New! OFFICIAL Meet & Mingles on Your Next 7-day or Longer Carnival Cruise!

It s quite odd that no one is stepping up to this issue. Especially on a topic big enough to be made a stickie.

It is, and I have gotten the same lack of response on John Heald's facebook. I posted and he even responded something vague to which I responded that the last day of the cruise while people in are in port won't work and asked again about rescheduling to the sea day. Not only did I get no reponse, but the comments were deleted.

So, being somewhat persistent, I posted again today asking for a yes or no answer so that, if recheduling was not going to occur, we could go back to scheduling it ourselves.

Everyone's beating up Carnival has anyone at cruise critic management contacting them? Just sayin. JH sounds like a jerk and I don't think he really cares. Cruise Critic needs to step forward on this or quit advertising for carnival. Our group has planned our own get together if carnival screws up the seduced one!

Scheduled one. Lol

Everyone's beating up Carnival has anyone at cruise critic management contacting them? Just sayin. JH sounds like a jerk and I don't think he really cares. Cruise Critic needs to step forward on this or quit advertising for carnival. Our group has planned our own get together if carnival screws up the seduced one!

I agree that anyone sailing on Carnival needs to arrange the M&G. JH doesn't sound nice towards CC and sadly Carnival Corp is not welcoming CC with open arms. Who knows what the politics are on this one? I am glad you have one arranged.

I agree that anyone sailing on Carnival needs to arrange the M&G. JH doesn't sound nice towards CC and sadly Carnival Corp is not welcoming CC with open arms. Who knows what the politics are on this one? I am glad you have one arranged.

That's the thing. Event planning won't let you and won't give you a space any more. So it would have to be very informal and in a public area.

Like I said, the idea was a good one, the implementation is not.

We have been planning together for a year to 18 months and now will have to try to figure out where to meet 100 people in a public space???

Sometimes leaving well enough alone is the better plan.

How bout meet at 230=330 on embarkation day in the lobby just inside the security area where the walkway into the ship with welcome cruise critic members signs lol

We were on the May 8th Breeze sailing out of Galveston. The M&G was on the first sea day at 10:00 am. We were the only 4 people to show up. Carnival provided pastries, sandwiches and drinks. The CD, Hotel Director, Entertainment Director, Food Services Director and Beverage Services Director were present. It was held in the Piano Bar and Carnival definitely did their part to make this happen. Although nobody else showed up, we had a great time visiting with the crew for about 30 minutes.

That's the best story I've heard so far I hope Carnival does the same for our group on July 9th and I hope the Cruise Critic people signed up for it show up too

We have a rooftop terrace crawl planned for Athens the night before we sail and a small meet planned for Deck 10 aft right after the safety briefing. It's just really sad that we had a group of 100 well organized and planned (spreadsheets and all!), all we needed was a space and then this happened and looks like it has killed it. Very disappointing.

Even though I received an email confirming enough signed up for a meet & greet, I never saw it in the fun times on my 4/30/16 Freedom sailing. I don't know if I'm just blind or if they ended up not having one. Still had a good time, though.

It was held on the 2nd sea day, and it was listed in the Fun Times. We had 130 people who were signed up, and probably 40 who actually attended. It was nice though, as the Cruise Director Malcolm, the Entertainmanet Director David, and a few other staff members were there as well. They also had a nice spread of cookies and juices/tea.

It was held on the 2nd sea day, and it was listed in the Fun Times. We had 130 people who were signed up, and probably 40 who actually attended. It was nice though, as the Cruise Director Malcolm, the Entertainmanet Director David, and a few other staff members were there as well. They also had a nice spread of cookies and juices/tea.

Well, darn, I'm sorry I didn't see it. Maybe that was the day I had the fish bowl at Red Frog!

Breeze 5/15/16 sailing. Carnival stepped up and had the same crew and refreshment and there was 6 of us that showed up. 4 nice ladies and my DW and myself. It was held on the 1st or 2nd sea day at 10am. It was listed in the fun times and held in the piano bar. It was great that they are supporting the meet and greats but it won't last without a showing from the CC group.

Pssst!

 

Have you seen the new Carnival/Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle button on this forum? Look to your right. Yes...the right. See the button under the first ad? Click Join the Party, well..to join the party! (It will take you to the Party Registration Page!)

 

Enjoy!

 

Laura

HI!

Thrilled to see that Carnival is not taking part in this program. However, we have a Roll Call here that has 42 folks registered for a Meet and Mingle. Our sail date is June 4, 2016 on the Splendor.............but as of today no one has received the confirmation email that is mentioned as part of the process. Just checking to see if that is no longer the 'norm'.............or if Carnival is less than enthusiastic about the program? Thanks for your help/ info.

HI!

 

Thrilled to see that Carnival is not taking part in this program. However, we have a Roll Call here that has 42 folks registered for a Meet and Mingle. Our sail date is June 4, 2016 on the Splendor.............but as of today no one has received the confirmation email that is mentioned as part of the process. Just checking to see if that is no longer the 'norm'.............or if Carnival is less than enthusiastic about the program? Thanks for your help/ info.

Sounds like this program has already gone bust. Not surprised. It seems to have been set up to fail from the beginning.

This was a failure on the Carnival Dream last week. We had 75 signed up from our roll call. It was listed in the Fun Times as Noon on the first Sea Day in the Piano Bar. Absolutely no one from Carnival showed up. There were no officers, no crew, and no refreshments. There were about 10 cruise critic members that stayed and chatted. I think even more saw that nothing was set up and didn't bother to stop.

Well, darn, I'm sorry I didn't see it. Maybe that was the day I had the fish bowl at Red Frog!

Need to know what this is and what is in it "the Fishbowl"...sounds kinda interesting.;)

Need to know what this is and what is in it "the Fishbowl"...sounds kinda interesting.;)

I had a painkiller. Many of their menu items can be ordered as a fishbowl. I think it's about 40 ounces. They put several straws in it to share with friends. My friends didn't help me quite enough.

Hi

So are these Carnival Meet & Greets officially a no go?

We have just returned from the May 16 Carnival Legend, Alaska cruise. Had a great cruise...beautiful weather, no rain at all, Vancouver, Seattle, any of the ports, the glacier touring days...incredible!!!

Checked the Fun times every day to make sure we didn't miss it.

...but no meet and greet

Is it just inconsistent or just not going to happen? Either way if they (Carnival) don't make an effort to let us know one way or another, it is very bad form.

I agree that the Cruise Critic moderators should reach out for clarification. The arrangement wasn't made with us and it would seem that those who have tried to get some answer from their (Carnival) most well known public rep. (J.H.) haven't received any clear responses.

I hope this gets settled because if they (Carnival) are not able to handle this task, then we can go back to arranging our own. Somebody at Carnival made the decision, so what is the problem?

OK, this is going to be a frank and honest review of both the CCL side, and the CC side of the CC/CCL M&M debacles (IMHO) so far!:)

M & M - CC/CCL Meet and Mingle

M & G - CC Roll Call organized Meet and Greet.

We sailed the Magic last week 5/21/16.

CC - PRO

There was a sign up page dedicated to the Magic 21 May 2016 cruise.

There were 52 PAX registered for the CCL/CC M&M:)

I was able to post in the roll call several times about an informal M&G at sail away and on the first sea day.

CC - CON

I attempted to have a CC informal M&G at sail away and on the first sea day, no one attended either one. :mad:

No advance info available on CC about when the CC/CCL M&M would be held!:confused:

Only 4 people who signed up for the event attended.:confused:

CCL - PRO

The event was held in a large lounge (Vibes). There were soft drinks, coffee, tea and chocolate chip cookies available.

CCL Officers and Crew were already there when we arrived at 3:45, 1st port day. Amber Cove, DR.

The Cruise Director, Dr. E ; Hotel Director, Lyubormir G.; Entertainment Director, Lav; a Guest Relations REP and the Food and Beverage director.

Several of the officers/crew stayed for an entire hour, even though only 4 of us (CC members) were there.

The officers/crew were entirely receptive to feedback about how to change the format to make it work. Times, dates, crew attendance, venues, and more were all discussed. Even though this was only one ship, their input to the beards and CC Mgt, should help out in the long run.

CCL- CON

Poor announcement of the event. Small print in the Fun Times. Time was just after all PAX were to be onboard before sailing. (3:45 M&M, 4:00 departure)

Weather did play a part in the attendance, which again was scheduled to close to sailing on a port day.

Event should have been held on the 1st Sea Day. CCL staff claims that the only times are in the late mornings on the 1st sea day, to which we told them, PERFECT! 10:30 - 12:00:)

In closing, again this is all IMHO. I would hope that CC staff take note of this review, and work with CCL to refine the CC/CCL M&M's to make them more convenient for attendance to all CC Roll Call members.

Hi JWJAX

Well at least they held the event for your group.

I was under the impression that they didn't schedule one for our cruise at all (the other people in our roll call said the same) because I was looking every day in the Fun Times. Now that you have suggested how hard it was to spot the notice, I am wondering if I had missed it myself. You know, if you write it in invisible ink nobody will see it.

My thought is...what's up with these people? If it was you, and you were to host a party, you would make sure that the people that you wanted to attend were made aware. You wouldn't place a small notice in the back of the classifieds. Second, and I mentioned this before, was that you would schedule it at a time when people would likely be able to attend.

We have been scheduling these events for years on our own. Sometimes successful and sometime not so much. Here we have a cruise line that can manage to move millions of people around the world every year and yet it seems that they have a real problem organizing a party. It is mystifying!!

As a cruise critic member it feels disappointing. Big announcement of their intentions and yet the effort is inconsistent at best. That is why I felt the CC moderators should reach out to clarify some of the issues so people can know what to expect. It shouldn't be a mystery when the event will be held. We should at least know where to look for a time and date. At least then if nobody showed up you could say it was because they couldn't or didn't want to attend as opposed to not knowing it was happening.

Not many comments so I don't know if these parties are happening or not. I guess by the time we go on our next cruise it will be sorted out one way or another. We won't be able to go again till the fall at least. :(

Nowhere do I see anyone at Cruise Critic addressing this.

I was able to locate the event in the fun times listed in the hourly schedule of events.. scan the list looking for the *. It signifies the event is not affiliated / sanctioned / whatever by CCL as stated below the list in the legend. Maybe this will help find it.

No meet & mingle option for Carnival Sunshine June 30th cruise. Any chance this could be fixed?

Recently returned from the Valor (8 day departing on 6/4) we had a very active roll call and 133 people signed up! Nothing! Ships command was NOT EVEN AWARE of the event (hotel director nor ship was not notified and thus did not organize anything).

Cruise critic has been silent on this since the "big announcement" but there is certainly a glitch with CC for the organization of these which is a shame because when Carnival does not host the events, CC members are disappointed and of course mark down the ship on guest satisfaction which brings down the score for the ship. The hotel department heads have to answer for these negatives and it is not correct if they are not even being made aware that they have a qualified sailing and people are expecting this.

I hope that this communication glitch can be remedied otherwise, better to not even offer any "official" M&M.

We had over 100 signed up for our Vista cruise and Carnival scheduled it for the LAST day of the cruise at a time when people would still be in port.

I sent them several emails, contacted John Heald on facebook and even spoke to John Heald on the ship to no avail. They stuck with 4 pm on the last port day of the cruise.

Needless to say, no one showed up.