Cruise Critic Get Togethers Aboard Ship

[BEAV]

We sailed Westerdam Nov 6-13 and unfortunately missed the Cruise Critic gathering. Lifeboat drill was at 4:15pm, sailaway at 5:00 and the Cruise Critic gathering sandwiched somewhere in between. We sailed in an aft cat S and hosted a sailaway party on our deck for friends traveling with us. It was necessary to tend to some details of our sailaway party immediately after the lifeboat drill, and thus missed the gathering way up front in the Crow's Nest.

 

I just read a thread on another cruise line board where a group of Cruise Critic folks were also supposed to meet up between lifeboat drill and sailaway, however it never happened because the drill was delayed. Now they're all trying to connect with one another aboard ship by posting a thread at Cruise Critic, hoping to catch even a few of their fellow cruisers.

 

All this is to ask when and where did the tradition of Cruise Critic gatherings occuring between lifeboat drill and sailaway begin? It seems to be pretty standard no matter which cruise line you sail. The only exception being Royal Caribbean & Celebrity who actually sponsor the Cruise Critic gatherings. Our experience is they schedule the meeting sometime during the first day at sea, which has always worked out very well.

 

In my opinion, embarkation day is tough for meeting your fellow cruisemates. Too much going on between getting settled in your stateroom, unpacking, tending to dining, tour and/or spa arrangements, etc.

 

Anyone else share my opinion? :confused:

 

And to our fellow cruisemates Nov 6-13, sorry we missed you! :(

[rubrrick]

We have one coming up on the Westerdam 12/04/05 cruise. We are planning to meet the day after embarkation, for a sail away from Nassau at noon time. Hope this will bring a few more CC members together.

It was a joint decision of our group, and don't know how it will turn out. We have about 22 to 25 signed up, so I would imagine that we will see 12 to 16 tops.

 

Rick

[kryos]

In my opinion, embarkation day is tough for meeting your fellow cruisemates. Too much going on between getting settled in your stateroom, unpacking, tending to dining, tour and/or spa arrangements, etc.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I usually can be counted on to miss a sailaway get-together, especially if I've flown to the port of embarkation that very morning. I am usually exhausted when I arrive onboard, and generally fall asleep until lifeboat drill. By the time the drill is over, I'm rushing to get my carryons unpacked so that I can find something to wear for dinner. If I'm lucky, my luggage has arrived by that point too. By the time I manage to get back up on deck for sailaway, I'm about an hour late and a dollar short. The Cruise Critic get-together has long dispersed.

 

What we did on my last Princess cruise that I think was a good idea is that we set up a "get together" each sea day for breakfast in the dining room. We would meet outside the dining room at a certain time. Whoever could make it that day showed up. So we often had different people each day. We told the Matri 'd that we were cruise critics, so if others wandered by looking for us, he could point them in our direction.

 

A few days into the cruise we moved the breakfast meetings to a certain spot up in the Lido, where the dress was a bit more liberal and people could wear their shorts and tank tops.

 

These types of get-togethers worked out much better because they weren't too early (since it was a sea day), and people do have to eat anyway, right? :)

 

Maybe a similar arrangement will work best for your group on a future cruise ...

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[Ziggy7]

We had 2 meetings set up, one after the drill and the second one our first sea day, but I like the breakfast one too :)

[Aussie Gal]

On our Maasdam cruise in July we all met the day after we sailed as it was a sea day and chose 2pm in the Piano Bar which worked out for most of us.

 

On our Regal Princess sailing in 5 weeks time we are meeting again the day after we sail at 5pm in one of the bars.

 

I do think that meeting on the first day of embarkation is far too hard especially if cruisers have travelled far and if some are on early sitting, there is just not enough time to fit everything in.

 

Jennie

[michmike]

I'm in agreement that things are simply too chaotic the day of sailing to try to arrange a meeting. The past 2 cruises we have met in the Dolphin Bar poolside either on a sea day (when that occurred the day after sailing) or as someone else suggested, in the afternoon after a morning stop in nassau. Much more relaxed that way.

 

We have an upcoming cruise in January and while we haven't set it in stone as yet, we're talking via roll call w/ some others who will be onboard and will likely meet on the day following sailing as that is a sea day.

[richcrow]

I totally agree with you about not scheduling get-togethers around life boat drill times. On our Zuiderdam cruise, we had our first get-together at 9:30pm for after dinner drinks on the first evening. We also had a second get-together at 5:30pm on the second evening for before dinner drinks. Everyone had such a good time together that we had another meeting on the last evening for a farewell drink. The first and last meeting was in the Crow's Nest and the second one was in the Ocean Bar Lounge.

 

Richard

[Deb C.]

You may be in luck IF HAL's new policy continues throughout their fleet....They sponsored a Cruise Critic get-together for us at noon on the 1st sea day earlier this month on the Veendam. It was a total surprise for us.

 

We had already met after muster on the embarkation day with a good turnout.

 

In the Daily Paper that night, they let us know of the CC party in the Crow's Nest at noon for the next day.The CD and Hotel Manager were present for a Q and A. They served appetizers and champagne (I even got 3 Cokes).

 

They said they were just starting them and would see how things went. I later wrote a 'thank-you" note to John Challenger (CD) for having the CC party for us, and hoped they could continue them for future passengers!

 

Good luck with your CC get-togethers!! Bon voyage!! Deb C.

[Randyk47]

I was first introduced to CC Sailaway gatherings by our fellow CC'er Lougee1043. Lou put together an informal gathering on the Oosterdam and we met at the aft pool after the lifeboat drill. It was a very small group, not a lot of CC'ers on that particular cruise, so it was no big deal for the 8 or so of us to gather. It also helped that we all have late seating for dinner so we had 2-3 to kill before we had to clean up. Other than that we had no other gathering. This year we all sailed on the Galaxy out of Galveston and had a huge group....like 90+....signed up through CC. We had an informal sailaway after the boat drill and 30 or so showed up. Celebrity hosted a formal gathering on the first full day and 60-70 CC'ers showed up. It was nice and I'd like to see HAL do the same so the posting by Deb C. is encouraging. Of course, it means that HAL CC'ers have to get more organized! :) Right now there are only 6 or so folks claiming to be on our Volendam cruise, at least that's all that have spoke up on our roll call.

[RuthC]

Basicly, I agree with you that sail-away is not the best time for a CC get-together, but that is not always the case. I think that the size of the group can have an impact.

The last three years I have taken long cruises, the first day was at sea, and there were large groups---perfect situation for a get-together the day after sailing.

Back in '02 tomc and I were the only ones planning to meet, so a brief how-de-do at sail-away was fine.

As long as the folks on a particular sailing are in agreement as to the time and place that's what really matters.

[Bill S]

I agree that having a CC get-together on embarkation day is not the best time for us. Between unpacking, life-boat drill and early seating, it is challenging to be relaxed for such a get-together.

One the last few cruises, we have been fortunate that most other CCers have agreed to meet for lunch on the first full day. It is a more relaxed time and not much else is going on in the way of scheduled activities. Plus, I always pick up the tab for lunch for everyone!! Sweet deal all the way around!

[TidePrideGA]

We're sailing in less than 2 weeks and we're planning our first GTG around the orange cabana on HMC (our first full day) and our second on our first sea day in the Crow's Nest at 4:30. We all agreed sailaway wasn't convenient.

[wgeddings]

I agree that it is tough to make it to a meeting on sail away day but it is nice to put faces with names and have people to wave at. On the Zuiderdam last week, we had very poor turn out at the sail away meeting although the Hotel Manager (James Deering) was there with the invitation and checking off names and cabins. He scheduled another Q&A session on our second sea day and even though he sat answering questions for almost 2 hours, there were very few of us there since most others were tied up in activities like ballroom dancing, etc.

 

It is great that some Hotel Directors are scheduling in the sessions with Cruise Critic members but we were told that it cannot become official since only RCCL and NCL (I think those 2) have the right to list or advertise CC meetings ahead of time. Still hopefully it will continue and it was nice to know that most cruise line execs do follow these boards as a source for good feedback and honest assessments of the good and bad. Think of how much it would cost them to try to pay for this type of information.

[RevNeal]

Beav,

 

Sure missed meeting you on the Westerdam. :(

You're right about the timing ... it can be difficult.

 

Perhaps we should plan a sea-day meeting. Some time when nearly everyone can get free for it.

[kryos]

I do think that meeting on the first day of embarkation is far too hard especially if cruisers have travelled far and if some are on early sitting, there is just not enough time to fit everything in.

I didn't even think of that ... cause on Princess I had late seating.

 

Luckily on my Amsterdam cruise next month, the few people on our roll call are probably gonna meet up for dinner in San Diego the night before. Then, a couple of us on early seating have arranged to sit at the same table for dining too.

 

That's the nice thing about a smaller ship. You tend to see people around the ship and on excursions all the time too. With a bigger ship ... or even worse yet one of those mega ships some of the other lines have ... you could very well never lay eyes on a roll call member after meeting them at the CC gathering. At least to me, it's nice to see familiar faces around the ship as everyone goes about their daily sea day routines.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita

[kakalina]

We were on the Veendam for 45 days on a b2b and the ships Captain Russel-Dunford, and CD John Challenger had a total of 3 CC get togethers. The first cruise a 30 day Amazon/Panama had about 35 or 40 CC'ers who received an invite over the boards from the CD. The first one went so well, they had champagne, appetizers, your choice of drinks, and the HM came in to visit it wasn't meant to be a Q&A just a social welcome to the ship and everyone enjoyed it a great deal and meeting each other was grand. It went so well that they had a "farewell" meeting the next to the last day on-board and more people showed up than for the original meeting.

JJ told you about the second meeting for the Caribbean part of the cruise.