Help to plan Meet and Greet, 4/18 Eurodam!

I was on the Eurodam roll call yesterday and offered to plan the meet and greet, but I don't know where to start. Can someone who has done this before point me in the right direction? Who do I speak with at HAL? I want to plan this, but just don't know where to start.

check out this thread. It should answer most of your questions

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=874249&highlight=eurodam+meet+greet+contact

I just set up our Meet and Greet for our 28 Mar cruise. I called onboard event services at 1-866-425-9337. When prompted select the number for the Noordam. Arica Hawley covers both the Noordam and the Eurodam or you can email her at AHawley@HollandAmerica.com . I just let her know we'd like to set up a Cruise Critic Meet and Greet and she was very helpful. She'll send you a form to fill out.

I've organized several of them both on HAL & Oceania...

The first thing you have to do before you call HAL is to determine the full names of those who will participate in the Meet & Greet & their Cabin No's...I did this by setting up a special e-mail on Yahoo & asked each person on the Roll Call to e-mail me with Their full names, Cabin Number & also their home city...

About 5 weeks before I contacted HAL'S on board event services Coordinator & she faxed the form to me..It looks like a Travel Agents form, but when you fill it out be sure to state that it will be a 'NO HOST BAR"...We requested the Crow's Nest the morning of the first sea day...

On the same form I extended an invitation to any of the Officers who wished to attend..On the Veendam the Bar Mgr. came to greet us & offered us wine or a drink..Each Ship does it a bit differently...On the Maasdam the organizer ordered pastries with coffee/tea..

I pre-printed invitations reminding those on our Roll Call of our get together.. When we boarded I was planning to distribute them to each cabin myself..Also contacted the Hotel Mgr. the day we boarded to give him a copy of the list of participants with cabin numbers & reconfirm our plans..The Hotel Mgr. offered to have his staff deliver the invitations to the cabins & we happily accepted their offer..

I had a good teacher to follow..Our Amsterdam cruise meet & greet was organized by "localady" who did a bang up job..She had everyone introduce themselves & tell a little about themselves..That broke the Ice...She arranged to have another luncheon during the cruise..I did the the same thing for ours..On Oceania I arranged lunch in the dining room at 11:30 for our group, as wanted to beat the lunch crowd...The Restaurant Manager joined us & I introduced him to everyone..

I made up cute (stick on) name tags for each participant which included their First Name, Home Port & their Cruise Critic Sign in Name...It's also nice during the event to ask if they would like to get together for lunch or have another get together for cocktails..Many of us went to lunch & had another get-together later on in the cruise..

I've been to some meet & greets when no one introduced themselves to each other...It was a bit awkward as we all sat in our respective corners & only talked to those around us..As the organizer, you should be prepared to ask people to introduce themselves & follow up to see if they are interested in having another lunch or cocktail hour mid- cruise..If you have a follow up cocktail hour make it clear that everyone will purchase their own drinks..

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask..

Enjoy your cruise.:).Betty

Gosh Betty, you gave some great advice. I will be on the same cruise as rnnyce. Thanks!!!

Henepup

I did something on our Westerdam cruise in October that I think was unique - Everyone brought a $10 gift to exchange that was something unique to their city, state or region. That part was great, but I had a real hard time getting people to "mingle" - there was a large contingent of people from one state - and they weren't on a group cruise, just a coincidence, and they "cliqued" up right away and even with "ice breakers" like door prizes and introducing ourselves, they stayed together and the mingling fell flat. As the organizer, you have to maintain control and it was just a little difficult for me - I should have been more assertive but it was my first time. Good Luck to you and I hope your Meet and Greet goes better than mine did! I really tried though!

I did something on our Westerdam cruise in October that I think was unique - Everyone brought a $10 gift to exchange that was something unique to their city, state or region. That part was great, but I had a real hard time getting people to "mingle" - there was a large contingent of people from one state - and they weren't on a group cruise, just a coincidence, and they "cliqued" up right away and even with "ice breakers" like door prizes and introducing ourselves, they stayed together and the mingling fell flat. As the organizer, you have to maintain control and it was just a little difficult for me - I should have been more assertive but it was my first time. Good Luck to you and I hope your Meet and Greet goes better than mine did! I really tried though!

You are from Burlington, I'm from Erlange, small world!!!

Henepup

Great advice from Serendipity...and here is my two cents as well...

I did exactly what she said and I set up a special email on hotmail using the name of the sailing...ours was eurodamfebruary7@live.com. Then I talked it up on the roll call to see how many people were interested.

I contacted HAL (Arica as mentioned above) and was set up. I had actually planned a M&G (in the Silk Den - a nice "new" location for these events) and also a private galley tour. I love the private galley tour because when they do the regular galley tour, the galley is pretty much shut down for the tour and it is not "working". When you have a private galley tour, it will be a working galley (at least it has been on both of the private tours that I have been on).

Arica needed a "final" number for the M&G about 4 weeks prior to sailing, so I set a deadline on the roll call. I asked that everyone send me their name, hometown, cruise critic name and stateroom number.

One thing that I have found is that the ship will do much more for you for free than Seattle will offer to do for free. Seattle told me that if I ordered any food I would need to pay for it, but when I got on the ship they were very generously offering. I asked Seattle if the group could be placed on the VIP list to be invited to the Captain's Cocktail Party...Seattle said there is no VIP list but the ship took the list and invited everyone.

As soon as I got on the ship I went to the front desk and asked see the Beverage Manager (who was Peter Damien). Peter came out and had the information that was sent to him from Arica (but I also brought my copy along just in case). When I spoke with him I asked if they would be able to do anything special for us. He immediately offered up champagne and mimosas. At the actual event we had both of these as well as butlered hors d'oeuvres and chocolate covered strawberries. When I met with Peter, I also confirmed that Mark Pells (the Hotel Manager) would stop by the M&G. Peter also confirmed the private galley tour for me.

I had printed my own flyers for invitations to both of the events (I will happily send you copies if you would like that you could just edit for your sailing...just email me...they must have looked pretty decent because everyone thought that the ship printed them up). I didn't ask if they would deliver, so I just did it myself.

At the sailaway I saw the Cruise Director (Susan Wood) and made my way over to her to introduce myself and personally invite her to the M&G.

Our M&G was planned for the first sea day from 9AM-10AM in the Silk Den. Susan stopped by and spoke for a few minutes to everyone. Mark Pells and Jules (part of the event staff) came, spoke and answered questions. Mark took the sign-up list that I had provided and placed everyone on the VIP list and invited them to the Captain's Cocktail Party later in the week.

I did make certain to write personalized thank you notes to everyone who was part of this process onboard (Susan Wood, Peter Damien, Mark Pells, Mark (sorry I do not remember his last name but he was the Culinary Operations Manager who did our private galley tour) as well as to the Captain to express my thanks for the wonderful service provided by all of these people). I don't know if this means much to these people, but I was brought up to properly thank people for a job well done...and I know that just before we walked off the ship, Susan was standing there saying goodbye to everyone as they disembarked and she reached out and thanked me for the note.

I've gone on and on here...sorry if I've bored you with my rambling detail. If there is anything else that you need to know, please let me know and I will try to help.

djhsolara, that is excellent information!!!

Thanks!!!

Henepup

djhsolara, that is excellent information!!!

Thanks!!!

Henepup

My pleasure!! :)

I'm still checking that email address, so if you have any questions please feel free to email me.

To everyone who responded, Thank You!!! You have been a tremendous help and I will begin working on this today. For those who are cruising on 4/18, please go to the rollcall for the 4/18 Eurodam sailing and I will post more info there.

Mandy(RNnyce)

To everyone who responded, Thank You!!! You have been a tremendous help and I will begin working on this today. For those who are cruising on 4/18, please go to the rollcall for the 4/18 Eurodam sailing and I will post more info there.

 

Mandy(RNnyce)

Thank You!!!:)