Help Regarding Setting Up CC Meeting on Dawn February 20!

[bragstarr]

As recommended by the information-generous folks on this board, I have emailed Claudia Reyes at NCL (clreyes@ncl.com) in order to set up a Cruise Critic get together on our aforementioned Dawn Cruise. I originally sent this email on December 19 and have still not heard anything back from her. Although I'm wondering if the email never even made it to her, I'm wondering what my next course of action should be--should I email her again? Email someone else? Call NCL? We have at least 5 families who are interested in this, and the "usual" meeting time for 7 day cruises--the first day at sea, Monday, about 10AM in the Star Bar, works for us--but I'd like to confirm with someone. Can anyone offer me some help or hints on how to reach Claudia or NCL? I don't want to bug her, but I'd love some sort of an answer. Thanks everyone and Happy New Year!

 

Robin

[SweetEmi]

Robin: You could try Hoadley, Jennifer <JHoadley@ncl.com> She was the one who helped a bunch of Star cruises to set up ours. *smile*

 

Emi

[Tomct]

As recommended by the information-generous folks on this board, I have emailed Claudia Reyes at NCL (clreyes@ncl.com) in order to set up a Cruise Critic get together on our aforementioned Dawn Cruise. I originally sent this email on December 19 and have still not heard anything back from her. Although I'm wondering if the email never even made it to her, I'm wondering what my next course of action should be--should I email her again? Email someone else? Call NCL? . . . . . . . Thanks everyone and Happy New Year!

 

Robin

 

Some thoughts:

 

1. Try Yonaiky Truillo at YTrujillo@ncl.com

 

I always start my customer service requests through her, and for CC Meetings, she does refer me to Claudia. But I would let her know of your problem, and copy Claudia. It did take me a while to coordinate my recent 12/9/04 cruise meeting, but was in no rush. Claudia mentioned an internal email problem, so it is possible she never received your request.

 

2. FYI, Mr. Gary Alldredge was the Group Services Coordinator onboard the Dawn, and I had a letter in my mail box from him upon arrival. If #1 above fails, try to call someone (anyone) at NCL to get them to forward an email to him. I would try an email to Juan Baez (JBaez@ncl.com), and ask him to forward it for you. He too has been very helpful to my concerns on various matters.

 

[NCL HDQ email standard is First Initial, Last Name, so you might try GAlldredge@ncl.com, but I would actually be surprised if it works. It won't do any harm to try!]

 

3. NCL Guest Relations: (305) 436-4108

 

Good Luck

[bragstarr]

Tom, will follow your suggestions. You always seem to know what is going on. One question, though, following the pattern you suggest, is it creyes@ncl.com, or clreyes@ncl.com? I was told it was clreyes....I will start with Yonaiky (is it Trujillo or Truillo??) and copy to Claudia, but I wonder if the internal problem is why I did not hear from her.

 

Emi, if that fails, I will try your route--or maybe I will just pack in the cruise and join you in Hawaii!

 

Robin

[Tomct]

Tom, will follow your suggestions. You always seem to know what is going on. One question, though, following the pattern you suggest, is it creyes@ncl.com, or clreyes@ncl.com? I was told it was clreyes....I will start with Yonaiky (is it Trujillo or Truillo??) and copy to Claudia, but I wonder if the internal problem is why I did not hear from her.

 

Emi, if that fails, I will try your route--or maybe I will just pack in the cruise and join you in Hawaii!

 

Robin

 

YTrujillo@ncl.com

 

CLreyes@ncl.com, and I had double checked the address before, and rechecked it just now. I am wondering if Gary has replaced Claudia on board the Dawn, and that's why you haven't heard from her. No excuse, but it could be the reason!!

 

Good Luck, and Happy New Year.

 

I'll bet you hear back from Yonaiky, right away, though that might not be until Monday in this case. Keep me posted!!

[bragstarr]

Thanks Tom, will send email and let you know the outcome....

 

R

[Wendy Mommy]

I arranged a cruise critic gathering on the 12/19 Spirit sailing. Though it was nice for NCL to provide us with a meeting room, cookies, and coffee, my gathering was taken over by 4 staff members of NCL, who answered questions and defended the cruise line for various short-comings (such as long waiting lines for dinner). Thus, we never really had a chance to meet our new friends due to the uninvited guests.

BEWARE!

[Tomct]

Our recent meeting was the best of the three I have attended, 20 or so in attendance, which was good, because some were in their cabins due to the rough night at sea.

 

The staff came into the meeting at Star Bar, introduced themselves, and mingled for about a 1/2 hour. This gave us the rest of the time to chat with CC'ers we met on line. My personal goal was to meet a few specific pax, get an idea what some of the excursions folks had planned or were considering, and to get a few "in person" tips from CruisFran on our upcoming Bermuda cruise.

 

Mission Accomplished on all counts, and the meeting was a great kickoff for meeting and greeting some friendly faces throghout the cruise, including the Bar Hopping excursion we were on in Barbados with CruisFran, RichNY, etc.

[defreeze]

Braggstar,

 

We are on the 1/20 Dawn, and our CC gathering was set up by calling Claudia (call 800-327-7030 and connect to "Onboard Group Functions Dept.", and ask to speak to Claudia).

 

The person who set it up for us had tried e-mailing Claudia to no avail, but when she called, the cc meeting was set up pronto!!

[bragstarr]

It figures, I just sent off the email to Yonaiky and now I find a phone number for Claudia here! We'll see what happens Monday, if I don't get an email back I'll try calling Claudia on Tuesday when I don't have work. Love this board--everyone is always so helpful. I'll keep you posted.

 

Robin

[Philip217]

Wht dont you contact the Hotel Director on the Dawn?

 

Email: hot14@ncl.com

[Sandycruise]

I arranged a cruise critic gathering on the 12/19 Spirit sailing. Though it was nice for NCL to provide us with a meeting room, cookies, and coffee, my gathering was taken over by 4 staff members of NCL, who answered questions and defended the cruise line for various short-comings (such as long waiting lines for dinner). Thus, we never really had a chance to meet our new friends due to the uninvited guests.

BEWARE!

 

Hi! I'm so sorry you were not satisfied with your meeting. We had a meeting for our CC group on our last cruise with the Dawn and we enjoyed having the crew members stop by. As a matter of fact, we were honored. Some people had already left before the crew members came, so they missed them.

 

Our biggest complaint was that I had scheduled the meeting during the longest announcement of the cruise and we spent what seemed like an eternity unable to talk because the speaker was overhead.

 

Here are a few tips from what I've learned.

 

*If you are a Latitudes member, use that number to make group arrangements. They treat callers very well and they helped me schedule our meeting. Up until I called the Latitudes number, I was getting nowhere fast, but the Latitudes desk hooked me up with a fax number and the meeting was set up in no time.

*If you get cabin numbers from a roll call, leave a quick reminder note of time and place in the mail slot the night before. Alot of our people simply forgot and were very disappointed.

*DON"T schedule at the time that the long announcements are made.

*I would try to keep the actual meeting from being a group gripe session if possible. The officers hand out business cards and make themselves available for comments after the meetings, so that might be a better time for complaints. If a group of people are complaining, I think the crew would have to respond to the complaints and that would set a negative tone. That does not sound like much fun for anyone and the meeting time is so short to get to know people. Also, I think meeting the officers on a positive note and having them remember us made our cruise much more enjoyable. They really did treat us well for the duration of the trip and I could not believe they remembered our names!

 

I'd love to hear anyone else's comments to add to my list for the next time.

 

Happy cruising everyone!

[sbcs5390]

I think I tried emailng that YTrujillo, never got a response, tried again, she sent me to someone on the Wind, who proceeded to send me some pdf file of a price list for caviar and stuff for travel agents who want to hold parties. I was very specific, and this was all I got from NCL. :-/ We were sailing on a long cruise to Hawaii with NCL, I thought they could have been a little more cooperative. Good luck to you all.

 

-Brian

[Tomct]

Sandycruise:

 

I'm always amazed how they remember names, and it is not limited to the officers. On our 4/18 cruise, we met a waiter in LaTrattoria named Felix, and he was new to working on a cruiseship. He was an outstanding waiter, and treated our 5 yr. old granddaughter like a princess, and called her his babydoll.

 

We searched him out on our recent 12/9 cruise, and were happy to find him still in LaTrattoria in the evenings, elsewhere during the day. I did not give him a chance to remember us, but I think he did, as I called him by name. He then asked me how "Reagan" was. Her name is certainly not a household name, but still, it was 8 months later. I know they must train the staff in the technique of remembering names. but still!!!

 

On the main subject of this thread, I have been quite pleased with my contact with the customer service reps mentioned, and have not had to elevate my request for assistance. Matter of fact, I've been generally pleased with all my contacts with NCL by phone or email, most recently due to the Tortola cancellation that was reinstated, and the NCL bus service to New York that may be undergoing some rethinking.

[rossbabsy]

Thanks for all youe good advice. I am sailing This Sunday, Jan 9th and have been in contact with Claudia with an e-mail back only once. We have about 39 people interested. I will try and call on Monday. I have some cabin numbers so we can do a round robin worse comes to worse.

 

Barbara

[Cruise_More_Often]

You could try Hoadley, Jennifer <JHoadley@ncl.com> She was the one who helped a bunch of Star cruises to set up ours. *smile*

 

Emi

I just e-mailed you yesterday for the same info. Too bad I didn't spot this thread and your response first. I have just e-mailed Jennifer and will let you know what I hear.

 

Adele

[bragstarr]

I heard promptly back from Yonaiky Trujillo today who said she would arrange for me and asked for an estimated body count. Hopefully this will go smoothly. I'll keep you posted. Thank you all!

 

Robin

[Cruise_More_Often]

Within less than 5 minutes after I e-mailed the Star's Passenger Coordinator, I received a reply. Now that's good customer service!!!

 

Adele

[bragstarr]

CC Meeting has already been set up and confirmed for us--boy, that was fast!

 

Thanks to everyone on this list. It's the best community!

 

Robin

[Sandycruise]

Sandycruise:

 

I'm always amazed how they remember names, and it is not limited to the officers. On our 4/18 cruise, we met a waiter in LaTrattoria named Felix, and he was new to working on a cruiseship. He was an outstanding waiter, and treated our 5 yr. old granddaughter like a princess, and called her his babydoll.

 

We searched him out on our recent 12/9 cruise, and were happy to find him still in LaTrattoria in the evenings, elsewhere during the day. I did not give him a chance to remember us, but I think he did, as I called him by name. He then asked me how "Reagan" was. Her name is certainly not a household name, but still, it was 8 months later. I know they must train the staff in the technique of remembering names. but still!!!

 

On the main subject of this thread, I have been quite pleased with my contact with the customer service reps mentioned, and have not had to elevate my request for assistance. Matter of fact, I've been generally pleased with all my contacts with NCL by phone or email, most recently due to the Tortola cancellation that was reinstated, and the NCL bus service to New York that may be undergoing some rethinking.

 

Hi Tomcat,

I was also very pleased with all the contacts at NCL from setting up the meeting to leaving the ship. For us, it was a dream cruise where we were made to feel special every moment. I keep telling myself I can't expect that type of treatment all the time. At least from where I saw it, the crew on the Dawn was superior.

 

I think I remember Felix!

[sbcs5390]

Well, maybe we'll be luckier on our next trip on NCL. You all are very lucky!

 

-Brian