Groups

[aquarion]

How do people know if their will be big groups on any particular sailing?

 

Where do they get the information?

[paul929207]

Cruise lines do not give out that information. Most have recommended using google to find large groups on your sailing. No guarentee but it should find most.

[1025cruise]

Google.....

 

Unfortunately, the lines don't advertise when they have groups.

[CruiserBruce]

Some of the various cruise line boards have a thread with what intel posters have found on groups on their ships/sailings. So, if you have a particular cruise line you are talking about, check on the board for that line.

[sail7seas]

Cruise lines know how much a large group impacts the enjoyment of those who are not a part of the group and for that reason will not give the information even if asked. The best chance to learn if there is a group is to google the name of your ship and the date. If you find there may be a group, call the information provided pretending you are considering joining the group and ask questions. You might be able to find out how large the group. If it makes up less than 20% of the total number of pax, it won't have a meaningful impact on your enjoyment. There might be a private party thus closing off a lounge or room to all others but that's about it.

[Cruisin' Chick]

Most likely there will be groups on your cruise. It's whether a group gets exclusive use of public areas (pools, a dining sitting, etc) that makes them a pain. There may be some groups that can get rowdy, so if you do a google for your ship and sailing date and see a special cruise listed, you can check out their website and see what activities and entertainment are listed. Do a google search on the name of their group. Hopefully, you won't find anything disturbing.

 

Once we boarded a ship to see a giant banner welcoming everyone to the "World Tourney of Bingo." They did take over a lounge for several time during the cruise for their bingo matches, which was fine as there were other places to be. But seriously, these were the most addictive types (sorry if you're a bingo player, but this was the case on this cruise), who always seemed to be drinking, smoking, eating or gambling (or a combination of those). You didn't want to be between the dining room door (or the casino door) and them when it opened.

 

We have also been on board with other big groups (not sure of the sizes) and not had any problems. On one cruise, there was a big group of native French speakers from various countries. One of the TV channels had French language program which we would sometimes turn on, even though nobody in our family knew the language. We watched "The Incredibles" in French (but we almost knew this movie by heart anyway).

[CruiserBruce]

Not sure how you can say most likely. Large groups aren't common on cruises longer than 7 days. In 15 cruises, have only had groups on 3, all 7 day cruises, and the groups were no bigger than about 25% of the ship's capacity. None had any real impact on our enjoyment.

[kitty9]

Not sure how you can say most likely. Large groups aren't common on cruises longer than 7 days. In 15 cruises, have only had groups on 3, all 7 day cruises, and the groups were no bigger than about 25% of the ship's capacity. None had any real impact on our enjoyment.

 

We usually take cruises of 10 days and longer, and I can't remember when we didn't have some kind of group.

 

Smaller groups aren't the problem, but when you get groups of more that 300, it does affect a cruise.

[Keith1010]

My experience is that many voyages do not have groups or if they do they are very small ones. Sometimes you can google to see if there is a group and other times we might learn about it on Cruise Critic. Even on longer cruises you don't know. I have been on longer cruises with a group that was on who was able to purchase a portion of the cruise.

 

In the end we just don't worry about this and we have met some very nice people who were part of groups.

 

Keith

[Krazy Kruizers]

We are fortunate that on the HAL section here, we have a person who keeps track and updates the list of dry docks, full charters and partial charters -- with the help of others. As soon as someone finds out that there is a charter or partial charter -- they report it and the list is updated at least once a month.

Cruise lines themselves will not tell you anything.

[paul929207]

We take longer cruises and have never had a problem. The only large group we see is those crazy Cruise Critic people.

[cb at sea]

There are "groups" on EVERY sailing! 99% of the time, you will never know who is part of a "group" and who is not.

[RockeyBullwinkle]

who always seemed to be drinking, smoking, eating or gambling (or a combination of those)

 

sounds like a fun group..

[Gunner22aa]

I have had groups on a couple of our shorter cruises and on one longer one. The group on the longer one was a bunch of Korea and Vietnam vets on our Asia cruise. Quite frankly the groups did not take over the ship on any of them. The largest was 200 or so bridge players who did use athe meeting rooms daily for play and as I wasn't going there hardly ever noticed them. I have heard horror stories about families ending up on cruisers with cross dressing groups and alike. The shorter the cruise the more likely there will be a group of some persuasion on it.

[lady_cruiser]

Here's information on two groups:

One large group, sponsored by a radio station in Lafayette, LA, will be on the Conquest during the September 8, 2013, sailing. Expect well over 500 people.

 

Another larger group, sponsored by a 60 type band, also from Lafayette, LA will be on The Navigator during the Feb 7 (?), 2014, sailing. Expect probably close to 700 people.