For those who've done Meet & Greets in last 90 days

[chrismch]

In the last two cruises I went on with different cruise lines, the M & G's were very streamlined. They offered coffee, water, juice and cookies or danish - did not have anyone from the crew there. In the past, someone from the cruise director's staff at a minimum was there and at least 1-2 more. What's been your experience?

[West Coast Gal]

Princess meet and greets almost non existent, no crew no snacks . . though they have one planned on our princess ship next week, with snacks. I have to say I have been on Norwegian and Celebrity and their meet and greets are well attended by the crew and nice snacks, puts Princess to shame.

[Gwendy]

Agree, no meet and greet on Diamond in August. In March on RCL, lots of crew there, coffee etc and they had lots of give aways. Did I win? No but I had fun wishing.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Princess Meet & Greets rely on someone from the roll call to contact Princess and organize it. Then they will provide a venue but nothing else.

 

With Royal Caribbean you registered for it online. An invitation was waiting in the cabin when we boarded. Some soft drinks were provided (water, juice, iced tea) and some canapes. There were door prizes as well, not just a couple but a decent number. We won a very nice beach bag and a bottle of wine.

 

Celebrity appears to be like RCI with online registrations. Our cruise is still six weeks away so I can't comment on what happens onboard ... yet.

[capriccio]

Just back from a B2B on the Royal Princess. Both meet and greets were the morning (10 to 11 and 11 to noon) of the first sea day. Captain Sagani attended both plus between the 2 meetings we also had Lisa the cruise director, the Hotel Manager, a couple of other senior staff and Host Andy from cruise critic. Bartenders were available and there were little snacks on the tables but most folks were there to meet everyone they had been 'talking to' for months not to drink at that hour (but the option was available). Thanks to Christine and Lana for setting them up and inviting the staff!

[flamomo]

Just 4 weeks ago today, I was aboard the Emerald Princess and our roll call had a very well attended M&G ... well over 200 people showed up. So did our Captain and the First Officer. No food, snacks or beverages were provided, but then, our reason for gathering was not for free goodies. We had a great time getting to know the other members of the roll call that we had been chatting and planning with online for months. The bar was open and there were bar waiters for anyone wishing a beverage.

Generally speaking, on Princess, officers, including the Captain, will attend if their duties permit, and IF the M&G organizer took the time and effort to invite them specifically. When I have been the one to do organizing, I have always made up invitations and dropped them off at the Passenger Services desk on embarkation day. And that seemed to work quite well.

Edited November 1, 2015 by flamomo

[CruisingJs]

We just got off the Coral Princess. I was the organizer for the meet & greet. I contacted Princess ahead of time and also delivered invitations for officers when boarding. Princess supplied snacks and bartenders. Five officers showed up including the captain, maitre' and cruise director. You just have to put forth the effort and if their schedule allows, they will attend.

[slomotion]

We just got off the Coral Princess. I was the organizer for the meet & greet. I contacted Princess ahead of time and also delivered invitations for officers when boarding. Princess supplied snacks and bartenders. Five officers showed up including the captain, maitre' and cruise director. You just have to put forth the effort and if their schedule allows, they will attend.

 

We were on the Ruby 10/5/15 - 10/18/15

 

I "managed the roll call" & worked with Princess beforehand. We had Skywalkers from 11AM to Noon on the first sea day.

 

I printed 10 custom invitations (VERY EASY TO DO) and went down to the desk upon boarding and worked with the lead customer service rep.

 

The Commador of the fleet attended, as did the hotel manager, restaurant manager, Food & Beverage Manager, Accounting Manager, and the Hawaiian due that was working on the cruise.

 

There was a bartender and two servers. There were no snacks.

 

It is your M&G and if you want one you need to do it. It's not that difficult.

[caribill]

 

With Royal Caribbean you registered for it online. An invitation was waiting in the cabin when we boarded. Some soft drinks were provided (water, juice, iced tea) and some canapes. There were door prizes as well, not just a couple but a decent number. We won a very nice beach bag and a bottle of wine.

 

 

The RCI ones I have attended are like you described, but:

 

o The meeting was run by the RCI assistant CD.

 

o In the hour time scheduled for the meeting, almost all of it was taken by RCI with only about 5 or 10 minutes at the end for roll call people to actually make announcements or speak with each other before needing to leave the venue.

 

o Yes, there were door prizes, but only after each department giving the prize gave a speech advertising their department.

 

o No ship management attended unless they were giving out a door prize from their department.

[windsor26]

Princess meet and greets almost non existent, no crew no snacks . . though they have one planned on our princess ship next week, with snacks. I have to say I have been on Norwegian and Celebrity and their meet and greets are well attended by the crew and nice snacks, puts Princess to shame.

 

I organised a meet and greet on the Emerald in August I said no to refreshments as it was 10.15am but they had a bar for anyone who wanted

I - as usual - gave printed invitations for all the crew officers to the pursers desk when we embarked and asked that they be put in the pigeon holes immediately

We had 15 of the officers and crew and one or two of their babies with them

They stayed for one and a half hours and chatted to all of us in couples or more as we wanted It was a great time and during the cruise they remembered most of us by name and stopped to chat again

The best M&M I have ever organised although this time I did not bother with a free raffle which always goes down well

We have ALWAYS had some crew visit except on the Carnival Legend when only the Maitre D came as the other officers had been up all nigh dealing ith broken windows caused by heavy waves. He stayed the whole time and picked the raffle winners

It needs a bit of organising but not onerous and great fun for those who partake

Edited November 1, 2015 by windsor26

[Brisbanelionsfan]

I was on the Golden from San Francisco to Sydney a month ago. We had a fantastic M&G with about 200 people attending. It was in Skywalkers at 10am and I don't remember seeing any refreshments, but we all just wanted to meet the people we had been chatting with for over a year.

The Captain, Hotel Manager and Cruise Director were there and all spoke for a short time.

We had a number of door prizes and sign up sheets for various card games etc, and and some info about a cabin crawl a week later.

Princess set aside a part of the restaurant for us all to use so after about 2 hours the people who wanted to go to lunch did so.

All in all the best M&G I have been to.

 

Cheers:)

[pablo222]

The RCI ones I have attended are like you described, but:

 

o The meeting was run by the RCI assistant CD.

 

o In the hour time scheduled for the meeting, almost all of it was taken by RCI with only about 5 or 10 minutes at the end for roll call people to actually make announcements or speak with each other before needing to leave the venue.

 

o Yes, there were door prizes, but only after each department giving the prize gave a speech advertising their department.

 

o No ship management attended unless they were giving out a door prize from their department.

 

I have read here that there is a business relationship between

RCCL and CruiseCritic, which may explain the differences in

the promotion and execution of their meet'n'greets.

 

Many times I regret not saving posts here, as they have a habit

of disappearing.

[lasbris]

I organised a meet and greet on the Emerald in August I said no to refreshments as it was 10.15am but they had a bar for anyone who wanted

I - as usual - gave printed invitations for all the crew officers to the pursers desk when we embarked and asked that they be put in the pigeon holes immediately

We had 15 of the officers and crew and one or two of their babies with them

They stayed for one and a half hours and chatted to all of us in couples or more as we wanted It was a great time and during the cruise they remembered most of us by name and stopped to chat again

The best M&M I have ever organised although this time I did not bother with a free raffle which always goes down well

We have ALWAYS had some crew visit except on the Carnival Legend when only the Maitre D came as the other officers had been up all nigh dealing ith broken windows caused by heavy waves. He stayed the whole time and picked the raffle winners

It needs a bit of organising but not onerous and great fun for those who partake

 

Hi, could you tell me who you contacted to organise the Meet&Greet? I just jointed the Roll Call for the Diamond Princess leaving in a week and it seems that we don't have one organised. I tried contacting Princess here in Oz but the two ladies I spoke to say they have never heard of such a thing. Perhaps it is too late, anyway, but the Meet & Greets are often worthwhile. Cheers, Linda

[blkspy]

On the Regal Princess Halloween cruise out of New York in October. We had most of the heads of departments and officers. 160 plus participants. Princess decided to Video the event and to follow the Cruise Critic group for THE ENTIRE cruise :) The Slot Pull (110 participants, Crown Grill dinner (30), Magans bay beach day (40), Aruba beach club (50) Halloween Costumed Dinner party (75 participants). With interviews from officers, CC members, it was a great production about 15 minutes long.

 

Princess showed the video in the Princess Live Studio on the last sea day. It was very nice.

 

Princess included it in the ships Reflections Video covering the entire cruise. The cruiseline has promised to do the same next Halloween.

 

It should be posted on YouTube sometime soon.

 

Great M&G.....Great cruise....Great Video.....All done by Princess.

[rbt001]

Princess meet and greets almost non existent, no crew no snacks . . though they have one planned on our princess ship next week, with snacks. I have to say I have been on Norwegian and Celebrity and their meet and greets are well attended by the crew and nice snacks, puts Princess to shame.

 

I have to wonder if you were running a cruise line, how willing would you be to roll out the red carpet to members of Cruise Critic where within the Princess topics you will find over and over new topics with details about:

 

-Smuggling liquor on board your ships, contrary to your alcoholic beverage policy, to avoid beverage purchases.

 

-The step by step process to cheat your system and get cash back for clearly stated "non-refundable on-board credits"

 

-Repeated comments encouraging other passengers to ignore and otherwise disregard your published policy for dress code on formal nights.

 

Are these the people you would express appreciation and extend a welcome?

 

I can hear "oh but, there are so many posts about the good and bad things, all to help Princess get better." Really? Like maybe the recent "Cruise From Hell..." posting?

 

Perhaps you, running the cruise line, want to see if you can turn the experience around for the next time... only to read a list of mostly uninformed if not overly exaggerated opinions not worth of even a generic "sorry" letter, since the poster said they're going back to the competitor anyway.

 

So give all of that a thought before admonishing Princess.

 

Perhaps we should feel lucky and be thankful that Princess hasn't gone with this idea for a Cruise Critic Meet & Greet:

 

Reserve a venue AFT, making a big splashy welcome sign, piping the aroma of steak and lobster to lure Cruise Critic attendees into the room, where they encounter bright flashy lights and energetic music to provide a festive atmosphere in the dimly lit room. Have all the ships staff lining the left and right of a path the Cruise Critic Guests walk along as the enter, the staff smiling and clapping. That path leads to a PLANK off the back of the ship and into the cool waters below...

 

Just humorous thought to end what should be a serious consideration about how Cruise Critic posting are viewed in reality by Princess.

[Colo Cruiser]

Hi, could you tell me who you contacted to organise the Meet&Greet? I just jointed the Roll Call for the Diamond Princess leaving in a week and it seems that we don't have one organised. I tried contacting Princess here in Oz but the two ladies I spoke to say they have never heard of such a thing. Perhaps it is too late, anyway, but the Meet & Greets are often worthwhile. Cheers, Linda

 

What ship?................

There is a list by ship of the reps who handle these M&G's, hopefully someone will post and updated one.

[arizonaperson]

In the last two cruises I went on with different cruise lines, the M & G's were very streamlined. They offered coffee, water, juice and cookies or danish - did not have anyone from the crew there. In the past, someone from the cruise director's staff at a minimum was there and at least 1-2 more. What's been your experience?

 

I have planned a few M & G, last one on Princess was Nov.2015. As stated no snacks provided in the room Princess arranges for the purpose,but really do passengers need food? Food is everywhere on the ship.Eat before or after the meeting. The bar in the room was open.

Sometimes crew show up sometimes not in my experience. I like having the crew show up,but the meeting is really to meet your fellow roll call members and put a screen name to a face IMHO.

Julie

Edited February 9, 2016 by arizonaperson

[TNTLAMB]

I have read here that there is a business relationship between

RCCL and CruiseCritic, which may explain the differences in

the promotion and execution of their meet'n'greets.

 

Many times I regret not saving posts here, as they have a habit

of disappearing.

 

 

Its hard to find if it still exists (other than frequent ads.) CC is owned by Expedia. As far as RCCL even after their "Royal Caribbean Champions" were outted a few years ago, the practice continues. The Meet and Mingle program from RCCL was essentially a response to the Champions being outed. The champions received RCCL perks crusies etc. for posting frequent and positive pro- RCCL posts. It was a product of Customer Insight Group who still works with them and last I heard Expedia. While its doubtful any of the cruise lines would directly salt reviews, the PR firms the hire are not so ethical.

 

As the Customer Insight Group acknowledges, “the key to success in viral marketing is to subtly influence the influencers without them overtly realizing they are being influenced.” You have the RCCL approach and then you have basically what every other cruise line does. There is an ethical line that each business defines for themselves.

Edited February 9, 2016 by TNTLAMB

[CruisingJs]

Hi, could you tell me who you contacted to organise the Meet&Greet? I just jointed the Roll Call for the Diamond Princess leaving in a week and it seems that we don't have one organised. I tried contacting Princess here in Oz but the two ladies I spoke to say they have never heard of such a thing. Perhaps it is too late, anyway, but the Meet & Greets are often worthwhile. Cheers, Linda

 

I'm not positive this is current but I have Rosanne Pennucci as the Onboard Activities Coordinator for the Emerald. Her email is rpennucci@princesscruises.com. The backup agent is Berna Grayr.

[OCruisers]

Princess Meet & Greets rely on someone from the roll call to contact Princess and organize it. Then they will provide a venue but nothing else.

 

January 24, 2016 (At Sea day) we attended a M&G on Emerald Princess in the Wheelhouse Bar at 10 AM.

Drinks could be purchased from the bar by those who wished to do so.

It was quite well attended ... about 200 people.

The Captain and several senior offices came by to speak to the group and then spent some time chatting.

The person from our roll call who organized it did a great job and a good time was had by all.

 

LuLu

[cruisemom43]

I was recently on the Grand Princess doing a 15 day to Hawaii and back from San

Francisco. The Meet and Greet was disorganized with no one from the ship initially welcoming us and no food or goodies. Some of us hung around talking and after most had left, the Captain arrived. He was very hospitable and encouraged us to ask any questions we had. He was a very hands on Captain and could be seen during the voyage stopping to talk to people. Really enjoyed the cruise, partly because of him and the wonderful Head Chef.