Cabin Crawl

[springfire]

No one at the Meet and Greet is "begged" to show their cabins. All those that participate, willingly do so by advance arrangement on the roll call.

 

I am a ship lover. Unabashed. Enthusiastic.

So yes, I love to see all facets of a ship, especially one that is all new to me.

So if my enthusiasm, and effort to do a cabin crawl has offended you, I am sorry.

I think those that do participate, have a great time, and learn a lot about their ship.

 

Completely agree!

[wwcruisers]

No one at the Meet and Greet is "begged" to show their cabins. All those that participate, willingly do so by advance arrangement on the roll call.

 

Absolutely agree! Although I've never been on some of the lines that have been mentioned -- I've never seen cabin crawl participation "pushed" on any RC or X roll-call. The only reference I've even heard at any Cruise Critic onboard gathering was a general reminder of the date/place/time for that event. I've participated in several cabin-crawls, over the years -- all of them interesting. Especially on some of the older ships, not all cabins in the same category are identical. I even organized a cabin crawl once -- it was a lot of work, but well worth the effort. :cool:

[BlueRiband]

No one at the Meet and Greet is "begged" to show their cabins. All those that participate, willingly do so by advance arrangement on the roll call.

 

I am a ship lover. Unabashed. Enthusiastic.

So yes, I love to see all facets of a ship, especially one that is all new to me.

So if my enthusiasm, and effort to do a cabin crawl has offended you, I am sorry.

I think those that do participate, have a great time, and learn a lot about their ship.

 

Not offended, just didn't want to risk being put in an awkward spot by being asked to do so in a group setting. I'm recalling an earlier thread where someone mentioned in a roll call that he was staying in a "grande suite" on his ship. The roll call organizer - on the board - asked him to host a sail away party for the group! :eek:

[kelkel2]

I can't understand why anyone would want to be a part of a cabin crawl with over 100 people. None of the cabins are big enough to hold those amounts of people. I wouldn't honestly mind being a part of a small cabin crawl, one of maybe 10-15 people, but 100 just sounds like it could get easily out of hand.

I also wouldn't want to feel obligated to provide drinks, sacks, gifts for that many people either.

I always participate in the roll calls because it's nice to share the anticipation with others, but the meet and greet with a few drinks is about all I do. When everyone starts talking about slot pulls and everything else I don't ever go.

[bob brown]

I'm recalling an earlier thread where someone mentioned in a roll call that he was staying in a "grande suite" on his ship. The roll call organizer - on the board - asked him to host a sail away party for the group! :eek:

 

Now that I would agree, is totally out-of-line, and inappropriate...

[Markanddonna]

I have been on several cabin crawls and they were all fun to different degrees. Asking anyone to spring for treats/foods is unnecessary and a way to doom the experience. We were on a recent NCL cruise where the Haven was open to us on the crawl. These gracious people even invited the CC group to come back for the evening when we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

If you have one, make sure it is broken down into small groups. We were one huge group on one and it was a bottleneck for other passengers and the crew.

 

Personally, I think they are only appropriate for longer voyages, like TAs or Panama Canal cruises. We have eight sea days in a row on my next one so a crawl would be fun. I don't get involved with much cruise critic activity on 7 nights or less.

[shugey]

You know, for the life of me I can't understand how anyone would get so worked up about other people enjoying themselves on a cruise. M&G? Slot Pulls? Cabin Crawls? Happy Hours, Speciality Dinners? What difference does it make?

 

The answer to all this is - Don't Go! No one is forcing you to do ANYTHING. Why should you have a problem with this, regardless of whether you are on the Queen Mary or on a so-called "mass-market line?"

 

I will never understand why some of these posts have to be so negative. If you don't want to participate in something - again, Don't!! No one is forcing you to do anything - why should you take to this forum to cluck-cluck about it?

[sloopsailor]

You know, for the life of me I can't understand how anyone would get so worked up about other people enjoying themselves on a cruise. M&G? Slot Pulls? Cabin Crawls? Happy Hours, Speciality Dinners? What difference does it make?

 

The answer to all this is - Don't Go! No one is forcing you to do ANYTHING. Why should you have a problem with this, regardless of whether you are on the Queen Mary or on a so-called "mass-market line?"

 

I will never understand why some of these posts have to be so negative. If you don't want to participate in something - again, Don't!! No one is forcing you to do anything - why should you take to this forum to cluck-cluck about it?

 

And why is your post any different than theirs? Don't you see the irony of you criticizing people for doing the exact same thing as you are doing - criticizing others?

 

I don't understand why you don't understand that! :D

 

Practice what you preach - no one is forcing you to read those posts that bother you so much. So don't read them!!!!!!

Edited July 9, 2015 by sloopsailor

[CPT Trips]

I'm not thrilled when one of the super-organizing, Google spreadsheeting, controlling what's posted types takes over a roll call thread. When that happens, I scale back my participation if not just disappear, depends on who else is on the roll call.

 

I have organized several meet and greets but never organized a cabin crawl, gift exchange slot pull etc. when I get asked, "are we doing a ____?" My response is typically, "feel free to arrange it." Sometimes it happens, other times it doesn't.

[iancal]

Of absolutely NO interest to us. Cannot imagine why we would want to join scads of people traipsing from one cabin to another. What a shower. Let alone having complete strangers inside our cabin.

 

Last time we prepared grab bags was for our daughter's tenth birthday many years ago.

Edited July 9, 2015 by iancal

[NMLady]

True, but with the way one person was almost begging for one to be offered I didn't want to take the risk and therefore avoided the get together completely. (Cabin crawls are rare on QM2 because there is a wide variety of ship-sponsored activities to occupy time on sea days.)

 

In all of my cruises the cabin crawls are organized on the roll call, not at the Meet n Greet.

And every cruise line in my experience has more ship-sponsored activities, especially on sea days, than one could ever take part in.

Edited July 10, 2015 by NMLady

[GUT2407]

I enjoy cabin crawls, and have both participated and organized several of them on different cruise lines. The primary purpose of the cabin crawl is to see different types of accommodations as well as anomaly's within a certain type. Since the ship is usually sold out, the cruiseline cannot show you these different cabins, that you may be interested in booking on future cruises.

 

So, unlike a "pub crawl", refreshments are not necessary.

 

As for controlling the amount of participants, the technique that I employ, when organizing one, is to require any participant to be willing to show their cabin, in order to see that of other's. That usually does the trick to discourage "looky-lou's". I explain that once we have the final list of participants, we will only select one from each type to view, based on the easiest route to navigate. Those that are seriously interested will be willing to accept those terms.

 

I have been flamed on some roll calls for not just allowing everyone to view, without being willing to show theirs. In those cases, I have offered to them the opportunity of taking over the job, and doing it their way. They usually are not heard from again on the subject....;)

 

I think it is only fair to be willing to show your cabin, if you expect to see that of others....:)

 

 

Like you show me yours and I'll show you mine.

[Bases5]

You know I was asking for ideas not opinions. But thank you all anyhow. May i phrased it wrong. If you were hosting a CC with close to 100 people what would you do for treat or gifts

If you would not do it then no need to answer

[agabbymama]

You know I was asking for ideas not opinions. But thank you all anyhow. May i phrased it wrong. If you were hosting a CC with close to 100 people what would you do for treat or gifts

If you would not do it then no need to answer

 

We had a small gift (under $10) exchange at our Meet & Greet. When I first contacted the coordinator, she emailed me back that refreshments would cost $7 pp. On the Roll Call we all discussed and said we would do without refreshments. But I felt we needed something, so I went to Costco and bought a HUGE bag of pretzels.

 

Was also told that no decorations could be attached to the ship in any way, so I decided on Mardi Gras beads & masks. I also bought curling ribbon in the purple & gold and decorated the tables. Our M&G was at sail-away, so we tossed the ribbons in the air & at folks when the horn blew.

 

Was pleasantly surprised that the coordinator met me at the venue as I was setting everything up, and crew started arriving with pound cake, cookies, punch, coffee & tea. I was worried I was going to be charged, but was assured the Captain provided the refreshments.

 

It's funny, I don't participate in many of the ship activities, but I found it fun to meet the folks from the Roll Call and do all the various activities we had planned and talked about for months. We had a fun group.

 

Take everything said on this forum with a grain of salt. Have a great cruise!

[sloopsailor]

Was also told that no decorations could be attached to the ship in any way, so I decided on Mardi Gras beads & masks.

 

Mardi Gras masks and beads? Seriously? I would have walked out if this is what you did at your meet and greet.

 

I also bought curling ribbon in the purple & gold and decorated the tables. Our M&G was at sail-away, so we tossed the ribbons in the air & at folks when the horn blew.

 

Am I reading this correctly? You threw ribbon streamers at people and in the air? Who cleaned up that mess? And I really hope you didn't throw them away from the ship and into the water like is seen in old news footage. That would have been the height of irresponsible polluting.

[wwcruisers]

You know I was asking for ideas not opinions. But thank you all anyhow. May i phrased it wrong. If you were hosting a CC with close to 100 people what would you do for treat or gifts

If you would not do it then no need to answer

 

One other possibility, if you don't want to take on the burden of providing refreshments, for 100 folks -- you could do a combined cabin crawl/poker run. Have all of the cabin "hosts" hand out a playing card to the participants. Whoever puts together the best hand, after the "crawl" wins a small prize. (And yes, it has to be on the honor system -- no practical way to make sure folks aren't "cheating" ;))

 

Just remember that the whole idea is to have fun -- and maybe get a glimpse of a cabin you would like to book, in the future! :cool:

[agabbymama]

Mardi Gras masks and beads? Seriously? I would have walked out if this is what you did at your meet and greet.

 

 

Am I reading this correctly? You threw ribbon streamers at people and in the air? Who cleaned up that mess? And I really hope you didn't throw them away from the ship and into the water like is seen in old news footage. That would have been the height of irresponsible polluting.

 

Sorry you feel that way. I asked on the Roll Call and about half of the people thought it was a great idea. It wasn't mandatory, and in no way affected the folks that didn't want to wear a mask. Some of the folks really bought elaborate masks.

 

Yes, we tossed the ribbon streamers slightly in the air, but no they didn't go overboard. All of the CC folks in attendance helped with the clean up. The crew cleaned up the refreshments. And I made sure the area was all clean when we left it.

 

A lot of the folks in attendance remarked on this board, that it was the best M&G they had ever attended, so guess I didn't do too bad a job.

Edited July 12, 2015 by agabbymama

[dlg64]

Sorry you feel that way. I asked on the Roll Call and about half of the people thought it was a great idea. It wasn't mandatory, and in no way affected the folks that didn't want to wear a mask. Some of the folks really bought elaborate masks.

 

Yes, we tossed the ribbon streamers slightly in the air, but no they didn't go overboard. All of the CC folks in attendance helped with the clean up. The crew cleaned up the refreshments. And I made sure the area was all clean when we left it.

 

A lot of the folks in attendance remarked on this board, that it was the best M&G they had ever attended, so guess I didn't do too bad a job.

 

I think it sounds fabulous and as a 'newbie' I would have found it added a great level of excitement to my cruise. :)

I am on my roll call and am a bit hesitant to suggest anything being the 'newbie'. A cabin crawl sounds good and I love the poker cards idea too.

Each to their own and like other posters have said.... not your thing then don't go / attend and don't bother commenting negatives either !!!! :D

[legaljen1969]

You know I was asking for ideas not opinions. But thank you all anyhow. May i phrased it wrong. If you were hosting a CC with close to 100 people what would you do for treat or gifts

If you would not do it then no need to answer

 

Okay, I am going to make some assumptions here. You are planning to offer refreshments OR trinkets from your home area. You don't mind having close to 100 people in or through your cabin.

 

I don't know where you are from, but I am sure there is something relatively inexpensive you could do. I am from the South Carolina Lowcountry, so my snack of choice would probably be Benne wafers (the sweet kind and the cheese type). They are super easy to make and you can make a lot of them and store them relatively inexpensively. Maybe some peanuts with Old Bay or Lowcountry Boil seasoning. Then I would probably have some pretzels or chips for those who might prefer the more "ordinary" snack.

 

Now, for those who seem to be believe it is necessary to consider everyone's dietary needs- if you want to partake in what I am serving, then eat it. If you don't, then don't. Simple as that.

 

As for trinkets, I don't really know what I might provide. Probably a shell of some sort. Likely oyster shells. Maybe some sort of magnet? I found some really cute bottle openers that had a Palmetto tree and said "It's 5 o'clock somewhere." They were $ 1 each at Wal Mart. I bought a bunch of them and have used them for parties, given them as stocking stuffer gifts and other things since that time.

 

I know all of the state quarters are well into circulation now, but perhaps you could get with your bank and figure out a way to get about 100 of your state's quarters and that could be your souvenir.

 

Yes, it's low cost. Yes, someone may think it's tacky. The point is, it represents where you are from.

 

Lots of judgmental folks on these boards. I won't lie. I have been a snarky witch too from time to time, but I try to offer something decent rather than just "how stupid are you" comments.

[legaljen1969]

I also like the idea of the "poker run" where people collect a hand of cards and get a prize at the last place based on best hand. That way, there is only one prize to be had.

 

I think some folks on our M&M did a cabin crawl after the M&M finished, so they were already full from snacks. Someone from our roll call generously agreed to have some folks come to their aft balcony for sail away. We did not end up going as we got involved with something else.

 

As many others have said, if it's not your thing- don't participate. That's why there are many different activities offered throughout every day. That's why there are different excursions. We don't all like the same thing.

 

Several of the folks on our last roll call were going to Nachi Cocum. They all met up and were able to get some transportation together. It wasn't mandatory to be glued to folks on the roll call, but we did enjoy seeing some of them throughout the week as we did other things.

[SuiteTraveler]

You know I was asking for ideas not opinions. But thank you all anyhow. May i phrased it wrong. If you were hosting a CC with close to 100 people what would you do for treat or gifts

If you would not do it then no need to answer

 

What we did was buy several decks of cards - one deck for each cabin on the crawl. Each cabin crawler took a card at each cabin. At the final cabin, the person with the best poker hand won. We were on NCL and the concierge was kind enough to provide a bottle of sparkling wine as the prize.

 

There were no treats or gifts until the final cabin - an Owner's Suite - they get 3 free bottles of booze with their suite and these people don't drink so they used them to make cocktails with juice provided by the butler. They also had the butler bring some cheese and fruit and cookies. Not too much as most people ate nothing. Even with the free cocktails only one bottle of booze was used.

 

At the M&G some people brought items from home. Some people from New Mexico brought stuff they got for free from their city hall - alien pencils with flying saucer erasers. Some people gave out refrigerator magnets.

[legaljen1969]

What we did was buy several decks of cards - one deck for each cabin on the crawl. Each cabin crawler took a card at each cabin. At the final cabin, the person with the best poker hand won. We were on NCL and the concierge was kind enough to provide a bottle of sparkling wine as the prize.

 

There were no treats or gifts until the final cabin - an Owner's Suite - they get 3 free bottles of booze with their suite and these people don't drink so they used them to make cocktails with juice provided by the butler. They also had the butler bring some cheese and fruit and cookies. Not too much as most people ate nothing. Even with the free cocktails only one bottle of booze was used.

 

At the M&G some people brought items from home. Some people from New Mexico brought stuff they got for free from their city hall - alien pencils with flying saucer erasers. Some people gave out refrigerator magnets.

 

Great souvenirs!! Love the pencils idea.

[TravelinGert]

I have been reading about cabin crawls

I have read that the cabin host usually provides food and drink

and a trinket from where you are from.

 

Please help with ideas

There are over 100 signed up for our Cabin crawl.

 

I was thinking about getting a couple cheap pitchers and fill them with juice get some cheap paper cups.

Maybe raiding the buffet for some snacks. that's a lot of stuff for 100 people.

I was thinking bags of candy like Halloween?

 

what kind of nick knacks have you brought, Even at $1 that's still $100

Oh help please

 

My experience is limited to one cabin crawl since we've only been on one cruise. Our roll call was large and lots of volunteers, so they split the cabin crawl into two groups. At 100 people your group may want to explore this possibility. :)

 

As far as trinkets and treats go, I was told that is really only done extensively on the small cabin crawls because the logistics just get too complicated. Even supposing you could afford a $2 trinket for everyone, how would you feel about packing all that extra stuff?

 

My suggestion:

 

Consider a nice gift for your cabin crawl organizer. With 100 people that's got to feel a bit like herding cats. Maybe a t-shirt or small food basket displaying local specialties put together for a few dollars?

 

Do bring a few light weight easily packed items for decoration relating to where you are from or your roll call theme. Most of our cabin crawl participants had a few steamers and an interesting door sign to liven things up. Easy to pack, and you can put them up with a few lightweight magnets.

 

Given the group size, it might work well to all gather at one of the lounges or bars after the cabin crawl so everyone can have space to sit and relax.

 

Have fun and enjoy your cruise! :)

[Arzeena]

I am not at all a big fan of cabin crawls anymore, but I have participated in several. The best one that I still remember was from the October 2012 repositioning cruise on the NCL Star (NY to New Orleans). It was organized as a collective effort from various participants and organizers, rather than one person, and it was a huge success since it was really well organized. There were three groups that rotated, due to a large number of crawlers. I do recall that some cabins had jello shots, iced tea, giveaways like coozies, magnets etc. It was not mandatory and the people showing the cabins did this out of their own generosity.

 

I have been to other cabin crawls but none as well organized and fun as this one. It is not a job of just one person. A real good one takes a collective effort.

[Tiggertastic]

Seriously save your money, it's supposed to be about the cabin not what people can gain from taking part