HAL Does not attend Meet & Mingle

[JohninAult]

I recently hosted a Meet & Mingle on the Noordam. We had a great turnout, almost 60 people attended.

I have been attending M&Ms for over 20 years now and this is the first time the ship did not send someone to the meeting. 

HAL was very accommodating in providing the meeting venue and providing some light refreshments, but said they were too busy to attend.

There were many first time HAL cruisers in the group. I thought HAL missed an excellent opportunity to promote the line and answer questions.

 

[Mary229]

I don’t think we should expect special treatment anymore than groups should.  I often see large travel agent hosted groups having meetings without officers in attendance.  I think it is enough that they provide a set up and room.  
 

 

[Tampa Girl]

47 minutes ago, JohninAult said:

I recently hosted a Meet & Mingle on the Noordam. We had a great turnout, almost 60 people attended.

I have been attending M&Ms for over 20 years now and this is the first time the ship did not send someone to the meeting. 

HAL was very accommodating in providing the meeting venue and providing some light refreshments, but said they were too busy to attend.

There were many first time HAL cruisers in the group. I thought HAL missed an excellent opportunity to promote the line and answer questions.

 

 

Perhaps HAL is getting tired of attending these functions and listening to the attendees exchange information regarding independent tours, which compete directly with HAL excursions.  I never cease to be amazed at this.

[richwmn]

1 hour ago, JohninAult said:

I recently hosted a Meet & Mingle on the Noordam. We had a great turnout, almost 60 people attended.

I have been attending M&Ms for over 20 years now and this is the first time the ship did not send someone to the meeting. 

HAL was very accommodating in providing the meeting venue and providing some light refreshments, but said they were too busy to attend.

There were many first time HAL cruisers in the group. I thought HAL missed an excellent opportunity to promote the line and answer questions.

 

 

20 minutes ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

Perhaps HAL is getting tired of attending these functions and listening to the attendees exchange information regarding independent tours, which compete directly with HAL excursions.  I never cease to be amazed at this.

Not only that, but at many of the M&Ms I attended that Officers also attended it seemed that many of the Guests used that as a venue to air whatever gripes / problems they had and therefore it was not a pleasant experience for the Officers. The last I heard, HAL Seattle gives the Officers the option to attend or not as they choose where some other lines may mandate the attendance. RCI in particular actively promotes the CC M&Ms and participates in the organization (or at least the did) where HAL just agrees to provide the space and it is up to someone on the Roll Call to set it up.

[3rdGenCunarder]

Cunard will set up a space in a lounge, but they don't send an officer, either. I think the change started as a Covid precaution. 

[crystalspin]

My understanding is that's the difference between a Meet & Mingle and the old Meet & Greet (when officers would GREET you). The few that I've been to with officers -- I'm thinking the last one was 2015 -- the officers were already on a firm no-handshake policy to avoid infection with anything! 

 

The party that RCI threw on our one Royal cruise bore no resemblence to a M&M, and the ship's staff that "attended"  made very short canned speeches except for the ?CD? who ran some games. Attendees were lined up in connecting chairs like a grade school assembly. There was no opportunity to meet anyone. Maybe if you stayed after? DNK, we didn't. It was well-attended bc people were hoping to win a prize, I guess.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

2 hours ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

Perhaps HAL is getting tired of attending these functions and listening to the attendees exchange information regarding independent tours, which compete directly with HAL excursions.  I never cease to be amazed at this.

You got it.  We leave if a officer comes and they start to talk about private tours.

[kazu]

2 hours ago, Tampa Girl said:

 

Perhaps HAL is getting tired of attending these functions and listening to the attendees exchange information regarding independent tours, which compete directly with HAL excursions.  I never cease to be amazed at this.

 

IMO it’s very poor form to talk about private tours in front of the officers, etc.  When I am organizing M & G’s I make it clear that they are not to be discussed in front of the HAL staff.  Plus, not everyone on the roll call is doing independent tours so why bore them with it?  It’s easy to connect with the organizers after.

 

Generally speaking officers no longer come to the M & G’s although I have had the odd one or two show up on occasion.  It’s not like the old days when the Captain and F&B manager and several others came.

 

 

[erdufylla]

I’ve never attended a Meet & Mingle or other similar type event, so I can’t speak to whether I’d miss officers being there or not. But one thing I did miss on my last cruise (which may still have happened for others, and I just wasn’t at the right place at the right time) was officer/staff mingling at dinner. On several previous HAL cruises, our table at dinner was joined by an officer or staff member, and sometimes their partner if they were traveling with them, and it was always a really fascinating meal, getting to know them and hear about their life on the ship. I don’t know if that’s something they still regularly do now or not. 

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

Cunard will set up a space in a lounge, but they don't send an officer, either. I think the change started as a Covid precaution. 

 

It happened well before Covid. I remember having this discussion multiple times back then.

 

Personally I think it is a bit disappointing, as other lines still have officers attend (and not just RCCL). I'm thinking it is unlikely that HAL passengers complain more than other lines' passengers (although sometimes reading this forum I almost change my mind...😆).

 

It just seems out of touch and (to me) sends a message of not wanting to meet passengers and be accessible to them that goes against the grain of what many other lines espouse.

 

It's not that I want to hobnob with the officers. Just their presence sets a different tone than their absence.

[RuthC]

I always thought the purpose of a Meet & Greet was for the CC Roll Call members to meet and greet each other, so that they could get to meet those with whom they had been chatting on the boards for what sometimes seemed like ages. And that's how they were way back when. 
I was shocked when some officers attended a meet-up I had arranged one day, and felt they really didn't belong there. It was an intrusion on our time to get to know each other in person. 

I guess it all depends on what you believe is the purpose of the Meet & Greet. 

[kazu]

30 minutes ago, RuthC said:

I always thought the purpose of a Meet & Greet was for the CC Roll Call members to meet and greet each other, so that they could get to meet those with whom they had been chatting on the boards for what sometimes seemed like ages. And that's how they were way back when. 
I was shocked when some officers attended a meet-up I had arranged one day, and felt they really didn't belong there. It was an intrusion on our time to get to know each other in person. 

I guess it all depends on what you believe is the purpose of the Meet & Greet. 

 

Very good points Ruth and I agree in most of what you said.

However, I am happy if officers do come.  They usually don’t stay long and people enjoy it.

 

I think one of the nicest Meet and Greets we had was on the Prinsendam.  Not only did Captain Gundersen come and welcome us so did several other officers and while I was delivering the invites,  a gentleman called out “kazu”.  It was Stephen Card!  I handed him his invite and he also spoke for a few minutes at the M & G.  A lovely man whose paintings i have long admired.

 

We still had plenty of time for our roll call at the M and Greet.  the Crow’s Nest was all ours (we had over 100 - 1/8 of the sold out ship) and the guest services manager had arranged to keep it closed for an additional half hour (unbeknown  to me).  everyone had a great time.  It was a special one as we had been chatting for so long everyone already felt like they knew everyone and were just waiting to put the face to the name.

[lissie]

4 hours ago, RuthC said:

I always thought the purpose of a Meet & Greet was for the CC Roll Call members to meet and greet each other, so that they could get to meet those with whom they had been chatting on the boards for what sometimes seemed like ages. And that's how they were way back when. 
I was shocked when some officers attended a meet-up I had arranged one day, and felt they really didn't belong there. It was an intrusion on our time to get to know each other in person. 

I guess it all depends on what you believe is the purpose of the Meet & Greet. 

I completely agree - I've never gone to one as Cunard didn't  even provide a venue last year.  But my up coming HAL cruise does have one organized it didnt' occur to me that there would be HAL officers or staff there. 

[Crew News]

Other than a ship's Events Coordinator stopping by to ask if I needed anything else, the 15 CC Meet & Greets I have coordinated since 2017 have had only one ship's officer observe from the doorway.  When I invited the new Nieuw Amsterdam Assistant Hotel Manager to join us, he declined.  It seems 2016/2017 was the start of HAL officers no longer being encouraged to attend CC Meet & Greets. I have heard that the above is not the case for longer cruises.

 

Although I have never witnessed it, there were posts here on CC of the hostile environments some HAL ship's officers faced while answering questions at CC Meet & Greets.  YMMV

[Mary229]

6 hours ago, lissie said:

I completely agree - I've never gone to one as Cunard didn't  even provide a venue last year.  But my up coming HAL cruise does have one organized it didnt' occur to me that there would be HAL officers or staff there. 

I agree.  It is not a company function and they should not be required to attend.    Group cruising has become a trend and I expect there are many such gatherings 

[DaveOKC]

We were in two Meet and Greets on the Nieuw Amsterdam a few months ago and even though we had only about 10 members show up, we had several officers attend.  I guess it depends on the ship and how busy they are at the time, as at the previous post Covid cruises we did not see any officers.

 

[rajkr74]

We held a M&G on the Zuiderdam in 2015 just after ir came out of drydock with numerous items un completed.  A couple CC members decided that was the time to jump the captain about thinhs not working in their cabin even after I said the M&G was not the place to do that.  They did it did anyhow.  Shortly there after I read on this HAL board officers were no longer permitted to attend.  We've done a numerous  M&Gs and have had no officers attend even though we delivered invitations on occasion. 

We've had great cooperation with the ships event coordinator on our last 2 cruises.

 

We've held our M&Gs on our last 2 cruises in the BB King lounge and Rolling Stones lounge with good results.  The Crows Nest can't be controlled with non CC members coming in and sitting in the lounge chairs.  Can't close it off due to the Explorers coffee bar being there. 

 

Also, talking about private excursions at a M&G is a absolute NO NO. That's the first rule that I open up with when I moderate a M&G.

 

Over all we have had good results at our M&Gs on the Zuiderdam starting with the May 12, 2023 cruise, but have one more to go on the July segment.  We had 205 cruisers sign up for the may 13th M&G with about 190 showing up.  Our largest group ever that we've been involved with.  It went smoothly even though we couldn't go around the room and have everyone introduce themselves.

Rick

 

Edited June 30, 2023 by rajkr74

[FlorenceItaly]

@rajkr74 - We attended the Zuiderdam May 12 M&G.  You, Joyce and the volunteers did a wonderful job.  Thank you.  Also, we loved the Zuiderdam staff and crew.  Lucky you to still be on board.

[Mary229]

I think it should be noted that at one time cruise critic was a non-commercial enterprise.  They are now not and are part of a much larger commercial travel organization. HAL must be careful who they cast favors upon as they don’t want to offend other vendors 

[3rdGenCunarder]

1 hour ago, Mary229 said:

I think it should be noted that at one time cruise critic was a non-commercial enterprise.  They are now not and are part of a much larger commercial travel organization. HAL must be careful who they cast favors upon as they don’t want to offend other vendors 

 

I hadn't thought about that, but you're right. What about group bookings, like the special interest groups? Do officers attend any of their events?

[POA1]

We haven't been to a meet & mingle in years, but we did it to meet fellow CCers, not HAL officers and staff. I've got nothing against talking to ship staff and officers, but the real draw is people I only know from the boards. (The exception is the bar staff. I like to meet them early and often. I value the mutually beneficial business relationships we build.)

[Mary229]

2 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I hadn't thought about that, but you're right. What about group bookings, like the special interest groups? Do officers attend any of their events?

I wandered around with a group last time, I was not booked with them but we just kept meeting.  They had a meet and greet at least once a week and never was there a HAL rep in attendance 

Edited June 30, 2023 by Mary229

[Copper10-8]

3 hours ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

I hadn't thought about that, but you're right. What about group bookings, like the special interest groups? Do officers attend any of their events?

 

Hit and miss! As an officer, it's always been voluntary whether to attend these functions or not! What has been discussed here is true! Some fine folks took these gatherings, even including the hosted (by Capt. Jonathan Mercer on the Amsterdam GWV) PG dinners as a "gripe" fest of "all things wrong" with the company and on the ship. There is a time and a place for that stuff! Use some discretion! 

[OlsSalt]

On the Veendam inaugural cruise to Cuba a few years back, a fellow passenger was Orlando Ashford - then CEO of the HAL group.

 

Amiable and easy to spot as the tallest man onboard, but apparently he intended to travel as passenger only on his first HAL cruise. When he was officially introduced at the Mariners Luncheon, he thanked everyone for recognizing this indeed was his vacation time, and giving him some appreciated privacy.

 

Then there was a pause. ......... "well, almost all of you....... to the knowing laughter of the Mariners gathering. 

 

 

 

Edited June 30, 2023 by OlsSalt

[Hlitner]

Years ago, HAL Senior Officers and staff were everywhere, dined with passengers, came to the Meet and Greet, etc.  Starting prior to COVID this changed and suddenly officers were somewhat scarce.  On our recent 6 week Westy cruise we never ever saw a Senior Officer in the MDR or the Pinnacle (on the nights we dined in the PG).  So, what happened?  Apparently a change in HAL philosophy (we have seen some of this on other lines).  

 

When we started cruising on Seabourn, we were surprised at how much all the Senior Officers and staff interacted with passengers, including routinely dining with them in most of the dining venues.  On one 32 day cruise we dined with the Captain, Staff Captain, Chief Engineer, Lead Dancer, Assistant Cruise Director, and a few other staff.  We were told that Seabourn "encourages" their officers/staff to dine with passengers at least twice a week.  Our Captain was a delight and once joined just 4 of us for dinner in the Thomas Keller Grill.  We never requested to dine with officers but simply let the hostess know we were open to joining the "hosted tables" which are a norm on SB.  Without exception, all the officers and staff were a delight at dinner and social events.

 

Interestingly, some of the Senior Officers (including the Captain and Staff Captain) had previously worked for HAL.  We did ask one about the difference  from HAL and all he would say is that on HAL he just did not have the time.  It sounded more like a standard excuse.  On Seabourn, they always seem to have the time to interact with passengers.  

 

Hank