Meet n Greet help needed.

[philatiger]

I am running my first meet n greet and I have read that some people have brought gifts for the officers. I thought this was a great idea, but I am at a complete loss on what to get. Can anyone share what they have given as gifts or have any suggestions? Any help would be appreciated.

[CruisnGram]

You may be right, but I've never heard of anyone bringing a gift for the officers. What I have heard of is a gift exchange where the M&G attendee's bring a gift for fellow members.

 

CG

[LOWTYD]

I don't think you need to bring gifts to the officers. I don't think they have room for much stuff anyway. The only time we gave anything was several charms for the Gem Mermaid and that was from the entire Roll Call. (Not sure if they are still accepting these or not. ) I would not worry about it.

[philatiger]

Thanks..We are doing a gift exchange. Just thought it was a neat idea to bring something as a thank you to the officers. Nothing big. I had read somewhere on the boards where people brought something for them and they were very appreciative.

[ruffs]

I don't see how it could possibly hurt to bring them something, but there is no way it's required. I think (I've been wrong before, everyone knows that) they are going to be there to insure that you get access to them as cc members and have a better cruise because of it. We saw the officers throughout the ship afterwards, they recognized us and always asked us how everything was. It was always wonderful, but if it were not they were very accessable.

[lambs2]

I read on her recent thread that one CC member brought chocolate fish for the officers!

[bakerintn]

One of the difficulties in presenting the officers with gifts is that there is no way to know which officers ( or how many) will actually show up.

 

One idea might be to make up some "business cards" that have the name and cabin number of the person who put the M&G together...the officers will often hand out their cards (and definitely take them and use them if needed during the cruise), and you can exchange cards. Not a gift, but a list of the real names (not CC user names) of all in your roll call is nice to have for the group coordinator and might get some of your group invitations to special things along the way. On the Pearl, the group coordinator (not the official title) had a sign in sheet for the M&G to gather that info.

[jollycruise]

Just want to throw this out there...at our last meet & greet none of the ships officers showed up.

[ruffs]

Just want to throw this out there...at our last meet & greet none of the ships officers showed up.

ouch. I know this could not have been the Star.

 

FYI - On RCCL they won't even do a meet and greet if you just e-mail them, you have to have everyone register for it and it has to be a certain number of people. Doesn't mean they are not as good, I don't know that yet, just that it's different.

[jollycruise]

ouch. I know this could not have been the Star.

 

FYI - On RCCL they won't even do a meet and greet if you just e-mail them, you have to have everyone register for it and it has to be a certain number of people. Doesn't mean they are not as good, I don't know that yet, just that it's different.

 

Nope, not the star it was on the Pearl. The meet and greet went wonderful and they had a very nice spread of food and drinks, just no officers. I guess it didn't bother us because we meet them several different times at other gatherings, but I know a few people were pretty dissapointed to not have them show.

[rollie]

I find it somewhat odd that NCL does not sponser the Meet and Mingle, like RCCL and Celebrity. On RCCL it is just a matter of 25 people signing up before the cruise and the get together is automaticly on. There is a click-on space right on the rollcall page. Very cool. When 25 are signed up they will leave a card in your cabin to let you know where and when.

 

Rollie

[MrLee]

I find it somewhat odd that NCL does not sponser the Meet and Mingle, like RCCL and Celebrity. On RCCL it is just a matter of 25 people signing up before the cruise and the get together is automatically on. There is a click-on space right on the rollcall page. Very cool. When 25 are signed up they will leave a card in your cabin to let you know where and when.

 

Rollie

 

Especially strange because Royal Caribbean is the line NCL has the agreement with. :confused:

(or is it CC that has the agreement?)

[GORDONCHICK]

RCI has the agreement with CC to have the "official" CC parties, but comparing the two on Celebrity to the one on NCL that I've been to, NCL was much better - no contest. And they have no minimum. RCI (for RCCL and Celebrity) have a minimum of 25 people have to sign up in order for them to have the official party.

[Hockey19]

I organized the M and G on the Pearl for our trip last year. NCL could not have been more accomodating. We had a gift exchange amongst the CC members (everyone brought a little something from their home area) and we had 4 or 5 ship officers as well as the Cruise Director. They gave us a free bowling morning to all those who signed in.

[WinnieinWA]

Just want to throw this out there...at our last meet & greet none of the ships officers showed up.

 

ouch. I know this could not have been the Star.

 

No officers showed up on the August 10-17 sailing M&G on the STAR.:(

[coka]

Well here is my take on it. The officers are not required to show up but so many do on many sailings that so pleases the passengers. Why not bring them a token of appreciation that they take time out of their schedules to meet with all of us and welcome us aboard? NCL also does not have to set up a table of muffins/danishes, juice/coffee, but they usually do on many meet and greets. It is not the actual gift itself, but the representation of appreciation and the recognition of their efforts that are meaningful. These men and women live on the ships and take great pride in the ship they are sailing. We are visiting their "home" and I can think of nothing better than bringing a little representation of our state or of our country or from our home as a thank you for welcoming us.

 

So, to answer the original poster's question, think of something that represents your state and present it to them. At our last meet and greet some cruisecritics decided to bring gifts for each other and for the officers who showed up. It sure was worth seeing the joy in their eyes that we thought of them too.

 

If you believe in the "this is your home away from home" NCL theme song, then why wouldn't we?

 

If they do not show to the meet and greet, then why not give a special token to your stewards, to your maitre d', or to the the staff member who goes out of their way to make your vacation even better than you had thought it could be?

 

coka

[pex]

I am far from being schooled in social niceties. However, it just strikes me as bizarre that folks that scraped together a few hundred or few thousand dollars for a deeply deserved vacation would feel under some obligation to offer officers earning six figures (and for the top officers, deep six figures) a gift for attending an event that is part of their job.

 

The officers' job descriptions include certain social obligations. Those that don't enjoy this sort of thing will secure a position on a freighter somewhere.

 

It certainly doesn't seem like a gift is called for, or even appropriate. Unless, of course, it's all about some sort of deep rooted yearning for the pagentry of gift-giving.

 

(If this comes across as too harsh--it's not supposed to be. Insert your own favorite emoticons.)

[coka]

hahaha, no harshness taken! Deep six figures? Dang, I am schooled in the wrong profession!

 

No obligation at all is necessary or expected. Just answering Philatiger's question!

 

coka

[pex]

Nah, I wasn't responding specifically to you, or I would have quoted--I was just commenting on the thrust of the thread. And thanks for not being offended.

 

Now if someone was going to bring gifts to me for attending a Meet 'n Greet, that is a totally different matter.

 

hahaha, no harshness taken!

[cruzndiz]

I organized my first M & G on the Sky last year (unbelievable, right, for a 3 day cruise??) :p

 

I didn't expect they would have time to put out any kind of spread since I scheduled the M & G for right after muster at sailaway time -- but they did! I didn't expect ANY officers to show up also because of the inconvenient time -- but they did! So kudos to NCL on that!

 

I think I had about 20 CCers show up and I had made them all funny little name tags that had their "real name", their "CC name" and then I put a funny thing about them that I had picked up about them from their posts here. Nobody expected any "gifts" and were truly surprised by my taking the time to make the memento name tags.

[ABC Cruisers]

Hi Chuck,

 

I have been to 2 meet & greets, last year on the Gem and the year prior on the Pearl. (and looking forward to meeting you next week on the Pearl). Each time NCL put out snacks and juice, coffee, tea, etc. and officers showed up both times. On the Pearl they also had a sign up sheet for anyone there who was interested in another get together later that week at Bliss for an hour of bowling & drinks. Everyone who signed up got an invite to that, which was a lot of fun. Neither time did we bring the officers gifts, but if you want to, we could all bring a little something like we are doing for the gift exchange and make up a little gift basket from all of us to give them as a group for taking time out of their schedules to spend with us.

 

Bev

[AFT_LOVER]

NCL does a great job with our meet & greets. I plan a lot of them & I send the message of how many 2 months befor the cruise. The Event Coordinator will tell me where & when. Then I post for everyone to read when & where the Meet & Greet will be at. Usually first dea day at 11AM in a bar for 20-30 folks. I have 100 on Jewel so we get the Azura dining room before lunch for our meeting & gift exchange. I get a kick out of the Captain & Officers who join in. I will get a box so I leave numbers to the names I was given. Then I draw numbers & those who gave presents get to pick one to take. Sometimes what a person got they want to exchange with someone who also wants to exchange so again new friends are created.

 

Last cruise we got a bridge tour for all of CC (25 of us). So I got notice out to all the room #'s I was given in the sign in sheet. Those who gave no number were not invited unless i saw them before. A nice gift from them was a portrait at the Captain's party of me with all of them. A great memoir. Then we had a casino party at a $5 slot machine where everyone put in a $20 bill, I kept a list of wins & we all split the profits. Got a $17 profit with $37 GIVEN TO EACH PERSON. Yes, we did all sign that we got money but no 1099 sent for $37 each. Over $1500 is the amount.

 

So have a great time on every NCL cruise you do. Visit Roll call for each crusie you book to get to know everyone, get M&G info, and then meet folks onboard. Some also have sailaway party that we will do on our cruise with 100 CC members to meet a day before at the Sky Bar after the Muster drill. So if you need help putting together a Meet & Greet just send me a note in the NCL area. Epic will be my next cruise after Jewel.

 

I find it somewhat odd that NCL does not sponser the Meet and Mingle, like RCCL and Celebrity. On RCCL it is just a matter of 25 people signing up before the cruise and the get together is automaticly on. There is a click-on space right on the rollcall page. Very cool. When 25 are signed up they will leave a card in your cabin to let you know where and when.

 

Rollie

[philatiger]

Hi Chuck,

 

I have been to 2 meet & greets, last year on the Gem and the year prior on the Pearl. (and looking forward to meeting you next week on the Pearl). Each time NCL put out snacks and juice, coffee, tea, etc. and officers showed up both times. On the Pearl they also had a sign up sheet for anyone there who was interested in another get together later that week at Bliss for an hour of bowling & drinks. Everyone who signed up got an invite to that, which was a lot of fun. Neither time did we bring the officers gifts, but if you want to, we could all bring a little something like we are doing for the gift exchange and make up a little gift basket from all of us to give them as a group for taking time out of their schedules to spend with us.

 

Bev

 

Hi Bev,

 

that's what I was thinking...but was stumped on what to do.

[CruiseLunatic]

I am running my first meet n greet and I have read that some people have brought gifts for the officers. I thought this was a great idea, but I am at a complete loss on what to get. Can anyone share what they have given as gifts or have any suggestions? Any help would be appreciated.

 

Chuck,

Who was your contact at NCL? Were they on ship or shore. I may be doing on in April on the Jewel and could use the information. I did one a few years back but forgot everything.

Thanks,

Matt

[southplainstraveler]

One lady in our M&G group this last year simply brought a bag of candy bars and gave out to the officers and they all seemed really pleased and I noticed they seemed to go out of their way to acknowledge her whenever they encountered her during the cruise. She also gave them out to wait staff and others staffers throughout the ship. Was wishing I had thought of it. ph