Group cruising

[glenn29]

I recently returned from my first cruise and loved it.

 

I've spoken to some friends and relatives and we are looking to all cruise together in the summer of 2010 (lots of teachers and school workers so summer is the only real option).

 

I guess I'm looking for suggestions on booking a cruise for a group. Any experiences you've had with this would be great to hear about and any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

We are in the very initial planning stages right now so we have a lot of directions we can go.

 

We live in the Hudson Valley area of NY (about an hour north of NYC) so cruises out of the northeast would be easiest to coordinate.

 

I think we will have about 6-12 cabins filled (although I'm not sure how kids work, if a couple with 2 young kids (6 and 8) go do they usually get another cabin for the kids, and do they pay full price?).

 

Thanks for any help or advice.

[6rugrats]

I never use a TA, but you may want to consider it for this booking, at least in the inital planning stages. It is a lot of work to book a group vacation and I would not do it. If anyone is unhappy about anything, you will be the one to hear about it. If you use a TA, they will be the one the others may contact and it gets you out of the middle.

 

Usually, the third and fourth person in a cabin, child or not, will pay, but often a reduced fee. If this couple books a second cabin for the kids, it will usually be more expensive, as they will be paying the first and second person price.

[Iris5383]

Glenn - talk to your travel agent. If you didn't book your recent first cruise through a travel agent, then you should find one that specializes in cruising. (S)he can give you all the details. After booking a set number of cabins, which varies per cruise line, you will get either a free cabin in the same category most booked in, or on-board credit for each cabin. The freebies depend on the cruise line. Some give free dinners in the specialty restaurant on board.

 

Hope it all works out. I think it would be great to cruise with a group of friends and family.

[printingchick]

You will generally see some perks for booking at least 8 cabins. If you book with a TA, they may be able to steer some more passengers to you cruise and make they part of your group (on paper only) to help you reach that 8-cabin minimum. It depends on the cruise line and the sailing, but you will often get benefits such as on board credits, free dinner in a specialty restaurant or even one passenger cruising free. I agree with other posters; check with a good travel agent.

[cb at sea]

Agreed--a TA is the one to do the legwork on this! You DO NOT want to be the one making the arrangements....pick the cruise and ship, and let everyone deal with the TA---then anything that goes wrong (and something will not be to someone's liking--guaranteed!) will be between that person and the TA!

[lady_cruiser]

The key is that if you never used a TA you will need to find one that you can trust. I always used a TA until my upcoming cruise in February of 2010. By booking myself I have already saved my sister and I $130 each on our cabin and we still have 9 months to go. Hopefully this means that I can still see a couple more drops in the price of our cabin between now and then. All this is thanks to a program I downloaded called cruise shark dot net. It automatically checks for price drops and notifies you when it finds one.

 

This little secret is a secret that my TA kept to himself since he did not want the price drop to cut into his commission. Although I have to say not "all" TAs are like him. There are plenty of TAs that take time to go the extra mile for their clients by providing OBC, etc.

 

Most cruise lines have their own vacation specialists that handles only group bookings. Call the cruiseline and asked to be transferred to one of them.