Groups on your cruise - Should Princess tell you ahead of time?

[Sailingpeace]

I only noticed the announcements being in French because, as I said, it was the second half of a B2B and on the first cruise they were just in English. I could care less about the announcements, it was the taking over of the ship that was uncomfortable.

It was a small ship (650 passengers) and there were about 300-400 of them.

The atmosphere was that it was THEIR cruise and we were unwelcome intruders.

 

Also, I told this story because so often people say there is prejudice against the group and that's the reason for the complaints but these were just people from France who individually probably were nice people.

I had no preconceived notions and just concluded that any people in large groups tend to think, in a small space, that anyone NOT in their group is an intruder.

 

Hi Chamima,

Thank you for the reply. The info about the announcements in french confirms that Princess is aware of the presence of a large enough group to translate announcements ( or maybe they were not translations but specific announcements to just that group?).

[Woobstr112G]

Yes they should.....

 

Bob

[Ethel5]

Exactly! I agree! Why should we not get to use a bar area, the theater, a pool? We too paid to cruise and use the facilities onboard.

 

If and when I cruise, the groups had not be messing with my trivia games! After all, I am there for the high rolling prizes one gets when they play and win! :D:o;)

 

They don't stop you from using the areas but you might just be uncomfortable enough to stay away. My biggest laugh was the church lady who spied on the group who were at the aft pool on deck 14 or 15. She was looking down at them from deck 17 and taking pictures! She then complained bitterly about the behavior! My thought is if you don't want to see, then don't look. On the cruises I was on with the Bears, they didn't close the theater, a bar or the dining room. They did have a private party in one of the lounges and if you walked by and appeared to be a fun loving person, they invited you in.

[Ethel5]

Surely its discrimination if areas of the ship are for a group only?

Its a two way street.

 

Is it discrimination when they have Friends of Bill W? How about Friends of Dorothy? How about Ex-Military. How about crafters? How about CC members?

[bhopal21]

Actually Friends of Dorothy is open to all; but I certainly see your point.

 

Mike:)

[kruisey]

Is it discrimination when they have Friends of Bill W? How about Friends of Dorothy? How about Ex-Military. How about crafters? How about CC members?

These small meetings don't interfere with anyones else enjoyment.Its the large groups.

I remember on one of my cruises a large group decided to not follow the rules for on board passport an customs clearance into a country. English was not their first language although they had their TA's with them that did.WE were supposed to come to one of the lounges by deck names.They all came down out of deck order.Took an hour standing in line due to them

In the mornings when I would take my wark on the promenade deck some of them at least 12 would jog around the deck....one had to stand aside each time .

I voted Princess should tell us if they are going to have a large group on board.

[Wehwalt]

Is it discrimination when they have Friends of Bill W? How about Friends of Dorothy? How about Ex-Military. How about crafters? How about CC members?

 

I agree with other posters, that's not a fair comparison. There might be an entry in the Patter that F of BW are meeting at 4 pm in one of the smaller spaces. There's no suggestion that that space won't be open to passengers at 3, or at 5. The ex-mil might meet in the bar. But that bar's still open to everyone else. If there's a large loss of passenger facilities to a group, on an ongoing basis, that's an issue.

[Wehwalt]

They don't stop you from using the areas but you might just be uncomfortable enough to stay away. My biggest laugh was the church lady who spied on the group who were at the aft pool on deck 14 or 15. She was looking down at them from deck 17 and taking pictures! She then complained bitterly about the behavior! My thought is if you don't want to see, then don't look. On the cruises I was on with the Bears, they didn't close the theater, a bar or the dining room. They did have a private party in one of the lounges and if you walked by and appeared to be a fun loving person, they invited you in.

 

Reminds me of the woman who upbraided Samuel Johnson for including dirty words in his Dictionary; he noted that she had gone to the trouble of looking for them. Or the joke about the woman who complained about what her neighbors were doing, whom she could only see by standing on a box on her balcony and craning her neck.

[Wehwalt]

As far as public displays of affection, yes there were some, but I saw nothing that I have not seen straight couples doing in board. Extreme public displays of affection are not appropriate by any passangers. The fact is I think many people are simply uncomfortable seeing two men kiss or hold hands.

 

That's going to be an ongoing issue. Cruise ships are very much a lagging indicator of societal norms. I'm sure Princess knows how to deal with complaining passengers, and the extreme cases would be the same regardless of gender.

Edited November 14, 2013 by Wehwalt

[rdsqrl]

. . .

As far as public displays of affection, yes there were some, but I saw nothing that I have not seen straight couples doing in board. Extreme public displays of affection are not appropriate by any passangers. The fact is I think many people are simply uncomfortable seeing two men kiss or hold hands.

This exactly. I'm guessing that nothing the Bears did or have done was any worse than some of the stuff I saw between college kids on my spring break cruise. From what I hear, two Bears wouldn't even fit onto one lounger, much less be able to do, um, calisthenics thereon. Those Arizona State students are certainly bendy.

[Ethel5]

This exactly. I'm guessing that nothing the Bears did or have done was any worse than some of the stuff I saw between college kids on my spring break cruise. From what I hear, two Bears wouldn't even fit onto one lounger, much less be able to do, um, calisthenics thereon. Those Arizona State students are certainly bendy.

 

Don't let the name fool you! Sure, some look like Al Borlin-chubby, facial hair etc. From what I saw, most were nice looking, well dressed, funny, intelligent and able to hold a decent conversation at lunch. It night be harder on the new ships to avoid a large group at the pool, but on the older ships, if Bears are using the aft pool, there are 2 others. You can only be in one pool at a time. If one bar is being occupied, use another. It doesn't have to be a horrible experience.

[RNGALNG]

They don't stop you from using the areas but you might just be uncomfortable enough to stay away. My biggest laugh was the church lady who spied on the group who were at the aft pool on deck 14 or 15. She was looking down at them from deck 17 and taking pictures! She then complained bitterly about the behavior! My thought is if you don't want to see, then don't look. On the cruises I was on with the Bears, they didn't close the theater, a bar or the dining room. They did have a private party in one of the lounges and if you walked by and appeared to be a fun loving person, they invited you in.

 

Oh, I wasn't trying to pick any certain group. Just a LARGE group that would be big enough to take over venues onboard. The word 'they' was not meant to be picking on one group.

 

My b-i-l is gay and married to a wonderful man. They are not bears by any means. Their relationship is very private and want to keep it that way. They too were on a trip and sitting at a restaurant for lunch. They took pictures of each other and the ocean in the background. It wasn't until after they took the photos, they found a group of Bears in an adjoining pool - next the the restaurant! All having a great time swimming! They show up in many of the photos! My boys laugh about it now. . .

 

I think I would have helped the lady out by offering her my binoculars! Good golly, Molly!;)

[JerseyGuys]

Don't let the name fool you! Sure, some look like Al Borlin-chubby, facial hair etc. From what I saw, most were nice looking, well dressed, funny, intelligent and able to hold a decent conversation at lunch. It night be harder on the new ships to avoid a large group at the pool, but on the older ships, if Bears are using the aft pool, there are 2 others. You can only be in one pool at a time. If one bar is being occupied, use another. It doesn't have to be a horrible experience.

 

Well said Donna

[artsy-girl]

Sure, sure...most groups are fine and never cause any problems. Viva la Diffe'rence, it's what makes the world interesting.

But, I really would like to know if I'm going to be on a TA with a group of 700 Mimes. :D:p:eek:

[pompeii]

This exactly. I'm guessing that nothing the Bears did or have done was any worse than some of the stuff I saw between college kids on my spring break cruise. From what I hear, two Bears wouldn't even fit onto one lounger, much less be able to do, um, calisthenics thereon. Those Arizona State students are certainly bendy.

 

Oh goodness, that's funny! I just found out that my 11/8 Ruby cruise is a Bears cruise; I had no idea when I booked. The comparison to a spring break cruise made me laugh. My college sophomore son was on a RCI spring break cruise last March, and based on the fun he had, I feel sorry for the families who chose that cruise! DS said that about half the ship were spring breakers, so I'm sure there were lots of shenanigans!

[shredie]

But, I really would like to know if I'm going to be on a TA with a group of 700 Mimes. :D:p:eek:[/color][/size][/font]

 

AAAGGGHHH! My worst nightmare! The only thing I hate more than beets is a mime! :D I voted "no." I think you take your chances when you book and the other passengers are always a mystery until you board.

[zahav1]

My biggest fear is to have a Ventriloquist convention my cruise, I think if that was the case, I'll just jump overboard :p

[PunkiC]

We are social ballroom dancers and won't go on a cruise that has a dance group of any kind because they overrun all of the dance floors. The worst was a group called "Boot Scooters" which was a country line dance group.

 

The second worst was an organized group of ballroom dancers. They always have way more women than men and the single women hang out at the edge of the dance floor ready to snag any unattached man. They are so aggressive that they are even willing to physically unattach a handsome man who is a great dancer like my DH. Of course there are always impromptu groups of line dancers who destroy line of dance, but in those instances we can always request a waltz and reclaim the floor.

 

Now that we are retired we tend to take longer cruises and they are generally free of organized groups.

 

The most fun group with which we have ever sailed was a bunch of firemen from Vancouver B.C. They had kidnapped a fellow worker who was getting married the following weekend and took him on the cruise. They all dressed like pirates for the whole cruise and ran around talking like pirates all the time. They were very loud, probably drunk half the time, and very silly. I think everyone love them--I know we did. One of them told me that if he had known how much fun it was to be a pirate, he would have done that instead of becoming a firemen. I might add that they were all very, very handsome and had wonderful bodies. ;)

 

We were once on a 4th of July Queen Mary cruise the had tons of extended families hosted by their grandmothers and grandfathers, along with a huge gay group. We aren't pool people so we have no idea how the two groups interacted at the pool, but we greatly enjoyed both groups in the ballroom.

[Thrak]

My biggest fear is to have a Ventriloquist convention my cruise, I think if that was the case, I'll just jump overboard :p

 

What if they were ventriloquist mimes? :eek:

[Cruisin' Chick]

I think that if dining rooms, entertainment venues or other areas will be blocked off to regular passengers they should be informed in advance. Also, 10% of the passengers being in a group might not be readily visible on the bigger ships, but I would think it would make a difference on the smaller ships.

 

For the most part, I think this is the crux of the matter. There's going to be family reunions, companies on incentive cruises, maybe eventhemed groups or special interest groups on just about every cruise. It's whether a specific group will get to reserve a pool, a dinner seating, etc. for their exclusive use that's troublesome. Other than that, just because a group is on your cruise doesn't mean you'll be negatively affected or even know about the group unless you happen upon a sign.

 

On one cruise, we were walking by one of the dining rooms and noticed a closed sign for a group meeting. But this was during the day and it was a MDR that is normally used for just dinner, not breakfast or lunch. So if this was the total impact of this group, that's not bad (and I imagine most passengers weren't even aware of this group).

 

On another cruise, we saw a sign for a cardiac care group. Apparently, doctors, technicians, and possibly vendors. Again, I imagine most other passengers didn't know of its presence. And we met a couple of the attendees and they seemed very nice. And it probably was a good ship to be on in case of a medical emergency (not joking).

 

We were on a cruise that had a large contingent of French speakers. Knew this only because we saw a large white board listing activities while we were touring the ship. And one of the channels on the TV was devoted to French programming. A couple of times we checked it out and watched a couple of movies in French, even though we didn't know the language. But we've seen "The Incredibles" so many times by then, that we pretty much knew the dialogue.

 

On the other hand, there may be groups that don't end up accessible by googling. Again, it depends on the group and whether they take over the ship. On the same cruise with the French speakers, there was a large extended family who were a pain in the you-know-what to many others. In fact, you can just say "That family" and shake your head and everyone knew you were referring to them. The parents apparently spent as much time as possible in the casino (I'm not a casino person so was just going on what others had said), they allowed their kids to run around at all hours of the night. My daughter said they didn't participate in the kids program (which could have been due to English not being their language, but there were times I just saw them sitting on stairwells looking bored). There were reports from passengers (while on board and on CC post-cruise on our roll call) about how these people were a pain to the staff (crazy demands, etc.) which did affect other passengers -- while attending to their demands, other passengers in their dining area or cabin area were getting short-shifted.

That would have been an interesting cruise. Having had the misfortune of being around so called christian groups, my experience has been similar to yours and I would have preferred the bear group hands down.

 

Many years ago when we first started cruising we encountered a good sized gay group. We did not realize they were aboard until one night we were walking by the lounge and their was a sign up for a private party. Being curious we were looking in the open door when a young man said they were having a performance and invited us to join them so we did. That is when we found out it was a gay/lesbian group and their performances were really funny. We enjoyed it so much so that they invited us to join them on future cruises. We never did but did think about it.

 

Our boys are grown now but when they were young we did not try to shield them from the real world. When they saw something that caused them alarm, we would talk about it. They needed to be made aware that not everyone is the same, did not live like we did, eat the same food or dress the same way.

 

Always travel with an open mind as you may actually learn something.

 

Reminds me of when my daughter was 3 on a cruise. We were walking around one evening with her and she wanted to go in to a piano lounge and check it out. She jumped up onto a stool among the (all) women there. the pianist (also a woman) played some tunes such as "My Girl." Hubby and I had to stifled our laughter about this. I can just imagine some parents getting upset and grabbing their kid because they are narrow minded.

 

Other than really involved PDA (and if they got pools, etc. reserved for their exclusive use), I wouldn't be concerned about being on a cruise with the bears (I would be uncomfortable with overtly physical acts in public on anyone's part as I'm sure most of us are no matter the orientation), and would prefer them to anyone proselytizing in public. And if all the entertainment on board was tailored to a group (G-rated or strictly gospel, country-music -- sorry, but not into that kind of music, K-POP, etc.), I would think that's something that the cruise line should inform potential passengers. As some others have stated here, better to let passengers know about any major groups taking over venues and/or entertainment so they can decide whether to take the cruise or not.

[4cats4me]

We were once on board when a group of 140 impacted our cruise of 2,800. They wore red hats and purple clothing, as I recall, or maybe it was navy blue clothing?

[Lerin]

We were once on board when a group of 140 impacted our cruise of 2,800. They wore red hats and purple clothing, as I recall, or maybe it was navy blue clothing?

Red Hat Society. Were they all women aged 50+

 

I would like it if the cruise lines would tell us of a group, however they never would. They would have to discount all the other cabins to fill the ship!

 

Depending on the group 10% I may be alright with, but 20% or more and I would not even consider the cruise.

[azgrandmax3]

We had a very unpleasant cruise where a very large religious group made the trip most uncomfortable. Several venues were closed off to all others. Public prayer all around the ship, one of the main dining rooms completely off limits to the rest of us. When I questioned why was informed "they paid much more then full fare to have pots, pans, one use diner ware, plates and their needs met." That was our first and last cruise on Celebrity.

[Geldhart]

The admin assistant in our group (trans-woman) was on a cruise with her husband and ended up with a large group of fundamentalists on board who weren't shy about condemning her to hell as an abomination.

 

Give me the scary looking biker dudes and dudettes any day

 

 

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[Corfe Mixture]

I would have thought that if the presence of the Group meant that some of the amenities an informed person could reasonably expect were not going to be available as a result of a commercial decision, then the line has an obligation to inform clients that the facility will not be available on the cruise, though they would probably not have to disclose the reason.

 

Why?

 

Well, despite the many get out clauses in the passenger contract, should a facility a passenger could have reasonably expect to have enjoyed not be available, simply as a result of an undeclared decision to deny that passenger the use of a facility, then this could well be deemed to be a contractual failure.

 

However, large scale legally acceptable disturbing behaviour, e.g. mass prayer meetings in a public area, would not count unless it could be demonstrated that it was organised by the ship, and that they had prior knowledge of the fact that it would frequently deny other passengers the use of a facility they could have reasonably expected to have available for their use.