Have you ever cruised with a large family group?

[Peachypooh]

I guess this is the flip side of my post concerning cruising solo. Does it ever work cruising with a large group of family? If yes how did you arrange it? A friend of mine told me he cruised with 30 family members and by the end of the third day nobody was speaking to each other. A friend of mine told me that when she cruised with a family group her sister was pressured by the group not to go off on her own and ride a bicycle at a very safe port. They wanted to do all things together all the time. It was not good. And finally another friend of mine was pressured by her sister in law to only do certain things and eat at certain times because of the sister-in-law's health problems. My friend was not happy. Full disclosure I have cruised with family and I just made up my mind to go along with whatever they wanted to do. That was the only way it worked. It seems that if at least one family member has the expectation that everyone is going to do everything together and eat every meal together things go downhill fast.Any thoughts?

[garycarla]

...the end of the third day nobody was speaking to each other. A

... was pressured by the group ...

....was pressured by her sister in law..

...do certain things...

....eat at certain times

...at least one family member has the expectation that everyone is going to do everything together and eat every meal together things go downhill fast.Any thoughts?

 

Your notes above are things that can ruin a trip.. even with a smaller group. If folks set up the rules BEFORE leaving and everyone UNDERSTANDS that you do not have to travel like a pack of wolves doing everything together, it can work. Otherwise, it is HELL on the high seas.

 

We do to Vegas alot, and often take/meet friends and extended family. We make it very clear we will do some event together but folks are on their own for other meals, and going their own way.

[nadeki]

Yes and it can be lots of fun....we don't do things together.....it is great to sit on the aft area outside the buffet and other family members seem to come and go and you share what you did that day. It seems you always bump into a nephew of niece getting ice cream.

 

I am a family person and the more the merrier.

 

We once did a large family dinner in the dining room and it really was more chaos than enjoyment as everyone was spread out over six tables....

[thatjoeguy]

Growing up, my dad's parents took their 7 kids, spouses, and 10 grandkids on a cruise several times. We would also have other friends of the family join in, giving us a group of 40-50 people. It was way too many to try and organize events for everyone, so everyone pretty much did their own thing. This was back before the kids clubs were really a thing, so it was nice to have all my cousins around to hang out with. This was also back in the days of fixed dining (and on Holland America) and the group split into both dining times, so we weren't all even in the dining room at once. That said, we were sat with other people in the group, which was nice when I was a kid. We would travel as a group when people wanted to do the same excursion, but aside from a group picture on formal night, there were no "must dos" which was really nice.

 

As an adult, the biggest group I've done so far was 7 people last year, and even with that small of a group, people still went off to do their own things. We did a couple of excursions together, and also a few meals together. I also did a Europe cruise a few years back with my in-laws (a group of 5) that was an all together all the time trip, but it was much more focused on the excursions than on the ship. I think we ended up hanging out a good amount on the two sea days too, but I think it was mostly a) we just grabbed 5 chairs and each read, and b) it was Princess, and therefore boring.

 

I'm setting up a bigger group (hopefully ten-ish couples plus kids, mix of family and friends) for next year, and we'll see how that goes. I don't anticipate any pressured group events for that one either.

[cb at sea]

I would not want to be in a big group that insisted on doing everything together. So stressful! Not everyone will want to do and be at the same place at the same time. Waiting for laggers, or being rushed (if YOU are the lagger) would not be worth it, to me.

 

In groups, I would state that everyone should do their own thing...meet for dinner...and if your plans should sync...all the better...but I wouldn't insist on it.

[pooksma]

Our first cruise was 17 ppl ranging in ages from 4 to 80. Everyone did their own thing. Those who wanted to do excursions together did so, those who wanted to eat together, did so. We did have 3 tables for MDR suppers but not everyone went each night. ITA with a previous poster who said as long as the plans are laid ahead of time, it can be a lot of fun!

[emcelh]

If expectations are unrealistic, like eating every meal and doing all activities together as a group, you have to change the expectations. I'd want to set some ground rules up front, or not travel with a large group of friends or family.

[sweetlillym]

I haven't yet but we have 25 of us booked on the Epic in December. We are all already aware that we don't have to do everything together. It will be nice to have people to hang out with when we want to, but we are free to do whatever we want. I hope it goes well! lol

[CateW]

I don't mine doing things together during the day and a couple of dinners or drinks but other than that, everyone can do whatever they want to do. Make it clear in advance, it is everyone's vacation after all so everyone should be able to do what they want. #nopressure!

[lenquixote66]

I guess this is the flip side of my post concerning cruising solo. Does it ever work cruising with a large group of family? If yes how did you arrange it? A friend of mine told me he cruised with 30 family members and by the end of the third day nobody was speaking to each other. A friend of mine told me that when she cruised with a family group her sister was pressured by the group not to go off on her own and ride a bicycle at a very safe port. They wanted to do all things together all the time. It was not good. And finally another friend of mine was pressured by her sister in law to only do certain things and eat at certain times because of the sister-in-law's health problems. My friend was not happy. Full disclosure I have cruised with family and I just made up my mind to go along with whatever they wanted to do. That was the only way it worked. It seems that if at least one family member has the expectation that everyone is going to do everything together and eat every meal together things go downhill fast.Any thoughts?

 

We did a family cruise in 2013 on the Norwegian Gem to celebrate my birthday .Everything was great ,no arguments.

[Dannirose]

Our cruise next summer will be a family/friends group of around 40 people for our wedding. We are making it clear from now there will be a few official group activities scheduled during the week but everything else is "freestyle". We'll let people know our plans and anyone who is interested can feel free to join in but no pressure or obligation.

 

The wedding itself is embarkation day so we will do a group dinner on the second night, a cocktail party the last night at sea, a slot pull, and either a lunch or group activity in port one day. After that the plan is to let the group as a whole know which shows, excursions and onboard activities we are considering through a private facebook page prior to sailing and let people make their own plans the same way.

[cbelc]

We cruised with 19. It was broken up into smaller groups and we all sat together on 2 large tables by a window at dinner. The group included 3 small children and 2 folks in their 80s as well as an 18 year old, 20s-30's and 50's-60's. We are all over the map on politics and religion. We love the individuals and respect our differences. We had our group picture taken by the head waiter on the stairs in the dining room. It was logistically best. This was an issue on a past cruise. There was no anger at any time on this one, but lots of laughing and stories. We had a blast! It was a small group for us, mostly family. The family has traveled together for years. This would not work for everybody, but it does for us.

 

 

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[rayness]

My first cruise was with a group of 13. We discussed that we would meet for dinner and the comedy club before the cruise. This was with Carnival. We did end up eating more meals and other activities together because we always ran into each other on the ship. I still ended up doing things I didn't want to do though. I needed some alone time and didn't really get that because I shared a cabin with a friend of mine who is extremely outgoing. I'm the opposite so I tried to sneak in some alone time because I was plain exhausted from socializing.

 

I much prefer solo cruising like I mentioned before. I love doing what I want and when I want or doing nothing at all without having to compromise.

 

 

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[txagfan]

YMMV - Some families are miserable AF...your friends family sounds like they may be.

 

We've gone on large group cruises. One person has to arrange a skeleton itinerary/plan for things like hotel, transportation, a few meals, one or two excursions, etc. Make it clear nothing is required and if they don't want to do an excursion or something requiring advance booking they just need to say so.

 

Planning a cruise where everyone is together all the time is silly.

 

 

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[Cocktail afficinado]

I'm 26 and we cruised last year with grandparents and all approx. 24ppl including small children.

 

If as previus repliers said, you keep it cool and don't try to over-kill every activity with a "must attendance" then it's cool. We kept our policy to having dinner together most of the evenings, and that's about it. Some other things naturally we did together, we would just ask at dinner who wants to join for a show or drink or activity the following day.

 

Another tip - Do not take an internet package! as long as everybody keeps away from cell phones and can't text people to meet all the family for lunch etc. then it's a fun laid back vacation. We felt it was perfect for all ages and tastes.

[xitappers2bx]

I've cruised a few times with my family... granted there aren't 30 of us, but our parents, my two sisters, their spouses and kids, and myself and my daughter. We've never had a problem ever... it's always worked out rather well.

[4774Papa]

We have cruised with a large family group of 13. We found that the portion of the family with small children tended to do their thing, while others broke up into two groups. In fact, for our group, we only had dinner with everyone three times on a 2 week cruise.

[terry&mike]

I am the planner for a group sailing in November on an 11night European itinerary. Like a previous poster mentioned, I put out a skeleton itinerary. I sent out an email with information on the planned events, which are: ship and hotel transfers, 4 specialty dinners (1 about every 3 nights), and 3 tours in ports. I followed this with the information that I will be getting off the ship in the other ports and taking a DIY stroll to see the sights there, and anyone is welcome to join me if they’d like, or to go off on their own, or with other members of our group, whatever they are comfortable with. This way, we have set things to do together and check in with each other, and plenty of time for people to do their own thing, whatever they like.

Edited July 31, 2017 by terry&mike
spacing

[sharona211]

We leave on Friday for a week long cruise with 31 family members ranging in age from 14 a 84. We live in 3 different states and some only see each other every few years. There are some extended family coming along too (Uncle's wife's aunt and cousins).

 

We've planned a few things via a Facebook group that I set up for the cruise, like meeting in a certain spot for sail away and getting a group picture on the first night... We also have one full group dinner reservation for night #2 and a smaller subgroup for the last night at Cagneys.

 

We're all very different with different interests and different plans. Several people posted to the group with excursions they were booking and the invitation for anyone else interested to come along. No expectations or must do events.

 

I think discussing things in the Facebook group made the planning easier and also lets everyone know up front that not everyone will be together all the time.

 

I guess I'll find out for sure how we do in a few days!

[zqvol]

It seems to me that the family in question could not do a land based vacation together much less a cruise based one. When our family get together (well over 75 of us) we end up splitting into groups and everyone does their own thing. No one is pressured into doing anything and the only time we even think about being all together is at breakfast or dinner. BTW servers hate us at dinner as we all wander in a different times, and occupy tables for hours. The key is that we leave really large tips to make up for the tables not turning over.

[DCLCrazy]

When my sister travels with my husband, my daughter, and I, we always lay the ground rules down upfront. Usually the only rule is we eat dinner together at night. The rest of the day is free to do whatever you want to do with no guilt. If you want to do what I'm doing, great! You're always welcome. If you want to go watch the movie while we play bingo, fine too. It's everyone's vacation.

 

 

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[gymbomb]

I guess this is the flip side of my post concerning cruising solo. Does it ever work cruising with a large group of family? If yes how did you arrange it? A friend of mine told me he cruised with 30 family members and by the end of the third day nobody was speaking to each other. A friend of mine told me that when she cruised with a family group her sister was pressured by the group not to go off on her own and ride a bicycle at a very safe port. They wanted to do all things together all the time. It was not good. And finally another friend of mine was pressured by her sister in law to only do certain things and eat at certain times because of the sister-in-law's health problems. My friend was not happy. Full disclosure I have cruised with family and I just made up my mind to go along with whatever they wanted to do. That was the only way it worked. It seems that if at least one family member has the expectation that everyone is going to do everything together and eat every meal together things go downhill fast.Any thoughts?

 

 

 

We have cruised with family/friend groups a couple of times. It works very well for us IF we all agree ahead of time that we are NOT going to try to spend the whole time together. We choose a few things to all do together like a couple of dinners, then smaller groups plan things like excursions together, and everyone has time to do their own thing.

 

 

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[johnrich]

On our Getaway cruise last Sept, there were 9 of us. Before we left, we decided on one excursion (Maya Chan) that we would all do, and all other excursions would be on our own. For dinner, we decided that we would gather at a certain time each day for dinner. Those who joined were welcomed and those who wanted to eat at a specialty restaurant or the buffet were free to do so. Shows were the same way. Breakfast and lunch were always on our own. It worked out very well for us. We have cruise several times with family and friends (up to 18 people) and have always done something like this. Never any problems !

 

Good luck!

 

 

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[littlelulu01]

We did a Christmas cruise with about 30 on another line. My brother in law planned it with a ta and all our cabins were near each other. The only specific things we had planned were dinners and a Christmas gift exchange in a bar he reserved.

 

The upside was that we all got together at dinner each night and got to visit. It was easier just because there was set dining time so same time same table, same servers every day. Downside was dressing up every night. Guys did suit and tie, woman dressed up. Had to also dress up the kids.

 

There was a little drama here and there but nothing bad. Key to success is an outline and clear understanding what is group and what everyone is in their own for. It made Christmas easy because we drew names, had a $ amount and only had one person to buy for. It was basically like a Christmas dinner every night for a week except someone else did dishes, cooking, laundry and cleaning.

 

The cruise itself was very expensive but we had fun- well except for husband who was NOT happy about dressing up every night while on vacation and having to sit around waiting for the girls to get all fancied up....He swore off cruising for a few years after and it wasn't until I dragged him onto the pearl Haven Alaska that he said he liked cruising again.

 

I'd do it again just because you can include all ages, but not sure if NCL freestyle dining would work with such a big crowd. It was much easier just to show up at a designated table each night where the servers knew exactly what everyone wanted after the first night. Perhaps in the Haven but that is a lot to expect a large varied group to spend unless a ta could get some great rate.

[Run14]

I've been part of 3 group cruises, all of them involving a wedding, and one of those was mine. Tensions run high with big group vacations and weddings as well. As many others have said, dinner is a common time to meet but we've seen the most success with only planning a couple of large group dinners, and encouraging smaller group dinners (or just couples doing their own thing) other nights. We started a google doc spreadsheet for each port so that people could coordinate shore excursions (of avoid certain ones based on sign-ups...). It also helps to be really nice to your group coordinator when you book your room - we made sure that nobody was near our room and couldn't be happier about that.