How to set up a Meet and Greet through Carnival

[Philly Steve]

Adult beverages are free?

 

They are not free. NCL and RCI do provide coffee, juice, etc. along with light snacks. RCI provides door prizes.

[ccruisequeen]

I requested one through JH- he asked when we would like to set it up & I took a poll, then got back to him. He told me it was set & asked me for my cabin #. Does this mean I'll be charged for it?

[sunshine002]

Adult beverages are free?

 

On one cruise so far they were free! (RCL) On the other it was the usual stuff.

Edited January 14, 2012 by sunshine002

[GROUCHPUSS]

I requested one through JH- he asked when we would like to set it up & I took a poll, then got back to him. He told me it was set & asked me for my cabin #. Does this mean I'll be charged for it?

 

No you will not be charged, also you will not have an open bar. You have to set up the open party with groups and you get a contract of sorts.

[Snorer's Hubby]

Wait wait wait a minute.

 

You pay $11.44 per person attending... and the booze flows freely?

 

Am I reading this right? :D

 

yes

[SunshneNC]

Great information! Just what I needed to get a meet and greet started with my roll call.

[Katkamm1]

Hi Peeps,

 

The meet and greets on NCL are great. I attended one last year on my Alaskan cruise. We met in one of the small restaurants and had finger foods, pastrys and there were drinks provided but it was juice, milk, tea not sodas. We even got introduced to captain and a bridge tour the next day. It was all free and there were only about a dozen of us there.. Thought the bridge tour was great since you have to pay for that on Carnival. I also attended a meet and greet on the Dream last year and yes it was 11.44 PP full bar but it was a awesome time. Loved meeting everyone.

 

Kathy

[ShoMeChiefsFan]

I have done this for every cruise I have gone on, and the only complaint I got from all the people that was at the party, is that they wished they would have booked as many parties as they could, because you can not beat the price of the alochol for the 1 or 2 hour party that you hold. The max time limit is 2 hours, if I recall correctly. But for the money.....its very much worth the price .....and the open bar, now if you are premium alochol (top shelf drinker, then there is additional charges for those drinks) but it is not that much more in the price.....very well worth it!

 

This is the only cruise I have been on that the roll call is not that active....

 

 

When I set up my parties, I had everyone send there funds via paypal, for immediate payment....make sure that its sent as a gift/personal in paypal or you will be accessed the fees associated with the sending the money.

[jrmende63]

I have set ours up for the upcoming Valor cruise. I set it up at 16.68/pp for one and one half hours. The price includes gratuties of 15%. This is for an open bar with dry snacks. I told them it was a cruise critic group party and have had NO issues with this. The event planning people are great to work with.

[sharecruises]

question????

 

does everyone have to pay.... why i ask .... if we had people with lets say had special name tags for those who paid for the cocktail party and the others who come to this event and their name tags would be very different from those who paid. Would this couse a problem,,,,

 

We are setting this up for our cruise but we are doing it for an hour and half for 16.88 a person.

 

 

Having hosted many events on land and various group parties on ships...I am going to say YES IT WOULD BE A PROBLEM

 

There is no way that you are going to communicate to the servers who to serve or not...and people being people some will get an "extra" drink for their friend who has not paid

 

YOU , the one setting it up...may get charged extra

 

JMO you should make it clear that the drinks party is for those who paid for the drinks period....

 

you can always have another group get together...ie, meet by the pizzeria or meet by the sushi bar etc to involve everyone

 

but the drinks party should be for the ones who are confirmed to be there

[pkrchkr]

I'm organizing one for the U.S. innaugural sailing for the breeze.. 167 people already interested.. it will be the 1st ever Social at Sea..50/50 draw and silent auction prizes.. with proceeds going to our hard working servers.. oh yes the will be working hard with a bunch of thristy BeeZ on Board

[skiorcruise]

One of my future cruisemates has set up a M&G like this for our April 15 legend cruise. He stated that Carnival told him they needed a tenative number 45 days out, and a solid number at 30 days out. Don't wait until the last minute to call.

 

I paid for both myself and DW, even though she probably won't have more than one or two drinks. I'll drink my share, but not her's. She keeps saying " I can't believe you are spending so much for a party where I won't drink that much." It's not about the "free" drinks, more about meeting fellow CC members.

 

Sterling if you see this, thanks again for setting it up. Looking forward to it.

[Monkey201]

I have set one up for our forthcomming cruise. I asked for all interested parties to pay via paypal. I made a tentive booking for 30 when i first asked Carnival. They said they would do a count on the day and charge it to my seapass. So far we have 32 people attending. I did think about doing a second one on the last day as a leaving party. These parties are not well advertised but seem to me to be good value for money and a good way to meet all your fellow CCers.

 

 

Ian

[rotaryscotty]

I agree with 95 percent of everything written.

I did find it a little odd about the avoidance of mentioning Cruise Critic.:confused:

 

I've been involved in M&G (or Meet & Mingle) on 5 different cruise lines over the years. I always tell them we are CRUISE CRITIC. We have received nothing but respect. Many times they have gone out of their way for us BECAUSE we WERE CRUISE CRITIC. We've had fabulous prizes given to us and many times have had the Captain and officers attend to welcome us.:o

 

As a matter of courtesy, always drop of a formal invitation for each officer you would like to attend your M&M at the Purser's Desk. You will have all the info you need before boarding to put on the invitation....time, location, etc.:rolleyes:

 

We've ALWAYS had the Cruise Director attend. On one occasion they pointed me out to the Cruiser Director as the organizer. He immediately came over, put his arm around me, and said, "This is my best buddy for the rest of the cruise. And please remember THAT if you write any reviews.":eek:

 

My point being that by representing Cruise Critic our groups have, in my opinion, gotten more respect than merely a group of cruisers partying together.

They know we have a "forum" to tell the good AND the bad about any cruise.

Thanks...;)

[sharecruises]

Are you aware that paypal charges YOU to accept money?? You eat the fees so you should adjust your fee accordingly

 

also...you can ONLY accept 10 transactions by credit card per year unless you "upgrade" to a business paypal account. Then you can take in as many as you wish BUT your fee may be a bit higher

 

so you should do the math...and upgrade to business (it is not hard, but you have to have them verify your bank account, it can take a week or two)

 

You can get the emails of the people who are going to come to the party and then send them a "request" via paypal...that gives them a link and an exact amount to pay. Some people have a problem figuring it all out LOL

the "request" feature makes it a bit easier

 

 

I would personally ONLY allow those who are drinking at the party cause Carnival can and will charge you for the non drinkers.....and/or you will spend your time putting out fires.

 

In regards to your wife only having ? 2 drinks...well that alone pays for the package. People have to realize it is a social function, and decide if they wish to attend. HTH

[shuttlebuggy]

Oh golly! What a kettle 'o fish!!!!

I have never been to one NOR organized one, and our Roll Call

thread has been quite S-L-O-W! :(

With our cruise being just 3 short weeks away...someone was needed to get this going, preferably some with experience, since I'm a novice for sure.

 

Well, with time running out "yours truly" :rolleyes:arranged one today with a most gracious events coordinator from HAL.

We were supposed to have numbers and confirmed attendees in order to adequately arrange for a "drinks" party.

But since attendence is questionable, in light of time, we opted for a coffee,tea, water an light snack/dessert. I was immediately sent the Cruise Critic Name Tags to print.;)

 

They gave us the Captains Corner in the Crows Nest, and 10 days out from the cruise should our number exceed 36, the will give us another spot in the larger area of the Crows Nest.

 

I felt given the time growing ever shorter and the fact they did this without forms and red tape - it was really accommodating of them!

I have already received the confirmation via email as well.:)

 

But now after reading some of the posts here I feel like I blundered in mentioning this was for a CC group! Hikes! What can happen???:confused:

I am such a Niobe that I sure wish I had known this ahead, but was totally unaware.

 

I did feel however she totally respected the fact I was from CC.

Edited March 16, 2012 by shuttlebuggy

[bzpilot]

I agree with 95 percent of everything written.

I did find it a little odd about the avoidance of mentioning Cruise Critic.:confused:

...My point being that by representing Cruise Critic our groups have, in my opinion, gotten more respect than merely a group of cruisers partying together.

They know we have a "forum" to tell the good AND the bad about any cruise.

Thanks...;)

 

Exactly.

 

The relationship between Cruise Critic and Carnival is more of a Love/Worry relationship.

 

Love - Carnival does love us because we are the largest group continually cruising on the cruise line. The money spent by just CC cruisers every week on Carnival would probably shock many.

 

Worry - Being such a large and quite outspoken group at times, when something doesn't go quite right or very wrong it will more than likely get published for thousands of cruisers who normally frequent their cruise line to see. Many times it is blown out of proportion on here and other times it really is something that should be made known so Carnival can make changes to improve.

 

Either way I promise Carnival is more than happy to help setup CC Events onboard, but yes some Carnival employees are a little gun shy when dealing with CC'ers and if you've been around here very long you know why.

[Cruiser5726]

It's probably too late for this now since I was told all rooms were already booked except for the hour in the morning at 8:30 in the Lindyhop.

[cparkerkite]

Thank you for such an informative post! We have a pretty active group on our roll call board, but no one has mentioned a meet & greet just yet. I'm sure it is forthcoming.

 

Question though... we are not drinkers in my family. Does this fee also include sodas, water and non-alcoholic fruity drinks? What kind of snacks were available?

 

Thanks!

[Chucklez]

Thank you for such an informative post! We have a pretty active group on our roll call board, but no one has mentioned a meet & greet just yet. I'm sure it is forthcoming.

 

Question though... we are not drinkers in my family. Does this fee also include sodas, water and non-alcoholic fruity drinks? What kind of snacks were available?

 

Thanks!

 

This is the answer I received when asking the same question while booking our M&G.

 

Hope all is well. All guests can order sodas, juice, punch, teas, and virgin drinks with the rate they have.

[wrigley80]

I am organizing one for our cruise on the Carnival Ecstasy on December 3rd. We are having our meet and greet party on embarkation day from 5:30-7:30 in the ChinaTown Lounge. I am organizing ours and another cc member is taking the money.

 

We are doing a 2 hour open bar party and it is $19.55 per person for alcohol open bar. It is a great way to get to know everyone. When I made our reservation I mentioned that it was for a Cruise Critic roll call and there were no issues. So I believe that it all depends on who you talk to :rolleyes: I can't to go to ours.

 

To the OP.....did you do anything special at yours??? Like a 50/50 raffle or any games :)

[JPH814]

I am organizing one for our cruise on the Carnival Ecstasy on December 3rd. We are having our meet and greet party on embarkation day from 5:30-7:30 in the ChinaTown Lounge. I am organizing ours and another cc member is taking the money.

 

We are doing a 2 hour open bar party and it is $19.55 per person for alcohol open bar. It is a great way to get to know everyone. When I made our reservation I mentioned that it was for a Cruise Critic roll call and there were no issues. So I believe that it all depends on who you talk to :rolleyes: I can't to go to ours.

 

To the OP.....did you do anything special at yours??? Like a 50/50 raffle or any games :)

 

I am amazed this thread is still getting attention.

 

No - we kept it pretty simple.: Show up, hang out and drink.

 

I did bring an IPOD and a set of potable mini speakers. I asked for suggestions for a playlist....it was fun getting people's suggestions for their favorite cruise music.

[serene56]

wrigley-i am impressed that you got that many to commit to a 2 hour party on your embarkation day.

 

having done many meet and greets we learned that that day is bruttal for getting together. people are overly excited sleep deprivived coz they got up early... and you are doing it during a dinner time. so a few of those people will be giving up their first night at dinner.

 

after a lot of near misses a'sea'day is where we get our moneys worth

[catchalet]

We just come back from our cruise on the Dream. We had a very active roll call of over 200 people on Cruise Critic with almost 2000 postings. We had two informal meet and greets - just times we planned to show up at a particular place. But we also wanted something a little more formal. So we organized the meet and greet through Carnival.

 

This is how we did it:

 

I called Carnival Customer Service and told them what I wanted to do. I just told them the group was my "friends and family". I did not mention Cruise Critic. They gave me the information and tld me to call back when we had a tentative number.

 

I put a message on our roll call for those interested in spending the $11.44 (or $5.75 for kids) to send me an email telling me the number of people interested. 15 groups totalling 68 people responded. After that, I only communicated about the meet and greet through private email.

 

I called Carnival and gave them a tentative number - this was about 2 months prior to sailing. I told each CC member to send me a check for their amount. All did -via snail mail. (Obviously there was a little faith here....but after communicting in CC for over 6 months with each other, I think people were willing to risk sending me their checks.) The full cost of the meet and greet would be charged to my sign and sail account.

 

I set a cut off date 4 weeks before the cruise. I got all the checks by then. I then called carnival and confirmed the number. The sent me an email confirming the number, the cost, the day (first sea day), time (2 PM to 3 PM) and location (Jazz Lounge).

 

One of our members volunteered to make name badge for each person. (A real good idea! ) That way, we could know each other and use them to keep track of who was there.

 

When I arrived on board I had a letter from a Carnival rep confirming everything. I also received a call to my stateroom to confirm things as well. The day of the meet and greet, I showed up a little early and set up some mini portable speakers for my ipod so we could hgave some music. The Carnival rep was there to check on things. By five minutes before the event was to start, two servers already had trays of drinks set up....margherittas, strawberry daquiris, rum punch, wine and fruit punch. There was also a bartender behind the bar. On the tables arround the room were bowls of bar nibblies.

 

People showed up and it was fantastic. The servers circulated with drinks and people went to the bar to get whatever else they wanted - beer, mixed drinks, etc. This continued for the full hour - even until about 10 after. We did pass a hat for an extra gratuity for the servers even though it was included. I think we pulled together an additional $60.

 

We did not have any problem with crashers. Near the end of the party I was presented a bill for the event which I signed and it was charged to my sign and sail card.

 

It was a great event and the Carnival staff did a great job setting it up. It took a little work on my part to keep track of everything but it was not too bad. The important thing its to set it up well in advance of the cruise and give people deadlines to sign up and send the money. We did not allow anyone to "pay at the door" ....that would have not worked.

 

If anyone has any questions, let me know

 

Thank you for posting this. I am thinking about organizing one for our cruise! Your directions are wonderful!!:)

[serene56]

Thank you for such an informative post! We have a pretty active group on our roll call board, but no one has mentioned a meet & greet just yet. I'm sure it is forthcoming.

 

Question though... we are not drinkers in my family. Does this fee also include sodas, water and non-alcoholic fruity drinks? What kind of snacks were available?

 

Thanks!

 

 

snacks were pepperidge farm crackers. 11.50 includes soda, non alcoholic drinks, fruit punch.

for this party- even if someone purchased the bar program they still need to pay the 11.50 fee