RCI's Role in the Meet & Mingle Disappointing!

[Debde]

I was on the same Mariner cruise as TIP, and I concur completely. The food was nice, and the assistant cruise director (Ricky Ricardo) was entertaining.

 

It's funny that you should mention Ricky Ricardo. I found him rather plastic and superficial.

 

Not to change the subject but Ricky Ricardo is one we will not forget. He was our stateroom attendant on Enchantment and when we saw him on Serenade were thrilled to see him on the activity staff. Glad to hear he's moving up the ladder and now assistant.

 

Maybe he was having a bad week Merion_Mom :confused:

[dongordon]

CC simply facilitates our getting together with each other. Their management can't be on every ship in the fleet every cruise...

 

 

 

If you don't like the offerings in the packages, then why not order off the full wine list, which contains a few other Pinot Grigios and some nice Chardonnays?

 

And back to the original post: RCI hosts a party for us, which is terrific. It would be nice if the ships' personnel were gracious hosts who acted pleased to be there with us and didn't evict us from the M&M for another group (I've never had that happen). We've had M&Ms where the Captain and/or CD have appeared, and we've had them where one bored junior staffer drew one ticket, gave all the prizes to that ticket holder and left. Although it's sad to see such a lack of enthusiasm for the job, we still had fun chatting with each other.

 

The bottom line is that they're making it easy for us to get together and throwing in a few treats to boot. This thread is reminding me of the complaining about C&A gifts (and yes, we accumulated a dozen baseball caps before I forbade DH from taking any more home, LOL). RCI read the threads and now doesn't give them any more. I'd hate to see that happen to the M&Ms, too.

 

On all three wine packages, they only had one (1) Pinot Grigio. We paid for 12 botttles of wine in the package and none of the other Chardonnays were acceptable (we tried two others. We ended up having Korbel each night rather than waste our money. Kind of disappointing since we were celebrating our 40th Anniversary and looking forward to a nice dining experience each night to celebrate our anniversary. That being said, our Waiter - Augusto and Assistant Waiter - Olivia more than made up for it in their fine service each night as did Kal (Dining Room Manager) and Jacob (Head Waiter). Fantastic representatives for RCI.

 

The bottom line is that because they emphasize the Meet & Mingle on the cruise critic forum, we expected a bit more involvement from RCI staff and unfortunately we were comparing it to NCL who were terrific when it comes to CC members as you can see from other posters on this thread.

 

No big deal Critterchickl, just making a point and just stating I was disappointed in how RCI handled the M & M as compared to my other experiences with NCL and Celebrity. Still enjoyed my cruise and had a great time!!

 

It sometimes amazes me how some individuals on these boards hate to hear any negative comments about cruises or cruise lines, when the idea of this forum is to share our cruise experiences (whether good or bad) and present opinions so others can make decisions on future cruises. I have been on Carnival, RCI, Disney, NCL and Celebrity and all cruise lines have positives and negatives. One needs to weigh what is important to them in order to make a decision for their future cruises. I have yet to try HAL or Princess, but have heard many good things about these cruise lines (and some negatives!) and some day I will hopefully try them in the future.

[Merion_Mom]

Not to change the subject but Ricky Ricardo is one we will not forget. He was our stateroom attendant on Enchantment and when we saw him on Serenade were thrilled to see him on the activity staff. Glad to hear he's moving up the ladder and now assistant.

 

Maybe he was having a bad week Merion_Mom :confused:

 

Anything is possible!

 

And THAT is a leap I have never heard of..........cabin steward to Cruise Director's staff?

[Merion_Mom]

On all three wine packages, they only had one (1) Pinot Grigio. We paid for 12 botttles of wine in the package and none of the other Chardonnays were acceptable (we tried two others. We ended up having Korbel each night rather than waste our money. Kind of disappointing since we were celebrating our 40th Anniversary and looking forward to a nice dining experience each night to celebrate our anniversary. That being said, our Waiter - Augusto and Assistant Waiter - Olivia more than made up for it in their fine service each night as did Kal (Dining Room Manager) and Jacob (Head Waiter). Fantastic representatives for RCI.

 

The bottom line is that because they emphasize the Meet & Mingle on the cruise critic forum, we expected a bit more involvement from RCI staff and unfortunately we were comparing it to NCL who were terrific when it comes to CC members as you can see from other posters on this thread.

 

No big deal Critterchickl, just making a point and just stating I was disappointed in how RCI handled the M & M as compared to my other experiences with NCL and Celebrity. Still enjoyed my cruise and had a great time!!

 

It sometimes amazes me how some individuals on these boards hate to hear any negative comments about cruises or cruise lines, when the idea of this forum is to share our cruise experiences (whether good or bad) and present opinions so others can make decisions on future cruises. I have been on Carnival, RCI, Disney, NCL and Celebrity and all cruise lines have positives and negatives. One needs to weigh what is important to them in order to make a decision for their future cruises. I have yet to try HAL or Princess, but have heard many good things about these cruise lines (and some negatives!) and some day I will hopefully try them in the future.

 

I don't think that you have read on this thread any "individuals on these boards who hate to hear any negative comments about cruises or cruise lines".

 

Like you, other posters have reported THEIR experiences with Meet 'n' Mingles.

 

And Jean was trying to tell you that a wine package is not always the best choice. The wine list has far more bottles than those that are in the packages.

 

Clearly from your post, you would have been better off without the package, and just ordering off the wine list.

[bob278]

We like to print up name tags for everyone who has posted on the roll call. The blanks that RCL hands out are OK, but we have the online ID and first name of everyone on the roll call. And, if we have picked a theme/logo, that goes on there as well.

 

It doesn't replace self-introductions, but it does make it easier to see what someone's ID was (or at least what ID the poster in the pair used).

[dongordon]

I don't think that you have read on this thread any "individuals on these boards who hate to hear any negative comments about cruises or cruise lines".

 

Like you, other posters have reported THEIR experiences with Meet 'n' Mingles.

 

And Jean was trying to tell you that a wine package is not always the best choice. The wine list has far more bottles than those that are in the packages.

 

Clearly from your post, you would have been better off without the package, and just ordering off the wine list.

 

I was actually referring to the "negativite" comments defending RCI's handling of the M & M.

 

We did look at the wine list after we boarded and they were very pricey and even tried one of the wines. Perhaps I did not prepare well enough for this cruise in investigating the wine list, but in recent years, I have cruised on Celebrity and NCL and never had difficulty finding a wine we both enjoyed and also brought several of our favorite wines on board with us. In fact when booking my next cruise on board, we discussed the "wine issue" with the the RCI representative and he stated that Celebrity does offer a much better wine package and does have a policy where you can bring a limited amount of wine on board and pay the corkage fee. Celebrity is the sister company of RCI. We booked the Celebrity Silohuette with him for next January.

[Lynnees]

CC simply facilitates our getting together with each other. Their management can't be on every ship in the fleet every cruise...

 

 

 

7

And back to the original post: RCI hosts a party for us, which is terrific. It would be nice if the ships' personnel were gracious hosts who acted pleased to be there with us and didn't evict us from the M&M for another group (I've never had that happen). We've had M&Ms where the Captain and/or CD have appeared, and we've had them where one bored junior staffer drew one ticket, gave all the prizes to that ticket holder and left. Although it's sad to see such a lack of enthusiasm for the job, we still had fun chatting with each other.

 

The bottom line is that they're making it easy for us to get together and throwing in a few treats to boot. This thread is reminding me of the complaining about C&A gifts (and yes, we accumulated a dozen baseball caps before I forbade DH from taking any more home, LOL). RCI read the threads and now doesn't give them any more. I'd hate to see that happen to the M&Ms, too.

 

Perhaps you didn't realize I was being a bit fastious (even if I can't spell it.) The Meet and Mingle is organized on the Cruisecritic forum - the same forum that everyone initially meets on. It isn't an RCL function unless of course RCL is paying CC to organize the function?

[Desert Cruizers]

My DH & I have only been to one M&M, when we took the BOS to the Caribbean, I didn't know about them at the time. I then joined CC and enjoyed our 2008 Hawaii M&M. We were not rushed and the CD and another member of the staff stopped by. I am interested how our TA M&M on the LOS will go, if we get near our present total Roll Call of 398 next Oct

[Merion_Mom]

Perhaps you didn't realize I was being a bit fastious (even if I can't spell it.) The Meet and Mingle is organized on the Cruisecritic forum - the same forum that everyone initially meets on. It isn't an RCL function unless of course RCL is paying CC to organize the function?

 

facetious :)

[mjldvlks]

facetious :)

LOL -- I wasn't sure what she meant I thought maybe -- well never mind, no point in stirring the pot.

 

D

[Kellie Poodle]

It's called a meet and mingle for a reason - meet others and mingle with people you happened to have met online.

Exactly!

 

I don't think I've ever taken advantage of the cookies and lemonade (I really don't even remember what they serve), because I was having such a nice time meeting all of the people I only knew by a screen name for months and months on the Roll Call board.

 

I have a ton of silly logo "gifts" but none of them came with a smile and a greeting of "how nice to meet you in person"

[W&G1968]

We've been to a lot of M&M's ON RCL and we've had a great time at all of them. Some had ships officials, some not, but we still had a great time visiting with the other CC's there. The only time I was disappointed was on the LOS this summer and it wasn't with RCL, it was with the group that signed up and didn't show up. We had over 100 signed up and the ship had many raffle gifts, etc. for us and only about 26 folks showed up, I was embarassed myself. The cruise director was there and was really nice and never even mentioned the fact but it was bad...maybe if this has happened a lot I could see the ship's staff getting upset. I understand things happen that make folks change their mind, but for the most part I think if you sign up you should show up.

Gwen

[land lover]

You've hit the nail on the head! One fundamental omission in every M&M we have attended is an opportunity for each attendee to introduce themselves. Remember most have only communicated on CC and see an avatar and maybe the member's first name. Surely the first order of business is, with perhaps the prompting of the cruise director's staff member or on the initiative of a seasoned CC member, to pass the microphone around so that everyone can connect the screenname with the live body.

 

It does seem that the facilitation by ship's crew comes across as a chore that they must get through. Perhaps it's time for CC and RCL to redefine the point of a M&M so that there is some purpose and value and more importantly ensure we all have fun, fun and morfe fun!

 

Introductions, really???? I experienced this on X and was not pretty and talk about boring, there were only about 30 of us and the CD made the mistake of having us tell a little about ourselves, ....do you know how many people sign up for the M&M without ever posting, but when given a mic will keep on talking and talking, I left after the third introduction 20 minutes after the first one.........I m pretty social and have worked the room at several different M&Ms...I have had people tell me they are just there for the food and prizes.

 

I have been at some M&MS with over 200 members and others where less than 25 show. Many where the Captain and CD have participated, other times just whoever on staff was available.

 

I certainly don't expect RCI to make sure I have fun, I think that is up to me. But with some of the duds that show up at the M&Ms, if the task was RCIs it would be pretty difficult.

[land lover]

BTW(to late to edit)...I have enjoyed all the M&Ms I have participated in even with the duds...;) because meeting the frequent posters on CC at a set time makes it worthwhile.

[Merion_Mom]

Introductions, really???? I experienced this on X and was not pretty and talk about boring, there were only about 30 of us and the CD made the mistake of having us tell a little about ourselves, ....do you know how many people sign up for the M&M without ever posting, but when given a mic will keep on talking and talking, I left after the third introduction 20 minutes after the first one.........I m pretty social and have worked the room at several different M&Ms...I have had people tell me they are just there for the food and prizes.

 

I have been at some M&MS with over 200 members and others where less than 25 show. Many where the Captain and CD have participated, other times just whoever on staff was available.

 

I certainly don't expect RCI to make sure I have fun, I think that is up to me. But with some of the duds that show up at the M&Ms, if the task was RCIs it would be pretty difficult.

Hey, Lori: Do you agree with me, that it is SO aggravating when the people who NEVER posted and you wonder how they even KNOW about the M 'n' M, win all the prizes?!?!?!?!?!? :eek:

[land lover]

Hey, Lori: Do you agree with me, that it is SO aggravating when the people who NEVER posted and you wonder how they even KNOW about the M 'n' M, win all the prizes?!?!?!?!?!? :eek:

 

FACT or FICTION? A few years ago I "heard" some TAs signed up their clients, "for the Party"....Of course that was when the snacks and prizes were much nicer.

[BMT]

Well, I am always thought to be 'bossy' when I suggest that we all introduce ourselves. Just real name, CC name and where you are from. We usually hand the mike around. Have to say, never had anyone 'hog' the mike!!!

 

The thing I most object to is the M&M being scheduled at 9.30 ish in the morning on the first sea day. Many of us don't wish to get up early on vacation and others are suffering jet lag, or tired after long flights.

 

I sometimes manage to get it changed. One girl messed up and put us in the Dining Room all at separate tables. So, we just moved to one very long table - I was amazed at how much better the interaction was. Oh, we did receive a cup of coffee.....after many requests.

 

They are quite different and many times, it is what you make of them. It is a missed opportunity for RCI though - and I am sure the landbased staff have no idea of what goes on. Their PR Department should have a look at this.

[BonTXNY]

Maybe it's because my DH and I can only take approx. one cruise every 2-3 years. Maybe it's because we have no expectations when we attend a M&M. Maybe it's because it's all still new to us and we appreciate every moment we have on a cruise. It's all good :D Again, it isn't the key chain or the pen or who welcomes us from RCI. It's about making whatever cruise we are on the best possible cruise ever. I hope all of your cruises are equally wonderful :)

[Cruise Cat]

As M&M are cruisecritic functions why isn't someone there from management of cc? I don't think RCL owes anyone anything for these M&M. Sometimes there OK, sometimes they aren't. They really arn't important in the large scheme of things.

 

It's called a meet and mingle for a reason - meet others and mingle with people you happened to have met online.

 

I couldn't agree more! Personally, I find having ship's crew, staff, and C&A people there annoying and distracting. I come there to meet fellow cruisers, not to get an inside scoop, get a sales pitch, or have them validate our existance.

[crusinmama06]

I couldn't agree more! Personally, I find having ship's crew, staff, and C&A people there annoying and distracting. I come there to meet fellow cruisers, not to get an inside scoop, get a sales pitch, or have them validate our existance.

 

Exactly! :D

 

I guess I have been lucky not to have many "official" meet n mingles. On Indy, we had our own because it was a 6 day cruise and it didn't qualify (must be at least 7 days). We all met each other at the pool bar and identified each other by wearing drink umbrellas in our hair (the guys were funny with this one)

 

On Grandeur, we met at the Viking Crown for sailaway, once again, a 5 night cruise, no "official" meet n mingle but we had a great time and we were able to put "faces behind the screen names" for the rest of the cruise.

 

I've had some great ones on the Carnival and Disney ships too. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the cruise line. We jumped in there, organized our groups, organized our meetings and had a great time. :)

 

Meeting the CCers was the most important part of the MEET and Mingle. I don't need the RCI dog & pony show.

[vickiw0318]

I'm another one who goes just to meet everyone I've been "talking to" for the months before the cruise. It's fun when there's an enthusiastic staff member there to add a bit more life to the Meet and Greet process, but it's really just about us.

 

I do want to say that Dennis and his staff on the Serenade last September did host the best one I've ever been to.

[wwcruisers]

LOL Cruisinmama -- I loved the "drink umbrellas" idea -- might even borrow it! :p

We've been kicking around the idea of organizing an unofficial M&M for our upcoming 6-night Liberty cruise. We're still stuck on a time and place for it, though.

[cruisingnewyorkers]

LOL Cruisinmama -- I loved the "drink umbrellas" idea -- might even borrow it! :p

We've been kicking around the idea of organizing an unofficial M&M for our upcoming 6-night Liberty cruise. We're still stuck on a time and place for it, though.

 

We were on the Indy 6 night cruise in January and someone from our group contacted the ship and we did have a meet and mingle. I think we had to give our cabin numbers. It was the same as the 7 night ones with a person from the cruise directors staff and giveaways.

 

Just got off the Navigator TA and that was the first Meet and Mingle that we had mixed drinks and they also gave us Royal Reunion bags, visor hats and the usual note pad and pen. Tomorrow I go on the Explorer so I will see what they do. My only complaint on the Navigator was that they had something in the room right after us so we didn't have much time to mingle.

[My2Kitties]

As much as I love RC we did the Summit in Sept and we were treated really well at the Connections Party and were greated with some of the staff and they had cooking demos in the same venue after us and it was large enough for us to stay and we were encouraged to stay...very nicely done...the Jewel last year was better than the Explorer in the Chamber the year before...I have enjoyed meeting everyone I have met thru CC...what the cruise line does in giving us the meeting is the most important part...we have met some wonderful people and made some very special friend thru CC and what they offer...thank you to all that make these meetings possible...

[aloha of the seas]

I just came off a B2B. On the first leg we had a relatively small crowd of about 55 people for the M&M on the Rhapsody. This was a cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii and the staff looked like they were not prepared for us. When we complained about the treatment to the CD, he told us that they really had not had a M&M in several months and to forgive them for being out of the habit. We advised them that the next leg would have close to 90 people for the M&M and that they should try to provide a little more space for the next party. That one came off a lot better. Sometimes you just need to speak up and understand that the Cruise Staff does not do this every week. Some CDs do not go on CruiseCritic and check out the weekly cruises; others do. It would make sense that they all should have access to to counts. I wonder if they try to do anything beyond that.