Pub Crawl
Photos and write up courtesy Renee Dillon Peoples and Steve Peoples
HOW TO RUN A PUB CRAWL (or Not)
There are many different types of pub crawls from the impromptu "let's see what we can discover" to the most organized group crawl. Instead of moving en masse as a group, maybe you theme yours as more of a scavenger hunt. Maybe you have "swag", maybe not. All is good. I can't speak to every possibility but can share some insight into what we have done successfully.
If you are looking for a "template" to copy or a list of suppliers to go to, I will save you the time - you can stop reading right now. These are our experiences only, you will make your crawl your own.
PLANNING / CONCEPT
First - decide on the theme of your crawl then if you are going to do "swag". For our crawl on the Dream October 2016, we created a pin, lanyard with a placard of all of the venues and a Passport booklet. This turned out to be a much bigger effort than we thought. Plan on MONTHS of design. Most of these items had to be sent out to suppliers for manufacturing/printing. You will need several months to work out your designs, coordinate with the suppliers, make adjustments - many suppliers are VERY cautious when it comes to Disney imagery so they may ask that you revise your design or may outright refuse the order. Then you have to start over with a new supplier.
You MUST be prepared to foot the bill for all expenses up front. This is a BIGGIE! Let me repeat - You MUST be prepared to foot the bill personally!
RESEARCH YOUR SUPPLIERS
We researched a number of suppliers. This alone took several months for us to nail down our final choices. There are a number of options available on the web and I would suggest that you find the vendors that can provide a quality product at a reasonable price with a timely turnaround. We considered both local providers as well as online services. When you are searching, check out companies that create logo items for conventions, call on your local print shop as they may also have resources available to them, you will also find a number of vendors online that will create pins. And again remember, you need to be prepared to front the cost AND the time to follow-up as needed.
PRICING
This gets tricky - you should try to get an overall idea of interest before you send off your swag to the vendors but at the same time, many people may want to see the final product (not a concept sketch) before they send you money and officially commit. You will need to have a pretty good idea of what the costs are before you can set the price. For our crawl, we priced our swag at $19/person in the anticipation that would cover the expenses. As noted above, sometimes a vendor won't create an item due to concerns around intellectual property - in our case, the first vendor we chose to print our lanyards refused the order once they saw the final design. They refused TWO MONTHS after originally accepting it. We had to go to a revised design with a different supplier at a higher cost. Yep, we lost money on the deal. Also, don't forget the expense of the incidentals - bags, labels, are you adding pencils for the booklets, personalization costs, shipping costs (if you are sending in advance of your cruise), etc. Nothing big in and of themselves but all together, can add up.
SIGN UP & PAYMENTS
Once you are ready to finalize your sign-up, probably best to set up for payment through PayPal. Be sure to get full names of your crawlers, cabin numbers as well as email addresses so that you can communicate to them directly. There may be a few people who want to pay on pick-up, so you will need to decide if you are OK with that (if yes, be prepared to make change for cash!). You need to be pretty organized with this. If people give you money - you need to make sure you give them their goods!
COORDINATION WITH STAFF
We were expecting a large group so we reached out to in advance of the cruise to at least give them a heads up. Since we were Concierge, we reached out to shoreside who put us in contact with the onboard beverage manager. At a minimum, this is a courtesy. The beverage manager for our October crawl was absolutely FABULOUS. We had bartenders who traveled with us through the day.
HOSTING THE CRAWL/YOUR PERSONAL TIME COMMITMENT
This was a big one for us. Our crawl was social (not an attempt to get "shipfaced" by noon). Many of our crawlers spaced out their beverages with juice or soda along the way and still had a great time.
If you haven't shipped out your swag bags, then you need to be prepared to have a meet and greet in advance to deliver the goodies. You will need to communicate this to your group. We did this on embarkation day and offered any stragglers the opportunity to pick up morning of the crawl. Don't underestimate how much time this may take! I was actually stopped in the hall by someone who had forgotten to get her swag bag on embarkation day and wasn't joining the crawl until the back half of the day so had to take an unexpected jaunt back to the cabin to grab her goodies. There are also people that will pay then never pick up. You will need to communicate to your group how these will be delivered (we chose to hang their swag bags on their fishes after the crawl day).
Be prepared to be fully engaged all day with your crawl group. If you have never been "on stage" before, know that this can be EXHAUSTING no matter how much fun you may have. Disney Dream has 13 venues so for our crawl in October, we started at 9 am at Bon Voyage for a group picture and wrapped up around 9:30 in Evolution.
If people are going to be drifting in and out throughout the day, make sure that you give the group a general outline of when/where you expect to be. As mentioned, our crawl was about getting a fun group of people together for the day. You need to keep a pulse on your group and help guide from stop to stop. Don't forget to include some breaks for food too!
You may want to consider starting out the day with a group breakfast before the crawl gets going (Steve likes a fork and knife breakfast so he and a group went for breakfast at 8 am while I stayed in the cabin with coffee and a bagel. On the other hand, I am more of a lunch person so I grabbed my food midday!)
MAKING MEMORIES & SHARING
This is the fun part. Chronicling the fun as you go! Get that internet package and post pics of your group to your cruise group page as you go. Create a special hashtag for your crawl - this especially helps search for those memories after the fact! Encourage your crawlers to share and use the hashtag as well. This is where having a partner really makes the difference - one can wrangle the group while the other chronicles the fun! Plan for a group picture at the beginning and again at the end of the day.
TOO MUCH MERRY MAKING
Fortunately, I can say that we have had no bad experiences here! But do remember, this is a Disney cruise and in the common areas there will be families with children. Do expect for the bartenders and crew to keep a close watch on the activities to ensure nothing gets out of hand.
CRAWLERS' EXPENSES
This is a key communication for all of your potential crawlers - beverages are ON YOUR OWN! Unlike mixology where there is a single fee, for a crawl, each crawler will need to foot the bill for their own cocktail of choice (or juice or coffee or smoothie or whatever is their pleasure). Do remind your crawlers to take care of the bar staff - those folks will be jamming all day especially with a big group!
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE STAFF
Consider how you would like to say "Thank You" to the staff that supported your crawl - over and above the $$$ they have earned in gratuities along the way. As a way of thank you for our crawl on the Dream in October, we gave extra pins to the Beverage Manager to share with her staff.
And if you have gotten this far, Steve Peoples and I congratulate you and wish you well on your crawl. Meanwhile, we will be planning for the WBPC2018 and for the next big group crawl in December 2018. We will also be on a crawl "scouting adventure" on the Fantasy October 21 if you happen to be sailing!