Meet and Greet popularity

[newmexicoNita]

One reason some don't register on roll calls,might be a reluctance to post dates when their homes might be empty.

 

Security reason

 

that is a good point, but still doesn't explain why this particular ship and month is lacking in names much more than in the past?

[tempus137]

We're sailing on the POA on Dec 5. Our roll call is fairly small (less than 15 CCers) but we requested a M&G on the Saturday sailing day, either afternoon before muster drill or in the evening after sailaway. NCL came back to us with 11AM on Sunday. One problem with this. This is a cruise with no at sea days. Sunday is the first port day, and most of us have shore excursions already planned.

 

I think the current feeling is to say thanks but no thanks to NCL, and have our own informal M&G on Saturday evening. Hopefully, when we say no thanks NCL will change their minds.

[maywell]

that is a good point, but still doesn't explain why this particular ship and month is lacking in names much more than in the past?

Like others have said - its a "been there, done that, rather be enjoying my time doing what I want to do than with strangers" thing. I wouldn't take it to heart - its not a slight to you but some posters would rather sit in a lounger at whatever time the M&G is on than go there.

 

Heck, I was late to my last one because it was buy 5 get one free sale at the same time as the M&G and it save me money on Christmas shopping for 11 family members. Plus, if had to choose between who I would rather have more angrier at me and walk away unscathed- I take a stranger's wrath over mom any day of the week, because well, mom....

 

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[NMLady]

We are sailing from LAX in Oct and have had almost no response to our scheduled M&G. In fact we decided to cancel it. I checked the other Oct sailings on the Jewel and found the same thing: no activity. On our last cruise, in April, a longer one on the Pearl we had a huge group with all kinds of activities. I am wondering, what has been others experiences in the past few months? Is the lack of interest in the Oct Jewel M&Gs just due to the type of people cruising the Mex Riv or is this a trend we might see develop in the future? I have never, in all my days of sailing NCL or any ship seen one that had to be cancelled due to poor attendence.

 

I wouldn't cancel it this far out from the cruise. If there's still no interest two weeks before the cruise you could cancel it then. Many people wait until closer to the cruise before getting involved.

[zqvol]

Not sure the purpose of a M&G. Been to a few of them and find them to be an absolute waste of time. It is not surprising to me that their popularity is declining.

[FranknBeans]

I think that most M&G folks have done this cruise so many times that M&G is not needed.

 

Also for us we really don`t like the pub crawls, slot pulls, cabin crawls and the worse is the kinder-garden gift exchange.

Our main reason for meet& greet is to put off ship excursions together. It worked well for us on longer cruises and to foreign ports such as South america..

I suspect that with new itinerary`s coming out ie: China etc. that there will be more participation.

[SeaShark]

Not sure the purpose of a M&G. Been to a few of them and find them to be an absolute waste of time. It is not surprising to me that their popularity is declining.

 

Purpose is an easy thing to define.

 

Roll Calls were created to allow people who are on the same sailing to have a place to discuss and share ideas, research, knowledge, and experience with other Cruise Critic members on the same sailing.

 

The "purpose" of the Meet & Greet is simply to have a social event where participating Cruise Critic members who have been interacting with each other for the many weeks/months leading up to the cruise to have an opportunity to "Meet and Greet" each other in person...face-to-face.

 

While it is nice that NCL sends thier officers to the M&Gs, it is in no way essential to the purpose of the M&G.

 

 

Those who show up (crash) at the M&G without having participated** in the roll call will typically not see the "purpose" as they never made the pre-cruise social connections around which the M&G is centered.

 

** A post (or two) on a roll call with a "sign us up" and little to nothing else is NOT "participation".

 

 

IMHO, attending a M&G without participation in the roll call is like crashing a reunion for a school you never attended.

[SeaShark]

Our meet and greet for the Gem last year had about 40 or so members on the roll call, less than half showed up to the meet and greet.

 

If you don't mind, I'd like to use your sailing as an example of what I mean when I talk about Roll Call participation. :)

 

 

I went back and looked at the roll call for your Gem sailing. You had 22 different Cruise Critic members post to the roll call.

 

Of those, 15 members (68%) posted less than 10 times. Further, 8 members (36%) only bothered to make ONE post. This is hardly what I would consider to be "participating".

 

The vast majority of the posts on the roll call were made by 7 people. (Less than a third).

 

Considering the number of people who were actually participating, as opposed to just "being along for the ride", I think you had a really good turn out.

 

 

 

When orgainizing a M&G you really can't expect those with few posts or those who simply lurk without posting to attend as the event offers them no benefit. Increase the participation in the roll call (be active, post often, and don't break the group in factions that hang out on outside websites), and gather some buy-in on the event and you'll see your numbers increase.

 

 

Otherwise, you have people who drop in, "sign up", and then you don't see them until the M&G where they just sit in a corner and talk only with their family because they never took the time to interact with any of the other people in the room.

[abe3]

Hijack.:mad:

 

 

Yes it was hijacked. Typical bait from certain ones.

[abe3]

I have never gone to a meet and greet but I do sometimes go and read and participate in the roll calls for our cruises to get information on excursions and other stuff. I have noticed recently that on my cruises lately the roll calls have gone down in activity. Not sure why though.

[Minerva]

A younger group, more inclined to just want to do their own thing, live and let live, like so many on the west coast and not into organized activities as much. I didn't mean anything negative if that is what you may have thought.

 

I'm from LA and I think this is a major factor. In general people here don't like a lot of structure. Also the culture is very outdoorsy and activity-oriented and being cooped inside up does not appeal, when you could be out by the pool or up on the deck jogging or something. On the other hand the tendency is "everybody is welcome" - no one is likely to care if someone crashed the party.

 

I hope you have a nice cruise!

[sparks1093]

If you don't mind, I'd like to use your sailing as an example of what I mean when I talk about Roll Call participation. :)

 

 

I went back and looked at the roll call for your Gem sailing. You had 22 different Cruise Critic members post to the roll call.

 

Of those, 15 members (68%) posted less than 10 times. Further, 8 members (36%) only bothered to make ONE post. This is hardly what I would consider to be "participating".

 

The vast majority of the posts on the roll call were made by 7 people. (Less than a third).

 

Considering the number of people who were actually participating, as opposed to just "being along for the ride", I think you had a really good turn out.

 

 

 

When orgainizing a M&G you really can't expect those with few posts or those who simply lurk without posting to attend as the event offers them no benefit. Increase the participation in the roll call (be active, post often, and don't break the group in factions that hang out on outside websites), and gather some buy-in on the event and you'll see your numbers increase.

 

 

Otherwise, you have people who drop in, "sign up", and then you don't see them until the M&G where they just sit in a corner and talk only with their family because they never took the time to interact with any of the other people in the room.

 

Don't mind at all and thanks for refreshing my memory:). I was pleased with it myself.

[monkeybone]

We are sailing from LAX in Oct and have had almost no response to our scheduled M&G. In fact we decided to cancel it. I checked the other Oct sailings on the Jewel and found the same thing: no activity. On our last cruise, in April, a longer one on the Pearl we had a huge group with all kinds of activities. I am wondering, what has been others experiences in the past few months? Is the lack of interest in the Oct Jewel M&Gs just due to the type of people cruising the Mex Riv or is this a trend we might see develop in the future? I have never, in all my days of sailing NCL or any ship seen one that had to be cancelled due to poor attendence.

 

On my last NCL BA cruise to Bermuda at the end of June no M&G. I tried but like you said there was a lack of interest. That was a first for me as well.

[CasinoCruzGirl]

Yes it was hijacked. Typical bait from certain ones.

 

 

No it was not hijacked. She asked a legitimate question.

[CasinoCruzGirl]

I have attended 3 M&M and ran 2 of them. The first two were better attended than the last one although it wasn't a bust, about 30 people but the first 2 had about 50-60 attend. The key is making your roll call lively ask for participation and ideas for things to do. The first two had so much chatter on them I couldn't keep up but the last one was idle until the end. Depends on if the people like to chat or not I guess. I also think NCL does a very good job with them.

 

Geri

[kitten3008]

My husband and I were involved in the roll call for our cruise last March, and we did originally sign up for the M&G. We had every intention on going, but between traveling, a couple vacation days pre-cruise, and a drink or five, lol, we completely forgot about it, to be honest. We were quite a bit younger than most of the people on our roll call and hadn't really established a personal connection with anyone, so I think we just never really made it a priority.

 

We sail again in six months and there is currently no activity in our roll call for that cruise. Even if it picks up, I doubt we would commit to a M&G. I felt bad about signing up and forgetting to go! I think it just has a lot to do with why your vacation is important to YOU. For us, it's about family time and our personal adventures. The roll call can be really invaluable for information pre-cruise, but I doubt that unless I made a friend I just couldn't wait to meet that I'd ever really make it to the Meet and Greet. I'd end up just being that person in the corner, lol.

[janpo]

No it was not hijacked. She asked a legitimate question.

 

 

It was a.legitimate question since I'm sailing her also and was curious what she meant. Seems like Abe is doing his usual.

[newmexicoNita]

If you don't mind, I'd like to use your sailing as an example of what I mean when I talk about Roll Call participation. :)

 

 

I went back and looked at the roll call for your Gem sailing. You had 22 different Cruise Critic members post to the roll call.

 

Of those, 15 members (68%) posted less than 10 times. Further, 8 members (36%) only bothered to make ONE post. This is hardly what I would consider to be "participating".

 

The vast majority of the posts on the roll call were made by 7 people. (Less than a third).

 

Considering the number of people who were actually participating, as opposed to just "being along for the ride", I think you had a really good turn out.

 

 

 

When orgainizing a M&G you really can't expect those with few posts or those who simply lurk without posting to attend as the event offers them no benefit. Increase the participation in the roll call (be active, post often, and don't break the group in factions that hang out on outside websites), and gather some buy-in on the event and you'll see your numbers increase.

 

 

Otherwise, you have people who drop in, "sign up", and then you don't see them until the M&G where they just sit in a corner and talk only with their family because they never took the time to interact with any of the other people in the room.

 

My feeling pretty much is: if we expect the officers to be there, we should expect at least 20 cruisers to attend. I agree, those who say they want to be on the list, but rarely ever post after the first time are, most likely not going to show.

[biker@sea]

Purpose is an easy thing to define.

 

Roll Calls were created to allow people who are on the same sailing to have a place to discuss and share ideas, research, knowledge, and experience with other Cruise Critic members on the same sailing.

 

The "purpose" of the Meet & Greet is simply to have a social event where participating Cruise Critic members who have been interacting with each other for the many weeks/months leading up to the cruise to have an opportunity to "Meet and Greet" each other in person...face-to-face.

 

While it is nice that NCL sends thier officers to the M&Gs, it is in no way essential to the purpose of the M&G.

 

 

Those who show up (crash) at the M&G without having participated** in the roll call will typically not see the "purpose" as they never made the pre-cruise social connections around which the M&G is centered.

 

** A post (or two) on a roll call with a "sign us up" and little to nothing else is NOT "participation".

 

 

IMHO, attending a M&G without participation in the roll call is like crashing a reunion for a school you never attended.

 

We are going to have a difference of opinions on this one. :)

 

I have done about 20 M&Gs I crashed more than 1/2.

 

I sail last minute and have posted in a roll call the night before it sailed " just booked see you all at the M&G "

 

I like to see who the driver is, who's cookin, and who's yellin It's BINGO TIME .

 

I have also found many a C.C. member to be in my "twenty"

You Know. Some how out of 2000/3000/people on board there will be about twenty people you see over and over again, Meet, hang with, Etc.

 

I have personally meet a few hundred C.C. members and can put a face to a lot of fellow posters. ( I Like That) Many that we keep in touch with and hope to sail with again.

 

I do try to participate even if I only have a handful of post in a roll call. :D

 

.

[SeaShark]

We are going to have a difference of opinions on this one. :)

 

I have done about 20 M&Gs I crashed more than 1/2.

 

I sail last minute and have posted in a roll call the night before it sailed " just booked see you all at the M&G "

 

I like to see who the driver is, who's cookin, and who's yellin It's BINGO TIME .

 

I have also found many a C.C. member to be in my "twenty"

You Know. Some how out of 2000/3000/people on board there will be about twenty people you see over and over again, Meet, hang with, Etc.

 

I have personally meet a few hundred C.C. members and can put a face to a lot of fellow posters. ( I Like That) Many that we keep in touch with and hope to sail with again.

 

I do try to participate even if I only have a handful of post in a roll call. :D

 

.

Um....you're basically saying the same thing that I was....I'm not seeing any difference of opinion here.

[emcelh]

We've gone to every Meet and Greet on NCL the last several cruises. The roll calls always had a lot of participation and the attendance was good. The one for this year just hasn't had nearly as many participants as the others and not everyone on the roll call signed up for the Meet and Greet. I was hesitant to commit as well. I was concerned that it would turn into a gripe session since there so much negativity regarding NCL these days and who wants to deal with that on vacation. I wonder if that's holding some people back.

[mizLORInj]

I agree there is always at least a 20% fall-through of those who say they'll attend but don't. If I'm unsure, I don't commit to it.

 

There are definitely active roll calls, and also ones with fewer people participating from early on, and those who come on and then drop off.

 

Edited August 21, 2015 by mizlorinj

[spanishguy1970]

This is pretty much my experience with M&G. I sign up on all my cruises and go to them. I have met lovely people in some and in others the organizers are so disorganized that i have seen power struggle to who is in charge, disagreements, bickering etc. It pretty much kills the joy of being there. I go because i like to meet the cruise staff on each ship.

[xriva]

We've been on roll calls and attended M&G since our second cruise (we didn't find CC until after our first.) For the longest time, I thought that they were the same thing - joining the roll call meant we would see you at the M&G. I was finally corrected on that notion a year or so ago.

 

We generally sail at Christmas, and holiday sailings have a lot of families, and they never attend. "We have thirty people! Sign us up!" You will never see them. Nothing against them, they're not bad people, but when you get to a certain size, you're self-contained. So, one question - are you sailing Fall Break? That might be an issue.

 

Novice sailors don't know about CC. Perhaps you have a lot of first-time cruisers who don't know you're meeting because they never found the roll call.

 

Is your roll call "clique-y"? The one M&G we have skipped was on a Transatlantic where there was a large subset of people that all seemed to know each other already, didn't seem particularly welcoming to newcomers, and the roll call tone just put us off the M&G.

 

Did you check if there's another roll call? We've found some professional roll call moderators who want to run the roll call to get people on the excursions they're selling, and get any perqs from the ship. I will skip those roll calls because they can turn into a time-share presentation.

 

I thought the purpose of a M&G was to meet fellow passengers, and for some people, it is. However, some people just want to meet the staff (we had one where when the hotel director finished his presentation, everyone left), some want to bitch at the staff (really? there's a better time for that), and some want to fill their chartered buses.

 

So, after being very positive about the idea at first, I understand why experienced sailors may skip the event, or not even join the roll call at all. Maybe that's happening here.

Edited August 21, 2015 by xriva

[LrgPizza]

Last I looked, 248 people were signed up for the meet & greet for my Escape TA cruise. That is one reason I won't be attending. That's just too many people for me to sort through trying to locate the handful I'd be interesting in meeting. Add that to the handful of people that I'd never want to meet in my life, and there are 2 good reasons for me to steer clear.

Edited August 21, 2015 by LrgPizza