No meet and mingle for P&O or Cunard ... why do you think this is?

Have just checked for a meet and mingle for our upcoming cruise on Britannia. There is none for P&O or Cunard.

Just wondering why this is. Cant just be because there is high percentage of passengers from UK as with other cruise lines the meet and mingle seems popular with us Brits.

It is strangel. We have enjoyed the meet and mingles on Celebrity and RCI.

The ship provides the venue and the refreshments (such as they are) so perhaps P&O don't want to do it?

Probably because the RCI group do them Carnival don't want to be seen as copying them?

Probably because the RCI group do them Carnival don't want to be seen as copying them?

No they do have them but someone has to organise it, as you know John.

Certainly the roll call section for P&O is not full of people organising get togethers.

For P&O I find that there are more people wanting to have a meet up on Facebook.

But it is true that the company does not organise them.

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One is being organised by someone on our cruise on Aurora in January. As Dai says these are never organised by P&O, someone has to do the organising and then approach P&O saying they have whatever number of passengers who are asking for a Meet and Greet venue. The last one we went to was on Azura and the Executive Purser, or Hotel Manager as they are now called was present and P&O organised tea and coffee and also biscuits!

No they do have them but someone has to organise it, as you know John.

 

Certainly the roll call section for P&O is not full of people organising get togethers.

 

For P&O I find that there are more people wanting to have a meet up on Facebook.

 

But it is true that the company does not organise them.

 

 

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You are right Dai and the one you organised for our Caribbean cruise was very well done.

But if you ever venture over onto the dark side and try Celebrity or Royal Caibbean you will be amazed by their's. They always have several senior staff, often including the Captain, generally hosted by the CD and the senior staff do stay around to chat with the passengers, and they always emphasise how important their relationship is with Cruise Critic, and rarely a mention of face cloth.

You are right Dai and the one you organised for our Caribbean cruise was very well done.

But if you ever venture over onto the dark side and try Celebrity or Royal Caibbean you will be amazed by their's. They always have several senior staff, often including the Captain, generally hosted by the CD and the senior staff do stay around to chat with the passengers, and they always emphasise how important their relationship is with Cruise Critic, and rarely a mention of face cloth.

But that is the point. The UK boards for Cruise Critic have very few members in comparison to the American boards for any company.

Unless we have a hot topic there are often very few posts on here. As you know that is not the case on Princess/Royal Caribbean/Carnival etc.

On Azura recently we had our meeting interrupted by some staff as well. The Captain and Hotel Manager. No one had invited them at all. Cheek I call it.

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We're British. We don't do that sort of thing.

Having said that I did go to a Cruise Critic meeting on Azura in the Ffiords a few years ago. This was organised by Dai and very informative for a P and O first timer.

I met some great people on meets through the old P&O forum back in the days of Derek the Monocled Mutineer. I think people on FB are more likely to arrange meets than people on CC. I will be honest I don’t organise anything due to general apathy - I do lots of community work and event organising in my spare time in real life so on holiday I just want to hide!

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I have noticed on our last 2 or 3 cruises, that different captains have all said at their welcome aboard Reception speeches that if passengers have any issues, please speak to them rather than post on Cruise Critic. They haven’t mentioned any other social media site but emphasised Cruise Critic. It felt as though they had all been asked to say this.

Perhaps I’m being overly cynical, but do senior staff like to turn up in order to suss out who we are rather than through a genuine desire to be hospitable?

I will always address any issues whilst on board as I find that problem resolution is far better when the issue is ‘live’ rather than after the cruise, but I firmly believe that sites such as this are only of value if members feel that they can they can be completely honest and provide feedback, good and bad. Anonymity is often best for this.

On our cruise last week some fellow diners mentioned that a friend of theirs has a very active travel blog on cruising and, as a result, gets invites, regular upgrades and preferential treatment. For me, that renders his opinions irrelevant as he is not experiencing what regular cruisers do and his advice and opinions are likely to be heavily influenced as a result.

I’ve only attended one Cruise Critic meet and greet and found it useful to get to know some really nice people who we enjoyed talking to throughout the cruise, but the absence of any crew members wasn’t an issue and, if anything, may have been an advantage. Thoughts?

I have noticed on our last 2 or 3 cruises, that different captains have all said at their welcome aboard Reception speeches that if passengers have any issues, please speak to them rather than post on Cruise Critic. They haven’t mentioned any other social media site but emphasised Cruise Critic. It felt as though they had all been asked to say this.

 

Perhaps I’m being overly cynical, but do senior staff like to turn up in order to suss out who we are rather than through a genuine desire to be hospitable?

 

I will always address any issues whilst on board as I find that problem resolution is far better when the issue is ‘live’ rather than after the cruise, but I firmly believe that sites such as this are only of value if members feel that they can they can be completely honest and provide feedback, good and bad. Anonymity is often best for this.

 

On our cruise last week some fellow diners mentioned that a friend of theirs has a very active travel blog on cruising and, as a result, gets invites, regular upgrades and preferential treatment. For me, that renders his opinions irrelevant as he is not experiencing what regular cruisers do and his advice and opinions are likely to be heavily influenced as a result.

 

I’ve only attended one Cruise Critic meet and greet and found it useful to get to know some really nice people who we enjoyed talking to throughout the cruise, but the absence of any crew members wasn’t an issue and, if anything, may have been an advantage. Thoughts?

There are a lot of people who effectively court P&O through social media to get VIP invites/treatment.

It’s weird they mention Cruise Critic at the captains thingy, I don’t usually go so wouldn’t know.

I had an incident of the worst customer experience ever on my last trip on Britannia, I didn’t post it or complain - I’m just not intending to sail on P&O again. I’d like to say I’m not going on Carnival again but I’ve got a Princess Cruise booked and lunch on the Queen Elizabeth on Sunday [emoji23]

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I have noticed on our last 2 or 3 cruises, that different captains have all said at their welcome aboard Reception speeches that if passengers have any issues, please speak to them rather than post on Cruise Critic. They haven’t mentioned any other social media site but emphasised Cruise Critic. It felt as though they had all been asked to say this.

 

Perhaps I’m being overly cynical, but do senior staff like to turn up in order to suss out who we are rather than through a genuine desire to be hospitable?

 

I will always address any issues whilst on board as I find that problem resolution is far better when the issue is ‘live’ rather than after the cruise, but I firmly believe that sites such as this are only of value if members feel that they can they can be completely honest and provide feedback, good and bad. Anonymity is often best for this.

 

On our cruise last week some fellow diners mentioned that a friend of theirs has a very active travel blog on cruising and, as a result, gets invites, regular upgrades and preferential treatment. For me, that renders his opinions irrelevant as he is not experiencing what regular cruisers do and his advice and opinions are likely to be heavily influenced as a result.

 

I’ve only attended one Cruise Critic meet and greet and found it useful to get to know some really nice people who we enjoyed talking to throughout the cruise, but the absence of any crew members wasn’t an issue and, if anything, may have been an advantage. Thoughts?

I think you are being a bit harsh on Captains. In our case it was Captain Camby who is a very sociable person. It was definitely that side of him we saw.

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I think you are being a bit harsh on Captains. In our case it was Captain Camby who is a very sociable person. It was definitely that side of him we saw.

 

 

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I wasn’t meaning to sound as though I was criticising the Captains Dai, merely repeating what they had said.

Don’t get me wrong, if I was a senior member of staff on a P&O ship I would want to know who any regular contributors to Cruise Critic were and ensure that they had a good experience. But that’s my point. If that happens then our ability to give impartial and unbiased feedback is lessened.

Thank you for your replies. We have a get together organised through Facebook. The person organising it has informed the ship and been told a senior officer will attend.

Could be a case of what comes first .. if there was an option of a meet and mingle on Cruise critic would that make roll calls more popular. Think there are only 6 on this next cruise. Whereas the last one we did on Celebrity had pages of discussion, many members and a very enjoyable meet and mingle organised get together once onboard.

Perhaps P&O think Cruise critic does not carry much influence these days and Facebook has overtaken in popularity. Only a small percentage of cruisers bother to follow through with a review. 625 for Britannia and at least half good to excellent. We all like to think our opinion matters. After all we spend our hard earned income and would like to think someone is listening. In reality each Cruise carries thousands of passengers and by and large most will go on to book more and will probably never read or post a public comment.

I wasn’t meaning to sound as though I was criticising the Captains Dai, merely repeating what they had said.

 

Don’t get me wrong, if I was a senior member of staff on a P&O ship I would want to know who any regular contributors to Cruise Critic were and ensure that they had a good experience. But that’s my point. If that happens then our ability to give impartial and unbiased feedback is lessened.

I was at the Meet and Greet that Dai was part of too with Captain Camby.I agree with him that Captain Camby was there because he is a people person.He wanted to try and answer any questions we had, and if there were any reasons to complain or give feedback on Cruise Critic, we could do so as we didn t introduce ourselves to him (He came aft.er the introductions)I felt he realises the value of listening to peoples opinions.I think one reason there are organised Meet and Greets on some other lines is because of larger numbers which happens because sometimes operaters give discounts if you are on a roll call(therby encouraging others to join)e.g When we visited St Petersburg on Emerald Princess we got a discount with Alla Tours because we mentioned our roll call. Cruisers also team up to share taxis etc before the start of the cruise.I actually didn t enjoy the meet up as much as the informal ones I have attended on P and O as there were over 150 people there and it all seemed a bit chaotic and noisy!!

Thank you for your replies. We have a get together organised through Facebook. The person organising it has informed the ship and been told a senior officer will attend.

Could be a case of what comes first .. if there was an option of a meet and mingle on Cruise critic would that make roll calls more popular. Think there are only 6 on this next cruise. Whereas the last one we did on Celebrity had pages of discussion, many members and a very enjoyable meet and mingle organised get together once onboard.

Perhaps P&O think Cruise critic does not carry much influence these days and Facebook has overtaken in popularity. Only a small percentage of cruisers bother to follow through with a review. 625 for Britannia and at least half good to excellent. We all like to think our opinion matters. After all we spend our hard earned income and would like to think someone is listening. In reality each Cruise carries thousands of passengers and by and large most will go on to book more and will probably never read or post a public comment.

I think that your premise may be off mark, I do not think that UK cruisers in general would be enthused to join CC just to gain access to a meet and greet.

In all the time I have been on CC there has never been the numbers that you find on the US sections,on the P&O section. I doubt very much if P&O arranged M&G’s for All Cruises this would change much.

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There are a lot of people who effectively court P&O through social media to get VIP invites/treatment.

It’s weird they mention Cruise Critic at the captains thingy, I don’t usually go so wouldn’t know.

I had an incident of the worst customer experience ever on my last trip on Britannia, I didn’t post it or complain - I’m just not intending to sail on P&O again. I’d like to say I’m not going on Carnival again but I’ve got a Princess Cruise booked and lunch on the Queen Elizabeth on Sunday [emoji23]

 

 

 

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Yes, some of the sycophantic comments posted on FB in response to some of the really poor customer service issues in the last year do smack of that. People trying to get attention.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. When things are really bad that is what often happens, people don't complain, they just vote with their feet.