Meet & Greet with Entertainers

[trbarton]

I have been doing M & G and have read where the organizer has invited entertainers to their meeting. I did a M & G on the Golden last month and when I asked Princess who the entertainers would be on my cruise they replied that did not know.

 

If you have invited the entertainers to a meeting how did you find out who they were?

 

Thanks!

 

Tom:)

[Pam in CA]

Generally, the officers and Cruise Director are invited. It's up to the CD to pass on the invite to the entertainers. Often, they are rehearsing during the day. I've only seen entertainers once at a M&G years ago arranged by Richard Joseph, the CD on the cruise.

[trbarton]

Generally, the officers and Cruise Director are invited. It's up to the CD to pass on the invite to the entertainers. Often, they are rehearsing during the day. I've only seen entertainers once at a M&G years ago arranged by Richard Joseph, the CD on the cruise.

 

 

Pam:

 

I read on another post that the M & G organizer had, prior to the cruise, contacted the entertainment people and invited them to attend the M & G of which some did. My thought was that if their was a place within Princess that would know who was to be on which ships and when and that perhaps someone would know who to contact at Princess. Perhaps I should contact Princess entertainment department directly. Is their an email address for them?

 

Thanks!

 

Tom:)

[sminfiddle]

Tom,

I waited until Princess sent their email out to booked passengers listing the movies, production shows and entertainers.

Knowing who they are, I stalked their Web pages and Facebook pages. Those have a couple of forms of contact right there. An email invitation was answered in about a day and the magic act on our cruise is confirmed for our Meet & Greet. Of course a written invitation for him will be turned in on the ship, along with the ones for the CD, Captain, Staff Captain, and other staff. We have a Rabbi on board since our cruise overlaps Hanukah; he'll be invited too.

 

Hope this helps!

Rick

 

 

~sent using Cruise Critic app~

[sminfiddle]

That email seems to go out about three weeks before sailing, maybe less.

 

 

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[derf5585]

Here are a couple of M&G that i filmed.

No entertainers

 

Emerald Princess

 

Golden Princess

[trbarton]

Tom,

I waited until Princess sent their email out to booked passengers listing the movies, production shows and entertainers.

Knowing who they are, I stalked their Web pages and Facebook pages. Those have a couple of forms of contact right there. An email invitation was answered in about a day and the magic act on our cruise is confirmed for our Meet & Greet. Of course a written invitation for him will be turned in on the ship, along with the ones for the CD, Captain, Staff Captain, and other staff. We have a Rabbi on board since our cruise overlaps Hanukah; he'll be invited too.

 

Hope this helps!

Rick

 

Rick:

 

Thank you very much!!!

 

Tom:D

[Elcruzer]

Generally, the officers and Cruise Director are invited. It's up to the CD to pass on the invite to the entertainers. Often, they are rehearsing during the day. I've only seen entertainers once at a M&G years ago arranged by Richard Joseph, the CD on the cruise.

 

Richard Joseph is the only CD that supports Cruise Critic M&Gs in my experience of many cruises. His input was greatly appreciated. I was disappointed on my last cruise that not one crew member attended even tho they were invited and we had more than 150 CCs attending :confused:

[doug52]

Tom, see my thread below for the steps I took earlier this year to invite the entertainers, and the naturalist to our Cruise to Alaska and they all came.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=38665522&postcount=135

 

I am going to be trying the same steps shortly for our cruise to Panama Canal. Good luck.

 

Doug

[trbarton]

Tom, see my thread below for the steps I took earlier this year to invite the entertainers, and the naturalist to our Cruise to Alaska and they all came.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=38665522&postcount=135

 

I am going to be trying the same steps shortly for our cruise to Panama Canal. Good luck.

 

Doug

 

Doug:

 

Thanks for your help!! I already have letters made out for the principal officers and I will look for the email that shows who the entertainers are so they can be included. I have a flyer for my M & G that I will send out as a reminder once I know who the entertainers are.

 

Thanks again.

 

Tom:)

[Steviewonder1]

Princess releases the full list of the ships officers including the CD at the beginning of the month of the cruise. Our last cruise started on the 12th so I had plenty of time to do the invitations, which were custom printed, and individually addressed to each of the ships officers and the CD. I left them with the purser on the first day of the cruise. We had 8 of the ships officers and the CD at our M&G in Skywalkers with 80 CC'ers attending. All you need to do is make this request thru your Princess rep to his/her email and you will get it back right after the first of the month.

[Cruisin' Chick]

If you talking about the guest performers, remember that many of them aren't on board for the whole cruise. Sometimes they get on in one port, do their show, and are off at the next port, maybe even to board a different cruiseship.

 

If you're talking about the staff performers, they are often working during the day, either rehearsing (as someone mentioned above) or doing some other duties such as helping with the CD's activities. I remember years ago on a Carnival cruise going to the library with my family and one of the dancers was working there.

[doug52]

Cruisin Chick, on the cruise we were on earlier this year, the email we received a few weeks prior to boarding only introduced the entertainers that were on the ship initially. Later on, as you indicated, we had other entertainers, but this was well after our Meet and Greet, so it didn't matter.

 

My feeling was, it was worth a try, so why not. If you notice on the thread I linked above, when I first broached the subject of inviting entertainers to this Meet and Greet procedure thread, the response I got was they would not come. But again, nothing ventured, nothing gained so I first contacted Princess and they of course would not give me any info on the entertainers. Well, about two days later, I received the email giving me the names of the first two entertainers.

 

I then googled their names and sent them each an email that said briefly:

 

- I represent a group that will be on the cruise that you will also be on as an entertainer

 

-that this group are regular cruisers that get together on the second day of the cruise for about one hour at one of the bars

 

-that we would love to have you attend as well

 

-and I would buy your first drink

 

Within a few days, I received responses from both entertainers and the naturalist saying that as long as the M and G did not conflict with their rehearsal, they would love to come.

 

I indicated back that I would leave them an invitation with the purser, once I boarded. I also had invitations for most of the ship officers.

 

Doug

[sminfiddle]

~duplicate post sent using Cruise Critic app~:)

Edited November 24, 2013 by sminfiddle

[sminfiddle]

Doug, in your original thread I had asked a couple of questions about that first drink... Did you just get them their choice from the bar? Or bring a bottle of wine (was it subject to corkage as per the rules)?

 

 

~sent using Cruise Critic app~

 

 

 

 

~sent using Cruise Critic app~

[IECalCruiser]

Richard Joseph is the only CD that supports Cruise Critic M&Gs in my experience of many cruises. His input was greatly appreciated.

Richard is a great supporter of CC.

[chamima]

One other suggestion is to bring some invitations that aren't addressed to any individual and stop at the Purser's desk as you board and get names and address them then.

I've done that in the past and sometimes the people you'd least expect to be engaging are the most!

[doug52]

Sminfiddle, I just bought a drink of their choice from the bar. Only one of the entertainers took me up on this offer. The other entertainer(the magician) also brought his wife and they came with their own drinks and politely refused my offer.

 

However, they blended in very well with our group, participated when I called them to introduce themselves and tell a little about their upcoming entertainment.

 

We are doing a Panama Canal full transit in April and I volunteered to try again with the entertainers. In fact, I noticed that one of the entertainers from earlier will be on our upcoming cruise according to his website. However, he looks to be boarding mid way through, well after a Meet and Mingle.

 

Sorry I did not answer your previous question earlier this year; after I returned from our Cruise in April, real life returned and I did not continue to monitor Cruise Critic. :)

[rury]

I have been doing M & G and have read where the organizer has invited entertainers to their meeting. I did a M & G on the Golden last month and when I asked Princess who the entertainers would be on my cruise they replied that did not know.

 

If you have invited the entertainers to a meeting how did you find out who they were?

 

Thanks!

 

Tom:)

Makani E duo entertain on the Grand. I found them to be very talented and extremely friendly. I believe they would be delighted to entertain your M&G, if possible. You can reach them at: rozlowry@hotmail.com.

 

Have a great trip!

[trbarton]

Makani E duo entertain on the Grand. I found them to be very talented and extremely friendly. I believe they would be delighted to entertain your M&G, if possible. You can reach them at: rozlowry@hotmail.com.

 

Have a great trip!

 

Thanks for the information. I've already emailed Rozz & Jim and invited them to our meetings plus I have a letter ready to leave with the purser's desk. On December 1st I'm emailing princess to get a list of officers and possibly the entertainment on board. I'm also looking for an email that should tell me who the entertainment will be.

 

Thanks again:D:D

 

Tom:)

[sminfiddle]

On December 1st I'm emailing princess to get a list of officers and possibly the entertainment on board.

Good luck!

Was talking about this last night. Apparently your Princess meeting coordinator person can be very helpful in this regard. They can provide a list with way more names than is in the Patter.

 

I think I'm still going to sit down with the Patter on embarkation day (Tomorrow :D ) and write invitations until tired, or I run out of stationery :)

The magic act already responded that they will come!

 

Rick

[doug52]

Rick, glad to hear your magician responded favorably, our magician was Garry Carson with his wife. He was an excellent entertainer and was great at our M and G.

 

Have a great cruise!

 

Doug

[trbarton]

Good luck!

Was talking about this last night. Apparently your Princess meeting coordinator person can be very helpful in this regard. They can provide a list with way more names than is in the Patter.

 

I think I'm still going to sit down with the Patter on embarkation day (Tomorrow :D ) and write invitations until tired, or I run out of stationery :)

The magic act already responded that they will come!

 

Rick

 

Rick:

 

If your interested I have templates of letters that I use for all of my meetings. I just designed one for the entertainers. If you would like to see what I use please email me at trbarton743@aol.com and I will send you what I have.

 

Tom:)

[Times Prince]

Reading this thread I am confronted by several questions.

1. What is the purpose of the Meet and Greet? Isn't it so that those of us on the Roll Call can put faces with the names we've seen on CC, and to make contact with our new friends?
   
2. What are our expectations for ship's officers and staff? In my invitations to them I've listed the possible size of the group. If they want they have the opportunity to welcome and/or talk either to the group or 1:1. Most chose to interact 1:1. In one case the Captain arrived and I asked what his preference was, and he responded that he'd like to just talk with individuals - and this was immediately followed by one of the other organizers noticing the Captain, announcing him and shoving a mic into his hands, which I found to be rather insensitive.
   
3. What kind of response do we expect from an invitation? I've received everything from no response, to phone message, to written note, to verbal message though another officer, to them showing up when they could. In one case the Passenger Services Coordinator showed up just long enough to explain that she and the Captain had other commitments (3 marriages) - which was an extraordinary response.
   
4. What kind of commitment do we, as Cruise Critic members, make to the Meet & Greet? While I know that plans change, I have also written invitations to officers giving a group size, only to have less than 1/4 show up (OK this is my own pet peeve...).
   

[Cruisin' Chick]

Reading this thread I am confronted by several questions.

1. What is the purpose of the Meet and Greet? Isn't it so that those of us on the Roll Call can put faces with the names we've seen on CC, and to make contact with our new friends?
   
2. What are our expectations for ship's officers and staff? In my invitations to them I've listed the possible size of the group. If they want they have the opportunity to welcome and/or talk either to the group or 1:1. Most chose to interact 1:1. In one case the Captain arrived and I asked what his preference was, and he responded that he'd like to just talk with individuals - and this was immediately followed by one of the other organizers noticing the Captain, announcing him and shoving a mic into his hands, which I found to be rather insensitive.
   
3. What kind of response do we expect from an invitation? I've received everything from no response, to phone message, to written note, to verbal message though another officer, to them showing up when they could. In one case the Passenger Services Coordinator showed up just long enough to explain that she and the Captain had other commitments (3 marriages) - which was an extraordinary response.
   
4. What kind of commitment do we, as Cruise Critic members, make to the Meet & Greet? While I know that plans change, I have also written invitations to officers giving a group size, only to have less than 1/4 show up (OK this is my own pet peeve...).
   

 

Being on both ends of the planning (from being the one to contact the CD and co-make the final decision; as well as hand write invites to the roll callers and deliver those to cabins for the MnG set up by the CD...to being just someone who got invited to the MnG's and only made one), I'm in the "don't sweat it" school of thought. If officers, etc., make it, fine, but to me, it's more about meeting those who have been posting on the roll calls for months. (BTW, I'm not interested in the roll call for setting up private excursions as our port time is for our family)