Carnival said No to coctail party

[*Mach*]

I don't think so, we had a great conversation. And like I said she was VERY polite and offered to book our meet and greet. I really got the feeling that maybe they have been burned with crashers in the past because she was so adament about an exact number.

 

It's all good. we have 130 days to work it out. And if it doesn't come together for whatever reason we will use BV booze and have a cabin crawl! This isn't going to spoil our fun. ;)

 

 

If you continue to have problems as the cruise gets closer drop me an email and I'll get it squared away for you...

:)

[cdamion]

Good for Carnival.

 

Cruise Critic people are not entitled to any special treatment.

 

Special treatment? How is that special treatment? ANY group can call up and book a cocktail party if they want. There is no special treatment - quite the opposite.

[cdamion]

Carnival is not anti Cruise Critic. The issue is the way some of the CC groups have behaved at the cocktail parties. As I said, they've been crashed on numerous occasions and THAT is what generated the Carnival policy.

:)

 

Thanks for clarifying.

[jetskier]

I don't think so, we had a great conversation. And like I said she was VERY polite and offered to book our meet and greet. I really got the feeling that maybe they have been burned with crashers in the past because she was so adament about an exact number.

 

It's all good. we have 130 days to work it out. And if it doesn't come together for whatever reason we will use BV booze and have a cabin crawl! This isn't going to spoil our fun. ;)

 

Also if you need to add more once onboard, see the Groups Coordinator and they can charge your S&S card for the extra persons.

 

Dave

[antigualvr]

If you continue to have problems as the cruise gets closer drop me an email and I'll get it squared away for you...

 

:)

 

That is super nice of you to offer. I feel pretty positive that we will get this worked out.

Thank you!

[Kerryman50]

 

Cruise Critic people are not entitled to any special treatment.

Special treatment.:confused: Anyone who takes the time and effort to arrange a cocktail party for a group of people and has to prepay, collect the checks, make up ID badges, or wrist bands are not looking for special treatment.

 

CC members overall are not looking for special treatment, we are looking to have a great cruise and to meet up with people who we've never met before but who we have chatted with on line and at cocktail party we can put a face to the name.

 

I don't know if you are aware but John Heald, Senior Cruise Director arranged with the other CD's to have a meeting place pre arranged for CC members to have a meet & greet and it would be posted in the fun times. I guess they did it for a week or two and CCL stopped because of very poor attendance or no one showed up.

 

CCL went far and above to accommodate CC members for meet and greets, but now they will still give us a place to meet if you contact John through his blog or his face book page.

 

I'm sorry to hear the OP had issues but from what I understand Group Services will arrange cocktail hours as long as your group meet the requirements.

 

Thanks go out to Mach, John Heald and Group Services at CCL for making these events happen for us.

[ChefSusan]

I don't know if you are aware but John Heald, Senior Cruise Director arranged with the other CD's to have a meeting place pre arranged for CC members to have a meet & greet and it would be posted in the fun times. I guess they did it for a week or two and CCL stopped because of very poor attendance or no one showed up.

One of the reasons why CCL stopped doing the pre-arranged M&G is because they were being scheduled for 2:30pm on Embarkation Day. Had they arranged for the M&Gs to be scheduled for the first sea day at 2:30pm, they might have gotten a better response. JMHO and YMMV...

[AmandaKaye79]

I just got back from my cruise last week. I arranged the cocktail party for our roll call. I didn't call and speak with anyone personally. I arranged all the details through email with Patricia who is the group event coordinator. Just know in advance, before you email her, you have to have a specific number of people (at least 20). You also have to have your booking number, ship and sail date and tell her that you are responsible for payment of the entire amount. You have to give her the exact day and time that you prefer. She emailed me back within a day. The party was confirmed and the time we requested wasn't available but she gave me a new time. We were not even questioned about what kind of group it was or if we were associated with cruise critic. Her email is PVelazquez@carnival.com

 

 

[Kerryman50]

One of the reasons why CCL stopped doing the pre-arranged M&G is because they were being scheduled for 2:30pm on Embarkation Day. Had they arranged for the M&Gs to be scheduled for the first sea day at 2:30pm, they might have gotten a better response. JMHO and YMMV...

 

You're right it might have gotten a better response. For us 2:30pm on Embarkation doesn't work, unless it's on The Lido Deck aft bar area.:D

 

I read that some ships were considering changing the time to the 1st sea day, not sure what happened. We would have preferred that.

 

The point of my post was to make people aware that CC members are not looking for Special Treatment and that we can still arrange to have M&G's and cocktail parties on CCL ships.

[Kerryman50]

I just got back from my cruise last week. I arranged the cocktail party for our roll call. I didn't call and speak with anyone personally. I arranged all the details through email with Patricia who is the group event coordinator. Just know in advance, before you email her, you have to have a specific number of people (at least 20). You also have to have your booking number, ship and sail date and tell her that you are responsible for payment of the entire amount. You have to give her the exact day and time that you prefer. She emailed me back within a day. The party was confirmed and the time we requested wasn't available but she gave me a new time. We were not even questioned about what kind of group it was or if we were associated with cruise critic. Her email is PVelazquez@carnival.com

 

 

 

Thanks for posting this information.:)

[mdrobtx]

Hmmm, I didn't have any problems arranging our M&G CC roll call party on Freedom in Sept. I even told the rep that's what it was going to be.

Now I did have to call back because the first Carnival rep claimed to know nothing about having the prepaid party packages.

I gave them a specific # of guests attending. I was just guessing. The email I received confirming the event states I have till two weeks before sailing to give them the exact count.

 

I also don't understand how they know how many persons are attending that paid for the open bar. The Carnival rep said that was up to me to take care of. I aslo bought wrist bands off Ebay to identify those who paid.

[scchasgal]

I also don't understand how they know how many persons are attending that paid for the open bar. The Carnival rep said that was up to me to take care of. I aslo bought wrist bands off Ebay to identify those who paid.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head. Open bar and they don't know how many are there. Sounds like a lot of crashers have been showing up and Carnival has to eat the cost of the open bar.

[antigualvr]

I just got back from my cruise last week. I arranged the cocktail party for our roll call. I didn't call and speak with anyone personally. I arranged all the details through email with Patricia who is the group event coordinator. Just know in advance, before you email her, you have to have a specific number of people (at least 20). You also have to have your booking number, ship and sail date and tell her that you are responsible for payment of the entire amount. You have to give her the exact day and time that you prefer. She emailed me back within a day. The party was confirmed and the time we requested wasn't available but she gave me a new time. We were not even questioned about what kind of group it was or if we were associated with cruise critic. Her email is PVelazquez@carnival.com

 

 

 

 

Thank you for the very useful information!

[Sargent_Schultz]

I think you hit the nail on the head. Open bar and they don't know how many are there. Sounds like a lot of crashers have been showing up and Carnival has to eat the cost of the open bar.

 

and the servers make less. :mad:

[AmandaKaye79]

There is an event coordinator present at the event. That is how they will know. Since I was the person in charge, I was the one that the coordinator consulted with. She knew exactly what to expect and the bartenders knew as well. It was SO easy and laid back. They DID count the number of guests that we had. So there is no way there could have been crashers. The venue was small (Billie's Piano Bar) and it was easy to make sure everyone there were people that were on our list of paid people. We brought bracelets for everyone to wear but they weren't really necessary. We could add people up until two weeks before the day of sailing. It wasn't as complicated as people are trying to say that it is. I'm not sure why they are giving you such a hard time.

[Kerryman50]

and the servers make less. :mad:

 

We ALWAYS and most of the people in our group make sure to take care ($$) of the servers and the bartenders.:cool:

[wasiii]

.....I always include extra money from everyone for an extra tip for the bartender and wait staff. Carnival provides these at a great price and I feel it is only right to take care of them for their time.

 

wasiii

[AmandaKaye79]

and the servers make less. :mad:

 

They do charge you the standard 15% on each person that you sign up for the party. So technically, they make the same standard tip, they just don't get it per drink. So we did tip ours a little extra. They also do try to push pre-made drinks on you, ex. Pina Coladas, Melon Burst, Strawberry Daq, etc. However, you could request other drinks if you wanted. When we arrived, the waiter came out with 2-3 trays of premade drinks. Most of us felt obligated to take one, especially since they were already made.

[themnms]

Sigh... what a pain in the posterior.

 

Once you get a firm number (and the money...) give groups a call and tell them that it's a bunch of family and friends. Do not mention Cruise Critic or they'll turn you down again.

 

There have been a number is instances where CC roll call parties like this have had many more folks attend than paid. Personally, I handle this by passing out specific colored wrist bands to all paticipants... no wrist band and you can't get in the door let alone get a drink...

 

:)

 

good idea on the wristband!!

[CWcruisers]

At the cocktail party I arranged last year on the Spirit, at least 5-6 people who had pre-paid me for it did not show for whatever reason. It was the same the year before, so it's hard to believe there are problems with crashers.

[CanWeGoYet?]

I don't know what the problem is with having them know it is for a CC group. When I arranged a cocktail hour, they knew. This was back in march 2010, I wonder if things have changed since then.

 

I waited until 20 had signed up for the party, and then contacted the group events department and they worked with me. Some people wanted to be added on later, and I added them to the group as they paid. I thought we had reached the cut off point on being able to add more, but one of the people in group events told me that I could even add more after I got on board. I would just have to put the charge on my sail & sign, which I did after one couple paid me on board.

 

I don't know how the issue of people crashing the party relates to a CC group specifically. They could try to sneak in to an event no matter how clear your number of participants are. Those who attempt to crash might simply be passengers in general seeing a cocktail party that looks fun - nothing to do with cruise critic.

 

We did not have arm bands. The group events person and I both knew how many people had signed up. With 25 or so it isn't that hard to count, I suppose if there were over 100 participants it would have been trickier. One thing I did do was attempt to keep the exact time & location of the event off the roll call, just emailed the info to people who were attending. It wasn't that I did not trust the roll call group, but anyone can lurk and read what is being written. You can have people on your cruise who are aware of the forum and want to read but never join.

[kujobie]

I don't know what the problem is with having them know it is for a CC group. When I arranged a cocktail hour, they knew. This was back in march 2010, I wonder if things have changed since then.

 

I waited until 20 had signed up for the party, and then contacted the group events department and they worked with me. Some people wanted to be added on later, and I added them to the group as they paid. I thought we had reached the cut off point on being able to add more, but one of the people in group events told me that I could even add more after I got on board. I would just have to put the charge on my sail & sign, which I did after one couple paid me on board.

 

I don't know how the issue of people crashing the party relates to a CC group specifically. They could try to sneak in to an event no matter how clear your number of participants are. Those who attempt to crash might simply be passengers in general seeing a cocktail party that looks fun - nothing to do with cruise critic.

 

We did not have arm bands. The group events person and I both knew how many people had signed up. With 25 or so it isn't that hard to count, I suppose if there were over 100 participants it would have been trickier. One thing I did do was attempt to keep the exact time & location of the event off the roll call, just emailed the info to people who were attending. It wasn't that I did not trust the roll call group, but anyone can lurk and read what is being written. You can have people on your cruise who are aware of the forum and want to read but never join.

 

That's the issue I think. Date, time, and location is often put in the roll call.

[luvmysox1]

I just got back from my cruise last week. I arranged the cocktail party for our roll call. I didn't call and speak with anyone personally. I arranged all the details through email with Patricia who is the group event coordinator. Just know in advance, before you email her, you have to have a specific number of people (at least 20). You also have to have your booking number, ship and sail date and tell her that you are responsible for payment of the entire amount. You have to give her the exact day and time that you prefer. She emailed me back within a day. The party was confirmed and the time we requested wasn't available but she gave me a new time. We were not even questioned about what kind of group it was or if we were associated with cruise critic. Her email is PVelazquez@carnival.com

 

 

 

 

Thank you. I am bookmarking this for my roll call. Is it easy to setup a palpay account for payment? Never do this before.

[English Tim]

The main problem here is that many people don't recognize the difference between a CC M&G and a privately organized cocktail party, where many of the party-goers are CC members!

 

People talk to each other and post on FB and CC and some don't read the full threads, merely seeing that an event is taking place and believing that they can take part. Some do this quite innocently, whilst others will try to take advantage of the system.

 

Meet and Greets are often official CC member get together's, where participants go to an event, often soon after boarding, to discover what group events are taking place and to get to know folk who they've only met in the cyber world. Drinks are usually paid for on S&S cards and Carnival sometimes offer free drinks and snacks, but not always.

 

Cocktail parties are usually organised by individuals, who may or may not be CC members. Each participant pays $11.44 for 1 hour's unlimited drinking. I charged $12pp for ease of administration. Just before we sail I will notify Carnival of my expected number and a suitably sized room will be allocated. It is possible to add people once on-board, but this could prove to be difficult at the event, when lots of people are milling around waiting to imbibe!

 

If anyone has any further questions please post them here.

 

Those of us with experience of these practices, gained mostly from others on CC and FB, have a duty to help others.

[CanWeGoYet?]

Thank you. I am bookmarking this for my roll call. Is it easy to setup a palpay account for payment? Never do this before.

 

It's very easy. I used an email account to open it and linked it with my checking account. I think people felt more comfortable doing this than sending personal checks. If a vendor fails to come through, there is at least some recourse for them, and credit card numbers or bank account numbers never come into play.