Little Rascal Posted February 11, 2011 #1 Share Posted February 11, 2011 We are first timers on Oceania and have been meeting a lot of new friends on cruise critic on our roll call board. We want to plan a cocktail meeting with the other guest that we have meet and the others that live out of the area. Someone told me that cruise critic will plan and host the gathering. Does anyone know about this or how to go about planning one? Also, we are able to make 6 reservations for our 10 night cruise in the specialty restaurants. I only see 4 regular restaurants and two casual pool side dining options. (Waves and the Terrace grill). What do most people do? Do we include the main dining room reservations too? We will be on the Marina April 26th. from Rome to Venice. If we have 4 people in our group can we request to sit with other guest too? Thanks for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted February 11, 2011 #2 Share Posted February 11, 2011 You don't need reservations for the GDR, Waves or Terrace. Just go! Some people have had problems booking tables in the specialty restaurants (pre-boarding) when some people were in higher cabins and could book earlier. But assuming everyone is in the same category cabin (if you are booking ahead), yes, you can add a fifth person. I haven't tried to set up a CC party on Oceania. I HAVE arranged cocktail parties on my own for smaller groups on the "R" ships. In that case, I collect the names and cabin numbers, then relay the information to the concierge as soon as we board. The concierge sends out invitations and decides where or when. In my case, we always met in Horizons on the first or second day. They need to see what other activities are going on -- and how many people you have -- to determine where such a function should be held. Just because my parties have always been in Horizons does NOT mean that's the only place where they can be held. On our Norway cruise last July a party was set up by the TA of people who were in the Vista, where we had a really stupendous hors d'oeuvres setup and free wine, but that was paid for by the TA. (These were good customers who travel in elite cabins several times a year.) In MY case, I set up parties with a cash bar (be sure the staff knows YOU aren't paying for everyone's drinks!) and no hors d'oeuvres. If you have a really large group ... I don't know myself but I know someone I can consult who set up a really large M&G on our NCL cruise last spring. She could at least tell me the mechanics of setting up such a meeting -- should you still need that info. The M&G was different from a cocktail party, although as I recall we did have coffee and pastries at that function. But we were around 100 people. I don't think Cruise Critic actually does any planning like this. If the group is large enough (I think) that O will host it. But depending on the size of the group, I would think that you could do as I have done in the past. It has NOT been difficult, other than keeping track of everybody. Mura mura @ speakeasy.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted February 11, 2011 #3 Share Posted February 11, 2011 We are first timers on Oceania and have been meeting a lot of new friends on cruise critic on our roll call board. We want to plan a cocktail meeting with the other guest that we have meet and the others that live out of the area. You can talk to the concierge if you want to host a party they will arrange it I think there is a fee or just go to the lounge/bar and enjoy Someone told me that cruise critic will plan and host the gathering. CC or O does not host any parties Also, we are able to make 6 reservations for our 10 night cruise in the specialty restaurants. What cabin Cat are you that you get 6 reservations? I only see 4 regular restaurants and two casual pool side dining options. (Waves and the Terrace grill). What do most people do? Do we include the main dining room reservations too? We will be on the Marina April 26th. from Rome to Venice. If we have 4 people in our group can we request to sit with other guest too? Thanks for the help. I have organized a couple of CC gatherings I get the names & cabin #'s from the roll call and either we usually just arrange to meet at a certain time/place either after Muster drill or the next day depending on what else is going on I give a list to the concierge & he will set a time and place for a non hosted gathering & send invitations out For the specialty restaurants when you reserve online if you know the people you want to dine with have their surname & booking number ready Ween you go to book it will ask sharing or not ...say NO then click ADD guests there you put in their info On the marina you get 4 choices If you want Privee or La Reserve (fee based) you need to call Oceania or wait until you are on the ship For the other dining venues ..just show up it is open dining Hope that helps Lyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted February 11, 2011 #4 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Lyn's experience regarding get-togethers is the same as mine. I have arranged several cocktail parties (cash bar) on the "R" ships. I just collect the names and room numbers and give them to the Concierge when I board. He sets it up and sends out invitations. No charge. I have found it necessary to make sure that the waiters realize it's a cash bar ... we tell the concierge but he doesn't always get word to the working staff! But I have never ended up with an unexpected bar bill, thanks to my most attentive hubby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orchestrapal Posted February 11, 2011 #5 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Lyn's experience regarding get-togethers is the same as mine. I have arranged several cocktail parties (cash bar) on the "R" ships. I just collect the names and room numbers and give them to the Concierge when I board. He sets it up and sends out invitations. No charge. I have found it necessary to make sure that the waiters realize it's a cash bar ... we tell the concierge but he doesn't always get word to the working staff! But I have never ended up with an unexpected bar bill, thanks to my most attentive hubby! We have had CC pre -dinner cocktails in Owners and Vista suites. The butler arranges for all the food and people just bring some wine to share. They have worked out very well for 35-30. Of course larger groups would need larger venues to be reserved by the Concierge.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted February 11, 2011 #6 Share Posted February 11, 2011 We have had CC pre -dinner cocktails in Owners and Vista suites. I wonder if they have any suites open we can use ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stunnedinva Posted February 11, 2011 #7 Share Posted February 11, 2011 We are first timers on Oceania and have been meeting a lot of new friends on cruise critic on our roll call board. We want to plan a cocktail meeting with the other guest that we have meet and the others that live out of the area. Someone told me that cruise critic will plan and host the gathering. Does anyone know about this or how to go about planning one? Also, we are able to make 6 reservations for our 10 night cruise in the specialty restaurants. I only see 4 regular restaurants and two casual pool side dining options. (Waves and the Terrace grill). What do most people do? Do we include the main dining room reservations too? We will be on the Marina April 26th. from Rome to Venice. If we have 4 people in our group can we request to sit with other guest too? Thanks for the help. When I called O and tried to arrange for a venue for a CC meet and greet on our last cruise, they said they couldn't do it because we weren't part of an onboard group, like university alumni groups. So our roll call (about 30 people) just agreed to meet at the Horizons lounge at a specific time. It was cash bar, and those who ordered drinks were supplied munchies. It worked fine, and that's what we'll do for our cruise this month on Regatta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonid Posted February 11, 2011 #8 Share Posted February 11, 2011 We have had CC pre -dinner cocktails in Owners and Vista suites. The butler arranges for all the food and people just bring some wine to share. They have worked out very well for 35-30. Of course larger groups would need larger venues to be reserved by the Concierge.:) Thanks for info., Doris. Plan to have a small gathering in our OS when we do the Alaska sailing in August. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted February 11, 2011 #9 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I wonder if they have any suites open we can use ;) Ditto :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rickey 88 Posted February 11, 2011 #10 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I wonder if they have any suites open we can use ;) I suspect that Orchestrapal was making reference to having parties in their own OS or VS. We have rarely been on any cruise where any of these suites weren't booked! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orchestrapal Posted February 11, 2011 #11 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I wonder if they have any suites open we can use ;) The large suites on Oceania are always sold out first! We were lucky enough to be able to provide the suite for our group.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted February 11, 2011 #12 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I We have rarely been on any cruise where any of these suites weren't booked! I agree I wonder if anyone is willing to open up their suite to 80 + CCers I may need to find someone it the top suites ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orchestrapal Posted February 11, 2011 #13 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Thanks for info., Doris. Plan to have a small gathering in our OS when we do the Alaska sailing in August. Your butler will set it up for you just like the best caterer you would hire at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted February 11, 2011 #14 Share Posted February 11, 2011 The large suites on Oceania are always sold out first! We were lucky enough to be able to provide the suite for our group.:) I was being facetious :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuAnn Posted February 12, 2011 #15 Share Posted February 12, 2011 When I called O and tried to arrange for a venue for a CC meet and greet on our last cruise, they said they couldn't do it because we weren't part of an onboard group, like university alumni groups. So our roll call (about 30 people) just agreed to meet at the Horizons lounge at a specific time. It was cash bar, and those who ordered drinks were supplied munchies. It worked fine, and that's what we'll do for our cruise this month on Regatta. information I received via email from the Manager of Loyalty Marketing today...that O "no longer offer that service" regarding a M&G..disappointing as this was not the case in the past...so we will do as you did on the up-coming T/A in late March.. "our own thing"! LuAnn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare kazu Posted February 12, 2011 #16 Share Posted February 12, 2011 This is surprising and dissapointing to say the least. why would they not help to do a meet and greet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuAnn Posted February 12, 2011 #17 Share Posted February 12, 2011 This is surprising and dissapointing to say the least. why would they not help to do a meet and greet? and I feel the same way...especially since it has always appeared that O and Frank Del Rio are very supportive of CC...LuAnn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEEZLEE Posted February 12, 2011 #18 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Think Oceania should re-consider... We did Azamara last year and a CC gathering was organized by Azamara with approx 35 CC'ers attending for h'ordurves + wine in "Horizons" lounge. There was candid feedback, good and bad with the Azamara personnel in attendance and encouraging comments. As you can imagine from the many, many posts, CC'ers are a passionate bunch and providing constructive criticism directly to the ships mgmt team should have a positive impact identifying ways for Oceania to further improve an already good experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulchili Posted February 12, 2011 #19 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Think Oceania should re-consider... We did Azamara last year and a CC gathering was organized by Azamara with approx 35 CC'ers attending for h'ordurves + wine in "Horizons" lounge. There was candid feedback, good and bad with the Azamara personnel in attendance and encouraging comments. . We had a similar experience on our Azamara cruise. There were actually 2 M&Gs and each one was well attended by CC members as well as staff (all levels) with hors d'oeuvres provided. Azamara wins this round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mura Posted February 12, 2011 #20 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Way back when, the yahoo Board had Oceania-hosted parties with 35 or more passengers. That was eliminated a while back but it seemed the CC did get the parties after that -- I'm not suggesting a conspiracy theory here, just that CC groups probably had more people. Certainly we had a M&G on our NCL cruise in April 2010 (but there were at least 100 participants). It was very nice because a lot of the senior staff (including the captain) showed up. I can see where O may not want to bother with small groups, but if they have larger groups it's a plus for them. I agree that it is short sighted not to help out groups. Now, it's true that we can sponsor these activities on our own ...but it's always nice when they are hosted by the line because sometimes you get extras ... like hors d'oeuvres! And when there is a particularly large group, you can't do one on your own even in an OS. I am assuming that O continues to be willing to support such get togethers in terms of sending out invitations and finding a proper venue but it's too bad (for sure) that they don't want to assist even with very large groups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Rascal Posted February 12, 2011 Author #21 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Thanks everyone, I guess I will see if everyone wants to meet at Horizons on the 1st day. It has just been a lot of fun having lunches and parties with all our sailing mates prior to our cruise. I am not sure how many we would have but at least 24. Maybe I will try contacting Oceania and see what they say about hosting the party? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted February 12, 2011 #22 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Maybe I will try contacting Oceania and see what they say about hosting the party? We will all be waiting to hear the answer to that one :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuAnn Posted February 12, 2011 #23 Share Posted February 12, 2011 We had a similar experience on our Azamara cruise. There were actually 2 M&Gs and each one was well attended by CC members as well as staff (all levels) with hors d'oeuvres provided.Azamara wins this round. We also have had several really nice M&Gs on Azamara..but also, in the past, with O...I think you're right...kudos to Azamara (and almost all the other cruise lines who sponsor M&Gs!!) LuAnn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LuAnn Posted February 12, 2011 #24 Share Posted February 12, 2011 Way back when, the yahoo Board had Oceania-hosted parties with 35 or more passengers. That was eliminated a while back but it seemed the CC did get the parties after that -- I'm not suggesting a conspiracy theory here, just that CC groups probably had more people. Certainly we had a M&G on our NCL cruise in April 2010 (but there were at least 100 participants). It was very nice because a lot of the senior staff (including the captain) showed up. I can see where O may not want to bother with small groups, but if they have larger groups it's a plus for them. I agree that it is short sighted not to help out groups. Now, it's true that we can sponsor these activities on our own ...but it's always nice when they are hosted by the line because sometimes you get extras ... like hors d'oeuvres! And when there is a particularly large group, you can't do one on your own even in an OS. I am assuming that O continues to be willing to support such get togethers in terms of sending out invitations and finding a proper venue but it's too bad (for sure) that they don't want to assist even with very large groups. my understanding from the email I received is that O will not offer any assistance...re invitations, venue procurement...and O didn't even ask me how many CCers we had on the Roll Call...just a flat "no". LuAnn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LHT28 Posted February 12, 2011 #25 Share Posted February 12, 2011 my understanding from the email I received is that O will not offer any assistance...re invitations, venue procurement...and O didn't even ask me how many CCers we had on the Roll Call...just a flat "no". LuAnn Too bad :mad: They are promoting so many other new things on Oceania a M & G event would certainly be nice. What is a few invites & snacks going to cost them other than good will :confused: they just have to drop off the trays they do not have to serve people it is a small thing that people will remember Lyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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