I was just reading a thread on cruise.critic.com about a large group (600 or so) that booked on a cruise and how they overtook the entire ship and that riots broke out. The crew evidently did nothing to this group. Has anyone had a similar experience?

NO, never seen groups that large in 7 cruises.

I take groups of 100-300 on cruises and have seen some that size. My friend had a group of almost 700 on a Celebrity ship last year and they are using RCI this year. Cruising is focusing on groups and incentives to fill ships.

They usually stick to the massive ships that can accomodate them so I stay away from lines and ships that fit this profile.

Yes, they can take over and the ship staff does little to control them. However, I do not find it much different from the staff ignoring other bad behavior from regular passengers and kids out of control.

On a Celebrity cruise we took last February there was reported (on cruise critic) to be a large gambling group aboard. We did see some cabins with signage to that effect - but if I had not read it on line or seen the signs I never would have known.

Riots? I think we might have heard of riots aboard a ship.

I was just curious if large groups on a cruise with non group passengers tended to be rather rowdy as a rule. I have a friend who is going on an Elvis reunion cruise this week, but she says the entire ship is chartered.

We've had large groups of seniors, but nothing like what some people have experienced. Google "gay bear cruises" and you'll see.
One of my friends was booked on a cruise when suddenly all the cabins were gone. She found out that it was a huge group of cross dressers and those who liked them...lol. She said that wouldn't bother her, but her husband wouldn't come out of the cabin.

I've never experienced this either but I have seen occassions on Regent where a large company such as Ford Motors, IBM, charters the entire ship and takes about 600 employees.

Check the shoretrips.com - group section. It has many but not all groups. I think it's groups that have booked their excursions. But there are plenty of all sizes.

YouTube has the video of one of the incidents. I watched it last night. Very disturbing. My 13 year old daughter is going on this next cruise with me and I would be bothered quite a bit if it happened on our cruise. I can see how the crew would be overwhelmed. Just do a search for it and it will pop up.

<YouTube has the video of one of the incidents. I watched it last night. Very disturbing. My 13 year old daughter is going on this next cruise with me and I would be bothered quite a bit if it happened on our cruise. I can see how the crew would be overwhelmed. Just do a search for it and it will pop up.>

Are you speaking of the Princess Brownie Riot? I saw that one. Are there others?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=h__fjiPwXcE


Look at the end of that. That's the "Bear" cruise on RCCL. They took over the Solarium area and were parading around in obscene costumes and supposedly showing a lot of "affection". There was a LOT of talk about it on www.cruisecritic.com
Search for "bears"

I can't pull up youtube here at work. Will have to look when I get home. The thread about the incident I originally spoke of has been taken down by the moderator. The complaint was about a large group, she didn't know the name, but another poster figured it out - aqua boogie. They were loud and obnoxious and the crew did nothing to keep them in line.

I have a question though. When large groups are cruising with non group pax, and they have special events going on for the group, do they have a special room for these events or do they just block off a certain section of the ship for their events? From the pictures I saw on the website, they had lots of special events for these folks.

Well, that was a huge problem on the Bear cruise. Lots of people thought that they shouldn't have been kept out of the Solarium because they PAID to be on the ship and use the facilities. They said the behavior was quite lewd and they were stacking chairs around the area so people couldn't see, etc. They let tham have a masquerade party which was private, but they very publicly paraded down the ship's Promenade in some outrageous and obscene costumes in full view of everyone.

There are seldom special rooms for groups except for small meeting rooms. Groups use the same public rooms as everyone else. They are just reserved for private functions.

Well I will certainly check next time I book a cruise to see who is going to be on it. I am told you usually don't see these type of groups on the European cruises, usually the Carribean or Mexican Riviera cruises.

On the cruise on HAL which the OP posted about, the group was Park West Art - the group that holds those horrible art auctions on ships. They took over a main venue of the ship - the Crows Nest for the entire cruise. It was closed to other passengers. There was no previous notice to other passengers that this very popular main venue was not available on their cruise. The regular passengers were very upset, and many posted on cruisecritic.com, but there was no riot. The crew had no say in the matter. Neither did the other passengers.

This seems to be a growing threat on cruiseships. One should always check to see if a large group is on your cruise. The cruiseline will not tell you in advance.

Golfette - was not on HAL - Carnival Liberty.