Cruising with Friends-Do's and Don'ts

My family will be cruising our 3rd cruise with another family for the first time. Just wondering if others have any tips on what works and what doesn't for cruising with friends. I am the "leader" since I know the ropes and the family we are cruising with have never cruised before. Thanks in advance!

We have always cruised with our best friends. Biggest thing is don't plan things for them, plan things with them. We normally get adjoining balconies and have the divider opened. If it's a sea day we pretty much all do our own thing and meet up on and off during the day. If a port day we set a time to get off the ship and normally have a tour planned.

My family will be cruising our 3rd cruise with another family for the first time. Just wondering if others have any tips on what works and what doesn't for cruising with friends. I am the "leader" since I know the ropes and the family we are cruising with have never cruised before. Thanks in advance!

Have an understanding up front that you don't have to all do the same thing all the time! Then no one feels guilty for taking an afternoon nap or skipping trivia! That even goes for port excursions - different strokes for different folks. You friends may want more closeness initially, but once they get more comfortable they should be fine!

Our last cruise there were 9 of us - we had dinner together every night, but during the day, things ebbed and flowed. We did different shore activities together in smaller groups, then shared the stories.

My suggestion would be to tell them up front to not expect to be joined at the hip. I have cruised with family and friends and they expected for me to be with them 24/7. There are so many things to do and you may not want to include or be included in everything with the other family. If that is addressed before the cruise it may aid in no hard feelings later. That being said, it is great to travel with family and friends and even more so for me if they are new and I have the opportunity to be the one to introduce them to a wonderful way to vacation. Happy sails!:)

Give everyone options as to what's available to do in port.

If everyone agrees...great. If not, feel free to do your own thing.

The most important thing for me when I travel with friends/family is that we do not have to be joined at the hip.

DO - make sure everyone gets some time to themselves. While both families may love each other dearly, not everyone wants to do the same thing ALL the time ... just agree to disagree and if something comes up where you want to go different directions ...

DON'T - get hurt feelings.

DO - have a method of communication whether its as simple as a laminated board on the outside of your cabin door, sticky notes, or as complex as a system of smoke signals (just kidding). If you can keep track of who is napping, at the casino or health club, or just went for a walk and when you'll be able to meet up again, you can avoid a lot of frustration.

DON'T assume that everyone knows how to disembark properly (or what documentation to bring to the port). Go over it at dinner real fast - sometimes people "mishear" what CCL employees tell them - other times the CCL employees say things that are "almost" correct ... like last year when the employee told my mother in law that Carnival would make sure her luggage got to the airport because she booked transfers. She assured us she knew what she was doing ... we didn't see her in the morning because we had to get on the road earlier than she did and she was already off to breakfast when we stopped by her cabin at 6:45 to say goodbye ... but she didn't understand that she had to claim the luggage and roll it through customs after putting it outside her door. We were the recipients of some pretty panicky phone calls while on our way home ... and there was nothing we could do to help at that point.

DO - take lots of pictures, make lots of memories, have a ton of fun, and plan your next cruise together right after you get off the ship!

Each person/family should feel free to do whatever they want. No one should have to do something because another insists everyone do that.

When we cruise with friends/family we do not get side by side rooms and do not plan on sharing a balcony. Sometimes privacy is really important on a long trip.

We plan on having one meal together per day and go our own way most of the rest of the time.

We make it very clear who is paying for what.

We do not act as 'bankers' for the other folks unless there is an awful emergency such as a stolen wallet.

In situations where we have status such as on airplanes or ships, we don't brag about it to the folks who don't have status. We use what perks we can without making a big deal of it. Upgrades of cabins or flights we take on a case by case basis.

Minor irritations when you see some folks now and then can become major issues when traveling together. Be careful not to let that happen.

Make sure you let them know you do not have to be together 24/7

Do your own thing & meet for dinner

Maybe show them the rope the 1st day or 2 then give some space to each other

Good luck

2 yrs ago i spear headed a group of 14- co-workers and their families. I got info about which port/excursions that were available. Told them what my family was planning and offered to help them either join us or plan their time ashore. Ended up we reserved the grand oasis in Half Moon Cay and ea did our own thing in Nassau. We had a post it board on ea of our doors that told where we were gonna be if anyone wanted to join. Worked out GREAT. Everyone did their own thing, but did not feel abondoned. Ended up we usually ate dinner together (ever try to get 14 peopel near ea other with YTD?) We all had a blast!

baf

All good suggestions and the only thing I might add is to make everything perfectly clear BEFORE you set foot on board.

Don't spend too much time with them.

Give them some space.

Keith

Treat them as you would your tablemates at dinner. You can, if you wish, meet them for an excursion or for the shows in the evening. Or you can just go your own way.

A couple of years ago, we cruised out of San Juan. We did not know until about a week before the cruise that my sister was on the same cruise.

We did not link the reservations and did not dine together.

We did however, have a couple of times during the week where we sat together at a show or in one of the lounges. But we all had a good time without being smothered by the other people.

Heck, even my wife and I are not joined at the hip for a full week.

We do family and friends cruises all the time and we always meet for dinner MDR We do stick together when on shore (some stay on board) but otherwise we never make plans as a group.

Make sure you discuss some ground rules about private time - you really don't want to share everything. This is especially important if you have connecting rooms and/or balconies - there are probably times of day and night when you wouldn't want even close friends walking in or peering in through your balcony door.

I say the biggest concern is setting expectations ahead of time. For us personally, the biggest issue is not being tied together at the hip. We sometimes do excursion together and sometimes we go our separate ways depending on personal likes or dislikes. If we're touring together, we do tend to meet for breakfast and then head out. On sea days we usually go our own way, but the group usually breaks up in groups based on what everyone decides to do at a specific time. Some may go to the casino, another group may go to trivia, while some others head to the pool. We've always found if we're upfront with our friends and tell them, here's what we're doing and you're more than welcome to come along, but don't feel compelled to hang with us, everyone ends up happy in the end. It's your vacation too and you should do what will make the most of it for you.

We have cruised with other couples a number of times, successfully. :)

We try very hard to not have adjoining cabins/ verandahs.

We all need our 'down time' and if DH and I are on our verandah, we want to speak with each other freely and not worry we could say something we wish our friends/neighbors heard. Clearly, if we weren't fond of them we wouldn't travel with them but we think our private time is important.

We get cabins near to each other, same deck, sometimes both on port but we try hard to discourage being next door.

JMO...

We have always most enjoyed cruising with others we've met on "other ships ... other trips" because we don't have any real expectations other than what we just happened to enjoy doing together before on cruises.

Friends and family are not so easy. No matter how much "not joined at the hip" is discussed .... :rolleyes:

LuLu

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No one actually NEEDS a "leader"...it's simply a vacation! Point them to where they can find info on their own...it means much more if you discover stuff on your own, than if someone (even, well-meaning) tells you everything!

I have to agree with Pennyagain. While I adore our best friends and while having side by side rooms isn't a problem, we do not have the balcony divider removed. This is more for my sanity than anyone elses. I tend to need more alone time than other people and I want all of my room to be a private place. You can't really know how other people will travel until you've done it. I was surprised the first time to find that one of my friends wanted nothing more than to sit by the pool all day. I never would have guessed this. And not being pool people, my husband and I were at a loss as to what we should do. On a ship though, going your own way shouldn't be a problem. I would discuss shore excursions ahead of time though. Find out which ones you may want to do together and book them in advance. You don't want to have yourself and your spouse booked on an excursion only to find out your friends would love to do that one too but are shut out because it's filled.

Our first cruise was a group cruise of about thirty couples. My wife's co-worker told us about it. They had a meeting at a restaurant a week or so before the cruise so that everybody could meet everybody.

On the cruise, we were all linked for dinner. We would go over what we did that day and say what we were doing the next day. If it sounded like fun, we would all do it together; if not, we went our separate ways.

Two weeks after the cruise, we all met at the same restaurant to share memories and trade pictures that we took.

Our second cruise was with all of my brothers and their wives. We again met at a restaurant and our TA came and gave us our ticket packets. We told everybody upfront how our last cruise worked out and we all agreed that we would do the same. Tell others what you were planning and if somebody else wanted to join, more power to you but if not, no problem either.

Third cruise worked out the same. That time both my family and wife's family joined. Again we did the same and it worked out fine.

Every cruise since then has been pretty much the same. Sometimes we go our separate ways, sometimes we do things as a group however small or large.

As others have said, make sure you let them know upfront before you cruise how you feel.

Our last cruise on the Freedom was the first one that only one brother and SIL that always cruise with us did we open the divider between the cabins. We had it opened because we always book next to each other and usually talk at the railing anyway. If we went out there and they were already there, we talked. Other than that, we never used the balcony to go between cabins nor did we go anywhere near their door or them ours.

don't schedule someone else's time. a few years ago on a flight to Las Vegas with two other couples one of the ladies pulled out her day planner to show us what we were doing. after I and the other hubby quit laughing we said we get up we feel like, go to pool until 3 shower and nap to 6 then we can discuss evening activities.

My family will be cruising our 3rd cruise with another family for the first time. Just wondering if others have any tips on what works and what doesn't for cruising with friends. I am the "leader" since I know the ropes and the family we are cruising with have never cruised before. Thanks in advance!

We never cruise or vacation with friends, so we don't have to worry about what to do, or what not to do.:)

I agree 100% with the suggestions that you do your OWN thing! You can dine together and do any port excursions together that independently end up on BOTH your to-do lists. But don't try to pick something you all agree on, simply so you can all be together at each port. You'll end up picking nothing but watered-down activities that vaguely appeal to everyone but don't excite anyone.

I agree with others who have said that a "not-joined-at-the-hip" policy is important to have firmly in place, BEFORE you set foot on the ship. Otherwise, you run the risk of wasting valuable vacation time, milling around, unable to come up with something that everyone in the group wants to do. And, of course, that can lead to hurt feelings and other repercussions. :(

Get together at the end of the day and discuss all your adventures -- and most importantly -- HAVE FUN!! :D