I believe the cruise that we are considered will be chartered, guidance?

10/13/18 - Harmony of the Seas. I happened to google our sail date and ship name looking for overall cabin availability....which I never really found. However I did notice a charter group that plans to sail on this sailing. The question that I have is, whether there is any way to tell if we will experience and notice a difference in our cruise and the onbaord offerings such as modified or restricted dinning times or modified shows or show times? We have sailed 3x before (can't tell you if any of those were chartered as I never paid attention). On those cruises we never received noticed of it being chartered so my assumption is that past cruises we've taken have not been chartered.

Is there anyway to tell the size of the chartered group? Is there a way to tell whether, what and date/time specific venues may be closed to the general public etc?

Knowing that this will be a chartered cruise would you or would you not take this cruise? Why or why not?

If it's a full charter, you will be notified...but to get a "move over" offer, you need for RCI to contact you. They will give no info if you try to call them about it!

If it's not a full charter, then it's simply a group, and groups are on EVERY sailing! Most of the time, it's no different than any other cruise. If they need their own "spaces" for meeting, and what have you, they will use conference rooms. We have been on ships with VERY large groups, and even most of the "group members" don't know the rest of the group!

I think you're worrying about nothing.

Thanks cb! We haven't booked yet, so we wouldn't have been notified, but I think its safe to assume that its not a full charter, otherwise the cruise would no longer be available to book on RCCL and other web instances, do you agree? If thats the case, it would be considered a group sailing and as you mentioned, nothing to worry about as group sailings do not typically change dining or show schedules/availability, correct?

My Oasis cruise from Jan 2017 was a large group. Certain venues were closed. Another poster wrote a review (see post # 12 in the attached thread).

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2583016&highlight=charter

Thanks cb! We haven't booked yet, so we wouldn't have been notified, but I think its safe to assume that its not a full charter, otherwise the cruise would no longer be available to book on RCCL and other web instances, do you agree? If thats the case, it would be considered a group sailing and as you mentioned, nothing to worry about as group sailings do not typically change dining or show schedules/availability, correct?

That isn't a "safe assumption". I booked a cruise on Holland and later found a full ship charter for a jazz cruise for the same date. The charter organizer and Holland both were offering reservations for at least six weeks.

Often, the chartering company only has a provisional contract for the charter. The chartering company waits to see if they will get enough bookings before finalizing the contract.

The best advice I could give you is to call the charter organizer and pretend you're interested in the charter. Maybe they will send you some material. They can/will tell you how many they expect.

Yes, I know there is some pretense involved but it is the only way you'll get any information. The cruise lines won't discuss the charter/group. They will claim it is a matter of privacy. More likely, the cruise lines know they will lose business if they disclose a large group will be on board.

There have been many threads about how large groups can totally dominate a cruise. The group/charter can negotiate any perks they want such as exclusive use/access to a particular facility. Members of these groups have been known to appropriate an area as their un-official space and have been known to be quite territorial. And, no, complaining to the crew hasn't been shown to be effective.

Thanks for the guidance. Calling in an attempt to gather more information is certainly an avenue to get more info.

Thanks for the guidance. Calling in an attempt to gather more information is certainly an avenue to get more info.

That is what I did - it was an ultra conservative religious group - I wanted to know if it would affect my cruise. They told they were expecting about 300 people. On a ship with 4000 passengers I thought it would be a negligible effect.Once we were onboard I only noticed one sign on a private venue where they had meetings.

emdia43, that is the exact info I hope to gather. What was your approach when calling? Did you pretend to be interested in cruising with the group? Do you mind sharing how and what questions you asked to get to the info needed? ie how many people have committed to taking the cruise via this group offering?

Today,

I posted something similar to this yesterday. Might be of interest to you Shell4624. I'll keep an eye on your thread too..

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2588271

emdia43, that is the exact info I hope to gather. What was your approach when calling? Did you pretend to be interested in cruising with the group? Do you mind sharing how and what questions you asked to get to the info needed? ie how many people have committed to taking the cruise via this group offering?

 

Today,

Yes, I told them I was considering booking and just asked how many would be in the group....

If you would rather not phone, just email them, I'm sure they will tell you .

If it's a full charter, you will be notified...but to get a "move over" offer, you need for RCI to contact you. They will give no info if you try to call them about it!

 

If it's not a full charter, then it's simply a group, and groups are on EVERY sailing! Most of the time, it's no different than any other cruise. If they need their own "spaces" for meeting, and what have you, they will use conference rooms. We have been on ships with VERY large groups, and even most of the "group members" don't know the rest of the group!

 

I think you're worrying about nothing.

We have booked a B2B and today received an email from the Company that have chartered the ship on our second leg, also the itinerary has changed. I had wind of this last December and my TA made contact with RCCL, nothing forthcoming. Even today I couldn't get any info from Guest relations RCCL.

Apparently the ship has been chartered by the same company for the last five years.

What are RCCL likely to do for our second leg. I think they will do nothing about the first.