Royal Meet & Mingle, what's the deal?

[rrraydon]

Has anyone heard when and if Royal plans to go back to participating in Cruise Critic member Meet & Mingles? A few cruise lines still have their Meet & Mingle events on their sailings. It was sure nice having these events organized through CC and the cruise line.

[firefly333]

I think cost cutting hit it. Still gone.

 

Maybe it will be back some day.

[rrraydon]

17 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I think cost cutting hit it. Still gone.

 

Maybe it will be back some day.

I hope so. Scheduling M&M are a pain now. I have a M&M planned, which includes a gift exchange, for my Anthem sailing leaving on Tuesday. The event is scheduled to be held at Vintages. I didn't expect over 50 RSVP and am concerned there will be just one bartender. If we still had the M&M alliance through CC they'd already know how many are attending and where and arrangements would be made for adequate bar servers. Suggestions would be made to move the event if the venue couldn't hold the number of people.

Once on a repositioning on the Pride we had over a hundred RSVP and I was emailed from the Pride prior to our cruise offering the Butterfly Lounge, as the venue we had chosen in our CC group wasn't large enough to accommodate the number of people we had attending and they announced they would open the bars and provide servers.

Edited January 21, 2023 by rrraydon

[BND]

56 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I think cost cutting hit it. Still gone.

 

Maybe it will be back some day.

Not much if any cost involved the last couple of years they did them.  

[Merion_Mom]

Stick a fork in them; they're done.

 

Donna, do you really think that everyone who has indicated interest will actually show up?  They never did in years past.

 

🙂 

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, BND said:

Not much if any cost involved the last couple of years they did them.  

Theres some cost and planning drawing and pulling away staff just for cc members.

 

If they were flush with cash flow sure, but right now I'm ok with cutting it. No loss imo. 

[rrraydon]

1 hour ago, Merion_Mom said:

Stick a fork in them; they're done.

 

Donna, do you really think that everyone who has indicated interest will actually show up?  They never did in years past.

 

🙂 

As with RSVP for anything, no. Do I think at least 40 will? Yup.

[JamesEM]

Please let us know how your event works out.

[aubreyc1988]

honestly, Royal Caribbean never had good meet and mingles before Covid(not talking about the people, but about RCI and their involvement)

 

NCL however really knocked them out of the park before Covid and I do miss them. The officers would show up, they would have appetizers and some free drinks, and most of the time the cruise director would be there and would talk to everyone there.  In addition to that, the officers would give you their card and one time I had a problem with my bill and the hotel managers card and our relationship really helped that out. 

 

I don't think they will ever be back the way they were, for either cruiseline 😞

[island lady]

Now that pax are getting used to the missing items that were "Covid related deletes"....RCI has figured, "out of sight, out of mind" and is enjoying the cost cutting that went with it.  😉 

 

Bye bye ship hosted Meet and Mingle.   I doubt "meal with an officer" will come back either, and will remain "Cheers with an officer". 

 

 

 

  

Edited January 21, 2023 by island lady

[Cigar King]

12 hours ago, rrraydon said:

As with RSVP for anything, no. Do I think at least 40 will? Yup.

My experience is that less than half of those who RSVP show up.  OTOH, plenty of others, who did not RSVP attend, so it's a bit of a crap shoot.

 

As for the official ones, I'm glad they're gone.  They had become little more than a raffle.

[rrraydon]

On 1/21/2023 at 2:17 AM, JamesEM said:

Please let us know how your event works out.

On our way home now from our 11 nights on the Anthem. 
As for the meet & mingle gift exchange…over 50 showed, over flowing the Vintages Wine Bar since there were bunches of people already there! It was a fantastic time and some really great gifts! 

[Preziosa]

Who did arrange the meet and mingle for you.....

[moposh]

I didn't know it had been cut.  I think I went to one.  There weren't a lot of people.  There was RC Swag, which was nice, and some food, but it's not like I couldn't get food elsewhere.  Having an officer come would have been nice.

[Cigar King]

28 minutes ago, Preziosa said:

Who did arrange the meet and mingle for you.....

Anyone can do this.  It's not that difficult, just post in your roll call or favorite social media platform.

[BND]

On 1/20/2023 at 11:11 PM, firefly333 said:

Theres some cost and planning drawing and pulling away staff just for cc members.

 

If they were flush with cash flow sure, but right now I'm ok with cutting it. No loss imo. 

Not really.  They use staff that is already being paid a salary so no extra cost there.  The "gifts" have dwindled to basically nothing.  Generally, they send one activities staff member. 

[publicpersona]

The Meet and Mingles jumped the shark several years ago as far as I'm concerned. Only a fraction of the people that said they would show up showed up, and then everybody kind of looked around at each other wondering what to do, expecting perhaps to be entertained. Rarely was there any attempt at breaking the ice and that is what it takes to get people actually, well, meeting and mingling.

 

I offer as a side note that MSC provides free drinks and food at their meet and mingle. Kinda helps promote attendance and breaks the ice.

Edited February 4, 2023 by publicpersona

[Cigar King]

14 hours ago, publicpersona said:

I offer as a side note that MSC provides free drinks and food at their meet and mingle. Kinda helps promote attendance and breaks the ice.

My experience on cruise ships is that people will always show up for free stuff.  Especially booze.

[publicpersona]

6 hours ago, Cigar King said:

My experience on cruise ships is that people will always show up for free stuff.  Especially booze.

 

See "Park West".

[BND]

1 hour ago, publicpersona said:

 

See "Park West".

Who isn't guilty of going at least once for a free glass of champagne lol?  We only went once and didn't buy anything.  Don't get me started on the "art" onboard.

[Cigar King]

25 minutes ago, BND said:

free glass of champagne

I might go if it really was Champagne.  That swill they pass off as sparkling wine though...

[rrraydon]

On 2/3/2023 at 11:40 AM, Preziosa said:

Who did arrange the meet and mingle for you.....

I planned it on our f*ce b**k page.

[Teeara]

We had a good showing on our Wonder TA.  I coordinated with RCI and got us the Music Hall with no bartender (BYOB).  I didn't want to post a gathering place prior to sailing without having a place reserved for us.  You don't know if others have the same idea.  Better to have a place reserved by RCI for your M&M.