What was your best roll call meet and greet?

[BTromboneFrack]

I'm looking for ideas. What were the best meet and greets you've done? (Cabin crawls, private reception, places to meet, etc.) I've never done one and don't know much about them.

[RuthC]

The absolute "best" was meeting one other person at the aft pool at sail-away. From everything he had posted, I was sure he was an interesting, nice person. I was right, and we have become close friends for many years now.

 

The second best was a small group of 4-5 of us who met in a quiet lounge on the first sea day morning. Again, they had seemed like interesting people when chatting on the roll call. We sat there talking for a couple of hours, and had a great time.

 

I know this isn't the kind of information you were asking about, but I thought it important to say that it is the people getting together, getting to know each other, and having a good time that matters. All the other stuff about activities, is just filler.

[Keith1010]

Private receptions.

 

You can either make them simple or have a theme to them.

 

Keith

[Flatbush Flyer]

I'm looking for ideas. What were the best meet and greets you've done? (Cabin crawls, private reception, places to meet, etc.) I've never done one and don't know much about them.

 

 

Skip all the high school antics (e.g., cabin crawls, gift exchange, etc.) and have a pre-dinner no-host cocktail reception at one of the ship's bars. All you need are name tags (ask folks to put screen name, real name and hometown). If you have enough roll call folks (perhaps more than 25 who indicate they'll come), check with hotel director beforehand about alternative space and possibility of ship hosted beverages. Sometimes, if ship's home office management is on board, they'll pay for a CC MEET AND GREET.

Edited August 14, 2015 by Flatbush Flyer

[LA_CA_GAL]

One of our members had an Aqua Suite on the Oasis. We were invited to his suite for sailaway. The balcony on an Aqua Suite can comfortably hold 40. Fantastic.

[Bonnie J.]

This was a roll call on NCL's Majesty - which was bought by Louis Cruises in England.

There were about 24 of us. We had a lounge with coffee & pastries and an officer or two, came by to talk to us. They sort of kicked us out because something was happening in the lounge and we were there too long.

 

A lot of us met each night at the piano bar for a before dinner drink. One night 12 of us decided to have dinner together. Remember this is freestyle dining. I went and spoke to a hostess and told her 12 of us wanted top eat together. She asked where we were and I told her. After a bit another hostess came and said our table ready. We had a wonderful dinner together.

 

Then another 12 of us- not all the same dinner people- chartered our own sunset snorkeling charter for Aruba! Again, a great group!

 

Six of us got a cab for a tour of Nassau. Did you know there is a lake so big that a DR. ties his PLANE to his dock on the lake!

 

We are cruise-a-holics (probably 100 cruises) but have never has another Roll Call like this one!

[margeecruiser]

Private bring your own wine (or other) in the organizers balcony. This was said to be for wine lovers and a way to drink whatever we managed to get in the port (I think it was Barcelona) we got too big for his regular balcony, so we all moved down the hall to our aft balcony with the much larger balcony. We all happened to be on deck 7 aft and ended up about 20 or so people. Great fun and better than the full CC meet and mingle, which for our sailing was huge

 

Margee

[DocF]

After spending a lot of time organizing two more formal meet and greets, and having virtually no one show, we started opting for casual drop ins on the after deck by the pool. Time frame was/is between boarding and muster. We have had very good to excellent times this way.

[tetleytea]

My best M&G was on the Island Princess to Alaska. We got 3 CCers to rent a car together with us and drive all the way to Whitehorse. Come to think of it, I think I still owe one of them pictures from our trip.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I haven't joined a Roll Call in years. Don't like gift giving, cabin crawls, playing games, etc.

But the best one we had was many years ago on the Noordam -- met a lot of wonderful people. One person took charge of everything -- contacting HAL, setting up a time and place. We had over 80 people show up. Sadly, even though invitations were sent to the captain, hotel director, cruise director and various other officers, not one of them showed up.

[Dcoy]

During my Queen Victoria World Cruise last year, we had many meetings. At least one for each of the 5 Segments and a few more during times that we had many sea days in a row. We'd have around 20 attend each meeting.

 

Being on a ship for over 90 days, the crew gets to know you. By the end of the cruise, we had the caption, cruise director, head of security and others attend one of our meetings.

 

One of our passengers, who also posts here on the CC, did a really nice job setting up these meetings.

 

Don

[tartanexile81]

We had a great roll call on Ruby Princess TA in 2014 and from that we sorted out lots of brilliant tours and got to know so many lovely people. However more than 200 people arrived at the M&G so I'd say that was too many to enjoy. I'd made all the name badges so I spent 2 hours making sure everybody had one and the info was as it should be :-(

[JawjaFatBoy]

Thus far, we have only attended one M&G but it was very enjoyable. On the Liberty December of 2013 sailing the roll call group decided to meet the afternoon of the first sea day at the aft bar next to the pizza station. If I recall correctly, we had around 20 to 30 members show up. Everyone ordered drinks and we all mingled and got to know each other before we headed off to the casino for a slot pull. We didn't win anything, but everyone had a good time and many of us got together at various venues to have drinks and just hang out for the remainder of the cruise.

[leaveitallbehind]

Our best - which did include some of the typical side activities of a bar crawl and slot pull - was on RCI's Independence of the Seas in March '13 that had a lot of roll call activity pre cruise and great M & M participation on board. We met a group of couples from the US and Canada on that cruise and have remained good friends and have cruised about four times together since. We will be Skyping with two of the couples tomorrow night as a matter of fact, talking about good times and additional upcoming planned cruises together.

Edited August 15, 2015 by leaveitallbehind

[cruiserking]

Our best Roll Call was on the Holland America Line Noordam back in 2007, we had a huge turnout and many of the ship's officers were in attendance including the Captain, John Scott.

 

We all posed for a big group picture it was really terrific.

 

In fact I remember bumping into the captain a day or two later and he still remembered my name.

 

Meet & Greets

Most of them are set up by the cruise line and they will pick a specific lounge on board for the event to be held. If your particular line does not provide this type of get together, pick a lounge on board and plan it yourself.

 

Sail Away

These gatherings are also great. Try and pick a nice bar on one of the outside decks and plan it for the time the ship departs at the beginning of the cruise. Sometimes someone on the roll call might volunteer their large suite balcony, which makes for a really great way to cruise started on a high note.

 

Cabin Crawls

Are enormously fun. I've organized about 4 of them and they are always one of the highlights of the voyage. Your fellow Cruise Critics get such a kick out of it. It's so much fun roaming through the decks of the ship as a group, on a treasure hunt exploring and discovering the various cabins on board.

 

Slot Pull

This is also a very well-attended event. I always keep a running list on the roll call like the Cabin Crawl. You pick a slot machine, charge everyone around $20 for 4 pulls and see what happens. It's always tremendously enjoyable, everyone has a lot of laughs and who knows maybe you'll hit the jackpot and book the World Cruise. :rolleyes:;)

 

 

Jonathan

Edited August 15, 2015 by cruiserking

[Craftdee2]

Best one for us was a Celebrity Connections gathering.

The cruise director welcomed everyone then asked if anyone was looking for someone in particular from the thread we had been posting on for months. People would stand up say their posting name and who they were looking for. Met some really great people. That was a true "connection" party!