Where do I start? I want to plan a group cruise.

How do you become a group leader so you can earn those T/Cs? Just like anything in life, nothing comes for free so be prepared to put a bit of thought and many phone calls into action to pull your group together.

• Start by deciding what is really important to you in a cruise (or what your lead guest would like if you are organizing a group around a specific event, say someone’s birthday or anniversary). Do you expect a number of younger participants (children under the age of 18) or mostly adults? Is there a specific destination or region you want to visit (Bahamas, Alaska, Mediterranean, Bermuda)?

• How long do you want to be gone? Do you look forward to an entire week with your long lost college friends or does seven days with Uncle Marcus make you consider jumping ship? If you have a lot of first time cruisers in the target group you will want to scale it down to a shorter outing.

• When can you be gone? Does it have to be when the kids are out of school (either on holiday or summer vacation)? Ask your target group when the kids are out of school or when their job will let them off. Or when is that important birthday or anniversary?

• Probably the toughest question is price. You need a price range of what your target group is expecting or comfortable paying. If the answer is “the cheapest,” you are going to disappoint a lot of people because the cheapest is rarely when or where you want to go. If you’ve cruised in recent years you may have a good idea of average costs but if it has been a while or never, ask a professional for some guidelines. Keep in mind that what you paid last year for a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas in September is not proportional to a 5 night cruise to Grand Turk in July next year. Cruise fares vary dramatically by the time of year sailing and the itinerary. Don’t forget to factor in the cost of getting everyone to the embarkation port (flight costs vary greatly as well).

Once you have these points decided or narrowed to a range of options, call your travel professional to see what is available that fits with your group’s dreams and needs. Planning a group cruise requires some planning and lots of communication. You’ve got to be looking to the future (now is the time to plan your group cruise for the Summer or holidays of 2011). The earlier you begin the better chance you will have of finding the perfect cruise for your group at the very best rates.

Want to Cruise For Free?

Well you can, sort of. You’ve seen the advertising from the cruise lines or travel agencies that tell you: Cruise For Free! They are talking about the earned Tour Conductor Credit (often just called the T/C). But they don’t really mean entirely for free because the T/C is just the base cruise fare and does not include port charges or taxes (just as it was said so long ago, taxes are unavoidable).

Most cruise lines offer the T/C to encourage group travel. Usually it is one T/C earned for each 8 cabins that sail (at least two passengers per cabin) on the same ship and sail date under a group contract. The T/C is actually a refund not a discount so all passengers must pay the full going fare for the cruise then, based on the number of cabins and passengers that actually sail, the cruise line will refund the T/C amount a few weeks after the sailing is complete.

Usually the T/C is based on the cabin category rate most sold in the group. But today Carnival Cruise Lines announced a change in their Group Policy that will base the T/C on the average of all the base cruise rates booked into the group. This little change can add up quickly. Before the announced change, if you sailed 10 cabins (4 balcony cabins with a base rate of $720pp and 6 inside cabins with a base rate of $460pp) you would receive one T/C of $460. Carnival’s new policy will refund a T/C with a value of $564 (8 X $720 plus 12 X $460 = $11,280 divided by 20 = $564).

It would not be surprising to see the other major cruise lines following suit. It is certainly something to consider when thinking about your next group cruise, especially if you are considering a group cruise as a fund raiser. But keep in mind that it is still not Free Cruising. The port charges and taxes are not insignificant amounts.