GROUP CRUISING!

Group Cruise Travel Services
Offered by
CRUISES INC
Cheri Diekhaus
Phone: (732)409-3417 or Toll Free (800) 215-6964
Fax: (732)409-3418
Welcome to the fun, quality, and value of group cruising. While we realize that each group will have it’s own special needs, the following are our general guidelines for group cruises. We have made it our goal to offer the absolute best group cruise services you will find anywhere. The Gang’s All Here! Why should your group choose to cruise? Simply because cruising offers the best value and the most fun and excitement for your club, organization, family/class reunion, or special interest group. With one set price, all details are taken care of - transportation, accommodations, meals, entertainment and activities. And best of all, cruising offers a wide variety of options that appeal to all age groups, backgrounds, and activity levels. Everyone can "do their own thing" whether its mountain biking down a summit, snorkeling along the coral in the amazingly clear water, shopping, or just relaxing by the pool with the latest bestseller. From casinos and discos for the adults to the play areas and program for kids, Cruising offers something for everyone in your group like no other vacation option can. Plus, the group benefits from the lowest group rates and FREE cruises!What’s Expected of You As you will soon see, we are going to go all out to make sure your group cruise is a complete success. However, as you might expect, before we put a lot of time and effort into our partnership, we will need to know that certain conditions are met.
Make sure you have at least 8 couples ready to go! (a few cruise lines require only 5 couples) It is very important that you have a pre-formed group that’s ready to cruise. We will need some assurances that you have an expressed interest from the group that they want to cruise or a history of group travel.Make sure you know the type of cruise your group wants. This includes budget and opulence parameters, sailing dates, length of cruise and destinations. Poll some of your key group members in advance. You will be responsible for any expenses incurred if it becomes necessary to change ships, sailing dates, or itineraries once we block space and begin promoting the cruise. See also "Consultation" below.Promote, promote, promote! Just because we’ll be doing a lot of the work for you, doesn’t mean that you can sit back and take it easy. Make it a point to personally contact the group members, follow up and keep the enthusiasm going. You may want to look for other groups or individuals to join your group. We’ll give you all the support and materials you need, so get out there and keep the group excited about their trip!At the time we block space for your group, we will need the deposit for at least one cabin. We’ll look at deposits in more detail below. Just keep in mind that this is a partnership where everyone wins! If you’re serious about your group’s cruise, then so are we. And we are willing to give it our all. Ready? Let’s get started!Consultation I will gladly make an appointment to meet with you or your group planning committee to determine the best cruise for your group. (if possible) It has been our experience that presenting of more than one cruise line for an entire group (to let the group vote on which cruise they want) too often results in confusion and a divided group. Those who are outvoted are not as enthusiastic about the trip. It is much more effective to present one cruise sailing to the group. This way, everyone is "on the same page" and excited about the cruise.Promotion You can count on me to be there to give you the support and materials you need for fun and successful cruise promotions.If your group is local, schedule a meeting or plan a cruise night and I’ll be there to conduct a presentation with a cruise video and signup forms that make booking your cruisers a breeze. We’ll have a Q&A session so that everyone is fully informed.If your group is not local, I’ll work with you and put together an impressive presentation by mail. If your group qualifies, we will foot the bill for all printing expenses. Give me a copy of your group’s names and addresses on computer disk, and I’ll take care of mailing them for you. I’ll even pay the postage!FREE CRUISES!! Here’s the part where you or your group really benefit! In most cases, I will give your group one free cruise (called a "Tour Conductor" or "TC") for every eight cabins booked. Sixteen booked cabins earns one free cabin (2 TC’s) and so on. All the TC pays is port charge, taxes and transportation to the ship. The TC spot is usually given in the same category as the majority of booked cabins. The TC policy may vary by cruise line.The group may use the earned TC’s several different ways:
Free cruise for the group leader and/or whomever group leader chooses.A Fundraiser for the group. We will refund the value of all TC’s within 30 days after the cruise. Or, use the free spots as a raffle or door prize.Group Amenities - Trade the TC’s for private onboard cocktail parties, group photos, champagne, T-shirts or any number of other extras that benefit the entire group. Agency Escort - If your group qualifies, you can trade one TC for an agency escort. See "Agency Escort" below for details of the benefits of an agency escort.Due to the possibility of cancellations that may affect the number of TC’s earned, we can not offer a per cabin discount to the group in exchange for the TC’s.Cruise Rates and Early Booking Be advised that the earlier you book your group, the lower you can expect the rates to be and the better the selection of available cabins. Early booking also allows more time for your group members to save up for their cruise payments and allows our promotional efforts to spread by word of mouth to more potential cruisers.Deposits and Group Space Deposits and group space requirements vary from cruise line to cruise line. Most lines will allow us to block and hold group space undeposited for 30 days. At any point after this time, the cruise line can take away any undeposited cabins that we have in our group block. If it becomes necessary to add cabins to a group, we will have to add them at the current group rate (which is most often at a higher rate than the cabins booked earlier). Most cruise lines require an initial deposit of $250 per person to hold a cabin. Deposits vary with length of cruise. The remainder is due about 75 days prior to sailing.Payments and Tickets We will handle all the paperwork and invoicing for your group unless you would prefer to collect the payments and booking information yourself. We will mail payment confirmations to your group members every time we receive a payment. Please note that we can send only one confirmation per cabin, so anyone sharing a cabin will need to decide who the contact person will be. Your group members will have the option of purchasing trip protection insurance that will protect them from cancellation fees as well as offering other benefits. This information will be sent along with their deposit confirmation.When tickets arrive, we will give them to you or they will be mailed.Agency Escort As mentioned above, you may opt to exchange one TC for an agency escort. I am your agency escort and would accompany the group to take care of any and all details and add special touches so that you can concentrate on enjoying your vacation with the rest of the group. Such details would include items such as confirm that private parties are properly set up, personally notify or remind guests about upcoming events, schedule group photos with the ships photographer, be "on call" to handle any problems a guest might encounter and offer advice to first-time cruisers.Additional Services and Benefits In addition to assisting you with your group, we will also extend our superior service to your group members. All the promotional materials will have our telephone numbers (local & toll free) on them so your members can call me anytime day or night with any questions. Depending on the size of your group and the length of the cruise, we may also include a bon voyage gift. As we said, our goal is offer the best group policy around, so feel free to make suggestions on how we make our services even better!