Meet and Mingle

[kcpvwill]

Does anyone know when the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingles will be “Unpaused”?  Is it controlled by the cruise lines themselves or is it Cruise Critic that will reinstate them?  
 

The pause happened as a result of Covid, but I would have expected them to restart by now.  
 

[CDNPolar]

If you specifically search "Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle" and choose "Everywhere" you will find lots of current and recent posts about meet and mingles.

 

I would think that these are going if you want them to be going...

[OneSixtyToOne]

14 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

If you specifically search "Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle" and choose "Everywhere" you will find lots of current and recent posts about meet and mingles.

 

I would think that these are going if you want them to be going...

There use to be a meet and mingle section for Viking that allowed you to sign up and if enough people were interested for your sailing, there was a party sponsored and organized by CC and Viking. It has been disabled since COVID.

 

What you are referring to are guests organizing a meet and mingle themselves, contacting Viking, and arranging the event. Not the same thing as having it done for you.

Edited May 21 by OneSixtyToOne

[CDNPolar]

14 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

There use to be a meet and mingle section for Viking that allowed you to sign up and if enough people were interested for your sailing, there was a party sponsored and organized by CC and Viking. It has been disabled since COVID.

 

What you are referring to are guests organizing a meet and mingle themselves, contacting Viking, and arranging the event. Not the same thing as having it done for you.

Many Viking cruises prior to Covid and never was aware of a meet and mingle that was Viking or CC arranged that was for CC members.

 

Have certainly been aware of them as a CC member, but never have seen one on Viking since I have been cruising with them.

 

I would suggest emailing tellus@vikingcruises.com

 

 

[LindaS272]

2 hours ago, kcpvwill said:

Does anyone know when the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingles will be “Unpaused”?  Is it controlled by the cruise lines themselves or is it Cruise Critic that will reinstate them?  
 

The pause happened as a result of Covid, but I would have expected them to restart by now.  
 

I think it’s CC that needs to reinstate them. I don’t know why they haven’t yet. Numerous M&Ms are now being organized by individuals coordinating with Viking, but I too wish CC would reinstate their previous initiation.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/meet-mingle/main/

Edited May 21 by LindaS272
Added URL

[kcpvwill]

Sorry CDNPolar I couldn’t find Everywhere in the Meet & Mingle link.  Would you give a clue as to where it is please? 
 

I am aware that cruisers can get one organised themselves but I’m not that computer literate to do this myself (even with instructions!) 

 

LindaS, I wonder how Cruise Critic can be encouraged to reinstate them if, as you suggest, they are responsible.  

Edited May 21 by kcpvwill

[Peregrina651]

Cruise Critic has not resumed sign up.   We worked with our Viking ship directly to organize an M&M.  

 

We boarded on May 9. Two weeks prior to sailing I emailed the ship and said that our Cruise Critic roll call wanted to reserve space so that we could get together without interfering with other activities. In the meantime, we were already collecting names and cabin numbers (done off-line to protect member privacy and with a deadline to respond).

 

Guest services on board responded asking when and we said the earlier in the cruise the better. We also said that we were working on a list of names and cabin numbers and said that we would send the list such and such date, a week before we were due to board. We had a firm date from the ship before we even left home and I emailed the information to those who had rsvp'ed. There was no mention of a minimum number and I have come away with the impression that each Hotel Manager handles it differently.  Invitations were delivered to roll call members prior to the event.

 

There were 10 or so senior hotel staff members greeting us as we walking in, including the Hotel Manager and the Cruise Director. I never did an actually head count of how many roll members did attend.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 21 by Peregrina651

[CDNPolar]

8 minutes ago, kcpvwill said:

Sorry CDNPolar I couldn’t find Everywhere in the Meet & Mingle link.  Would you give a clue as to where it is please? 
 

I am aware that cruisers can get one organised themselves but I’m not that computer literate to do this myself (even with instructions!) 

 

LindaS, I wonder how Cruise Critic can be encouraged to reinstate them if, as you suggest, they are responsible.  

 

If you go to the top of any CC page and in the Search Box type with ""

 

"Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle" (in quotes) and then select Everywhere in the drop down, and then click on the magnifying glass to search.

 

You will find various current and recent discussions about meet and mingles.

 

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

[CDNPolar]

12 minutes ago, kcpvwill said:

Sorry CDNPolar I couldn’t find Everywhere in the Meet & Mingle link.  Would you give a clue as to where it is please? 
 

I am aware that cruisers can get one organised themselves but I’m not that computer literate to do this myself (even with instructions!) 

 

LindaS, I wonder how Cruise Critic can be encouraged to reinstate them if, as you suggest, they are responsible.  

 

The search may take a few minutes...

 

There are many results...

 

[OneSixtyToOne]

2 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

Many Viking cruises prior to Covid and never was aware of a meet and mingle that was Viking or CC arranged that was for CC members.

 

They existed pre-COVID on the Meet & Mingle page on CC.  All you needed to do was sign up for your saling and when 10 people signed up, it happened automatically. Typically they reserved the Wintergarden for a private party and sent invitations to your stateroom. Too bad you missed it. 

Currently the page says the M&Ms are paused and instead directs you to the roll calls and recommends you DYI.
https://boards.cruisecritic.com/meet-mingle/main/

 

Edited May 21 by OneSixtyToOne

[TayanaLorna]

1 hour ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

They existed pre-COVID on the Meet & Mingle page on CC.  All you needed to do was sign up for your saling and when 10 people signed up, it happened automatically. Typically they reserved the Wintergarden for a private party and sent invitations to your stateroom. Too bad you missed it. 

Currently the page says the M&Ms are paused and instead directs you to the roll calls and recommends you DYI.
https://boards.cruisecritic.com/meet-mingle/main/

 

Agreed.  Went to 2 CC/Viking organized M&M's pre Covid, tried to organize for 2 cruises during Covid Welcome Back sailings but Viking would not allow more then 6 people to gather at once even outside, attended 2 M&M's which were Roll Call organized post Covid.  Wish CC/Viking would resume organizing them.

[Peregrina651]

Or you can read post #7 in which I explained what I did to organize our May 10 Meet & Mingle on the Neptune. All told, I spent under an hour and half over a 10 day period contacting Viking Neptune and fielding rsvp emails from members. 

 

Reading threads about other cruise lines is not helpful. Viking has its own way of handling it. Also, stick to very recent information.   Not all Hotel Managers have jumped on the M&M bandwagon.

[Clay Clayton]

To add another data point, for our just completed world cruise on Sky, the Guest Services Manager was our contact point for requesting the two Meet & Greets we held (one for the FLL to LA group and a second when the rest of us embarked in LA). 
 

The email address we used was osk_guestservicesmgr@vikingcruises.com It is my understanding that each ship’s guest services manager is similar, replace the sk with the first two letters of your ship’s name.  For example, Orion would be oor_guestservicesmgr@vikingcruises.com

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

 

The email address we used was osk_guestservicesmgr@vikingcruises.com It is my understanding that each ship’s guest services manager is similar, replace the sk with the first two letters of your ship’s name.  For example, Orion would be oor_guestservicesmgr@vikingcruises.com

 

BUT, this substitution plan will not work with Viking VEla and Viking VEsta, when they are launched. We will have to wait to see what their email abbreviations will be.

[Capt_BJ]

our VO cruise last July had a M&M and 'someone' had taken the initiative to coordinate and collected name via Roll Call ..... VO host just like pre-covid

[LindaS272]

29 minutes ago, Capt_BJ said:

our VO cruise last July had a M&M and 'someone' had taken the initiative to coordinate and collected name via Roll Call ..... VO host just like pre-covid

Yes, it was a participant on the Roll Call who coordinated with Saturn GS or GM.