Cruise ship excursions that are only available to a certain group - have you seen this?

[Honolulu Blue]

I found a thread on the Celebrity boards where a cruiser encountered a group of excursion choices that were not available to them because they were not part of a group that apparently has a bunch of its members onboard.  In that thread, another cruiser mentioned something similar had happened on another cruise for a different group.  Not essential, but if you'd like additional clarification on what I'm talking about, here's the link to that thread:

I've done a bunch of cruises (though not as many as some of you) and scanned through the ship excursions on most of them, and I can't say that I've seen anything quite like this.  I've seen a couple of similar examples:

 

1. Onboard activities on full charters - these are obviously restricted to members of the group on the cruise and ordinary cruisers wouldn't be aware of them.  The examples I've seen had the chartering company running these activities and taking payment for them.
2. The vaccine thing - I know for a very short time after the restart Carnival had some excursions in some ports that were exclusively for those groups with unvaccinated members.

 

Anyway, that's enough background.  Here's the question:  Have you seen a situation where a cruise line advertises excursions with availability exclusively for those in a specific group?  Details are always appreciated.  Thanks in advance!

[CruiserBruce]

On a full charter, there won't be "ordinary cruisers" on board. On a full charter there are only members of the chartering group on board.

[leaveitallbehind]

It's not terribly uncommon for large group bookings of several hundred in the group (corporations, organizations, clubs, churches, etc.) to have as part of their group package certain excursions included. When this occurs, those excursions will show as closed as the group involved has secured the full capacity of the excursion.  (It also is not uncommon for any excursion to book full, either with early planner bookings or on board, which would close them to remaining passengers).

 

The other issue with groups is if large enough, they tend to dominate certain venues on board which can make it harder for individuals to enjoy those venues as well. Some are closed at certain times intentionally for a given groups' function.

 

And as mentioned by @CruiserBruce full ship charters are closed to general passenger bookings, so you would not be able to book that itinerary in the first place.

 

And regarding the vaccine situation which occurred during the restart, many cruise lines had those restrictions and exceptions in place - most of which were driven by port of call regulations at the time.

Edited December 3, 2023 by leaveitallbehind

[VMax1700]

The positive from this situation is that one would have early awareness of a large group onboard and perhaps take avoiding action.

[leaveitallbehind]

5 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

The positive from this situation is that one would have early awareness of a large group onboard and perhaps take avoiding action.

Yes, in this case where it was indicated when someone was seeking available excursions for their cruise.  But, as a rule, the cruise lines do not "announce" large group bookings when you are looking at specific itineraries for a cruise you are interested in. 

 

Certain large groups and organizations will advertise for their membership with itineraries they are booking. You can also google different organizations, etc., who may be sponsoring a group, or have group bookings planned, for different itineraries to compare those schedules to itineraries you are looking at.  But in general you don't normally have a way of knowing what groups are on board in advance of your sailing.

[ontheweb]

On our Prima cruise this past summer, we had a large group of deaf passengers. I knew in advance because one of them posted about it in our roll call. At a lot of activities there was a sign language interpreter. Also, you often saw several of them together signing.

 

But, as far as I could tell there were no excursions not open to everyone.

[MWarren3549]

On 12/3/2023 at 9:45 AM, leaveitallbehind said:

It's not terribly uncommon for large group bookings of several hundred in the group (corporations, organizations, clubs, churches, etc.) to have as part of their group package certain excursions included. When this occurs, those excursions will show as closed as the group involved has secured the full capacity of the excursion.  (It also is not uncommon for any excursion to book full, either with early planner bookings or on board, which would close them to remaining passengers).

 

The other issue with groups is if large enough, they tend to dominate certain venues on board which can make it harder for individuals to enjoy those venues as well. Some are closed at certain times intentionally for a given groups' function.

 

And as mentioned by @CruiserBruce full ship charters are closed to general passenger bookings, so you would not be able to book that itinerary in the first place.

 

And regarding the vaccine situation which occurred during the restart, many cruise lines had those restrictions and exceptions in place - most of which were driven by port of call regulations at the time.

Yes - that is true for the onboard venues.  I  have been part of very large groups many times and I'm heading out on another cruise on 1/20th.  We pay a large premium to have these venues closed and used for our group alone.  The Piano Barbarians close the Piano Bar throughout the cruise where it is only our group inside.  They are a great, rowdy bunch ... My tribe.  

[sanger727]

10 hours ago, MWarren3549 said:

Yes - that is true for the onboard venues.  I  have been part of very large groups many times and I'm heading out on another cruise on 1/20th.  We pay a large premium to have these venues closed and used for our group alone.  The Piano Barbarians close the Piano Bar throughout the cruise where it is only our group inside.  They are a great, rowdy bunch ... My tribe.  

 

I don't think anyone disagrees with the fact that large groups pay a premium. But it's unfair to the non-group cruiser to pay full price and then have normally open venues closed to them. They aren't benefiting from the group's premium prices. 

[Hlitner]

Groups can be an issue or a non-issue depending on the group and whether the cruise ship closes off public venues for the sake of that group.  We were recently on the Sky Princess where we had a group (of over 800) from the Porsche Club of America.  While they did have some events/activities during our cruise, they were open to everyone and the group actually enhanced the cruise experience.  The cruise lines usually do their best to keep information, about groups, from folks booking cruises.  They argue this is only fair to protect the privacy of groups, but we think that is a lot of BS.  Once aboard, groups are anything but private, especially when various venues are closed to other paying passengers.

 

For many years, we have advocated (here on CC and elsewhere) that the cruise industry adopt a "bill of rights for cruisers."  Currently, the cruise lines write ridiculous cruise contracts (few ever bother to read these long documents) that give cruisers very few rights and reserve just about every imaginable right for the cruise line.  If you book a Caribbean cruise and the cruise line decides to change it to an African cruise, they might argue that they are within their rights to make any change to their itinerary.  And if you happen to be on a ship where 3/4 of the passengers are from an annoying group, that takes over most of the ship and excludes you, the cruise line would say they are within the terms of their "cruise contract."

 

Since most of our cruises are now longer more exotic itineraries, we seldom have group issues.  But those taking shorter cruises (especially 7 day Caribbean and Alaskan voyages) had best be aware.

 

Hank

[Aquahound]

Unfortunately, I have had the extreme displeasure of being aboard while there is a partial charter.  Yes, I have seen excursions available only to group members of the charter.  My assumption was that those excursions were arranged for the group and would not have otherwise been available, so I was not upset, not that I'm big into ship excursions anyways.