Large Group Disrupting Dining on Zaandam May 31, 2015

We are unable to confirm early dining on May 31st Zaandam Alaska sailing. Per PCC, this is due to space being held for a group, thus ship is not confirming anyone for early dining. It may or may not become available closer to cruise date.

I am less concerned about dining times than I am about cruising with a group large enough to hold an entire dining room. PCC will not tell me anything about the group. I searched for all the usual suspects in all the usual places and can't find any information about said group. I plan to call HAL group booking department and will post any info I get from them. Does anyone else have any info about this?

Love to know because the same thing is going on on the Zaandam on the May 17 and 24 sailings ...

I've looked everywhere and can't figure it out.

Carla

Please do let us know if you find out anything. We will be on the May 24th departure and it would be good to be prepared. :cool:

We are unable to confirm early dining on May 31st Zaandam Alaska sailing. Per PCC, this is due to space being held for a group, thus ship is not confirming anyone for early dining. It may or may not become available closer to cruise date.

 

I am less concerned about dining times than I am about cruising with a group large enough to hold an entire dining room. PCC will not tell me anything about the group. I searched for all the usual suspects in all the usual places and can't find any information about said group. I plan to call HAL group booking department and will post any info I get from them. Does anyone else have any info about this?

I was on the Nieuw Amsterdam in November of 2012 and there were several hundred with this group and they had both levels of the dining room for the second seating. Therefore everyone else was assigned to the first seating.

It has happened before a group is large enough to take over a whole seating on one level. Not to be totally negative but it is unpleasant for those not a part of the group to sail with such a large group. Please get your expectation to a place where you can accept there could be some downsides and be prepared to roll with it. You want to have a good time on your cruise and if you can think of the fun and enjoyable things to your cruise, the rest may not bother you.

It happened to us once and we didn't like it.

Part of the problem with having a large group sailing with you is that lots of them know each other so when the congregate it's usually in a large group using up large areas and a lot of the seating at the pool deck, Lido buffet area or lounge where they gather informally. Large groups that know each other tend to be louder than others as well - not a judgment, just an observation.

We experienced this on a RCCL cruise with a group of shag dancers - they were very nice people :) but the size of the groups caused the kind of situations I spoke of above.

I am less concerned about dining times than I am about cruising with a group large enough to hold an entire dining room.

Just my opinion....that would be a motivator for me to book a different cruise.

I have sailed with some groups that didn't disrupt the normal flow of the cruise for non members as much as others. Excluding other passengers from an entire dining is pretty disruptive. I am hoping if someone knows what particular group is booked on this cruise, we can better predict their impact. For example, medical seminars meeting in the theater versus a group that takes the whole crows nest during glacier bay...

We planned this cruise to celebrate parent's 50th anniversary. Currently have booked 8 people, aged from 8 to 80, in 3 staterooms, with plans to add more. It was difficult to coordinate schedules, etc. so I would hate to cancel and start over, but I am seriously considering it.

In 2011 I think it was we were checking in for our Zuiderdam Alaska cruise when it became apparent we were going to be traveling with a large number of motorcycle enthusiasts. We were a little surprised !

They were raising money for kidney research and had their own dialysis team with them. I think they called it a high seas rally. They caused zero disruption as far as booking the main public areas and formal nights brought out some really fancy leather :)

They even raffled off the most amazing motorcycle quilt!

I just looked them up but they are doing the WC on another line later this year. I wouldn't have any worries about sharing a ship with a group like that again. It was fun.

Carla

We have been on ships with groups that wanted a certain time for dining. Thankfully they wanted the late fixed dining.

But large groups tend to have parties and there have been times when we could not use the Crow's Nest due to large parties and 2013 we could not use the Silk Den for after dinner drinks very often because of parties.

We are unable to confirm early dining on May 31st Zaandam Alaska sailing. Per PCC, this is due to space being held for a group, thus ship is not confirming anyone for early dining. It may or may not become available closer to cruise date.

 

I am less concerned about dining times than I am about cruising with a group large enough to hold an entire dining room. PCC will not tell me anything about the group. I searched for all the usual suspects in all the usual places and can't find any information about said group. I plan to call HAL group booking department and will post any info I get from them. Does anyone else have any info about this?

Love to know because the same thing is going on on the Zaandam on the May 17 and 24 sailings ...

I've looked everywhere and can't figure it out.

Carla

Even though we will not be on any of those cruises, I sure would like to know why early dining is closed to regular passengers for 3 different cruises.

Keep us updated with any news you learn.

I think it would be dreadful to sail a charter group. That said... there is one charter I would like to do with... and wish HAL would do one... for Turner Classic Movie. That would be fun.

Stephen

What drives me the craziest is that we (mom and I) really want and use set early dining but even when booking quite far in advance have to wait and have our TA call over and over and hope we eventually get it...I know it's a trivial thing in the grand scheme of things to stress about but it's important to us.

Then we get on the ship and see tons of empty seats at every dinner. On the longer cruises we've not seen it as much but on the only two 7 day cruises we've done we've usually dined completely by ourselves at tables for 6 or 8!

On our long cruises our table mates would let the waiter and often us know if they were going to the pinnacle or eating on shore or whatever and it just made it so much easier on the wait staff knowing what was going on each night.

Carla

Can you ask your PCC to find out who the group is, certain it is not listed on our Charter and Group thread. The more you know about this group, the more you can make a informative decision on whether to cancel your cruise. Dinner seating reservation may not be the only thing they cause problems for.

PCC would not (could not?) answer any questions about the group. Not who they are, not how many they are, if they will exclusively use areas of the ship other than dining room, and so on. PCC was quite cagey during our lengthy phone conversation about the topic. Only tried to convince me not to cancel our bookings, and that we should wait to see what happens at final payment date. That is not a good option for obvious reasons.

It's just ridiculous that cruise lines will not disclose charter bookings like this. I know it can be difficult to draw a line as to what number of people on the charter should trigger disclosure, but if the charter group is going to be hogging entire rooms for their activities during times when those rooms would normally be available to everyone, that might be a place to start. If they're going to hold meetings in the theater during times when it's not otherwise in use, fine. If they're going to hog an entire dinner sitting, or occupy a popular bar in the evenings and not allow others in, other passengers deserve to know about it so they can change their bookings if they wish to. The other passengers are paying for full access to the ship's public facilities and that shouldn't be taken away from them.

I think I've found them. What I've dug up is package tours through an agency and they involve multiple sailings on Oosterdam and Zaandam combined with land options.

I can't post the link here but if you want me to send it to you privately just holler.

Carla

The agency I 'm thinking of does not have a website. He sends out offers by email and gets new clients by word of mouth. Typically there are anything up to 400 clients on one of his cruise packages. Recently there was a Zaandam cruise/land offer for three dates this summer, going north.

Last summer I was on the Statendam going north and there was this group, a group of 100 from a Wisconsin travel agency and another group. They all had tables in the atrium. People didn't know each other. The ship was full.

There is a very large group on Westerdam right now that has displaced diners from upper level. :(

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We are unable to confirm early dining on May 31st Zaandam Alaska sailing. Per PCC, this is due to space being held for a group, thus ship is not confirming anyone for early dining. It may or may not become available closer to cruise date.

 

I am less concerned about dining times than I am about cruising with a group large enough to hold an entire dining room. PCC will not tell me anything about the group. I searched for all the usual suspects in all the usual places and can't find any information about said group. I plan to call HAL group booking department and will post any info I get from them. Does anyone else have any info about this?

There is a travel group on that date that will book tables together and may possibly have a cocktail party on one evening. Other than those occasions they will not disrupt any other activities as they will not be involved in any meetings.

Their only common purpose is to cruise to Alaska and most do not know each other so I don't think you will find them disruptive in any way.

There is a travel group on that date that will book tables together and may possibly have a cocktail party on one evening. Other than those occasions they will not disrupt any other activities as they will not be involved in any meetings.

Their only common purpose is to cruise to Alaska and most do not know each other so I don't think you will find them disruptive in any way.

How many people in the group?

OP, if the group is who I think it is (I received one of his emails), then you should be okay (other than the dining issue). I've travelled at the same time as the group and we noticed nothing (and we always get early dining). In fact, that's how we heard about his groups and subsequently signed up for the emails. BTW, I can't tell from the email how many people would be in the group but I wouldn't be surprised with the 400 quoted above.

As for the dining issue, I had the same problem with my May/15 Canada/NE cruise. A large group had booked 260 out of 290 seats in the first sitting in the MDR. My PCC (my first time using a PCC), was going to try to book the first sitting a month or two later. Fortunately, we were confirmed for early sitting within 4 weeks of booking. So, it can happen.

I'm surprised that this group would actually pre-book the dining time (I have yet to book with them so have no experience with their bookings) and would expect that some members may change it once onboard. If you keep your booking, and based on this group, I would if I were you, you may be able to change your dining time once onboard. Although that could be challenging if your group may grow in numbers.

Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have a great family cruise. I'm sure it will be very special and memorable.

As a general rule we avoid any cruise (with any line) where we are aware of any large group being aboard. We have found that large groups can become disruptive in that they take over various venues (which close them to other cruisers) for multiple private functions. One big complaint we have with all cruise lines is that they do not normally disclose the existence of such groups and allow other cruisers to make informed decisions.

Hank

OP, if the group is who I think it is (I received one of his emails), then you should be okay (other than the dining issue). I've travelled at the same time as the group and we noticed nothing (and we always get early dining). In fact, that's how we heard about his groups and subsequently signed up for the emails. BTW, I can't tell from the email how many people would be in the group but I wouldn't be surprised with the 400 quoted above.

 

As for the dining issue, I had the same problem with my May/15 Canada/NE cruise. A large group had booked 260 out of 290 seats in the first sitting in the MDR. My PCC (my first time using a PCC), was going to try to book the first sitting a month or two later. Fortunately, we were confirmed for early sitting within 4 weeks of booking. So, it can happen.

 

I'm surprised that this group would actually pre-book the dining time (I have yet to book with them so have no experience with their bookings) and would expect that some members may change it once onboard. If you keep your booking, and based on this group, I would if I were you, you may be able to change your dining time once onboard. Although that could be challenging if your group may grow in numbers.

 

Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have a great family cruise. I'm sure it will be very special and memorable.

The problem comes because some of us don't want Early Dining. We want Main Upper Traditional Dining and that has been denied people currently on Westerdam because there is a large group. May be fine for those that want to eat early and don't care what table but there are many who do not fit into that crowd.

It's just ridiculous that cruise lines will not disclose charter bookings like this.

Clearly, this is NOT a charter. If it were a charter, the OP wouldn't have a problem---she wouldn't be able to book the cruise at all.

This is a group.