Casinos at sea special events cruise, does it affect non-participants?

[Freckles_51]

We just realized that a cruise we have booked is a special events cruise, Casinos at Sea VIP Beach Party.  I have read about other group special events, where much of the ship is taken over by a group, affecting the enjoyment of non-participants.  We don't usually contribute to the casino machines so it is no problem if the casino is constantly busy. I only see that they will have a beach party at one of the ports, no skin off our nose either. Wondering if anyone has experienced a CAS event and , as a non-participant, did it affect your enjoyment of the cruise and in what way? 

[brookie848]

I haven't sailed on a ship that was having a CAS event, but last year we were on the Dawn and the ship had a large corporate group on it.

 

It definitely affected our sailing and we would try to avoid such situations in the future. Our meet and greet was not held at the normal time or location. Different restaurants/spaces were closed off to regular cruisers at certain times of the day. Neither of these were that big of a deal, but they did cause us some issues (especially the meet & greet).

 

The other thing that bothered us was that a good section of the group had not cruised before and you could tell. Because of this lack of experience, their behavior could come off as rude when they were moving as a group.

 

In addition, I had to say something to two men from the group who were kind of in charge. We were at a martini tasting and they were standing right behind the chairs having a LOUD conversation -- we couldn't hear what was being said by the people running the tasting. After a few minutes of their obliviousness, I turned around and asked them to be quiet and go in the restaurant that was holding their event. The other people at the tasting clapped when they were finally quiet and moved back to their domain.

 

So while it by no means "ruined" our cruise, I would try to avoid such sailings in the future. It definitely affected the vibe of the sailing and we didn't enjoy it as much as we did the previous time we had sailed that ship/itinerary.

[BirdTravels]

4 hours ago, Freckles_51 said:

We just realized that a cruise we have booked is a special events cruise, Casinos at Sea VIP Beach Party.  I have read about other group special events, where much of the ship is taken over by a group, affecting the enjoyment of non-participants.  We don't usually contribute to the casino machines so it is no problem if the casino is constantly busy. I only see that they will have a beach party at one of the ports, no skin off our nose either. Wondering if anyone has experienced a CAS event and , as a non-participant, did it affect your enjoyment of the cruise and in what way? 

It will have no impact on your cruise. 

 

The only casino event that takes up space is the end-of-year poker tournament that needs space for tables. You would not notice other promotions (there may be a sail away party in a bar or club which would normally be closed anyways). 

 

There are usually a lot of casino players on ships. They get invited by CAS directly or using free cruise certificates from their land-based casinos. Sometimes upwards of 25% of the adult guests on a ship are casino guests sailing in a comped or discounted room. 

[Freckles_51]

Thanks for responses.  Looks like we will not be affected.