In another episode of 60-Second Cruise Tips, cruise expert and author Gary Bembridge shares another cruising tip. This episode is: Avoiding Group Cruises I have had travellers contact me saying they have been on a cruise and found that there has been a large group or themed event taking place that swamped the ship, affected their access to amenities and changed the atmosphere of the ship. Leading to a less enjoyable trip. Cruise lines are not obliged, nor inclined, to let people know that a large group has taken out a booking on their ships. With themed cruises and interest groups arranging cruise-based events, there is a growing risk that you could be affected. So how can you check if a large motorbike enthusiast event or other activity is going to be taking place on your cruise? There are three things you can do:

1. Use the site http://themecruisefinder.com, as it has the largest database of forthcoming events, from small to large and is the best resource. Check on here for your planned cruise. To make it easy I suggest simply typing into Google "http://themecruisefinder.com and name of ship". That should show up any pages covering the event.
2. Search for the dates of the cruise and the cruise ship name in Google and see if that throws up anything other than the regular cruise.
3. Ask your cruise agent and get them to check with their contacts. With the rapid growth in themed cruise events I recommend checking always!

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