Organizers of Tours Reprimanded at Meet n' Mingle?

[CRUZBUDS]

We discussed it our our before hand on our last roll call. It is very tacky to do it at a gathering hosted by the line.

 

The people doing private tours together hung back and conducted their business after the party was over.

[travelplus]

A better way would be to have people who wish to go on a tour together pay the tour operator directly and just plan on meeting at the gangway at a certain time. Wouldn't this be the better way to handle it? But also the cruiseline cannot force any passenger to take their tour.

[chefcaw]

I was on the Mariner when this happened. I was also a person who organized a very large tour that was an overnight in Cairo(70 people) and one other in Safaga and Jordan. I provided the contact with the tour guide in Egypt to the person who was accosted by the cruiseline. All the planning was done in most cases before we boarded the ship. I collected no money but there were more than several people at the Meet and Greet that felt the need to contact myself and the other person about the tours. So we were asked to the front of the group to introduce ourselves, so people could find us and ask questions. The tour that RCCL was upset about had no money exchanged onboard. All the money was collected on the tour by the tour operator. There were more than 200 people that were involved in the Meet and Greet that had planned private tours before we boarded. The Mariner staff was very unhappy when they realized how many private tours had been planned. The overnight tourI planned in Cairo which included everything that the ship's tour did and a bit more was priced at $220.00 per person, the ship's tour was $499 per person. We stayed at the same 5 star hotel

 

If we had not sailed RCCL before, we would not return to the cruiseline. I should not have to stand in line for more than 2 hours to get to the table to pick up my seapass for the next leg and then learn that it had never been printed. The Diamond Concierge was great, truly could not have been better but had not support from anyone above him.

 

Chris

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Was your Sea Pass held back because of the tour? If so, were you able to complete the last leg of the cruise? That sounds just awful! I know so many of us have planned private tours and never considered that it would be breaking a rule.:eek:

 

The fact is at the cruiseline price for the tour you described I would have never done it. With that kind of price difference no wonder you had such a big group going on the private tour.

[shipshape sam]

What a waste of Captain's time and I guess I did not understand that you could not meet fellow passengers and yes collect money for a private excursion. Guess it would have been alright to collect for ship sponsored excursion.

 

Would I collect $money at a meet and mingle? Not sure, as I have never done it, but I have coordinated excursions with other passengers prior to our sailing.

 

I have though see a person who was coordinating a lot of activities on the thread, promote a specific excursion prior to the cruise and DID take up a lot of public time at the meet and mingle where she control the microphone for her specific excursion. That I did think was wrong. That she should have done offline and after the formal meet and mingle. Could have just had everyone stay behind and handled any/all issues, so........... if that is what happened.

[foxesden1]

If the tours that the cruiselines offered where longer and better values, then people would not do private tours.