (I forget her name) - and see the abundance laid out on various tables around the deck and inside the suite.

We also received an invite later that cruise from another passenger who hosted Blender parties in their side-facing suite: As we entered, we were handed fresh strawberry or banana daquiris made by the stewards who had set up bar in the dresing room of the suite ;)

It's so much fun sending and receiving those nice little white and blue notecards with invitations for drinks, dinners in the grillroom, etc. tho impromptu parties are always fun... Did our own little private sailaway party in one of the two forward facing verandah suites on Opera as we sailed away from St Thomas - as we were leaving, we all looked over the front of the bridge and watched as the italian waters and stewards were sunning themselves on the bow... :D

...then there was the impromptu Speedo/Jacuzzi party on the portside PH verandah of Noordam during the inaugural :eek: (OOPs - I probably shouldn't have mentioned that, but Rev Greg was there to make sure that nothing improper happenned...) ;)


Wow, I want to be invited to your party. :)