Meet and Mingle Experts HELP

I've emailed twice to both groupeventescape@ncl.com and specialeventescape@ncl.com to ask for assistance with organizing meet and greet and have gotten no response.

What is my next step for those that have organized a meet and greet.

I am not an expert. I checked email I received from NCL, and you may have to add an "s" to the email address. The email was from "specialeventSpearl" not just "special eventpearl"

It may take a day or two to reply. They will likely give you a time and date for The District Brewhouse, they will be looking for a head count. As the sail date got closer, I would keep them updated on any addition numbers of attendees....it may get hectic trying to track everything, but don't sweat it, it will all workout. I have nothing to gauge by, being I was on my first cruise, but our M&M on the June 3rd sailing was great, met so many people.....I wouldn't miss it for the world.

As mentioned above, you need to change event to events so it should be specialeventsescape@ncl.com

I am organizing the Meet & Greet for our Sept cruise on Escape and Eliette (who is currently on the Bliss) has been the one who has been contacting me.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

How do you get more interest for M&Gs? I tried organizing one on the July 22 Epic Roll call and there's no interest. Is this too early?

The last two sailings I took had huge M&Gs, I don't know why there's little to no interest for the July 22 one.

All depends upon who is sailing. Sometimes you get great roll calls. Other times they are deader than a door nail.

How do you get more interest for M&Gs? I tried organizing one on the July 22 Epic Roll call and there's no interest. Is this too early?

 

The last two sailings I took had huge M&Gs, I don't know why there's little to no interest for the July 22 one.

I just did it for the May 20th Epic cruise. We had 90 people sign up. Only 35 actually came.

I just did it for the May 20th Epic cruise. We had 90 people sign up. Only 35 actually came.

My last roll call had 350+ in the roll call, about 250 confirm for the M&G and the actual attendance was about 225. They had free beer/wine for everyone!

How do you get more interest for M&Gs? I tried organizing one on the July 22 Epic Roll call and there's no interest. Is this too early?

The last two sailings I took had huge M&Gs, I don't know why ...

Neither do I but there's been prior discussion ... summer sailings bring in different demographics, it also could be a matrix of the ship, ports and itinerary ... chemistry is just spinning.

You might see last minute sign-ups and rush to join, again, maybe not ... just go with the flow. CC is, as many said, 5% of those onboard the ship. There are other platforms & social media/affinity groups out there & they "communicate" on a different "channel" among their ship mates via apps, etc.

To boost attendance, make it fun ... have door prizes raffled off (i.e. we had quite a few bottles of members-donated sparkling wine given away ...) and no-shows are a given, and it's worsen with scheduling conflict with those Behind The Scene Tours (getting it re-arranged helped but not all ship's special/group events coordinators do that, even when requested in advance)

Try doing embarkation lunch in the MDR vs. cocktails at the bar/lounges as not everyone drink alcohol or have UBP, etc. Solo cruisers had self-organized a dinner for the first evening, before the M&M on the following day.

It's quality vs. the quest for a "huge" turnout ... As for NCL getting back to the lead/organizer planning for the event, we usually hear from them about 4 weeks prior to - give them extra time to get back, especially if a "huge" attendance is expected. Corporate @MIA do need to communicate & confirm with the ship's counterpart, then, return the details.

Don't forget to check the email/spam filters to see if the in-bound message(s) were marked & diverted into the "junk" folder, i.e. our USPS daily update "ID"DD email get dumped there ...

These are great suggestions for having a fun m/m. The person running ours refuses to do anything. We are just being told to mingle and talk/listen. Boring.

My last roll call had 350+ in the roll call, about 250 confirm for the M&G and the actual attendance was about 225. They had free beer/wine for everyone!

(y)(y)(y)

These are great suggestions for having a fun m/m. The person running ours refuses to do anything. We are just being told to mingle and talk/listen. Boring.

Nancy, you seem like someone who'd like to have some fun, so, go for it. When you decide what you'd like to do, a pub crawl, cabin crawl, slot pull or whatever... make the suggestion and take the bull by horns and organize it. Once others see that you're willing to take charge of things other than the actual M&G, they'll be willing to join you. Don't depend on the original organizer.

I took over one a couple of years ago and it went from 3-4 people to 30 within a very short time.

Good luck and have fun, that's what it's about.

Cheers.

I just had one last week on the Dawn. NCL was very good about getting back to me about time and place. When I emailed NCL, I told them we had 25 - 30, that was one day prior to saying. Only 6 showed up. I think I needed to talk it up more. I'll start earlier next time,

These are great suggestions for having a fun m/m. The person running ours refuses to do anything. We are just being told to mingle and talk/listen. Boring.

It is what you make it. Nothing wrong with just sitting a minute and chatting with people, then move on to another group, sit and chat......I did just that and met some great people and had a blast. Remember, it is a Meet & Mingle, not a performance.

These are great suggestions for having a fun m/m. The person running ours refuses to do anything. We are just being told to mingle and talk/listen. Boring.

I've been to one that was very similar. Sadly, there seem to be quite a few people who jump at the chance to organize a Meet & Greet on NCL just to get the VIP perks.

I've been to one that was very similar. Sadly, there seem to be quite a few people who jump at the chance to organize a Meet & Greet on NCL just to get the VIP perks.

Exactly!

What are the VIP perks?

What are the VIP perks?

On our 6/23 sailing of the Escape out of NYC, I arranged our M & M.....and it wasn't because of the perks.......I didn't know there were perks......it was my first Cruise. The perks were a Captains Cocktail Hour, a Luncheon at The Haven, a second invitation only "Meet the Officers" at the Brewhouse on Saturday, and Priority Disembarkation in NYC. I only took advantage of the second "Meet the Officers", as I was allowed to bring our entire group of 11 we were traveling with, and got to meet another group of people.

What are the VIP perks?

it varies from absolutely nothing to afternoon treats such as chocolate covered strawberries to invite to Captains party in Haven

it depends on ship and usually hotel director

On our 6/23 sailing of the Escape out of NYC, I arranged our M & M.....and it wasn't because of the perks.......I didn't know there were perks......it was my first Cruise. The perks were a Captains Cocktail Hour, a Luncheon at The Haven, a second invitation only "Meet the Officers" at the Brewhouse on Saturday, and Priority Disembarkation in NYC. I only took advantage of the second "Meet the Officers", as I was allowed to bring our entire group of 11 we were traveling with, and got to meet another group of people.

Ooooops !.....6 / 3 sailing

I am in awe of the 225 people showing up, that's fabulous! We are on the Sun next Monday and I have about 35 signed up so I expect 20 or so to join. I am doing a gift exchange and slot pull. I am trying to figure out if we need anything else to do! I'm so excited!

These are all great ideas. I'm organizing for our Jan '19 cruise. Our current roll call is tiny, but I'm sure will start to pick up soon.

I just had one last week on the Dawn. NCL was very good about getting back to me about time and place. When I emailed NCL, I told them we had 25 - 30, that was one day prior to saying. Only 6 showed up. I think I needed to talk it up more. I'll start earlier next time,

for some reason the M&Gs out of Boston are just not going well this season. We had about 16 at ours in early May, I think we expected closer to 30 and we could not get any interest in activities like slot pull or gift exchange. I do think talking them up and trying to get people involved goes a long way, but that still isn't going to guarantee a good turn out. I will add, one more thing, anyone who would volunteer to head up a M&G for the perks should be ashamed of themselves. That is not the reason one heads up a group. I have headed up many, the first few I had no idea why I got the VIP treatment.

I arrange Meet N Greets because I like that I get to meet a lot of other passengers and the crew on a smaller basis.

I have arranged 5. I do not expect to receive any VIP treatment for it. It is nice when I do but that is not why I do it.

On my last Epic sailing 6/3/18 I had about 65 sign up and about 30 people show. I did not receive any perks for arranging this Meet N Greet but I am still happy I did it. I met some wonderful people and we had a great time chatting prior to the cruise.

I would hope most people that arrange them are genuinely interested in the concept of getting together after having "talked" on cruise critic.

Patti

I arrange Meet N Greets because I like that I get to meet a lot of other passengers and the crew on a smaller basis.

 

I have arranged 5. I do not expect to receive any VIP treatment for it. It is nice when I do but that is not why I do it.

 

On my last Epic sailing 6/3/18 I had about 65 sign up and about 30 people show. I did not receive any perks for arranging this Meet N Greet but I am still happy I did it. I met some wonderful people and we had a great time chatting prior to the cruise.

 

I would hope most people that arrange them are genuinely interested in the concept of getting together after having "talked" on cruise critic.

 

Patti

I totally agree. I love meeting new people! This will be my 3rd M&G and I always enjoy spending sea days with fellow CC'ers! Still friends with many of them as well, it really does help make our vacations enjoyable!