No "meet" at Infinity's meet and mingle

[jnjcruz]

Just took a nice British Isles cruise on Infinity, but the meet and mingle was awful. It was at one side of the Sunset bar at sailaway so people were shoulder to shoulder. The activities director was there but with the crowd few could hear what he said. No attempt to have people introduce themselves and too crowded for anyone to try to get intros started. No refreshments (though of course you could buy your own drinks). On all other ships it has been in a quiet room big enough to circulate, there have been introductions and an opportunity for people setting up group activities to contact each other, and often coffee or some kind of refreshment.

Is this latest experience typical or unusual? It will influence whether I try to go to the meet and mingles in the future.

Edited August 18, 2014 by jnjcruz
omission

[hcat]

Never had a Meet and Greet /Connections Party on sailaway day or at an outside venue...Usually that's just an informal roll call get together and the official party is on a sea day.

 

Never took a British Isles cruise so maybe the schedule had something to do with it...maybe issues with pre--registration.. Did anyone ask the CD why.? Had the roll call group planned to meet thete on thier own? Curious...

[Texed]

We were on Infinity to Iceland and Norwegian Fjords. Our "Connections" party was at sail-a-way also. We all had planned an informal get-together anyway, so it worked out very nicely. They provided name tags, and we got to meet lots of folks. Most of us liked the "Connections" party outside instead of a room inside so we could enjoy the sail-a-way together. :)

[gimletgal]

This does sound strange. Perhaps this was the Roll Call gathering - as previously suggested? Perhaps there were not enough registered for a formal Connections gathering?

 

Did the OP receive an email from Celebrity stating that a Connections party would be held, once the requisite 25 people were registered? Or a notice in their stateroom? Lots of questions. :confused:

[gimletgal]

We were on Infinity to Iceland and Norwegian Fjords. Our "Connections" party was at sail-a-way also. We all had planned an informal get-together anyway, so it worked out very nicely. They provided name tags, and we got to meet lots of folks. Most of us liked the "Connections" party outside instead of a room inside so we could enjoy the sail-a-way together. :)

 

Wow, Ed! That is a first! Maybe because of the port intensive itinerary I suspect. :)

[Texed]

Wow, Ed! That is a first! Maybe because of the port intensive itinerary I suspect. :)

 

It was arranged by Micky the Activities Manager. We told him the sail-a-way "Connections" was a first for us. He said he thought it would be nicer than being inside. So, I guess it is up to the AM to decide when/where it will be held.

 

We did get a confirmation email before the cruise, and an invitation in our cabin on arrival at the ship. I hope this all makes sense. :)

[gimletgal]

It was arranged by Micky the Activities Manager. We told him the sail-a-way "Connections" was a first for us. He said he thought it would be nicer than being inside. So, I guess it is up to the AM to decide when/where it will be held.

 

We did get a confirmation email before the cruise, and an invitation in our cabin on arrival at the ship. I hope this all makes sense. :)

 

Makes perfect sense! :) They seem to be giving the AM's a little more leeway in making these decisions. I personally would have no problem with the party being incorporated into the sailaway get together. Probably more people attended because that was where they planned to be anyway!

[fatbaldbloke]

We to were on The Infinity sail away party & we found it much better than when on previous cruises we were crammed into one of the bar areas. All of the people we met chatted to each other & were very friendly & this continued through out the cruise. Well done to Jenny for making this the success that it was.

[dkjretired]

They didn't want it indoors anywhere near the waffle irons...

[Texed]

They didn't want it indoors anywhere near the waffle irons...

 

Hello sir. It is nice to hear from you. :)

[villauk]

It was arranged by Micky the Activities Manager. We told him the sail-a-way "Connections" was a first for us. He said he thought it would be nicer than being inside. So, I guess it is up to the AM to decide when/where it will be held.

 

We did get a confirmation email before the cruise, and an invitation in our cabin on arrival at the ship. I hope this all makes sense. :)

 

 

Ed,

 

We were discussing the sailaway connections party with Julie (lovely lady), Guest Services Manager, at the senior officers gathering and she said they'd had to schedule it that way for this particular season because some of the itineraries didn't have a sea day on the first day. Consequently, they felt that leaving it too late into the sailing to have the get together would result in passengers not 'mingling' early enough and perhaps then not bothering to attend at all.

 

We had a fantastic time meeting everyone at our party on Infinity ;).

 

 

We to were on The Infinity sail away party & we found it much better than when on previous cruises we were crammed into one of the bar areas. All of the people we met chatted to each other & were very friendly & this continued through out the cruise. Well done to Jenny for making this the success that it was.

 

Ours was a super gathering and I'm sure the wonderful weather helped ;). We did have refreshments provided unlike the OP :confused:. TBH, as I've previously stated, ours was one of the friendliest cruises I've ever been on :). I do miss my daily chats with our Roll Call folks :D.

[4774Papa]

We have been on Infinity four times in the last four years and never had a meet and greet like that. We met in the Deck 11 Bar, I think it is called the Constellation Bar.

 

We have an NCL cruise on the Star coming up and are having problems setting up the M&G. NCL sets up the M&G via a cruise critic volunteer, who contacts NCL by phone prior to the cruise, not like X where everyone registers on line for the M&G.

NCL wants to have the M&G after we have done four ports, it is ridiculous. We may have to just set up our own somewhere.

[jnjcruz]

Thanks for the responses. The meet and greet was the "official" connections party. We have done roll call parties at sailaway in the past, but that is always a smaller group so it works OK. The itinerary was port intensive so I even would have understood having it the first day, but a larger space was needed, such as the Constellation.

Jay