No wine as prizes at M&M

[fred30]

RC probably figures there is not much of a financial or social benefit to them to have the M&M's now so they are not given that much priority.  With well over 1,000 hosted each year and the low attendance I wouldn't be surprised to see these disappear to help increase their bottom line.

 

 

[LMaxwell]

The last MM I attended was exactly like the Top Tier party where 90% of it was a sales pitch for future offers.  

[sellwingri]

27 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

No wine on ours on Navigator in November 2018. In fact the only decent prizes on offer were some handcrafted seapass holders made by another member of the roll call. Everything else was just the cheap logo items.

On Serenade in December 2017, there was a bottle of white, a bottle of red, and a bottle of bubbly as the top prize. We actually won that, which was fitting as we were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary on board , but we don't drink... We would happily have opened it at dinner to share with our tablemates but it turned out they were non-drinkers too! 

In the end we left it for our cabin steward. 

I won one of those seapass holders on a recent cruise and it’s on my fridge.  Didn’t use it on the cruise.   A woman made them and donated them as prizes so the AD gave them out first.    When I cruise with my DH we usually don’t mingle but when I cruise with a friend, we do.  If they stop giving away wine, DH and I probably won’t go.

[FionaMG]

13 minutes ago, sellwingri said:

I won one of those seapass holders on a recent cruise and it’s on my fridge.

 

They were very sweet. I would have been very happy to win one. Would have been a nice souvenir of the cruise, more personal than the logo items.

[DShock]

We cruise often but never attend M&M's and know many others that don't attend.  The reason is simple, they schedule them usually on the first sea day at a morning time (10:00 AM or so) in an indoor venue.  Who wants to sit inside on their first sea day and do this...not us.  Even after many cruises we are still pumped to be at sea and want to be outside, enjoying the sun, sea, music and activities.  We would be all for M&M's if they were scheduled at 5:00 PM or so, that way we don't lose a half day sitting inside. 

[Iamcruzin]

2 hours ago, dpostman said:

Also, lets not forget that the last forum site "revamp" would probably discourage many new possible forum member from joining or at least, regulary participating in the forum.  Had the forum looked like this when I first joined up, I probably would not have stuck around.  But now that I'm hooked, I just deal with it as is and hope it will get better.

 

dp

Now there is an issue that won’t let you log in from a tablet or phone. Tapatalk  won’t allow a log in either.  I find Facebook to be more active and user friendly for those who are not familiar with CC. However the information you get here is from more experienced cruisers.  I answered a ton of questions on my FB group and it was only because of the information I gathered here. Some in the group had been on the ship several times and didn’t know the answers. I didn’t join either group to meet up because this was a family cruise and we had our own plans.

[island lady]

Not just the M&Ms falling off...but recently RCI stopped the upper tier parties on cruises of less than 7 nights.  Lots of cut backs happening.   

 

I always thought the upper tier party for Platinum and above was a great PR event.  Sad to see it go on the shorter cruises, where many newbies are just getting their feet wet...was a special event for us when we were so excited to turn Platinum. 

[Clarea]

6 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

Now there is an issue that won’t let you log in from a tablet or phone. ...

 

I know one person that had problems logging in from multiple different PCs, so this issue is not limited to tablets & phones.

[Iamcruzin]

1 minute ago, Host Clarea said:

 

I know one person that had problems logging in from multiple different PCs, so this issue is not limited to tablets & phones.

When I got the alert from you I was hoping for good news.  Maybe next time.😋

[reallyitsmema]

14 minutes ago, DShock said:

We cruise often but never attend M&M's and know many others that don't attend.  The reason is simple, they schedule them usually on the first sea day at a morning time (10:00 AM or so) in an indoor venue.  Who wants to sit inside on their first sea day and do this...not us.  Even after many cruises we are still pumped to be at sea and want to be outside, enjoying the sun, sea, music and activities.  We would be all for M&M's if they were scheduled at 5:00 PM or so, that way we don't lose a half day sitting inside. 

 

5 o'clock won't work either, it conflicts with happy hour.   

[Clarea]

1 minute ago, Iamcruzin said:

When I got the alert from you I was hoping for good news.  Maybe next time.😋

 

Do you see the red bar across the top of the page saying "Log In Issues..."?

[Iamcruzin]

Just now, Host Clarea said:

 

Do you see the red bar across the top of the page saying "Log In Issues..."?

Yes. I also did a search yesterday and for the first time in 11yrs I found the topic with the issue I was looking for.  I thought for sure it would only be apple products since I fired up an old PC that runs on XP and I didn’t have an issue logging in. I did learn away around the problem from that thread so all is good until it’s fixed. Posting from my iPad now.  To bring this back on topic this issue can’t be helping roll calls or M&M for those sailing soon.

[island lady]

I still like going to the M&Ms on smaller ships...seems more festive and well put together.  Will forgo the larger ship M&Ms I think from now on.  

[Clarea]

3 minutes ago, Iamcruzin said:

 .... To bring this back on topic this issue can’t be helping roll calls or M&M for those sailing soon.

 

Totally agree.  I still see good participation in the transatlantic roll calls, but not much in the short cruises or run of the mill 7-night Caribbean cruises.

[GUEST71919]

1 hour ago, FionaMG said:

No wine on ours on Navigator in November 2018. In fact the only decent prizes on offer were some handcrafted seapass holders made by another member of the roll call. Everything else was just the cheap logo items.

On Serenade in December 2017, there was a bottle of white, a bottle of red, and a bottle of bubbly as the top prize. We actually won that, which was fitting as we were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary on board , but we don't drink... We would happily have opened it at dinner to share with our tablemates but it turned out they were non-drinkers too! 

In the end we left it for our cabin steward. 

Ah shoot, and I was going to donate mine to you! 😂 We  have our wine  to Carlington to see that someone on staff received it (he drinks little if at all). 

 

We got inexpensive rcl promo stuff on the last cruise - key chains, pens, plastic backpacks. Of course our purpose was to meet the others, we didn’t care if we got a prize or not. But it is nice of them to offer a few things (and ours was attended by both the activities director and  cruise director although frantically done).

[squadron]

5 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I dont go unless there is a huge roll call

 

Roll calls are also dying 

Think the number is 96 on my Oct cruise. I  always go but do feel that people should "mingle'' more rather than just staying with their travel group.

[STANMELB]

At our Meet and Mingle this morning on the Allure 3 bottles of wine were prizes. They also had 8 additional smaller prizes.

When we sailed on the Allure 5-12-2019 they only had 3 bottles of wine as prizes.

[squadron]

3 hours ago, yogimax said:

Some may also remember that there was a time when they gave gifts (e.g. RC note pads) to everyone who attended.  That has stopped.

Not sorry to see note pads disappear - awkward design  and who would wear it around their neck!  Even my Grand children didn't want them. A pen alone would have been  more useful.  

[DaniDanielle]

On Anthem in May no wine as prizes, no more champagne.  I realize it was cheap champagne but it was nice anyway!   Hardly any prizes and we were rushed out so they could start Bingo.

[squadron]

20 minutes ago, squadron said:

Think the number is 96 on my Oct cruise. I  always go but do feel that people should "mingle'' more rather than just staying with their travel group.

|Update - there are 197 members on the roll call!

[reallyitsmema]

10 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

On Anthem in May no wine as prizes, no more champagne.  I realize it was cheap champagne but it was nice anyway!   Hardly any prizes and we were rushed out so they could start Bingo.

 

It was the same on Anthem in January.  They were setting up for Bingo at the same time as the M&M, kind of distracting as the numbers were being pulled for the raffles.  Harmony in May had no wine.  Daniel, the Activities Director, said it was a directive from corporate.

[AlanF65]

On Ovation 5-13 sailing I think the M&M was over 400, lots of swag including wine given out. It filled 270.

Our roll call had 65 cc members / couple  just in the contact list. about 70 pages of posts

[Lindypops]

4 hours ago, ssb said:

With Facebook cruise groups and others, 

now so popular , 

Cruise Critic is not the only game in town . 

I can remember roll call groups with thousands of posts . 

 

Royal is not interested anymore . 

Time and money . Should Royal provide Meet and mingle for Facebook group and Cruise Critic group and all other groups . 

 

Meet and Mingles can still occur though, 

but activities may have to be organized on  own In the future . 

 

Good luck . 

 

Careful what you post on Facebook groups.

I was bumped off the group for the Indy  TA on 26 october for mentioning the meet and mingle and posting a link. Someone else was bumped for trying to organise a slot pull.

 

if you post something that admin dont like they just remove you but don't tell you why.

[BearsAhoy]

6 hours ago, dpostman said:

Our Roll call for our August Baltic in 41 days only has 9 pages (about 225) posts.  Still no daily activity.  Last count I Seen for the MM is 37.  I'm glad we passed the 25 but 37 still seems low for a sold out ship.

 

Anyway, I'm sure we will still meet many great people on board, as the few that are participating in the roll call are a very nice bunch.

 

I attribute this low post count to the fact that I figure there are lots of European guests that might not participate in and English forum.

dp

 

I’ve been surprised by the sleepiness of that roll call. For our cruises out of Oz last year, the roll calls were quiet, but I discovered that there were FB groups that were very active. I haven’t found any alternate chats for our Baltic cruise, though.

[John&LaLa]

7 hours ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Haven't seen wine given in the last few ourselves.

 

I don't recall any wine gifting on Serenade TA this April.

 

It used to be White Zin and Chateau de Tuesday 🤣

Edited July 1, 2019 by John&LaLa