Groups On Board

[kendon]

Not at all. We have sailed a couple with groups of 700+.

Was it irritating? Yes. Did it spoil the cruise? No.

Could it have spoiled the cruise? I guess that would depend on what group was sailing.

But we did have some great laughs. :eek:

 

We sailed with a 500 plus group.

Was it irritating? Yes. Did it spoil the cruise? Yes.

Too many of one special interest group taking over parts of the ship that were off limits to us. Never again. I'll do a Google search or check roll calls before booking again.

[bhopal21]

Ruby Princess. I had the month wrong in my earlier post. It is on the January 17, 2015 sailing.

 

"SAIL WITH PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS,The BUCKINGHAMS, THE LETTERMAN, AND THE GUESS WHO FROM FT. LAUDERDALE ON THE RUBY PRINCESS " is what I found.

 

 

I would dearly love to be on that cruise!!

 

Mike:)

[Ethel5]

"SAIL WITH PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS,The BUCKINGHAMS, THE LETTERMAN, AND THE GUESS WHO FROM FT. LAUDERDALE ON THE RUBY PRINCESS " is what I found.

 

 

I would dearly love to be on that cruise!!

 

Mike:)

 

Me too!!! I'm giving away my age...who cares!

[bhopal21]

Me too!!! I'm giving away my age...who cares!

 

Let's go!

 

Mike:)

[Ethel5]

Whenever this topic comes up, it's like trying to avoid talking about the elephant in the room! Just do a specific search on Google and you will find your answers.:rolleyes:

[Colo Cruiser]

Me 3. :D

[Ethel5]

Let's go!

 

Mike:)

 

I would LOVE to but I come home from my TA early November-then it's the holidays. January is a money recovery month!:D

[waltd]

Oh come on Donna. Don't you want to boogie till the cows come home? :)

[Cruisin' Chick]

I think just about every cruise (unless you're going on a really small ship) will have at least a group or two and a family reunion.

 

I wouldn't like it if entertainment was curtailed because of a special group taking over large venues (at least at night) as we like to go to the shows every once in a while. I wouldn't like it either if we got cut out of traditional dining because of a large group taking over a diningroom.

 

Usually groups don't impact us at all. On our last cruise, I saw a sign outside one of the dining rooms in the morning for some sort of law group, but that dining room wouldn't have been in use otherwise outside of dinner, so not a big deal. There was a group of doctors/cardiac techs on one cruise and the people from that group that we met seemed very nice. I think the rooms they had for their conference wouldn't have been in use during those times.

 

We also had a French speaking group on one of our two-week cruises. I saw a sign in French by the art gallery that seemed to have a list of activities (I'm guessing). One channel on the in-cabin TV was devoted to French programming and we actually watched a couple of the movies, even though none of us know any French (one was "The Incredibles" which my daughter and I had seen so many times, we didn't need to know the dialogue).

 

The two times a large group was bothersome was more about their personality. One group was there for a "World Tourney of Bingo" which apparently was about a third of the passengers. Besides the whole idea that there would be a tournament for bingo (c'mon, it's not like bridge or poker, both of which at least require strategy), these people were very obnoxious in their addictions -- always smoking, drinking, eating, gambling. You wouldn't want to be between the door and them when the dining room door or casino gate was opened. They did have use of a large entertainment venue during the days -- but it was more having to avoid the smoke and the whole thing.

 

The other group was just 52 in number, an extended family that terrorized other passengers and the crew. One woman harassed someone on our roll call because she wanted her to switch cabins with her family (and my new buddy had been waitlisted for a long while for this cabin as it was very desired). The kids ran around at all hours of the night, and one kid bumped into another new friend. One of the kids shoved my daughter in the face while in the pool -- both hubby and I talked sternly to him -- he claimed not to talk anything but Spanish -- and neither of his parents were around (if an adult went up to my daughter and started talking to her like that, we would be immediately there). One of the youth security talked to one of the parents about the out-of-controlled kids and was told "I'm on vacation." Apparently they dropped a ton of money in the casino, so the crew wasn't going to do anything about them. (I did send a complaint letter after the cruise)

[OCruisers]

Whenever this topic comes up, it's like trying to avoid talking about the elephant in the room! Just do a specific search on Google and you will find your answers.:rolleyes:

 

This is true. I respect the Cruise Critic rules about not listing the websites.

Think without breaking any rules, it's OK to say that our travel agent was able to arrange for us to pay an extra charge to be included in the one some of you have expressed an interest on the 1/17/15 on Ruby.

LuLu

~~~

[notentirelynormal]

We've had a couple of groups on board that I know of. On one cruise we had two "booths" set up in the atrium during boarding for their people. Except for the first day and the booth, never knew they were on board.

 

Now, I almost always sail with friends and family. On a 7 day we have one party. One a 10 to 12 day we have 2 private parties. That means that they section off a public area for our use only for an hour. There is a sign up that has our group name and the area is private - guess what - some version of "Not Entirely Normal" and they have a bartender and server for us. No one gets to use that area while we are using it. Granted it is usually in an area like the disco that is not used much anyway during the day but still, the general public is excluded from our "section". Our groups go anywhere from 18 to 26 people. Can you call 26 people a group that you would change your cruise for?

 

I think unless it is a huge group with obnoxious behavior that most people would have little clue that they were on board. If I can't use the left side of a bar for an hour, whatever! Who's to say that it isn't a group of friends playing a game taking the space? I think most cruise lines go out of their way to make sure that everyone's cruise is minimally impacted and unless you've got a bee up your bonnet you can move to the next venue without much "to do" about it.

[Ethel5]

I've told this story before....

 

On one cruise over Halloween, there was a Christian group of about 300 and a group of about 400 gay men. It just proved that the Lord has a sense of humor! In actuality, the guys were more fun.:)

[PtownGirlz-NH]

When I checked what groups would be on our cruise, I was excited.

 

How does one check what groups are on their sailing? We are on the Caribbean 4/19 and I would love to know what group is there also. I have a feeling everyone will be there to have fun and relax!!

[zukecruiser]

I thought that there was a website, somewhere, that had a list of groups that are going on different cruises. Am I wrong on that?

 

Try "shoretrips.com". I think that was a site on an old cruise critic posting that listed group cruises as well as excursions.

[TKS]

Ruby Princess. I had the month wrong in my earlier post. It is on the January 17, 2015 sailing.

 

We're going the week after and cannot wait. Have seen the snow outside?!:eek:

 

Suntan, I hate to let you know, but since you don't want to be aboard with any groups. . .

 

An Estonian cultural group is booked 1/24/2015 on the Ruby. About 300 booked so far, so around 10% of the ship's capacity. Hope that doesn't bother you. From the literature for the group the activities are primarily scheduled for the two sea days. Activities will include singing, dancing, lectures, etc., so there will be times you won't have access to "any and all" spaces on the ship, since there is a small fee before to facilitate setting up the activities.

 

Sorry, but I expect you will find at least some groups on virtually any cruise on a ship this large.

Edited March 13, 2014 by TKS

[bhopal21]

Eh, I think that I will stick with Paul Revere and the Raiders, et al.

 

No comprende Estonian.

 

Mike:)

[Off2China]

Ruby Princess. I had the month wrong in my earlier post. It is on the January 17, 2015 sailing.

 

We're going the week after and cannot wait. Have seen the snow outside?!:eek:

 

"SAIL WITH PAUL REVERE & THE RAIDERS,The BUCKINGHAMS, THE LETTERMAN, AND THE GUESS WHO FROM FT. LAUDERDALE ON THE RUBY PRINCESS " is what I found.

 

 

I would dearly love to be on that cruise!!

 

Mike:)

 

We're on that cruise, but not part of the group. I'm not at all concerned about them ruining my cruise. (Plus, I loved all those groups back in the 60s :D )

 

The group coordinator posted this on our rollcall:

 

"I am the producer of the Oldies Music Cruise, and we will not interfere with the other Princess onboard events. Our guests will find it hard to attend all of our events and the events produced by Princess, but we find that most of our passengers are coming onboard for the 60's music entertainment. Our events are private and only open to those that have purchased the entertainment package. Our group size will be about 700 with Paul Revere and the Raiders, The Lettermen, The Guess Who, The Buckinghams, and current lead singer Tom Garrett of the Classics IV."

[bhopal21]

Sounds like a terrific vacation to me!:D

 

Mike:)

[Kmkub]

Groups don't bother me. Everyone has to eat, regardless of group size. Anytime dining is unpredictable and we always expect a wait. It allows us to be delighted when we don't wait.

 

Our last cruise was "high rollers" cruise, so the only annoyance was that the casino was exceptionally busy. It saved us money. Good trade off. :D

 

I would be extremely annoyed if a group was constantly taking over venues, but wasn't there a thread a couple months back about Princess canceling people's cruises because a large group was taking over the ship? It seems that was the responsible thing to do on their part; if the group is so large they are going to dominate many venues, they should do that.

[caribill]

I would be extremely annoyed if a group was constantly taking over venues, but wasn't there a thread a couple months back about Princess canceling people's cruises because a large group was taking over the ship? It seems that was the responsible thing to do on their part; if the group is so large they are going to dominate many venues, they should do that.

 

I think in that case the group chartered the entire ship. No other passengers allowed.

 

Not sure if selling your planned and booked vacation to someone else is the responsible thing to do.

[Kmkub]

Not sure if selling your planned and booked vacation to someone else is the responsible thing to do.

 

Yes, sorry, I didn't mean to imply that. I meant if the group is so large that it is taking over most of the ship to the point that others can't have access the public areas, the cruise line should cancel the other passengers. (In that case it was a charter, so different.)

 

I don't think Princess should announce which groups have reserved. That's a privacy issue. If the group has announced it, that's up to them.

[Britter16]

thanks for the ship's name. We are juggling 3 ships and 4 weeks so it was faster to ask which ship here than do 12 google searches.

We were on a cruise with a big group celebrating top salesmen - not a problem for us. The waiters were practically doing somersaults because one night they ordered 8 bottles of Opus One!

[secretcastle]

2 summers ago we were on an Alaska cruise that also had a " health drink" convention of people on board. There were a group of them on the Ultimate Ships tour, and they were trying to sell me on their product line ( of which I was not at all interested in) and handing me business cards during the tour!

For me that crossed a line, and I felt very uncomfortable as they were very pushy.

Edited March 13, 2014 by secretcastle

[Hlitner]

2 summers ago we were on an Alaska cruise that also had a " health drink" convention of people on board. There were a group of them on the Ultimate Ships tour, and they were trying to sell me on their product line ( of which I was not at all interested in) and handing me business cards during the tour!

For me that crossed a line, and I felt very uncomfortable as they were very pushy.

 

We would not have been as understanding as you and would have quickly crossed "our line" into being rude! There are a few times that being "rude" is appropriate and this sounds like one of those moments. Sometimes when people become "pushy" one needs to quickly push back!

 

Hank

[notentirelynormal]

Not only that but I would have reported them to the Purser's Desk. Sales pitches are forbidden and I'd imagine if it got reported they would have had some 'splaining to do Lucy!