Rhapsody M&M: 45 min. Commercial

[autotripper]

Just back from March 6 (18 nights) Rhapsody of the Seas Australia/New Zealand cruise. This isn't a cruise review, but I will say that it was enjoyable & I marked "Excellent" on everything except the "Shore Excursions" on the Comment Card.

The reason for writing this is what happened during our long awaited (I had started the Roll Call 18 months earlier) Meet & Mingle. It was scheduled by RCI for our first Sea Day, which was our 3rd day onboard. The appointed time was 12-12:45PM. I don't know when they were shortened to 45 minutes. Anyway, it took place in the Viking Crown Lounge, which is a beautiful setting, and we had a private area because there were about 40 of us. At first glance, I was impressed by the provisions RCI had made: fruit drinks, hors d'oeuvres, gifts of hanging name badge holders/wallets, 2 servers, and a raffle.

Some of us arrived a few minutes early and managed to meet a few of our online friends. At 12 noon, the Cruise Director, Dennis, and his Assistant Cruise Director, Dan, both appeared. Wow, we must really rate, huh? Dan introduced Dennis. (I noticed during the rest of the cruise that Dennis constantly required a special introduction/entrance.) Dennis made a short opening comment, then herded us to another area (without seats) for the raffle. It was difficult for some of the people with mobility issues, but everyone got there. I later realized that the reason we were moved was for the benefit of the Photo Dept. so they could get a group photo of us to try to sell to us during the cruise.

The raffle was fun, but it, and the photo positioning, took too long and we were anxious to return to the original area and get to the "Mingle" part. Well, when we did, Dennis & Dan followed us back there and Dennis took the microphone again. He went into what was basically a long commercial for RCI, which took up the whole rest of the time set aside for us! While he was talking, and talking, I told Dan that Dennis was using all of our time up and that we did not come to listen to him. I told him that many of us had been corresponding and looking forward to this face-to-face meeting for over a year. I wanted him to tell his boss so that the next group's M&M wouldn't be ruined, too. I doubt that he told Dennis anything because he just looked at me with a sheepish smile and said nothing.

I wrote on my Comment Card about how I felt about Dennis's hijacking of our Meet & MIngle. A woman phoned me from RCI yesterday and thanked me for my "excellent" ratings and asked if I had anything to add to my comments. I said "No" because I had said it all on the card. She thanked me again and then hung up. I guess they really read those cards, but I didn't get an apology and I don't feel any better about the incident just because they bothered to call me.

For me, the Meet & Mingle was a real disappointment, and I didn't even want to see Dennis after that. Of course, it's not possible to avoid the Cruise Director.

Honestly, if this is the new set program

for RCI's Meet & Mingles, I don't think I'll register for any more of them. This wasn't my first one, but it may have been my last one.

Rosie

[PCWalton1]

Just back from March 6 (18 nights) Rhapsody of the Seas Australia/New Zealand cruise. This isn't a cruise review, but I will say that it was enjoyable & I marked "Excellent" on everything except the "Shore Excursions" on the Comment Card.

The reason for writing this is what happened during our long awaited (I had started the Roll Call 18 months earlier) Meet & Mingle. It was scheduled by RCI for our first Sea Day, which was our 3rd day onboard. The appointed time was 12-12:45PM. I don't know when they were shortened to 45 minutes. Anyway, it took place in the Viking Crown Lounge, which is a beautiful setting, and we had a private area because there were about 40 of us. At first glance, I was impressed by the provisions RCI had made: fruit drinks, hors d'oeuvres, gifts of hanging name badge holders/wallets, 2 servers, and a raffle.

Some of us arrived a few minutes early and managed to meet a few of our online friends. At 12 noon, the Cruise Director, Dennis, and his Assistant Cruise Director, Dan, both appeared. Wow, we must really rate, huh? Dan introduced Dennis. (I noticed during the rest of the cruise that Dennis constantly required a special introduction/entrance.) Dennis made a short opening comment, then herded us to another area (without seats) for the raffle. It was difficult for some of the people with mobility issues, but everyone got there. I later realized that the reason we were moved was for the benefit of the Photo Dept. so they could get a group photo of us to try to sell to us during the cruise.

The raffle was fun, but it, and the photo positioning, took too long and we were anxious to return to the original area and get to the "Mingle" part. Well, when we did, Dennis & Dan followed us back there and Dennis took the microphone again. He went into what was basically a long commercial for RCI, which took up the whole rest of the time set aside for us! While he was talking, and talking, I told Dan that Dennis was using all of our time up and that we did not come to listen to him. I told him that many of us had been corresponding and looking forward to this face-to-face meeting for over a year. I wanted him to tell his boss so that the next group's M&M wouldn't be ruined, too. I doubt that he told Dennis anything because he just looked at me with a sheepish smile and said nothing.

I wrote on my Comment Card about how I felt about Dennis's hijacking of our Meet & MIngle. A woman phoned me from RCI yesterday and thanked me for my "excellent" ratings and asked if I had anything to add to my comments. I said "No" because I had said it all on the card. She thanked me again and then hung up. I guess they really read those cards, but I didn't get an apology and I don't feel any better about the incident just because they bothered to call me.

For me, the Meet & Mingle was a real disappointment, and I didn't even want to see Dennis after that. Of course, it's not possible to avoid the Cruise Director.

Honestly, if this is the new set program

for RCI's Meet & Mingles, I don't think I'll register for any more of them. This wasn't my first one, but it may have been my last one.

Rosie

Sorry to hear what happened, after chatting so long online of course you would want to chat with your fellow CC friends. I will tell you if I had been there, I can be direct/loud/crude, whatever you want to call it so I would have shut him up a lot sooner. :rolleyes:

[denamo]

autotripper,

We had a similar experience on the Allure at our last M&M. Went on and on about the ship, future cruises, blah, blah, blah. Hubby and I even commented to each other that he was preaching to the choir. I mean, we're here. No need to "sell" us on the experience.

[goldiemom]

Wow, totally different than the M&M we had on the Rhapsody in January on the 14 NT New Zealand cruise. Sol was our cruise director (she was awesome!). She had us play a game to meet everyone, gave out raffle gifts and mingled with us all. It lasted about an hour.

[wwcruisers]

Just be glad that you weren't on our Mariner "Boo Cruise", last Halloween! We had over 170 folks signed up (well in advance) for the M&M. We were told that we would have Ellington's (Crown Viking) Lounge for one hour on the morning of our first sea day, for the party.

 

At the M&M, we had a pretty packed house, and we had a pirate gift exchange planned. As soon as the party started, the Assistant CD (Ricky Ricardo) showed up with his microphone and proceeded to spend 15 minutes "chatting up" the RC product. Then, he announced (to our surprise and consternation) that the lounge was booked by another group, and we had 15 minutes left for our M&M. Our hour was cut in half! Most of the people there never even had time to get to know all the folks we had been chatting with on our Roll call for months. We had to just quickly draw names for the gift exchange, which took all the fun out of it.

 

If RC really values Cruisecritic and its members, I think that they need to do a better job with the M&M parties. :mad:

[Brossy]

Just be glad that you weren't on our Mariner "Boo Cruise", last Halloween! We had over 170 folks signed up (well in advance) for the M&M. We were told that we would have Ellington's (Crown Viking) Lounge for one hour on the morning of our first sea day, for the party.

 

At the M&M, we had a pretty packed house, and we had a pirate gift exchange planned. As soon as the party started, the Assistant CD (Ricky Ricardo) showed up with his microphone and proceeded to spend 15 minutes "chatting up" the RC product. Then, he announced (to our surprise and consternation) that the lounge was booked by another group, and we had 15 minutes left for our M&M. Our hour was cut in half! Most of the people there never even had time to get to know all the folks we had been chatting with on our Roll call for months. We had to just quickly draw names for the gift exchange, which took all the fun out of it.

 

If RC really values Cruisecritic and its members, I think that they need to do a better job with the M&M parties. :mad:

 

Lol. I'm glad you mentioned this one...I couldn't believe it either. I was so looking forward to meeting eveyone and only managed to meet a few because the meeting was cut so short. At least we managed to squeeze in a cabin crawl ;)....now that was fun :D.

[cruisegirl1]

We found the Plat/D/D+ event became an RCCL commercial . We are already a loyal group- why take our vacation time to ”sell us” on RCCL. I’ve never bothered to note it on a comment card, as some might like the info. We simply stopped attending the parties.

 

Unfortunately the M&M seems to be held at a time that we have other plans, so we’ve rarely attended. I always sign up, to make sure there is a sufficient crowd to hold the party

 

 

 

M

[alicam]

Found the same thing on Serenade 3 years ago (although most of the people there just wanted to be there for the prize giveaways, didnt' really want to socialize)....anyway, the best thing I think would be to organize the M&M on the board, but set up your own area onboard ship and forget letting the crew do the "sell" thing...a few might be at it, but the majority could meet at a place of their choosing at a time of their choosing...IMHO

[Lynnees]

I never attend M&M's anymore because they are only a commercial announcement by a CD or LA who has no real interest in who is there.

 

I've given up on them as I now consider them a waste of time when there are far many more things to do that don't require being sold to.

[wwcruisers]

Lol. I'm glad you mentioned this one...I couldn't believe it either. I was so looking forward to meeting eveyone and only managed to meet a few because the meeting was cut so short. At least we managed to squeeze in a cabin crawl ;)....now that was fun :D.

 

Hi Brossy! How are you doing? You guys must be getting excited about your upcoming Radiance cruise. DH and I have sailed on Radiance 3 times now -- you're going to love that ship! :D

 

Yep, I think the moral of the story here is that the Roll-Call experience is what you make it. Even though our "BooCruise" M&M was not handled well by RC, we had other events planned -- like the cabin crawl and the horseback ride -- that went very well. :cool:

[janabm81]

We had the same thing happen at our M&M in January on the Majesty...I just thought it was because our group was smaller (right at 25). I hope this isn't a foreshadowing of things to come! :(

[PudgiPoo]

On my last cruise I kind of took over. They did the little give out for the door prizes and started packing stuff up and I asked for the mic. Okay, it was a bit scary to do this, but it worked we had a great M&M. Together, as a group, we took over our M&M. We had things planned and everyone added something to the meeting. I guess if they had said we needed to leave the room we would have gone somewhere else. We did a cabin crawl running all over the ship together. We might have been a bit obnoxious. If we were I do apologize to those we disturbed. We did have a great time.

[klingoncruiser]

I have seen this happen a couple of times. On one, we all asked him to stop and he did. They need to make it fun, hand out the gifts, thank us for being their and go away.

[jumbo1]

On my last cruise I kind of took over. They did the little give out for the door prizes and started packing stuff up and I asked for the mic. Okay, it was a bit scary to do this, but it worked we had a great M&M. Together, as a group, we took over our M&M. We had things planned and everyone added something to the meeting. I guess if they had said we needed to leave the room we would have gone somewhere else. We did a cabin crawl running all over the ship together. We might have been a bit obnoxious. If we were I do apologize to those we disturbed. We did have a great time.

 

 

 

On our last trip , we got the bums's rush after an hour for bingo:mad:.The emcee went around the room for names and then the giveaways. If it hadn't been for the sailaway get together , I would not not have met so many fine people:D There was no time for "mingleing":confused:

[Merion_Mom]

We had the same thing happen at our M&M in January on the Majesty...I just thought it was because our group was smaller (right at 25). I hope this isn't a foreshadowing of things to come! :(

 

There are no M&M's on the Majesty, because RC only does them on cruises of 7 nights or longer.

 

If you messed up your own meeting, that's on you! ;) :D

[bajathree]

I never attend M&M's anymore because they are only a commercial announcement by a CD or LA who has no real interest in who is there.

 

I've given up on them as I now consider them a waste of time when there are far many more things to do that don't require being sold to.

 

Was just about to type the same response.

 

What I do find MUCH better is planning a sail-away party with the folks from the roll call....always have met and made good friends that way....M&M is a waste of precious vacation time.