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Cabin Crawl tips


Drewtastic86

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Hi!  Need some advice....We want to partake in a cabin crawl but I have never organized one before?  Thought @WAAAYTOOO may be a good one to ask about this.  We have a Grand Loft suite booked and I wanted to coordinate one with the Facebook group that is on my sailing.  Any tips and tricks would be greatly appreciated!

 

Andrew & Rob

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Probably not a wise or welcome idea while there are pandemic protocols in force.  When is the sailing?

The trick to making one work is the group where you can introduce the idea.  It's really as simple as putting it out there and asking if there is interest.  Sometimes a number of people will respond and sometimes only a few do.  Trying to seek one type of every cabin can make for a long crawl so sometimes it is better to look for specific or unique cabins.  An aft balcony instead of a regular balcony.  A virtual balcony interior instead of a regular interior.   Your GLS plays into this strategy. 

I think a cabin crawl is more interesting when it's not going to the average routine cabin but cabins that are not as common because people may be curious to see these types of cabin. 

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We joined in with a great cabin crawl on our last cruise. The organiser did a really good job and even drew up and printed a "plan of attack" that included the details of all the cabins we were going to see. It was done through our CC roll call and she just posted the suggestion on the roll call and then those of us that were interested signed up.

Once we had someone with a particular cabin type signed up, no other cabins in the same category would be accepted for viewing as that would have been pointless, but anyone was welcome to sign up and come along even if their cabin was not on the viewing list.

I've attached a copy of the plan below. 

Cabin crawl plan.pdf

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Regardless of if you organize a crawl, if you end up wanting to show your cabin to a group you can have the Genie help arrange snacks.  When we showed our GLS during a cabin crawl we had asked for the Genie to coordinate ordering some finger foods.  We were told that it would be difficult to arrange specialty restaurant snacks (this was on Anthem) so we picked things off of the room service menu.  We also on our end did a walk-up to-go order at Izumi shortly before the crawl to have some more appetizers.  We had our fridge fully stocked with a variety of beer and sodas and offered them to the guest.  Other times that I have participated in room crawls with Star Class cabins they have gone so far as to pay for champagne servers and had a large spread of food to offer.

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OOOHHHHH.....one of my favorite things !!

Let me first say that, as @Lovetocruise2002often mentions, all Genies are not equal...or at least, they each have different gifts and strengths.  Much of the success of your Cabin Crawl will be dependent upon your Genie's party skills.

Having said that, I will also make one more disclosure and it is tied in with the one above.  I have read accounts, over the past couple of years, where the Genie has balked at organizing a large Cabin Crawl and has suggested to their SC pax that in order to arrange such a soiree, there would be a per-person charge.  Hmmmm....so I think you may need to be very strategic in your approach to this.  I would suggest that perhaps it would be best NOT to give a lot of advance warning to your Genie about your plans for a CC get-together.  That is completely contrary to my original approach to doing a CC get-together.  In the "early days" I always told my Genie up front about the event so that he/she would be prepared...but in more recent years, I have sprung it on them at the last moment and downplayed the event to keep it from sounding like a gala.  Some Genies really seem to enjoy doing party events, and some others really seem to resent it.  A lot will depend on who you get as your Genie.  I have never had a Genie try and charge me, but I have heard of others whose Genie DID indicate that there would be a charge.  That totally sucks. I hope it doesn't happen to you.  Avoid using the words "Cabin Crawl" with your Genie. Call it something else.

So....my first piece of advice is - keep it to yourself until you are onboard.

My second piece of advice is, try and keep your event to 25 people or less.  That is often hard to do when you have an open forum like a FB group.  If you have a good indication that your group is likely to be larger than 25, I would reconsider being the host of the event.  I have found that my most successful CC get-togethers have been when someone ELSE is the host and I just tag along as an interim stop.

My third piece of advice is....if you are just an interim stop, and not the host, do NOT try and participate in the extended CC.  IOW, don't try and go to all of the cabins along with the mob.  You will have enough to do to keep you at "home" and organizing for your own event.  The first 2 of these that I did, I tagged along with the group and went to everyone else's room and by the time we got to our suite, I was exhausted and found that I would have been better served to have stayed in the suite and made preparations for the others to arrive.  This is particularly important for CC for GLS (and really...any SC suite on a Q class ship) and ATS.  Those suites are SOOO far away from everyone else...it's such a trek.

For the event itself, assuming you are allowed to cater without charge, the Genie can order food from any specialty restaurant (assuming your event is during normal operating hours of that restaurant), provide unlimited amounts of beer, water and soft drinks (there is a charge for wine and champagne, but it's very nominal in the greater scheme of things), get plates, napkins, silverware, table cloths, ice...literally everything you need for your party.  It is very difficult and very expensive to get hard liquor brought to your cabin but it can be done....with persistence.  We never bothered with liquor.  It's just too much trouble.  I strongly recommend that you approach your Suite Attendants to get an ice chest for beer.  Room service will bring you those useless champagne buckets that hold nothing.  You WILL need an ice chest and I have found that the room Suite Attendants are your best source for that.  They will also be the ones to get your ice for you.  Give THEM plenty of head's up.

Timing the event is kinda critical.  As I mentioned before, you can only order specialty food during restaurant operating hours and you will want to do this on a sea day so that means you will need to do this in the afternoon (between noon-2).  Historically, cabin crawls are held on the first sea day immediately following the Top Tier event, which usually means around 11:00 AM.  That's too early if you want specialty food - and you do.  There is danger in waiting until the afternoon, but it really can't be avoided.  People will get busy with something else and forget or just blow it off b/c they get sidetracked.  Jamie's/Giovanni's food seems to lend itself well to CC get-togethers. The meat planks they serve at Jamie's are ideal.  Just make sure that they deliver the food on the PLANKS and not in plates.  This happened to me once and it doesn't have nearly the presentation on plates as it does on the planks.  Finger food is great.  Food that needs knives and forks is less desirable just due to logistics.  Everyone will not be able to sit down at the same time.

The Genie does NOT attend the event nor do they "help" other than ordering everything and coming to make sure that everything is on target.  Room service will bring all of your tableware and then come and collect everything at the end of the event.  You are responsible for serving and hosting your event.  It is possible to get a server (for a fee...don't ask me how much $$.  I've forgotten) but this might trigger the whole "fee" conversation.  I would probably avoid that altogether.

There will be lots of tipping involved.  Make sure you have adequate bills for room service, suite attendants and folks I'm sure I'm forgetting.  You will likely see each of these people only once...so please remember to tip when they provide the service.  You will likely not see them again (except for the Suite Attendant and the Genie, of course).

As for being the organizer, if that's still what you decide to do.  I found it easiest just to keep a spreadsheet, which I updated periodically and published on my Roll Call site (I don't do FB so I have no idea how you would publish it there) with the names and cabin numbers for those who were interested in showing and another column for those who only wanted to "crawl" but not "show".  Another hint is....you might think about limiting the number of cabin types to 1 cabin.  IOW, you don't need to show 4 different inside rooms, or even 2 different Owner's Suites.  They are similar enough that there's no need.  Just limit the "showing" to the first person who signs up to show their cabin type.  It's great if you can get lots of different cabin types...but not lots of the same type.  Too much running around....and another reason to NOT be a crawler, yourself.  Another reason to have someone ELSE be the organizer is....there is definitely a skill to organizing the flow of the crawl.  You will most likely want to be at the END of the crawl....so whoever organizes it, just make sure that they know that you want your suite to be last.  First of all, being last gives you the most time to get prepared and being last allows people to stop and enjoy themselves.  If there are cabins left after they visit you, they will not feel as comfortable lingering.  I guess that can be a good motivator NOT to be last but I always enjoyed having everyone hang around, enjoy their drinks and chat.

Sorry, I did not intend for this to be so long !

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3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Let me first say that, as @Lovetocruise2002often mentions, all Genies are not equal...or at least, they each have different gifts and strengths.  Much of the success of your Cabin Crawl will be dependent upon your Genie's party skills.

^^^This!

I have been on two cabin crawls that involved Star Class suites.  It wasn't me in the the SC suite either time.  Anyway, one, the Genie organized, printed menu cards, was present, and even took time to mingle with everyone.  Fantastic.  The other, the genie arranged for room service to deliver snacks and was no where to be seen.  You don't need the Genie to really be involved, but having the Genie there and present does indeed make a difference.

There's not much else I can add here that hasn't already been mentioned by others, however, I will say that I'm going to have to agree with @twangsteron this one.  IIRC, your sailing is February 2022.  I would be really surprised if covid protocols did not impact a cabin crawl somehow.  Even if things improve, I don't know how much of a "normal cabin crawl experience" you would be able to get by then.  Best not to invest too much into it just yet.  But always good to take notes.  @WAAAYTOOO is the queen is cabin crawls ?

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Am I the only one who had a love hate relationship with the idea of a cabin crawl? On one hand, I would love to see some of the suites we haven't stayed in, but on the other, I hate the idea of strangers in my own cabin. I think it would feel like having my house on the market too...I would want it to be neat and clean, but I know the kids and DH would care less. One of them might even offer to show everyone our dirty clothes hamper in the closet. ?

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5 hours ago, melmar02 said:

I would want it to be neat and clean, but I know the kids and DH would care less. One of them might even offer to show everyone our dirty clothes hamper in the closet. ?

Haha, so true! We purposely planned ours for the very first morning (which luckily was a sea day) on the basis that so early in the cruise our cabins would probably still be reasonably tidy. ?

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11 hours ago, melmar02 said:

Am I the only one who had a love hate relationship with the idea of a cabin crawl? On one hand, I would love to see some of the suites we haven't stayed in, but on the other, I hate the idea of strangers in my own cabin. I think it would feel like having my house on the market too...I would want it to be neat and clean, but I know the kids and DH would care less. One of them might even offer to show everyone our dirty clothes hamper in the closet. ?

The idea creeps the hell out of me. But I don't even really like meeting new people on cruises, let alone having them in my room. 

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I guess I'm just a party girl.  I loved having parties in my suite.  I will admit that it may not be as cool of an idea in the COVID age, but it still sounds like fun.

One of the best suite parties I've ever attended was in @Matt's CLS during one of the previous Cruise Blog cruises.  @AnnetteJacksonand her team set that up....wow, what a great party !  BTW, they DID have hard liquor at theirs and if I recall, they had a bartender.  No expense too great for @Matt!

That was also the group cruise with the disastrous excursion to Bamboo Beach.  Don't get @AnnetteJacksonstarted on that one....

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3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I guess I'm just a party girl.  I loved having parties in my suite.  I will admit that it may not be as cool of an idea in the COVID age, but it still sounds like fun.

One of the best suite parties I've ever attended was in @Matt's CLS during one of the previous Cruise Blog cruises.  @AnnetteJacksonand her team set that up....wow, what a great party !  BTW, they DID have hard liquor at theirs and if I recall, they had a bartender.  No expense too great for @Matt!

That was also the group cruise with the disastrous excursion to Bamboo Beach.  Don't get @AnnetteJacksonstarted on that one....

Hey, to each their own with provolone. I get why people are in to it, I just want no part of it. 

The first time I went on a cruise about 10 years ago, I was active in my Cruise Critic roll call before hand, and had a plan to get together for a party on the first day. Time came and I realized I had no desire to actually meet people and I just went to the pool for a pina colada and my book instead ? I travel for a living and am always around people when I travel for work, so when it comes to vacation, it's time for my wife and I to be alone...even if there are thousands of other people around us. 

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Great advice from everyone!  Honestly the more I think about it @twangsterand @Lovetocruise2002are probably right about Covid.  I probably need to be slightly more realistic but I am just dreaming of partying like @Matt and @WAAAYTOOO LOL.  I appreciate the advice and at the end of the day, it is great to just have open and candid discussions about cruising.  I literally am in cruise withdrawal lol.

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On 2/18/2021 at 9:54 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:

I guess I'm just a party girl.  I loved having parties in my suite.  I will admit that it may not be as cool of an idea in the COVID age, but it still sounds like fun.

One of the best suite parties I've ever attended was in @Matt's CLS during one of the previous Cruise Blog cruises.  @AnnetteJacksonand her team set that up....wow, what a great party !  BTW, they DID have hard liquor at theirs and if I recall, they had a bartender.  No expense too great for @Matt!

That was also the group cruise with the disastrous excursion to Bamboo Beach.  Don't get @AnnetteJacksonstarted on that one....

While The party in the suite was great - that was not me or Matt but a guest.    And @WAAAYTOOO thanks for the memories!  haha  Part of going with a group is to make sure everything runs smoothly and while there has always been something every group I have done that has gone wrong - there was NO WAY to smile and look the other way with the FIRE on the bus!   But now, like every other thing like this, I look back and laugh at how well the group enjoyed the day and all the memories - that burned in our memories - and i laugh!  LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF THESE!

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