Best and worst Meet & Greet?

[Kentchikan]

However,if most in the rollcall are not interested in having a gift exchange that is okay too. I just hate it when one perosn DICTATES that the roll call should not have something simply because he/she is orgnaizing the meet and greet. I do not mind if there are slot pulls and cabin crawls if others want that. So I feel they also should not mind if some of us do a gift exchange.

 

I agree. Have whatever and make them all optional so those who want to can and those who don't don't have to.

[Kentchikan]

When we booked our Pacific Northwest cruise on NCL Star, there was another lady that had taken charge of all the CC activities (M&G, Slot Pull, Cabin Crawl, Poker Draw, gift exchange, etc). With still lots of time to go, she had to withdraw from the cruise. I took over the M&G, and other members of CC took on the other activities. We had a very active Roll Call.

 

I planned the M&G just after the Muster Drill way uptop at the Biergarten (bar) at Sail Away. The NCL rep tried to dissuade me from that timeframe as the staff would all be busy, but I stuck to my guns. I had 61 signed up and 58 showed up to the M&G. I did Mardi Gras masks (not mandatory, but lots of folks did show up with masks), and ribbon streamers on the tables, and one CC member had a Mardi Gras Banner. We were decorated nicely. Another CC member organized the gift exchange (small under $10 gift from your local area).

 

The NCL rep in the office told me it would be $15 (I think) for refreshments. I declined that offer and brought peanuts myself and figured everyone could order their own drinks. The actual day of the M&G on-board, we had about 10 crew show up, two bartenders, and two employees came with pound cakes, coffee, tea & punch (provided at no cost by NCL). We did all still buy our own alcoholic drinks. The on-board events coordinator passed around a sign-up sheet and all that signed up were invited to a Bridge Tour, and many were invited to dine with the staff. I was invited to dinner with the Captain and Hotel Director on my Birthday (it was totally awesome).

 

It was by far the best M&G I've attended in 7 cruises. People were standing, sitting, walking around, mingling (which is what a M&G is for). It also enabled folks to sign up for the Cabin Crawl (I think we had 7 or 8 cabins on display (all different) and we did the poker draw then too. The slot pull was organized by yet another CC member on yet another day, but folks could sign up for it at the M&G (if they hadn't already).

 

We had so much rain, wind and stormy weather, the cruise would have been a real bummer without all the CC activities. It was a blast to be doing something with CC members every other day or so.

 

Have a great cruise and a great M&G!:D

 

Sounds great. I love that NCL has a person dedicated to each ship to plan things such as a M&G. It surely simplifies things. I have a friend who works for NCL as an event coordinator for a specific ship. Sounds more fun than it is since she is in Miami and not on the ship.

[paul929207]

Sounds great. I love that NCL has a person dedicated to each ship to plan things such as a M&G. It surely simplifies things. I have a friend who works for NCL as an event coordinator for a specific ship. Sounds more fun than it is since she is in Miami and not on the ship.

There is also a contact at Princess for each ship who handles arrangements with the ship for time and place of the M&G and any other pre-planned activities.

[luddite]

Hi, All! I am organizing a Meet & Greet for our upcoming cruise. I want to get people to mingle more. What are some of the best things you all have done at a Meet & Greet? What are some you would avoid like the plague?

 

An active roll call is a big plus. There is certainly no substitute for having nice friendly people on the roll call. The slot pull does seem to engender a bit of comraderie.

It's also nice when a toad decides to bail out on the roll call. Alas, that doesn't always happen.

[rkacruiser]

My best two Meet and Greets were in 2002 and 2012. The Roll Calls for both were active and it was a nice mix of experienced and not-so-experienced cruisers. Information and tips were readily shared online; questions posed and answered. When both groups embarked and met during the first sea day, everyone "clicked"! Friendships were made among many in the group and remain so to this day. Some of us (2002) have sailed together since 2002--had a "reunion-like" feel to it. From the 2012 group, some of us intend to sail together again in 2014.

[rkacruiser]

On the other hand, the most disappointing M & G was during a short cruise on the Zuiderdam. This was the year that she and other ships were used as hotels when the Super Bowl was in Jacksonville. My sailing was designed to fill some days and to get her back into her routine 7 day pattern. The Roll Call was small, but people posting seemed to be interested (and interesting). However, on M & G day, I was the only one who showed up in the Crow's Nest for the get together.

 

I do not care for Meet and Greets on the day of sailing. There is too much to do in getting settled in and, maybe, issues/concerns/problems to resolve before sailing. I experienced an informal M & G on Celebrity Eclipse and did have a problem to fix before the ship departed. By the time I got to the Sunset Bar where the group was going to assemble, the hosts had left as had many others.

 

I do not care, and won't participate, for bringing a gift. When one travels, there is enough "stuff" to handle without adding something else.

 

Cabin crawls are fun; but, one standard outside and one standard inside is enough for a visit. I have never had a group that wanted to do a Slot Pull.

[CPT Trips]

If someone steps up to organize an event for the roll call, great. But, I don't think that it's all up to the person arranging the M&G to do it. I have arranged shorexs, but am not at all interested in slots or exchanges . . . Cabin crawls, with or without poker, are fun on a cruise with a lot of seadays or cool weather.

[travlnblueberries]

Don't like:

*The gift exchanges where you can take some ones gift from them:(

*Where it's going to bars to meet & greet....we don't drink, and feel left out. We don't go.

*Meeting the day of sail away...too busy to get there.

 

Likes:

*Meeting everyone from CC

*Meeting the captain and officers

*Slot pulls

*Name tags

*Friendly people who want to converse at a M&G.

[mikewrit]

Had a great one on NCL Jade eastern Med to Israel and Egypt. The organizer had been on a zilion cruises and was pals with the captain and hotel director, who came to the packed session in le Bistro and brought about six other officers with them. About a third of us participated in a well-organized gift exchange. A dozen went cabin crawling. We had time to caucus with tour leaders and sign up a few additions to fill out excursions.

 

Most disappointing was on a repo from San Diego to Vancouver on NCL Star. Five or six folks showed up to the small sports bar and hadn't much to talk about. The assistant tour director showed up for about five minutes.

[Suitcasefull]

 

But some of us can't help that.:D:eek:;)

[Kentchikan]

But some of us can't help that.:D:eek:;)

 

I'm sure you're very interesting. This group didn't even talk. I tried, lord knows I tried but all they'd give were one word answers.

[Kentchikan]

Don't like:

*Where it's going to bars to meet & greet....we don't drink, and feel left out. We don't go.

 

I've been to many Meet and Greets in bars where no one drank.

[Kentchikan]

Don't like:

*The gift exchanges where you can take some ones gift from them:(

*Where it's going to bars to meet & greet....we don't drink, and feel left out. We don't go.

*Meeting the day of sail away...too busy to get there.

 

Likes:

*Meeting everyone from CC

*Meeting the captain and officers

*Slot pulls

*Name tags

*Friendly people who want to converse at a M&G.

I agree with you on M&G the day we sail.

But I've been to many Meet and Greets in bars where no one drank. You can always drink blueberry juice. :)

[Kentchikan]

Just an FYI. On our last Princess Cruise we had it at 1:30 there were a couple of officers there and the CD but they told me if we had had it in the morning we would have had a much larger contingent of officers.

[cyndi_at_home]

Thank you all for your responses! It sounds like finding a way to keep everyone circulating is the best idea. Basically I figured having name tags and then having everyone stand up and introduce themselves to start off and then go from there. No one wants to do a gift exchange. We are doing a slot pull about an hour or so after the Meet & Greet. I also want to talk to the coordinator about the times for the past guest party and casino party. Last time we kept running from one to the other and that cut down on hang out time. I won't do that this time, but others might want to go.

[notentirelynormal]

I've set up to go to two. The first one was nice. Good turn out, officers attended and we got to put faces with user names. Name badges were handed out and I really enjoyed meeting everyone. They did have a gift exchange but that was done over at the side and if you didn't want to join in you didn't have to.

 

So I thought I'd give it a try the second time. This cruise left from Ft. Lauderdale and went through the canal to LA where we joined for the final 3 days. There were quite a few of us joining then and it was all set up for the M&G - 2 of them actually. Well us silly people that joined later showed up. HOWEVER, all the people from the beginning part decided not to attend and cancelled. We all wasted precious time tracking down the meeting places and wondering why no one was there. The first was on deck at sail away then second was the next day. Afterwards on the roll call several of us reported back that we attended but there was nothing TO attend. I think if was very low class of those first people to cancel and not have the good grace to at least tell us. It left a very sour taste and I doubt that I'd go to another one.

[momofmeg]

There is also a contact at Princess for each ship who handles arrangements with the ship for time and place of the M&G and any other pre-planned activities.

 

HAL does too

[momofmeg]

I agree with you on M&G the day we sail.

But I've been to many Meet and Greets in bars where no one drank. You can always drink blueberry juice. :)

 

On our HAL cruise HAL gave everyone free screwdrivers. The beverage manager/ officer came and did that. Our M & G was in the Crow's Nest. I do not drink alcohol either so I went around the corner and got myself an iced coffee.

[agabbymama]

Thank you all for your responses! It sounds like finding a way to keep everyone circulating is the best idea. Basically I figured having name tags and then having everyone stand up and introduce themselves to start off and then go from there. No one wants to do a gift exchange. We are doing a slot pull about an hour or so after the Meet & Greet. I also want to talk to the coordinator about the times for the past guest party and casino party. Last time we kept running from one to the other and that cut down on hang out time. I won't do that this time, but others might want to go.

 

Hope this link still works. These are the name tags I used and then took some blank name tags & a Sharpee marker for those that showed up at the M&G but hadn't signed up.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=39124261

[marco]

We never really thought any were good or bad. We pretty much always go and there have been 25 to 50 people at them. We'd chat, connect a face to the name and more often then not, never see any of them again during the cruise. Only once one evening, a couple from the M&G saw us in a lounge and joined us for pre dinner cocktails. We had a nice conversation but never ran into them again, nor any of the other folks from the M&G. But just so you know, we don't do the gift exchange, slot pull, cabin crawl, etc etc.

[jennyau]

Pardon my ignorance but what exactly is a slot pull?

 

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[lovemylab]

The best meet and greet was one our roll call organized ourselves before sailaway. Someone brought name tags along with a list of everyone who had signed up (beside each name there was a some info about each person - for example, where they were from, what tours they were doing, etc). It was just a really good group of people.

 

The worst was one where the roll call was full of people who had cruised together before. It was very hard to follow the roll call due to all the inside jokes and personal conversations taking place - when you did post a comment you almost felt like you were interrupting. I ended up not even going to this meet and greet and found out later the only people who did attend was the group that already knew each other.

[Dcoy]

Pardon my ignorance but what exactly is a slot pull?

 

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My understanding of a slot pull is that a group of people pool their money together, say $10 each. They go to a $1 slot machine and put the entire amount into the machine. Then each person has 10 pulls of the machine. When everyone has had their turn, they cash out and split any money left in the machine.

 

Hopefully they hit a few winners and end up with more than they started with. If nothing else, everyone has a good time cheering on with each pull. Sometime the person organizing the slot pull, contacts the casino ahead of time and they will have an area setup for them to play.

 

The meet and great I last attended was going to have a slot pull but the guy organizing it didn't show up so it didn't happen. At least we had not already given him our money.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Don

[jennyau]

My understanding of a slot pull is that a group of people pool their money together, say $10 each. They go to a $1 slot machine and put the entire amount into the machine. Then each person has 10 pulls of the machine. When everyone has had their turn, they cash out and split any money left in the machine.

 

Hopefully they hit a few winners and end up with more than they started with. If nothing else, everyone has a good time cheering on with each pull. Sometime the person organizing the slot pull, contacts the casino ahead of time and they will have an area setup for them to play.

 

The meet and great I last attended was going to have a slot pull but the guy organizing it didn't show up so it didn't happen. At least we had not already given him our money.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Don

 

Thanks Don now it makes sense!

 

Jenny

 

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[hubofhockey]

The organizer should let the roll call decide if they want name tags, time of event, invitations to ship's officers, or how formal or informal the meet and greet should be. Someone will always be upset no matter which way you go, and that person, no doubt, will have not voiced an opinion ahead of time on the roll call. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished. There is no one right way to do it and much depends on the itinerary, length of the cruise, composition of the group, goals of the group, such as discussion of private excursions, meeeting places, slot pulls, cabin crawls, etc.