How to plan a family cruise
10 Secrets to Planning a PERFECT Group Cruise
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are you planning a group cruise for your
friends or for your family and wondering
how it all works in this video i'm going
to share with you the tips and tricks on
how to plan the perfect group cruise
hi there i'm elana from the website
livewellcrews.com welcome or welcome
back to my channel now if you are
planning a group cruise there are a few
things that you need to know about
organizing your group cruise in advance
how it works as well as some sort of
tips and tricks to make it a little bit
more special i'm even going to share
with you a tip
on something that you really do want to
avoid on this group cruise now before i
get started i did want to mention that
if you like this video if you find it
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haven't done so already okay let's get
started so how does a group cruise work
and what are the benefits well basically
when you book a certain amount of cabins
on a cruise ship then the cruise line
will give you certain benefits so some
of those benefits could include special
pricing or group pricing and as well it
could include a free birth or a free
cabin so the way that works is if you
book eight cabins on a cruise ship then
usually what you would get is one free
birth and a birth basically is a bed so
half of a cabin minus the taxes now in
some cases some cruise lines may have
the same benefit but at five cabins so
this is something to check either with
the cruise line or with the travel agent
now you may get some additional benefits
as well including onboard credits a
bottle of wine or other amenities now
when it comes to cabins you can have
several different cabin types that are
all allotted within your group so you
can have some people who prefer to have
inside cabins other people that prefer
to have balcony cabins you can have some
people who prefer to have a double cabin
for a couple and you can have other
people that prefer to have a triple or a
quad for families with children now the
first step of planning your group cruise
is going to be actually thinking about
what crews that you want to take so
start thinking about the itinerary what
is best for everybody what are the dates
approximately when you do want to travel
is this a march break vacation is it a
summer vacation so you do want to give
that some thought and even if people
have cruised before what is the cruise
line or cruise ship you're most
interested in now you're going to want
to have an organizer or a leader of this
group even though you want everybody's
input in the end you really do need to
have somebody who's going to take charge
who's going to keep an eye on everything
make sure that things get done otherwise
this group cruise will never get planned
now along with the organizer you can
have a couple of helpers as well
especially if this is a big group this
is a great idea consider using a travel
agent to help you to plan your group
cruise now not only can they help you
right at the very beginning to choose
the right cruise for you and your party
but at the same time they can help you
just along the way they can make sure
that everybody makes their payments that
everybody has the right documentation
they'll be there to answer any specific
questions and when there are changes
because inevitably that is something
that happens they'll be there to deal
with it rather than somebody who's
organizing this group cruise you want to
be able to handle all the fun stuff but
leave all of the really important stuff
to the travel agent now a really good
tip when it comes to planning group
cruises is to plan and book early so you
probably want to be about 8 to 12 months
ideally before your cruise and that's
just going to give you the most choice
in terms of cabins and it's going to
give you those best prices as well
however an extra little tip if you're
planning a really large group cruise or
maybe you're planning a group cruise
and maybe some people are on the fence
they don't know yet if they're going to
go if you are working with a travel
agent what they can do is they can
actually hold those cabins for you even
without the names on if you are very
early and this way you'll be able to
still hold that better group pricing as
well as those extra amenities okay so we
got the basics out of the way now let's
get into organizing that group cruise
and all of that fun stuff plus the one
thing you want to be really careful of
or otherwise you might regret that so
the first thing is that you'll want to
set up a facebook group now a facebook
group is a great place to be able to put
all of that information about the cruise
right into that facebook group it's a
good way for everybody to share
information together you can even share
youtube videos about the cruise ports
you can make any documents available
within that facebook group now of course
the really important stuff you still
want to email but that facebook group is
a really good place for everybody to
kind of get excited and to share
information together now let everybody
know that they should fly in or drive in
the day before the cruise and even
better see if you can make reservations
at the same hotel for everybody now
especially if you are a large group
oftentimes you can find a group rate by
calling the hotel directly but otherwise
if you are booking early there should be
no reason that you wouldn't be able to
all get the same hotel and as well talk
to everybody but consider even making a
group reservation at a local restaurant
that is nearby the hotel and this way
you can start your vacation the night
before the cruise now something a lot of
people like to do on group cruises is to
actually have matching cruise t-shirts
whether it's for embarkation day or
maybe for a shore excursion and of
course every group is different so make
sure that the people in your group
actually like this sort of thing but
this is definitely something really fun
to do now i actually have a blog post
all about matching cruise t-shirts for
families for couples for groups so i
will leave that linked below in the
description of this video in case you do
want to check that out but i do think
that that is a lot of fun now another
fun idea is to plan one evening where
you're wearing coordinating outfits now
hear me out on this because i've seen
some people do this and i think it does
really make a nice group photo but
basically the idea is that you plan a
sort of black and white night or a white
clothing night or even a red outfit
night so it can be the color of your
choice but then you can go to a
specialty restaurant or even the main
dining room and then you take a group
photo which i think is a really fun idea
as well now please let me know if you've
done a group cruise if you've ever worn
matching t-shirts or coordinated outfits
or anything like that please let me know
down in the comments below now something
that you can do especially if you're on
a family or friends cruise is you can
take that free cabin or that free birth
and instead of having one person just
get that benefit is that you can split
it amongst everybody so what you can do
is maybe that amount might be enough for
everybody to have specialty dining and
so that you can book a specialty
restaurant for everybody or it can be
split amongst everybody and used as an
onboard credit or even for a shore
excursion now if you like the idea of
having some group activities here are a
few fun ones that you may want to plan
for your cruise now some of these are
going to work a little bit better if you
are a larger group and others might work
better if you are a smaller group so you
can have a cabin crawl that's basically
an opportunity to take a look at the
different cabins on the cruise ship the
different cabins that are booked into
your group you can have a slot pool and
basically that is something that you can
organize at the casino you can organize
a scavenger hunt that's especially fun
if you have kids on the cruise you can
do a gift exchange and this is really
good if you are cruising during the
holidays and you can have a door
decorating contest even with a prize or
just have door decorating and this is
especially fun if you're on one of the
cruise lines where a lot of people do
decorate their doors shore excursions so
when it comes to shore excursions this
is something you're going to want to
discuss with everybody does everybody
want to do the same excursion or does
everybody want to plan different
excursions so you may want to plan some
private excursions so basically not
booked with the cruise line or you may
want to plan some excursions with the
cruise line now in some cases you're
going to have people that want to do
different things so it is something to
discuss with the different people in
your group however i have a little tip
for you if you are booking with a large
group of people carnival does say on
their website that if you are 50 people
or more they will customize an excursion
for you so that is something really good
if you're part of a larger group if you
are a larger group of 50 or plus and
you're cruising with a different cruise
line i definitely would give them a call
or ask your travel agent to ask them if
they can customize any excursions for
you as well now if you are booking
privately oftentimes when you do contact
that private tour vendor oftentimes they
can make sure that you have a group
booked altogether now i have one more
tip and then i'll share with you
something that i think is really really
important when it comes to planning your
group cruise and i think it even could
make or break your cruise and you'll
regret it if you don't do this but first
that tip so it is about organizing and
communicating so when it comes to
keeping organized something that is a
really good thing to do is actually to
create sort of a bit of an itinerary if
you do have any excursions planned then
make sure that that is kind of on a
schedule if you have any specialty
dining that's booked if you have dinners
booked at a certain time make sure that
all of that is on a bit of a schedule
and something that you can do is you can
put that on a google doc in advance or
you can make a pdf of it and you can
send it out to everybody before the
cruise or even padder you can actually
bring a copy with you for everybody on
the cruise and you can just give it to
everybody to keep in their cabin so that
they can keep track of some of those
more important scheduled events now
something that you'll probably want to
do as well especially if you're on a
family or friends cruise is you'll want
to put everybody's cabin number
basically onto a document and you'll
want to give everybody that information
as well so if they do want to go and see
somebody at another cabin or if they
want to call them from their cabin phone
that they can do that and something else
to do is to download the cruise line app
most cruise lines now have an app where
you can message on that app and of
course you can still use messenger if
you have wi-fi or um text message or
email if you do have wi-fi on the cruise
but that app is really handy as well
okay so the absolute most important
thing when it comes to planning and
having a successful group cruise and
something you do not want to neglect
doing is to communicate the expectations
for this group cruise and you want to do
this before anybody even books this
group cruise but basically everybody's
idea of traveling with other people is
different some people think when they're
going and traveling with other people
that they're going to spend every waking
moment together while other people think
on a group cruise that they're going to
maybe eat dinner together but they're
going to kind of do their own thing the
rest of the time so it's just really
important there's no right or wrong but
you do want to make sure that everybody
has the same idea for what they expect
and what they want out of a group cruise
now personally i've been on a group
cruise before with friends and family
and what we decided on is we would eat
dinner together so we planned that and
we did make sure that we had dinner
every night at seven o'clock p.m so we
all were able to plan our days around
this but when it came to excursions some
people went on the same excursions other
people planned different things and we
sort of were a little bit go with the
flow during the rest of the cruise so
that nobody felt that their vacation was
sort of hijacked by trying to meet the
group's expectations this worked for us
it maybe wouldn't work for everybody
else please let me know if you've
planned a group cruise before what are
some of your tips what worked for you
and if you are planning a group cruise
please let me know any questions that
you have please let me know those as
well in the comments below this video
now i'm going to leave a playlist of
videos right after this one all about
the things to do before you cruise which
will help you with your cruise planning
now i hope that you did enjoy this video
if you did please do give it a big
thumbs up i really do appreciate it and
please subscribe to the channel if you
haven't done so already bye for now and
happy planning
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