Meet and Greet agenda

[marktwothousand]

1 hour ago, NLH Arizona said:

At one meet and greet I attended, the organizer set up a bingo game where the squares were information gathered from others prior to the sailing.  You had to go around and talk to folks to see who belonged to which square.  It was a great way for people to socialize.

This. Very easy to do and it works well, I've done it at office parties, but it would be perfect for an M&G. You fill in the 25 squares with things like:

"Someone who plays the piano"

"Someone who's been to Australia"

"Someone who lives outside of North America"

 

You go for filling all 25 squares, the one who gets the most first, wins. This way it gets people to be able to talk to each other about those things... "Ohhh you're not from North america? Where are you from?" "How long have you been playing the piano?"

 

etc.

[aajusa]

I’ve hosted two meet & greets, the first one I did a bingo game, wth questions about people on the roll call, and the intinery ( South America), the second one was a transatlantic and we had over 100 people come. We did a magnent exchange, for those who wanted to participate they brought a wrapped magnent representing their part of the world, we threw it in a hat, later everyone drew a magnet and you walked around  till you found the person who brought it.  I personally don’t like the gift exchange thing because I don’t want to waste packing space. The group activity coordinator on the ship will be around to assist, on our bingo game I bought a few prizes for the winners, ncl threw in a bottle of wine.

Have fun!

[zqvol]

On 12/15/2018 at 10:48 AM, zitsky said:

Is there an agenda for M&G, or is there just informal socializing?  This is my first and I volunteered to be organizer.  

 

The one that I just attended was a complete flop. I have been to many that are a lot of fun, but sometimes that doesn't happen. I sugget that you include a gift exchange where people bring a gift representing their home and they are put on a table. If you bring one then you get to take one. You don't have to participate. Another option is to bring some small items as prizes. Who has the most nights on a ship, Who traveled the furthest to get to the cruise, etc. The more that you can think of the more fun it will be.

[TheDougOut]

On 12/15/2018 at 4:06 PM, erdoran said:

Same question for me. Jade, 4/29/19 TA NYC to Europe, about 50 people so far. Would love ideas.

 

Transatlantics can handle quite a few planned activities due to the number of sea days.  If you’re looking for ideas, here’s what we have planned so far for the Encore transatlantic... https://www.cruiseencore.com/events/

[Linda the Book Lover]

I have done the gift exchange, the raffle (I provided CC things as gift items), and asked for volunteers to handle the slot pull and the cabin crawl. It was fun especially with the help of others which I really appreciated.

[beerman2]

On our upcoming Bliss cruise we have 137 for M&M, 75 for slot pull, 84 for Pub Crawl signed up. 

 

Will everyone show, probably not,  but the people organizing them are doing a great job.

 

 

[4774Papa]

We always go to the Meet and Greet on our cruises, with NCL, RCI or Celebrity.   NCL's are not as good as Celebrity's.

One thing, be careful about openly soliciting others for private tours.  No cruise line will like you doing this.

 

 

[Markanddonna]

I go to all the Meet and Greets/Mingles on cruises longer than 7 days. The last on the Jade was the worst. They put us in a small conference room, and we had standing-room-only and lines out the door.  It was more like an information meeting rather than a chance to meet.  This was NOT the fault of the people who organized it.

 

Personally, I don't see any benefit of inviting the officers. I was at one where the assistant CD was snarky and took control of the meeting which was in the Spinnaker Lounge.

 

The CC folks do a great job of organizing fun activities, esp the game/cards each afternoon on sea days. 

 

 

[zitsky]

I emailed the group asking about games but I know it's rather late.  We'll introduce officers, then open up to any questions, comments etc.  There is one interesting guy who is an astronomer who might want to talk.

 

Maybe NCL will have some games planned, don't know. 

[NLH Arizona]

8 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I emailed the group asking about games but I know it's rather late.  We'll introduce officers, then open up to any questions, comments etc.  There is one interesting guy who is an astronomer who might want to talk.

 

Maybe NCL will have some games planned, don't know. 

NCL will not have any games planned.  On my cruise, the officers wouldn't take any questions (said that there was a question and answer even later in the cruise), so you might want to ask them if they will take questions instead of just putting them in a position they don't want to be in.

[zitsky]

16 minutes ago, NLH Arizona said:

NCL will not have any games planned.  On my cruise, the officers wouldn't take any questions (said that there was a question and answer even later in the cruise), so you might want to ask them if they will take questions instead of just putting them in a position they don't want to be in.

 

Good idea.  I never thought they would refuse questions.

[casofilia]

We'll introduce officers, then open up to any questions, comments etc. 

 

A couple of points.  You will have an on board contact; have a good discussion with him/her of what you intend.  Bring up the idea of questions.  It also helps to discuss with the HD the idea of questions too.

 

You should introduce the leader of the officers, usually the HD, and allow him/her to introduce his/her officers.

 

In my emails to those who have indicated personally that they will attend I clearly lay out what I think they will accept as a question.   The main thing is that they should not be individual problems nor anti-NCL statements either of which should be raised at some other time with a specific officer.  There is nothing more likely to get the officers leaving.  

If they do take questions I start with a "patsy" to get things going. 

[josephmz]

 

I have organized M&Gs on big and small ships. Last one on Escape we had 80 or 90 attend. As usual some will sign up and not show, and you may get some who didn't sign up show up.

 

I typically set up an e-mail account and request that people sign up on there. I ask for names, state of residence and cc screen names. Just because they are on the roll call, doesn't mean they will attend. From that list, I do name badges with picture of ship. Once I get time and location info from NCL,

I do an online invitation to those registered with the schedule of events. You might ask someone on the roll call to volunteer to do slot pull.

I do a winner take all cash raffle - $5.00 entry - 3 chances for $10.00. I also spend some money for door prizes.

total out of pocket about $100.00.

 

[mking8288]

It's been a while since the ship's officers basically all stopped doing Q&A, probably for last 3 years as I think the last M&G with "friendly" quesitons answered was 2015, maybe it was 2014.  

 

As the designated contact person for the group events liaison on the ship, they will have your name & (updated) stateroom info upon embarkation; and, will reach out to you with a welcome letter & a call to your stateroom (voicemail msg. to call back) - to briefly reconfirmed that they are ready for the CC group.  Discuss & ask for help, advice & see if it is reasonable (like doing a few "friendly" questions, which isn't the "norm" these days for the last 2 M&G that I ran)  Best to go off to the sideline if there are individual issues, matters or concerns that someone wish to get attention or help from - I was at one with maybe 75 people in attendance & trust me, 3/4 of the audience didn't appreciate listening to "rants" (or not, uncalled for) from someone.  End result, it just speed up the officer's group exodus - everyone will still have the key department head's names/calling card with extension # printed on it. 

 

As a general rule for myself - rough guide/guided by other veteran organizers before - plan for an attendance of 75% of those that signed up & expected at the M&G, take a closer look at the 1-time auto-posts and those that joined CC recently & didn't leave much of a trail to be contacted or return.  Let's face it, unless you have extra/volunteer help, it's not anyone's idea on embarkation day/evening to be making reminder calls into 50, 75 or 125 staterooms ... leaving messages on VM, "Hi, this is xxxx and .... hope to see you, bye" 

 

[zitsky]

Thanks mking.  No I'm not making 75-100 phone calls.  

 

I think it's called meet and greet so that's what we should do.

[casofilia]

There are two names; Meet & Greet or Meet & Mingle.

 

I have been to those where the organizer has done just Meet & Greet and nothing more, real flops.  I think they were just after the "supposed" perks.  I warn all of those arranging, don't expect any "perks" and you won't be disappointed!!

 

The other is the real reason I believe in getting together and I really attempt to get people to Meet & MINGLE.  Again I have been to too many that are so large that no one gets out of their seat in case they lose it!!  No mingling just talking to those at their table.

[newmexicoNita]

On 12/15/2018 at 9:48 AM, zitsky said:

Is there an agenda for M&G, or is there just informal socializing?  This is my first and I volunteered to be organizer.  

generally it is a get together and the management will be on hand to answer questions. There are several ways to handle a M&G: for us the most successful have been when the host person (which of course in you) plans more than one activity through the week: Popular group activities are gift exchange and slot pull. Other ones that some people enjoy are: last night dinner together: a couple of tours where several from the M&G group go together, and bar hopping or cabin crawl. These are just a few ideas. One thing we have done in the past was, to get bios from some of the guest and have someone with writing skills do a newspaper that can be distributed the day of the M&G. 

[RickinNYC]

Though I wasn't the initial organizer, I did lend a hand with a couple of activities.  Since the Breakaway sailed out of NYC, I had put together an NYC specific trivia game.  Can't recall the # of questions, perhaps 20/25?  In any case, I also picked up a couple of inexpensive prizes from a touristy shop nearby my office a few days prior to embarkation, i.e. gift bag with a small snowglobe, magnet, etc.  People seemed to enjoy that.

 

I also did the "bingo" game thing, i.e. each square was a question, characteristic, personal tidbit.  Things like, "been to 5 or more countries,"  or "has more than three tattoos," "been on television", etc...  Those that participated had to go around the room to chat with everyone just to fill in the squares, and if a square was attributable to someone they spoke to, that person had to initial the box.  Didn't offer a prize for that, and I explained it was simply meant as an icebreaker.  Really helped those that needed a task to feel more comfortable participating.

 

 

[Meekofigaro]

I’ve hosted a few, my last one was on the Bliss in October, we had a great roll call that everyone was very engaged.

1.We did a gift exchange, gave everyone a number when they dropped off the gift.. then at the end we drew numbers to come pick s gift.

2.We also did a Slot pull a couple hours after the meet and greet. We had a great turn out for it as well. 

3.As everyone came in and signed in, we had a sign up sheet as well to see how ,any wanted to do the pub crawl...I got with the beverage manager to let him know when and how many we had after I had an idea of how many. 

When we met a couple days later for it, he had Candize go with us from bar to bar, we were going to do three , we wended up doing six if I remember correct.  Most brought crazy hats to wear... we had a lot of fun! 

 

I had a spreadsheet that anyone who could go in and edit, made it easy to keep track how many wanted to participate for everything.

If they added the room number, I had made invites that I delivered to each room the first night we got on board. 

 

Kerry 

 

[alwalaska]

On 12/15/2018 at 4:48 PM, zitsky said:

 

We haven't talked about gifts.  Now I know why.  Maybe a raffle would be fun.

We've done magnets or other small gifts under $5 and put them behind us until it was time for the exchange.  We did Christmas ornaments for our Dec cruise.  Each person is given a number when they turn in their gift then we randomly call numbers for the exchange.

 

On longer cruises with lots of sea days we had sign-ups for other activities like a photo scavenger hunt (I learned to be more specific about the rules after I had some sore winners who in my opinion "cheated" but we let them win since I hadn't been clear enough on the rules.  Instead of taking pictures, they went to a computer, did a google search and printed pictures to hit some of the topics to an excessive level.

 

We've done a final sea day luncheon so everyone can share stories.

When we had a big group and the interest we asked a photographer to show up.  If they want to be paid, I say, so thanks and my hubby takes a photo and we share them.

 

We've done tours of 1 cabin of each type that people are willing to share with others. We try and minimize walking when organizing the tour. 

 

Most of all - have fun.

[senoragilbert]

Sorry to hijack, but I'll be scolded if I start a new topic. I'm responsible for the M&G on the Breakaway March 24 sailing. We have a couple of Haven and studio guests who have signed up and asked for a reminder invitation. My MIL is in the studios so she can help me with the other studio guests, but how can I get an invitation to the Haven guests?

 

Thanks in advance. I've lurked here for a while and used some of the great ideas on this thread already!

[erdoran]

Perhaps the Haven folks would share their emails with you?  Or if you want something written, can you go into the Haven and hand the invites to the concierge?  

[senoragilbert]

4 minutes ago, erdoran said:

 Or if you want something written, can you go into the Haven and hand the invites to the concierge?  

Am I able to get to the concierge desk without a Haven key card?

[erdoran]

Ummm...not sure come to think of it.  When you board (or that evening) can you ask Guest Services?  I'm sure they can help out!

[NLH Arizona]

59 minutes ago, senoragilbert said:

Am I able to get to the concierge desk without a Haven key card?

No, it is inside the Haven.  Get their cabin number and give them a call to remind them.