Carnival Meet & Mingle

[kskelley40]

I haven't sailed on Carnival for a couple of years, being doing NCL lately, so not sure if the Meet & Mingle is as popular on Carnival as it is on NCL.

Read a couple of posts that stated that their M&M was on the last sea day???  Granted these posts were a couple of years ago, but makes me wonder if the M&M is going away.

Has anyone had any recent experiences with a M&M on Carnival?

Right now we have 51 people registered for ours in November.  I have an opportunity to get some prizes donated for giveaways but not sure if it would be worth the effort?

Any thoughts?

[shof515]

it might not worth the effort. on my cruise a few months, we had over 100 people sign up. Only a dozen people attended

[Pcruising13]

We had poor attendance, I think, because it was at 8 AM and posted the night before in Funtimes. 

[Chervil]

Our last two cruises it was at around 9AM on the first sea day.
We were the only two to show up for the first one (out of about 50 people signed up).
On the second one there were about 10 or so that showed up (out of about 50 people, again)

It was nice on the second one to talk to a few people and trade some tips and secrets, however I wouldn't build up to much anticipation for it.
We did get a notice in our room each time, so not sure why the attendance was so low.

[beachbum53]

3 hours ago, kskelley40 said:

I haven't sailed on Carnival for a couple of years, being doing NCL lately, so not sure if the Meet & Mingle is as popular on Carnival as it is on NCL.

Read a couple of posts that stated that their M&M was on the last sea day???  Granted these posts were a couple of years ago, but makes me wonder if the M&M is going away.

Has anyone had any recent experiences with a M&M on Carnival?

Right now we have 51 people registered for ours in November.  I have an opportunity to get some prizes donated for giveaways but not sure if it would be worth the effort?

Any thoughts?

 

I'm guessing you're talking about a M&M organized through Carnival that you've discussed on your roll call? I think the reason that those type of Meet & Mingles turn out to be a dud is because they're typically at an odd time (and day) when there's usually some other activity that most people are involved with. We've had better luck with Meet & Mingles  when they're organized by our roll call members (and NOT Carnival). Typically, the person that started the roll call will get in touch with the Cruise Director (in advance of Embarkation Day) to see if there's an area available (such as one of the ship's lounges or nightclub) that we could utilize, usually late morning or mid day on our first at-sea day. On our Vista cruise, we were able to use the Red Frog Pub. On our Magic cruise, we were able to use the Vibe nightclub. Based on past experience, you'll probably have about 1/10th to 1/4th of the roll call members actually show up. So, if you've got 100 members in your roll call group, you'll have somewhere between 10 - 25 people make it to the M&M. It might be worth your time to contact the cruise director on his/her FB page (or email) to see if he/she can help you.

[RWolver672]

There are a lot of reasons why they fail to have people show up after they have said they will.  People think it's a great idea when they first find it and sign up for it .  Then following it, they find that the group wants to do a cabin crawl, pub crawl, exchange gifts, meet at sail away etc.  Then they decide they don't want to do those things so they just don't show up.  Or they find that they are doing something else that they'd rather do and completely forget about it.

[kskelley40]

Thanks for the input...was wondering if Carnival does anything at the M&M?  I understand participation is iffy.  We have had some great ones on NCL and then some that were duds.  It all depends on the participants.

Does anyone know who the cruise director is or will be on the Magic in November.  Might try to contact them directly if possible as suggested.

[amyotravel]

7 hours ago, kskelley40 said:

Thanks for the input...was wondering if Carnival does anything at the M&M?  I understand participation is iffy.  We have had some great ones on NCL and then some that were duds.  It all depends on the participants.

Does anyone know who the cruise director is or will be on the Magic in November.  Might try to contact them directly if possible as suggested.

https://airtable.com/shrxzucqLGHbpDmm8/tblZJCAW6us7UhDmZ?blocks=hide

[kskelley40]

5 minutes ago, amyotravel said:

https://airtable.com/shrxzucqLGHbpDmm8/tblZJCAW6us7UhDmZ?blocks=hide

Thanks.  At least I have a name...now just need to find out how to contact him.  Thanks for the info.

[evandbob]

Carnival will put out some coffee, tea and lemonade, as well as some breakfast bakery items, whether a mid morning , afternoon, or early evening time.

 

Often, a printed sheet goes out the night before with time and place, but it's not guaranteed that everyone who signed up will get it.  It's supposed to be posted in the daily fun times as well.

 

Attendance can be spotty, depends on the sailing and the scheduler, how pax feel the day, and whether they even got a notice.  I've seen it mostly for 10 or 11AM on the 1st sea day, once between dinner times at 7PM, and at 1 or 2 PM as well.  On one sailing, the notice that went out had the wrong time and place, so Carnival did re-schedule it for the last sea day!!????

Edited August 6, 2019 by evandbob

[crusinpsychRN]

On 8/6/2019 at 6:26 AM, RWolver672 said:

There are a lot of reasons why they fail to have people show up after they have said they will.  People think it's a great idea when they first find it and sign up for it .  Then following it, they find that the group wants to do a cabin crawl, pub crawl, exchange gifts, meet at sail away etc.  Then they decide they don't want to do those things so they just don't show up.  Or they find that they are doing something else that they'd rather do and completely forget about it.

 

I think they are just rude.

[MRSG29]

On 8/5/2019 at 10:01 PM, beachbum53 said:

 

I'm guessing you're talking about a M&M organized through Carnival that you've discussed on your roll call? I think the reason that those type of Meet & Mingles turn out to be a dud is because they're typically at an odd time (and day) when there's usually some other activity that most people are involved with. We've had better luck with Meet & Mingles  when they're organized by our roll call members (and NOT Carnival). Typically, the person that started the roll call will get in touch with the Cruise Director (in advance of Embarkation Day) to see if there's an area available (such as one of the ship's lounges or nightclub) that we could utilize, usually late morning or mid day on our first at-sea day. On our Vista cruise, we were able to use the Red Frog Pub. On our Magic cruise, we were able to use the Vibe nightclub. Based on past experience, you'll probably have about 1/10th to 1/4th of the roll call members actually show up. So, if you've got 100 members in your roll call group, you'll have somewhere between 10 - 25 people make it to the M&M. It might be worth your time to contact the cruise director on his/her FB page (or email) to see if he/she can help you.

I didn't think of contacting the CD. I will definitely do that.

[Shaded Lady]

I think there are 2 different categories of M&G... one you organize and socialize yourselves, so everyone is well aware before the cruise when and where it will be... these tend to be better attended.

 

The second type is the one that is coordinated through Cruise Critic and then they relay the details to Carnival. Carnival picks the place & time, often will have refreshments there, sometimes even some gifts like ships on a stick... they then notify everyone who registered to let them know via an invitation in their room the night before where and when the event will take place. This is less well-attended in my opinion because a lot of people don't hear about it (missed the invite in their room) or get overwhelmed with other activities and forget it.

 

On our cruise in June we had almost 50 people signed up. 4 people showed up. I think the biggest reason so many miss it is not rudeness, but the fact that there is insufficient pre-planning, so people know in advance when & where to go. We completely missed the invite in the mass of paper delivered to our room the night before the 9 AM event so we missed the whole thing! The hotel director and a member of the entertainment staff showed up, there was coffee, juices & snacks. And the 4 people who showed up were all gifted a free dinner in Cucina del Capitano! Oh well!

[dcwalker]

I've attended two Carnival hosted Meet and Mingles, both on Ecstasy. The two parties couldn't have been more different. The first one was late in the afternoon on the first seaday/elegant night. The appetizers and finger foods they put out were better than what they serve at the past guest parties; actually some of the best tasting best presented food I've had on Carnival. Several of the higher up crew members attended and they were very personable. I had engaging conversations with the head of dining and the head of hotel services. BUT the second one I went to a couple of months later was in the late morning and only lido breakfast pastries were served. A crew member or two wandered in and out.  I still signed up for the Carnival/CC M&M for my next cruise, hoping it will be more like the first than the second.