bonnyweed

Well, it is sad that this has turned into a source of tension. I have learned a ton of cruise information on these boards over the years. The Roll Calls for me are a chance to learn about recommended tours. Most importantly, it has allowed me to join custom shore excursions to give me some insight into the people that live in these destinations. The Cruise Critic Meet and Greet is NOT something I will participate in again as I explained earlier. So, I will likely go to the other site’s Roll Call too especially if it has more participants who may be interested in creating some custom shore excursions. As to who “owns” the right to do a Meet and Greet; I don’t care. It is of no interest to me. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the cruise lines discontinued hosting these meets. Especially if they have to listen to a litany of complaints. Added to that, the argument about which group has meeting rights is something the cruise lines will have no interest in entering the fray.

I think the solo group may meet at 5 on the first day of the cruise just to get a feeling for the size of the group and how many want to dine together during the cruise. I didn’t go to that 1st meeting because I assumed it was a singles meet-up type of thing. Silly of me. But the dedicated solo concierge goes to that event too to know how many want to to dine together and how many will be going to the show that evening, when there is one. They meet that first time in the late afternoon at a public lounge, to meet other solo cruisers who, for various reasons, are not staying in a studio cabin. Not all solos choose the studio cabins. Some people don’t want to be in an inside cabin and have booked other cabin categories, but they still don’t want to eat alone at night. I was in the solo occupancy studios for the first time and didn’t have the inside scoop. Thankfully, when the solo bar opened at 5, the bartender told me I should check it out at least once. I did and I continued to do it every night. As to the specialty restaurants, there is no reason to feel awkward there. People in our group were often absent from the main dining room because they were at a specialty restaurant with other members of the group so that they could take full advantage of the specialty dining vouchers. I seem to recall that we would meet at 6 or 6:30 for drinks and then head off to dinner around 7. You should give it a try. I think it would have given you a more enjoyable specialty dining experience.

This was really well done. We had a dedicated staff member who came to the solo meet up each evening and we would decide where we wanted to eat dinner as a group. The staff member acted like a concierge, she went with us to the dining venue and claimed a table for us. after dinner she would hustle us to the show and made sure we had great seating. if you didn’t want to do any of that, it was fine. As a solo, dinner is the one time of day on a cruise that can feel awkward. This completely eliminated that problem because you have a ready-made dining group. It is always fun to hear what adventures people had had during the day.

That would make it really hard to take advantage of any price drops.

But the OP said that the taxi traffic is at a standstill. That would make me anxious.

But then there is a savings of 1191.50 which, I guess is subtracted from the 2870? So if the advertised rate goes below $1670 ish as a solo, I should take notice. I think?

I want to check occasionally to see if my cabin price goes down between now and the cruise date. My problem is that I am confused about what my cabin actually cost. I’m a solo in a BB balcony but this invoice leaves me guessing as to the actual cabin price. Can anyone help? Thanks

I was so embarrassed at my last Meet and Greet, (pre- COVID) that I won’t be attending them in the future. I am NOT sharing details on the specific cruise because the organizer of the Meet and Greet was NOT the problem and she was appalled as well. Probably about 30 guests attended and there were several NCL officers and department heads attending. We were provided with 2 large trays of pastries and juice which was lovely. The officers and department heads made themselves available for questions. The questions they got were rude. CC = Cruise Critic passenger. NCL = NCL officer or department head. CC. Why did you get rid of my favorite brand of juice? NCL. We were purchasing 2 different brands of the same juice so we discontinued carrying the brand that few people requested. CC. Well that kind of juice is my favorite and I don’t think it was right for you to just get rid of it. It seems like all you care about is money. NCL. Yes, we did feel it was a duplication and our vendor no longer carried it. It would be prohibitively expensive for us to involve an additional vendor for the least favorite brand of this juice CC. I knew it. It’s all about the money. It went on and on with petty complaints and no compliments. The cruise line doesn’t have to provide the staff, meeting space and food treats for these Meet and Greets. While the bellyaching was well underway, someone dropped a croissant onto the floor. Being too lazy to pick it up, he attempted to kick the croissant under the table. He kicked too far and the croissant went into the foot traffic of the small line of people waiting their turn for pastry. It was promptly walked on and ground into the carpet by someone else. Then for the gift exchange. The person next to me got a pen emblazoned with the name of a state. She had given a gift basket with some coffee and jams from her state. Several fellow cruisers went to the pile of gift bags and pulled the gift tissue aside so that they could find the more substantial gifts and keep if for themselves. I thanked some of the officers and managers who attended. My mom and I left and said Never again. I do like Roll Calls; especially when there are people looking to do some alternative shore excursions.