Large >150 Meet and Greet ideas

[AlaskaNurse]

I've set up meet and greets in the past but never had this many sign up. Right now it's at 159 that are signed up. I know not all will actually show up, but even then there will be a high number. My question for those that have organized or attended meet and greets in the past, what activities did you do or wish would have been done? How would you as a member like to see the meet and greet done? I have had professional invitations printed to give to the officers which has always been well received in the past and gotten additional officers to show up. We are also bringing some gifts (purchased by husband and I) and holding a drawing for those things (Not a raffle, no money exchanged) Just for something fun. Any other ideas? I just want everyone to have a nice time and it's more challenging with this number of people. - Also doing the second part of the cruise (doing B2B) but that one will be more manageable with only 47 signed up.

Thanks for any suggestions. Cruise is in one week on the Sun.

Tamera 

[Pitzel]

Gift exchanges where everyone (or all those who want) bring a small wrapped something that represents their home city/region. It could be a magnet, a shot glass, an ornament, etc. Think small and under $10 or so. For every item brought, people get a raffle ticket or put their name into a drawing. When someone's ticket number (or name) is called, they come up and select one of the wrapped gifts.

I have also seen where people bring wrapped candies and people can go around the room and grab a few from everyone else -- sort of like adult trick or treating. Bring small paper or plastic bags to help people gather their loot.

Slot pulls and the like are fun, but almost unmanageable with a group that size. 

Maybe have prizes for those that traveled the farthest for the cruise, ones where this is there first cruise, longest married couples, etc, etc. as a way to get to know people in the group (maybe in lieu of the drawing?)

[2Cruise4Ever]

51 minutes ago, Pitzel said:

Gift exchanges where everyone (or all those who want) bring a small wrapped something that represents their home city/region. It could be a magnet, a shot glass, an ornament, etc. Think small and under $10 or so. For every item brought, people get a raffle ticket or put their name into a drawing. When someone's ticket number (or name) is called, they come up and select one of the wrapped gifts.

I have also seen where people bring wrapped candies and people can go around the room and grab a few from everyone else -- sort of like adult trick or treating. Bring small paper or plastic bags to help people gather their loot.

Slot pulls and the like are fun, but almost unmanageable with a group that size. 

Maybe have prizes for those that traveled the farthest for the cruise, ones where this is there first cruise, longest married couples, etc, etc. as a way to get to know people in the group (maybe in lieu of the drawing?)

Love those ideas!  Except for the gift exchange, if everyone brings one, that's a lot of people to get through... unless you put all gifts on one table and each person just takes one and doesn't do the "white elephant stealing" part of it.

[Pitzel]

1 hour ago, 2Cruise4Ever said:

Love those ideas!  Except for the gift exchange, if everyone brings one, that's a lot of people to get through... unless you put all gifts on one table and each person just takes one and doesn't do the "white elephant stealing" part of it.

No white elephant stealing. Just select a gift when your name is called!

[2Cruise4Ever]

17 minutes ago, Pitzel said:

No white elephant stealing. Just select a gift when your name is called!

Awesome!

[Travel Junkie Judy]

3 hours ago, AlaskaNurse said:

I've set up meet and greets in the past but never had this many sign up. Right now it's at 159 that are signed up. I know not all will actually show up, but even then there will be a high number. My question for those that have organized or attended meet and greets in the past, what activities did you do or wish would have been done? How would you as a member like to see the meet and greet done? I have had professional invitations printed to give to the officers which has always been well received in the past and gotten additional officers to show up. We are also bringing some gifts (purchased by husband and I) and holding a drawing for those things (Not a raffle, no money exchanged) Just for something fun. Any other ideas? I just want everyone to have a nice time and it's more challenging with this number of people. - Also doing the second part of the cruise (doing B2B) but that one will be more manageable with only 47 signed up.

Thanks for any suggestions. Cruise is in one week on the Sun.

Tamera 

 

This is an interesting question.  I have run and helped run quite a few M & Gs.  Several were very large, with the largest one being attended by over 250 guests!  This was on the Dawn around 10 years ago.  We had a committee run it.  It's too late now to add some of the fun activities that we had, but in the future you could do some of them.   Our biggest undertaking was a horse race. Folks set up teams before we boarded.  Each team had a name, a horse, a jockey and supporters.  Some horses were people, some were "props".  We had the help of the cruise director who called the race.  We did have betting.    The Captain, Hotel Director and most officers were in attendance to watch.  We did this horse race on 2 or 3 cruises.  We had a very large slot pull (0ver 50 people) which required lots of planning.  We had a Cabin Crawl with Poker (more betting and lots of planning).  We had a sail away party and we had a Cruise Critic luncheon - they set it up in the smaller main dining room because there were so many of us.  Our M & G was in the dining room also.  We had a large gift exchange at the M & G.  We also had R-L-C games on sea days.  Those brought in as many as 35 people.  (more betting).  If you've never played Right, Left, Center, look it up.  It is a fun, past paced game and doesn't cost much.  Each person bets $3.00 per game and we played one or 2 games.  When 35 or more people, one game was about all we had time for.  I can tell you more about these activities next week on The Sun.  I will look around and see if I have any trinkets to add to your drawing.  We've done that also.  I had a large roll of double tickets that we used for the drawing.  If I find the roll, I will bring some.  

Judy

[AlaskaNurse]

7 minutes ago, Travel Junkie Judy said:

 

This is an interesting question.  I have run and helped run quite a few M & Gs.  Several were very large, with the largest one being attended by over 250 guests!  This was on the Dawn around 10 years ago.  We had a committee run it.  It's too late now to add some of the fun activities that we had, but in the future you could do some of them.   Our biggest undertaking was a horse race. Folks set up teams before we boarded.  Each team had a name, a horse, a jockey and supporters.  Some horses were people, some were "props".  We had the help of the cruise director who called the race.  We did have betting.    The Captain, Hotel Director and most officers were in attendance to watch.  We did this horse race on 2 or 3 cruises.  We had a very large slot pull (0ver 50 people) which required lots of planning.  We had a Cabin Crawl with Poker (more betting and lots of planning).  We had a sail away party and we had a Cruise Critic luncheon - they set it up in the smaller main dining room because there were so many of us.  Our M & G was in the dining room also.  We had a large gift exchange at the M & G.  We also had R-L-C games on sea days.  Those brought in as many as 35 people.  (more betting).  If you've never played Right, Left, Center, look it up.  It is a fun, past paced game and doesn't cost much.  Each person bets $3.00 per game and we played one or 2 games.  When 35 or more people, one game was about all we had time for.  I can tell you more about these activities next week on The Sun.  I will look around and see if I have any trinkets to add to your drawing.  We've done that also.  I had a large roll of double tickets that we used for the drawing.  If I find the roll, I will bring some.  

Judy

I've been crazy busy with setting up the multiple tours, the 2 meet and greets, bookings for my lodge, working full time as a charge nurse and starting a new Mobile IV hydration business! Luckily I'm a very organized person! We were planning on just bringing some cut 3x5 cards to have people write a name and cabin number on for the drawing we are going to do. Planning on 10 drawings for the Panama cruise and 6 for the Alaska cruise meet and greet. If you have some little things you want to add we would certainly be ok with that. I also contacted NCL and they will include some SWAG things we can put in the bags for the drawings as well. Getting excited. I've heard about the LRC before and there are usually several people who are interested in that. If you wanted to see about setting that up, I'm sure you would have a lot of participants. I believe there is someone who is setting up the slot pull, so that's not something I'm involved with. I've talked to people in the past and the gift exchange is usually a very low participation so I didn't even bring it up for this one. I'm fine with the organization and running the meet and greet with my husband, just thought I'd see if there were some cute last minute ideas. Looking forward to a great cruise.

Tamera

[poohbare19]

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Edited April 14, 2023 by poohbare19
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[Travel Junkie Judy]

1 minute ago, AlaskaNurse said:

I've been crazy busy with setting up the multiple tours, the 2 meet and greets, bookings for my lodge, working full time as a charge nurse and starting a new Mobile IV hydration business! Luckily I'm a very organized person! We were planning on just bringing some cut 3x5 cards to have people write a name and cabin number on for the drawing we are going to do. Planning on 10 drawings for the Panama cruise and 6 for the Alaska cruise meet and greet. If you have some little things you want to add we would certainly be ok with that. I also contacted NCL and they will include some SWAG things we can put in the bags for the drawings as well. Getting excited. I've heard about the LRC before and there are usually several people who are interested in that. If you wanted to see about setting that up, I'm sure you would have a lot of participants. I believe there is someone who is setting up the slot pull, so that's not something I'm involved with. I've talked to people in the past and the gift exchange is usually a very low participation so I didn't even bring it up for this one. I'm fine with the organization and running the meet and greet with my husband, just thought I'd see if there were some cute last minute ideas. Looking forward to a great cruise.

Tamera

 

I didn't think you'd want to try to add any of these things.  I am amazed that you are doing this with no help.  Bravo!  It takes a group to run lots of things.  We had one person who did nothing except host the excursion page.  I think our "committee" consisted of around 6 or 7 people, each assigned to one or two events.  I gracefully have to decline running R-L-C or anything.  We are doing this cruise as a "relax and do nothing".  We are traveling alone - no friends or family.  We have an aft suite and plan to sit on that big balcony a lot.  We've been through the canal and we've been to all of the ports.  If we decide to get off, we will hire a taxi.  This cruise puts us into Ambassador level, so no more counting numbers.  I will look and see if I can't find some things to donate to your gift "pile".  Good luck.  

Judy

[mking8288]

It's never too late to ask for and enlist help from other more active roll call members that are most likely to attend, for their suggestions AND help.  Make it not an "I" (husband and I efforts alone ... can be overwhelming) and make that a team / inner circles of several "assistants" or co-leaders.  Just keeping track of the rosters, responding to last minute additions, name changes/corrections, etc. can be time-consuming, almost a full time job by itself in the final days leading up to embarkation & the day of the M&G. 

 

You are in the spotlight and group events is going see you as the lead or contact person for everything - yet, it is okay and best practices to get others involved to assist ... share those moments, take group photos to post on CC (inform all first, in case someone wish to opt out) or just to help at the "check-in" area with name tags, etc.  Otherwise, it's just about impossible to seriously do any meaningful mingle with the crowd ... and, re-confirm that they will have a microphone & sound system turned on.  

 

Good luck, enjoy and have a great B2B cruise and fun at the M&G's 

Edited April 14, 2023 by mking8288

[Firstin87]

Hi,

 

We're on that Roll Call, too.  On a previous cruise we were on, the M&G host had a good idea to get everyone up and moving and talking to each other.  He handed out a list to everyone to fill out that was full of "find someone who..." and you had to find a person, not in your group, who met that criteria.  Wasn't done as a competition, as people do help others find the "someone who...".  Might not be too time consuming to create the list.  I remember it had items like:

"has 3 or more children", "is on their first cruise", "is from Europe", "drives a car from the 1980's".

 

It was done by a fellow named Mike, who has been on a zillion cruises and usually hosts the M&Gs.  You can try to contact him at @casofilia and see if he can help you.  Helpful guy.  He may also reply to this thread if he sees it.

 

With a group that large, NCL's cruise director's staff might be willing/able to have a person run some large group game(s).  Maybe split people up into several teams of unrelated people and do a short trivia or emoji guessing game.

 

I think MNJones is on the current sailing of the Sun.  Perhaps he can ask the cruise director's staff or help or suggestions for you.  Asking in person well in advance is better than trying to ask them to help more than they usually do the night before, of course.

 

Cyndy

[smillerholmes]

3 hours ago, AlaskaNurse said:

I've been crazy busy with setting up the multiple tours, the 2 meet and greets, bookings for my lodge, working full time as a charge nurse and starting a new Mobile IV hydration business! Luckily I'm a very organized person! We were planning on just bringing some cut 3x5 cards to have people write a name and cabin number on for the drawing we are going to do. Planning on 10 drawings for the Panama cruise and 6 for the Alaska cruise meet and greet. If you have some little things you want to add we would certainly be ok with that. I also contacted NCL and they will include some SWAG things we can put in the bags for the drawings as well. Getting excited. I've heard about the LRC before and there are usually several people who are interested in that. If you wanted to see about setting that up, I'm sure you would have a lot of participants. I believe there is someone who is setting up the slot pull, so that's not something I'm involved with. I've talked to people in the past and the gift exchange is usually a very low participation so I didn't even bring it up for this one. I'm fine with the organization and running the meet and greet with my husband, just thought I'd see if there were some cute last minute ideas. Looking forward to a great cruise.

Tamera

I am really looking forward to the cruise and I appreciate you taking the time to put these activities together.

[zzdoug]

Miniature golf tournament. 

[YVRteacher]

My perspective is different and is not likely to be popular. 
The large meet and greets with over 100 people aren’t my thing. They are dominated by people from the other social media site who have no interest in getting to know CC members, they are often organized by someone who is not active on CC but who wants the extras that come with being an organizer of a meet and mingle and in the past they have consisted of people sitting at tables while the officers introduce themselves. No meeting or mingling.

Small gatherings of CC members are much more conducive to actually meeting people.

 

 

[smillerholmes]

2 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

My perspective is different and is not likely to be popular. 
The large meet and greets with over 100 people aren’t my thing. They are dominated by people from the other social media site who have no interest in getting to know CC members, they are often organized by someone who is not active on CC but who wants the extras that come with being an organizer of a meet and mingle and in the past they have consisted of people sitting at tables while the officers introduce themselves. No meeting or mingling.

Small gatherings of CC members are much more conducive to actually meeting people.

 

 

Same.  🙂

[Crown Vic]

👍  👍 to AlaskaNurse and Travel Junkie Judy for all their selfless efforts.

In the past, I have organized Meet and Greet sessions on Cunard, NCL and RCCL.  Lotsa work…great feeling…appreciation but no glory.

Thanks you both. Cheers…

[cruiseny4life]

AlaskaNurse...I don't know. Are you a glutton for punishment? This whole thing sounds far too much for me. And I've planned weekend events for 5,000+ people. The difference? I was paid to do it. No, just no. I'd run so far away. No one will know who you are! My suggestion is to just ghost and actually enjoy your cruise...alas, I'm an introvert so unless someone's paying me, I ain't doing it. 

 

I did go to one Cruise Critic Meet & Greet. One was enough. 🙂 But, if you enjoy this type of thing...well, at least you're keeping the hordes away while I lounge about the ship quietly. 

[JGmf]

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

But, if you enjoy this type of thing...well, at least you're keeping the hordes away while I lounge about the ship quietly. 

 

Amen to that.