Will Princess host Meet and Mingle?

[seitseman]

Hi all :-)

 

I have a group of 29 people (many who are CCs) going on the Coral Princess on May 14th, NB out of Vancouver. I have tried contacting Princess on 2 ocassions to try and set up a meet and greet, but I keep getting directed back to my travel agent. (She is not going on the cruise and I really wish I could arrange this on my own.) Does anyone have any contact info (email) for the pursor or cruise director for the Coral Princess? Any other ideas short of contacting my TA?

 

Thanks :-) Beth

[AZPam]

 

AZPam, when you called Guest on Board Services, did you need names and cabin numbers for your rollcall group or just a general number?

Pat (Longduo) ;)

 

When I contacted Princess I told them we had a roll call on Cruise Critic with approximately 50-75 people interested in getting together for a meet and greet. They never asked for names or cabin numbers.

 

The best thing I can suggest is calling Princess directly and asking to speak with Guest On Board Services and following thru with a fax or email.

[Deloresgardella]

That would be great longduo if you can call and make the arrangements for our get together. :) Carle (two cats) I hope you are feeling better. :) We only have about a month and a half to go. You have to get better before that. :) Take care of yourself. All the information has been great.

 

Delores

[POOHISME2]

I contacted Princess myself for our 3/12/05 Diamond sailing. Spoke with Guest on Board Services and followed up with a faxed letter stating what we wanted to do. Gave them an approximate number of guests and when we wanted to meet. Suggested anytime on Sunday afternoon as that is our first full day at sea and they set us up in Skywalker's at 3:30 and are providing a bartender. Pam

Pam, we are on the Golden in May and are playing phone tag with Princess. Who did you send your fax to to get the meet and mingle set up? If you can please provide any info I would greatly appreciate it...

 

Have fun on your cruise

 

Sherrie

[dsawyer]

I have organized several CC gatherings and arranged "No host" parties. I had my travel agent call and set it up. It does mean, everyone pays for their own drinks but Princess will make sure they have enough servers on duty for your group. We had the typical goldfish for snacks. A couple of times, the Cruise Director came by to tell us what would be going on that week. You can suggest a place you want to have it but Princess will have to give the final okay. Other than that, Princess doesn't do the organizing.

[longduo]

I am discovering that setting up a simple meet and greet is not necessarily easy. I called Princess as AZPam suggested and asked for Guest on Board Relations. They acted like there was no such thing. After asking for details as to what I wanted to do, the agent spoke to her supervisor. They tried to connect me with Terry Hobson then finally gave me his voice mail. I left a message explaining what I wanted and asked him to please call me.

 

About half an hour later I got a confused e-mail from my travel agent. He had called her instead and faxed her detailed forms to fill out about what kind of entertainment, meals, etc. I needed for the group event I was planning. He assumed that this had been a group booking thru my travel agent. She wondered why she didn't know of the other 28 people! She said once you book thru a TA, the cruise line will never deal with you directly, only thru your TA. I explained that it is a CC rollcall group of people from all over the country who will be on the same cruise after corresponding at an online bulletin board site. I didn't want her to have to do all the work. I do not have a fax. My TA gave me his direct phone number and e-mail address.

 

I called Terry Hobson who is the guest onboard coordinator for the Coral and I believe Island. He said they have all these detailed forms with multiple choices that he could fax me and I could fax back so costs would be clear. I explained we just want a room such as Crooners or a section of the Wheelhouse with a no host bar for about 1 hour the afternoon of our first sea day. He told me to e-mail him the information. I did that immediately, but have not heard back from him. Soooo we will see what happens.

 

My travel agent asked me NOT to give out Hobson's direct phone line or e-mail address. I would suggest if you are trying to plan something on the Coral, call Princess and ask for Terry Hobson. If you are planning for another ship, call and ask for the guset onboard coordinator for your ship.

 

I'll post again when (if) I get a response. I could be wrong, but got the impression that they will schedule groups who are planning to pay extra for food, entertainment, etc. for a gathering before a free group like our rollcall;that does make good sense from a business point of view.

 

Carole, I hope you feel better soon.

 

Pat

[Shelly97060]

Wow, sounds like they are making it a lot harder for you then it was for our group! We leave for Diamond this Saturday, I will let you know when we get back how the meet and mingle pans out. If we can get any tips on how to make arrangements go more smoothly I will pass that back to you too. - Shelly

 

Pam - did you have to fill out all the forms and such?

[SoBayJake]

We did basically the same thing last year on the Grand and it worked out perfectly. Someone else on our roll call (thanks Jake!) has put together some name tags with our screen name and real name.

Glad to do it! See you all soon! I bow down to AZPam and her organizing abilities. I'm just the "tech-geek" that's working behind the scenes somewhat!

 

-Jake

[AZPam]

I don't understand why everyone is having such a hard time with this when it was so easy for me! The only thing they asked for from me was my booking # to confirm I was actually on the ship. We also booked thru a TA and nothing was ever said about dealing with everything thru her. Although on a previous cruise, she did set up a cocktail party for our large group that booked thru her, but that was very different.

 

I am a little anxious to share phone numbers and email addresses after Longduo's post about what her TA said about not giving out numbers. I don't want to get anyone in trouble.

 

I will share the fax number and suggest you send a letter just generally addressed to Guest On Board Services at 661-284-4770. I did all this back in January, so I really suggest eveyone do this sooner rather than later. If you are sailing on the Diamond, you can direct your fax to Diana Hall as she is who I have dealt with.

 

As for my group who leaves in 2 days (!) I have printed out our confirmation and will talk with the pursers desk when we board to confirm everything again. I'm not worried, but don't want any last minute problems either!

 

Pam

[bluehorizonlover123]

NO...... I have been on Princess four times and each time we planned a meet ourselves on the boards and meet in a specified place. All done on our own without the cruise lines help.

[AmyinGA]

I set up a CC gathering on a cruise on the Grand. I contacted the Pursers Desk once we got on the ship..I had been told that it was best to just get everyhting done once we were on the crusie. I had compliled a list of people from our roll call and took it with me just in case I needed to show them that I really had a group of passengers involved. I told the person at the desk what I wanted to do--we had picked a day, but not a time or place. Due to some weather issues, our schedule had changed, so our sea days got moved around. I was very glad that I had collected everyones cabin info so I would be able to let everyone know about needing to change the day. I got an appointment with the First Purser for Administration. I told him our # of people and that we needed a location and a no host bar. He looked the schedule and he was able to get us into Skywalkers for a 3:00 party. They would provide a bar mix for munchies, so I decided to order (pay for) some appetizers. We got served the food on silver platters by gloved servers. It was a nice touch. We kept the bar staff busy too. Princess made a "Welcome Cruise Critic" sign and they had it up at the entrance to Skywalkers. It was a good set up. What made it even better was that since we spent so much money in the bar, Princess took the charges for the food off my bill as a thank you for setting up the party. It was about $80 in food that I was planning to pay for and didn't have to. That's one more reason why I love Princess.

[POOHISME2]

Thanks for allthe help. We finally got out Meet & Greet booked and confirmed thru Princess today. Thank you AZPam It took about 4 phone calls and 2 faxes, but its done. We are in Skywalkers, 1.5 hours, NO host bar (cash bar), no food. But at least we have an official meet & greet booked. They wont deliver invitations unless you want to pay the fee. They will put it in the Patter, as long as you tell the Purser 1st day of sailing.

[longduo]

Thanks for allthe help. We finally got out Meet & Greet booked and confirmed thru Princess today. Thank you AZPam It took about 4 phone calls and 2 faxes, but its done. We are in Skywalkers, 1.5 hours, NO host bar (cash bar), no food. But at least we have an official meet & greet booked. They wont deliver invitations unless you want to pay the fee. They will put it in the Patter, as long as you tell the Purser 1st day of sailing.

 

Sherrie, glad to hear that you are all set with your Meet and Greet on the Golden. I e-mailed the rep for the Coral as he asked, but still no response. I'll call him again tomorrow. Wish me luck

 

Longduo:)

[longduo]

NO...... I have been on Princess four times and each time we planned a meet ourselves on the boards and meet in a specified place. All done on our own without the cruise lines help.

 

If we do not have success with the Princess onboard relations rep assigned to the Coral we may just do as bluehorizonlover123 did and set up something on our own. It appears that each ship has its own rep and they do not do things in the same way.

 

Beth (seitseman) did you ever have any luck setting up a meet and greet for your 5/14 rollcall?

 

Longduo

[POOHISME2]

I was told by our onboard rep that Princess has been swamped with calls re the Cruise Critic parties. You MUST explain to them in a fax that all you want is a meeting place (suggest something) and a no host bar. NOT A PARTY!!! this confuses them terribly. Once I actually SPOKE with the on board rep, I cleared up all her confusion and we got it book and confirmed within an hour.

Good luck and remember it is possible....

[dsawyer]

Once again, just ask you TA to do this. They talk to these people everyday and know how to arrange this kind of stuff.

[Deloresgardella]

Thanks longduo for all of your work in getting us an place to meet. :) If we have to we can just deside on an place and all gather there.:confused:

 

Delores

[POOHISME2]

Once again, just ask you TA to do this. They talk to these people everyday and know how to arrange this kind of stuff.

That great if your TA is willing to do this.. Mine wasn't.

[bluehorizonlover123]

ON all four of our princess cruises we planned the meet ourselves. We all met by the future cruise booking area. There were lots of seats there and no one was around. A bar was close by and we sat for an hour and talked and met. Became friends with some and met further thru out the cruise. Just pick a location or a bar and meet everyone there. You really don't need Princesses help. Royal is the one who makes the meeting easy. Princess really doesn't go out of their way to set up a meet. The people usually do this on their own.

[bluehorizonlover123]

ON all four of our princess cruises we planned the meet ourselves. We all met by the future cruise booking area. There were lots of seats there and no one was around. A bar was close by and we sat for an hour and talked and met. Became friends with some and met further thru out the cruise. Just pick a location or a bar and meet everyone there. You really don't need Princesses help. Royal Caribbean line is the one who makes the meeting easy. Princess really doesn't go out of their way to set up a meet. The people usually do this on their own.

[AZPam]

Took me a while to find this again, but wanted to report to you that our Meet and Greet was a huge success! Princess had a letter confirming our party at our room when we arrived and everything went off without a hitch.

 

It also helped that our roll call had planned a few "events". We all wore leis when we arrived, so we met a few people very early. We also arranged to meet for sail away at the Oasis Bar, deck 16, with our leis on. Our meet and greet was arranged for the next day and on the third day we all met for afternoon tea. We also had a "roaming cocktail party" after tea that was very entertaining!

 

I hope everyone has a great time like we did!

 

Pam

[POOHISME2]

Took me a while to find this again, but wanted to report to you that our Meet and Greet was a huge success! Princess had a letter confirming our party at our room when we arrived and everything went off without a hitch. I hope everyone has a great time like we did!

Pam

Pam, Thanks for the update. I received another email confirmation form Princess this week. I hope all goes as well with our Golden CC meet & Greet.

 

Did they have a sign up for you? Was it in the Patter? We have arranged a few raffles during the meet & greet.

 

Your idea of Leis was great. We have a private photo list going on our roll call.

 

And have also scheduled various meets along the entire cruise. Starting with Sr. Froggs in Puerto Rico, sail away party, island party, meet & greet as well as a Magaretta Scrabble game and Wine tasting.

 

Thanks again for your encouragement. Everyone is looking forward to this meeting, and most are very surprised we even got it.:)

[gvre]

Hello

[gvre]

Hi All!

 

We got back from our Sun Princess 4/8/05 cruise. We traveled with about 30 cruise critic passengers. One of our travelers contacted Guest on Board Services in advance of our cruise. Our plan was to meet at the bar on the pool deck at sail away right after muster drill.

 

We were pleasantly surprised to find a roped off area right next to the bar with 6-8 tables and great views for our sail away. Princess had a sign welcoming our Cruise Critic group and server to bring drinks if anyone wanted to order one.

 

It was very nice and we plan to do the same on our November Sea Princess cruise.

 

Debbie

[Tallcruiser]

We are back from our Hawiian Cruise on the Island Princess. I had the best time and met with the greatest group of CC cruisers! We did not need to contact or pre arrange of meet and greet. Our Great Cruise Director on the Island Princess is David Cole. He lurkes here on our boards. He read we were coming and arranged a nice get together in the Crooners Lounge, on our way back from Hawaii. We were served Champaigne. ( I think David footed the bill out of his pocket) Thank you David!;) It was posted in the Princess patter. It gave us an oppertunity to meet the few that did not make it to our two gatherings we arranged on our own, the first two days of the cruise. David cole joined us and gave us a chance to chat with him. He is one busy man but he took the time to do this for us!! CC cruisers are the BEST and David Cole was GREAT!:D