Anoynmous Phoenix

For those who are interested in a much longer set of cruises on one ship we did Incheon to Vancouver this year; 39 days on the Jewel; excellent. Next year we have booked from Tokyo (early Nov 2025) to Auckland (early Jan 2026); 63 days on the Spirit B2B2B2B. Intermediates are Taipei; Singapore and Sydney with stops in South Korea; Vietnam; Cambodia, Bangkok, Indonesia and the west and south coasts of Australia.

We did a private bus transfer a number of years ago stopping at the "animal farm" and were picked up at our hotel. Very good trip.

Now I am really going to stir the pot!! To get me on a "Round the World Cruise" it would have to take me to the less travelled parts of the globe. Leave out all of North America, the Caribbean, all of Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. (Been there, done that; much of it more than once!!) What does that leave? Australia/NZ; Micronesia & Polynesia, West and East South America, Antarctica, West & East Africa, Arabian Sea, India & Malaysia. South East Asia (Singapore-Japan and many ports between), Taiwan, Philippines and Indonesia to finish up in Australia/NZ. That is "Round the World" with so many NEW & DIFFERENT places.

One other problem is that, unless the Internet upgrade improves the problem, ships tend to lose connection during transoceanic crossings to the satellites

I am sure that all the small ships, the ones we tend to travel on, have them; BUT you may have to wait a while for them to appear with all the other advertising that goes on.

@debnjoe1438 I half like your idea!! Every time we want to do a "decent" cruise (B2B2B or B2B2B2B) we have to travel to and from a distant port, commonly in the Northern Hemisphere, and we do a least one a year. How about making the cruise start and finish in New Zealand or possibly Australia.

@debnjoe1438 Every time you are on an NCL cruise put, IN WRITING, your suggestion to the Future Cruise staff. I do it for a Round Australia cruise every time I cruise. I had a half-win next year as NCL is travelling from Singapore to the east Coast of Australia via the west and south coasts rather than the north coast. First time to many ports.

Entitled!! Sit in the atrium for an hour and watch how the Guest Services staff are treated!! Or eat slowly in the MDR, same thing. Even simple manners are noticeable by their absence in too many cases.

@9tee2Sea Always carry your "+1's" room card when you want to do that!!

Just ask and if it is available they will get it for you. I often ask for avocado, on the side, with breakfast and lunch. Similarly sauteed mushrooms. I also prefer baked potato instead of mashed or "flavoured" for dinner. My wife will often seek extra vegetables and less meat. Sometimes it slows the service.

There are two very divergent views regarding a "Cruise Critic Meet & Greet" and I seem to be in the minority. I intend to adhere to that minority view, to bury my head in the sand and go the way of the Dodo. Haere Rā Mike

@zqvol If you had ever wanted to attend a M&G where I had arranged the "Getting to know you" "game" you would have been very welcome to attend and not take part. I worked on the assumption that most people wanted some method of "Meeting and Greeting" or "Meeting and Mingling" people that the only thing that they had in common was a Cruise Critic Roll Call and the cruise itself. Remember the pointed comment from LauraS:- Tip from LauraS: When you attend the gathering, DO NOT SIT DOWN. This is often the kiss of death at these events. Although there are usually NCL Officers at event, the entertainment really is….you! Remember that your main purpose is to meet your fellow Cruise Critic members. Get up, and MINGLE! That was one of my main drivers. There were always a small number who were happy to remain affixed to a piece of furniture throughout; that was their choice. The greater number took to the game with gusto. Mike/Anoynmous Phoenix.

@DebbieCruises If you contact me at casofilia @ gmail , com I will send a few thoughts. Mike

@DebbieCruises I am Anoynmous Phoenix who was quoted in the piece you copied. I have built up the material I used for the "Getting to know you" section of the Meet & Greet and would only now use it for groups of up to 60, with whom I am in email contact a number of times before the cruise and who, I assume, are committed to attending, as my method involves a great deal of time and effort by me. Unfortunately I find it works best when I have my own spreadsheet at home with all relevant information which will allow me to make personalised name tags and my question sheet that is specific to those committed to attend. The colour coded name tags were used to get people talking about themselves; they included where they came from (not always fully clear eg Cymru) and a greeting that should be used when you approached someone (Talofa or G'day for example). They were also colour coded so that could be useful for the game card if necessary. I was able to get 2 game cards on a sheet of A4. Each person named their own and gave the cabin number. There were then 15 questions that required others to fill in their N&CN for only ONE question they could answer (I always filled one space on everyone's sheet; not the same one every time). The questions could be general (Age over 70) or specific (On Deck 4). The latter based on information given to me in confidence. There were also 5 other spaces filled in the same way (N&CN) for people with the same colour coded information on the name tag as yours (Same title or greeting). I delivered those and an instruction sheet and personalised invitation the day BEFORE the M&G so people could start when they arrived. I also arranged that the officers would arrive 15 minutes AFTER the start. Then after the officers and my talk people got into it again. It usually kept going till 40 minutes after the start. Then people chattered about anything at all till it was time for lunch, which I had arranged. Any one who wanted to be in for a prize had to hand to me before I went to lunch, with an arranged group; where I went through them taking out the ones where people had made a real effort to fill in and getting the Maître d' to choose one. That won the prize; an NZ calendar, an NZ fridge magnet, an NZ book mark and a couple of NZ Commemorative coins. I delivered the prize and a letter during the afternoon continuing my connection with people. A warning, you will have to adapt my idea so that it is not contrary to what Cruise Critic allows. My method has a couple of things that were not acceptable to Cruise Critic which is why I now longer arrange a M&G. HTH Mike/AP

My suggestion would be to see if someone who has done this cruise would post the Freestyle Dailies. Otherwise find Freestyle Dailies for port days on other cruises that visit the ports you are interested in.

@DorothyB It was one of the many things that I delivered to the cabin door the day before the Meet & Greet. That along with colour coded and informative Name Tags, that I had made, were my "attempt" to get people to MEET & GREET. Another thing was a personal invitation. Mike/AP

@Firstin87 One of the best ones we attended was hosted by @Anoynmous Phoenix when he was known as "casofilia" (didn't know until this thread that you'd changed your CC name). Thank you for your kind words. If an M&G has 50 people, but they all sit at tables and only talk to their tablemates or those they arrived with, people really aren't 'meeting' or 'greeting' each other. Wholly in agreement, a couple of those early on were the reason I moved into making the arrangements the way I did. Too many like those in your last paragraph recently. You can't MEET & GREET or MEET & MINGLE sitting for the whole time; that was my basic concept when arranging a M&G. I reiterate Laura S's statements in "How to set up a Cruise Critic MEET & MINGLE Tip from LauraS: If you RSVP that you are going to the Meet & Mingle, PLEASE GO! If the cruise line takes the time to set up a special gathering for Cruise Critic members, we should definitely do our best to attend. Tip from LauraS: When you attend the gathering, DO NOT SIT DOWN. This is often the kiss of death at these events. Although there are usually NCL Officers at event, the entertainment really is….you! Remember that your main purpose is to meet your fellow Cruise Critic members. Get up, and MINGLE! Mike/Anoynmous Phoenix/casofilia

Perhaps those of you who know me as "Anoynmous Phoenix" never came across me as "casofilia" where I had made over 14K posts on Cruise Critic and attended and arranged quite a number of Meet & Greets. Nor may you know that I totally removed myself from Cruise Critic for over 6 months till I re-involved myself as "AP". I returned because there were questions on Roll Calls that were not being answered but which I could answer but I made a decision NEVER to attempt to arrange a M&G again but also decided, as I loved meeting fellow cruisers, to arrange small number "dinner parties" early in a cruise so people could get together. The reason I left was because I used to arrange Meet & Greets in the way outlined by @Capitan Obvious posted in Post 31. The method was not acceptable!!

A Question. What is it that is so attractive about the NCL arranged Private Cruise Critic Meet & Greet that people from other sources are so anxious to attend though they have made no input to the Cruise Critic Roll Call for the relevant cruise?

I did Incheon-Tokyo last year; an excellent cruise; however it wasn't on the Sun. Did you consider one, 4 day longer, on the Spirit, also in November, going from Tokyo to Taipei that also visited Korea?

@DorothyB I did arrange one back in 2014 for a repositioning cruise I reiterate, attend some before arranging one now. Cruising and the people have changed considerably in 10 years So far we haven't had any volunteers to do one for my next cruise Take this as an indication of what you will be up against Now that I don't try to arrange a Meet & Greet I still try to get to meet other cruisers early in a cruise. I will offer on the Roll Call to arrange a dinner on the second evening; for up to 16 in an MDR at 6pm. I will also often offer to arrange a lunch after the M&G at Noon, also through the Roll Call. To do it properly I need a commitment, with names, cc name, cabin #, cruise date and where you are from.

@DorothyB I am getting close to setting up a meet & greet for one of the three cruises I currently have booked. Good luck. By "setting up" I hope you mean ARRANGING for all eventualities that might crop up and for activities at the M&G. It is a hell of a job to do one properly and a shambles if you don't. I hope you are not intending to be someone, I have seen some recently where the setter-up did just that to get the perks!!!!! It has been a few years since I set up or attended a meet & greet. Personally I suggest you attend one or two soon before trying to set one up; things have changed. Do some of the staff still attend? No change here but give individual invitations, try thy captain too. Do they still provide something like juice and cookies? or ??? Generally yes but please make every attempt to give accurate numbers. Anything else I might want to know? Is there a minimum number of attendees to set this up? I didn't approach NCL till I had 20 "confirmed" attendees. That caused a problem twice when I was gazumped. Is it still typically the morning of the first sea day? More often than not, usually at 10 or 11; I always asked for 11 so we could go to a combined lunch I had set up. I am aware of the online form when I get ready to set it up. If you want something out of the normal I would also use the email method of old.

I have arranged a number of M&Gs over the years but never again. I am in full agreement with Jim @JIMESOPUS that it is almost impossible these days to guarantee a decent attendance or even an accurate number. Mike

Never had a problem booking dining 125 days out BUT remember that they don't release all dining so many people are attempting to get those listed, especially at best times.

@roddy good boy Of course they can. But if you are arriving early on an NCL coach while "hundreds" are waiting to debark you will have to join a very long slow taxi queue to get a taxi to go back into Athens.