Karie

Hello Cruisers, I am arranging travel/lodging for a group of 24. We are flying into Miami late on a Friday night and boarding the cruise Sunday. I've never been to Miami. Was hoping to book either a hotel or an air bnb close enough to the port that we can tool around on foot for the short time we're there and then order a shuttle or lyfts to get to the port. Have any of you booked for large groups like this and if so, what did you do for pre cruise stay? Can hotel shuttles accommodate this many people or is there an independent shuttle company I should look into? Is walking realistic or is renting a couple passenger vans my best bet? Ive heard the port is really congested though so Im trying to plan accordingly and feel out all options. In a perfect world each family in our group could rent a car and stay where they'd prefer, but I'm trying to bundle us in as many areas as possible to help keep things cost friendly for some of our members. Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

@Pattycruiseand @twangster, thank you both for the info and suggestions. I will do some mock bookings and see what I find. I intend on booking with Next Cruise while on board so the TA info is good to know. The agent I worked with said she'd been doing this for years, so I'm not sure where our disconnect is. I booked all the cabins with her so we all have same TA. I will do some follow up with her on the tour conductor incentive and the downgrade after I do the mock and see if we can bridge our gap. 7 of our rooms are ocean balcony, 1 is interior. Thanks again!

@TakeMeSomewhere, that is interesting. When I went on my last cruise i used a different agency that had been recommended by a friend. I had a great experience with that agent and fully intended to go with her again. However, the timing was bad, when I initially reached out to her about booking she informed me she was going to be gone on a cruise herself and would get back to me upon her return. Upon her return unfortunately we were unable to connect in time and the KSF offer said you had to book by Feb 27th, so I went with a different agency to ensure we made the deadline. The new agency was super friendly, very helpful on booking day and got us all in by the 27th. We booked the 26th or 27th of Feb, I received the invoice on March 8. I made the inquiry into the cabin cost, was told to give her 24 hours to get something figured out. 7 days passed and I still hadn't heard from her so I followed up again and was told no downgrade only upgrade, and sorry about that. We've just passed the 30 days now. At booking I also inquired about the group incentives that are talked about on Royals website for groups of more than 16 who book 8 or more rooms. I was told that this agency had a promotion that gave $50 OBC to each cabin booked and that there was also some additional incentive that would be offered to me as the planner of the large group but that she was unsure what that would be and would let me know. I still haven't gotten any word on that. Is there generally a group discount or incentive offered? Or should I just let that go? I work in customer service so I never want to be the annoying customer, but I also really value follow up and clear communication.

@Atlantix2000, well thats the crux of it! I was misguided in my thinking that all of the cabins have sofa beds thus thinking most just accommodate up to 4 guests. I have heard about room classifications, I just thought that was in relation to the view and the placement of the cabin, not the capacity it holds. I obviously see my error now and will be more knowledgeable moving forward with future bookings.

@DoomSlayer, we will definitely pitch in. I will not let my sticker shock ruin any vacation! All of us going together was important to me, so we will definitely make up the difference. I just mainly wish I would have realized. I thought all of the ocean balcony cabins had a sofa pullout so I did not realize he would be in a different classification with a cabin of 4. He is a family of 5 but his teenage daughter I put in a room with my adult daughter. And then I requested the girls' cabin just be in between our cabins. Even with price ring higher than i originally acvounted for, a cruise is the most affordable/inclusive vacation I've ever been on and the service is definitely worth the price. I just felt a little mislead and really even that's on me.

@Villageidiot, yes we absolutely can pitch in, that is exactly what we will do! There's nothing that will stop me from having a good time on vacation! My frustration mainly comes from feeling like I did my due diligence and then I still missed an important piece. We did the same thing with our airline miles. The rest of just pooled our miles together to make sure we had enough to get his family to Florida. This particular brother is very focused on saving for a house, not going on vacation. I'm very focused on our families making memories together having adventures! So we do whatever is needed to accomplish both!!

Hi everyone! Thank you for the responses! I have only been on 1 cruise but I watch a billion cruise videos and I had never seen anyone talk about this particular issue. I made several errors here! First, when gathering cost info for my family I entered myself and my husband into each room choice (interior, ocean view, balcony facing every which way and the guarantee) on the Royal site, wrote down the total cost for each selection and then for anyone traveling with children I added an additional $154 fees/ $116 gratuity per child and then relayed said total. I did not go thru each person's mock booking with their actual passengers. I did not realize that would alter anything. We will most definitely go on this cruise and have a spectacular time. I'm over the moon that my family gets to do this! I guess my frustration comes from just being surprised by it. I had one expectation in my mind, I voiced that expectation multiple times and at no point did anyone say hey FYI, I think what you think you're saving is not really gonna play out here. I would have booked him differently had I realized the error I was making! Bottom line, we will all pool together on this and its not the end of the world. Lesson learned for next time! I kept telling myself my math was too good to be true! Thank you for your feedback, it's much appreciated and why I love following the cruise community!

Talked my entire family into going on a Royal cruise next Feb. We booked 9 cabins in total. Our group is mostly adults but one of my brothers has 3 children and a vacation isn't super affordable for him generally, but I researched the kids sail free promotion which stated kids 12 and under sail free on qualifying cruises but you still pay the taxes, fees and gratuities for them. I ensured we chose a date that fit within the qualifying guidelines and talked him into going based on this incredible deal that 2 of his 3 children would qualify for. I was ecstatic that they had this insane promotion! Being as there was so many of us I booked through a travel/cruise agent. I provided her all the info for our group and each families cabin choices. I had gone through the booking motions on the Royal site to price out what each room style would cost. Because there were so many of us I did not receive all of the invoices for each family/cabin for a few days. Upon looking through the invoices I noticed that my brother, the brother sailing with 2 children qualifying for the kids sail free promo, was charged $1016 more for guest 1 and 2 in his cabin than I was charged for my husband and I for the same cabin. I called our agent immediately to inquire what happened here. She said that Royal charges a higher fare for guest 1&2 in cabins with 4 guests as guest 3&4 are free. I was completely shocked as this essentially means the kids sail free was a sham because the cost is just transferred to the fare of the parents. I sold my brother this trip based on this deal and now he is paying over a $1000 more than the rest of our group who booked the same exact cabins but aren't sailing with children. I asked my agent if we could change his room to an interior so at least if he had to pay more it could be in a less expensive cabin, but she said after booking and paying the deposit we could only upgrade him not downgrade him. I tried to contact Royal directly, but they told me since I booked with an agent there was nothing they could do. Ultimately this is my fault. The deal seemed to good to be true and it definitely was. I was just really disappointed and would have preferred there be no deal offered at all than to be tricked into thinking I was getting a deal just to have the cost shuffled around as another charge. As much research as I have done on cruising I've never seen anyone mention this happening. Has anyone else had this happen?