Meet & Mingle?

[ColonyGirl2]

Any thoughts on when Viking may resume sponsoring Meet & Mingle get togethers?  We went to one on our Baltic cruise in 2019 and it was well attended by both Cruisers and Viking officers.  Very enjoyable.

I sent an email to tellus asking, but haven't heard anything yet.  I am afraid it could be come another cost cutting move as Viking provided the refreshments.  Our cruise is in August and I am hoping to arrange an informal get together for our Roll Call if Viking doesn't.

Thoughts?  

[Frenchberet]

In my experience (3 Viking Ocean cruises), the Meet & Mingles were not well attended.  Each time there were 20 people that signed up on Cruise Critic but only 4 or 5 showed up.  I felt very sorry for the crew members and staff waiting with trays of Hors d’Oeuvres and drinks.  I think an informal gathering/meet up makes more sense.

[JDincalif]

We were fortunate to have Viking arrange a meet and mingle for 15 or so of us on the recent Viking Mars Chairman's Invitational Cruise. Although we'd contacted Viking via tellus a couple of times before sailing, it was only after meeting with Guest Services at embarkation that approval and arrangements were confirmed. Everyone who showed interest showed up! 

[Peregrina651]

6 hours ago, ColonyGirl2 said:

Any thoughts on when Viking may resume sponsoring Meet & Mingle get togethers?  We went to one on our Baltic cruise in 2019 and it was well attended by both Cruisers and Viking officers.  Very enjoyable.

I sent an email to tellus asking, but haven't heard anything yet.  I am afraid it could be come another cost cutting move as Viking provided the refreshments.  Our cruise is in August and I am hoping to arrange an informal get together for our Roll Call if Viking doesn't.

Thoughts?  

 

While Viking provides the hospitality, Cruise Critic is the organizer of the "Meet & Mingle" and we won't see official "Meet & Mingles" until Cruise Critic resumes them. Currently, all M&M are paused, not just on Viking, so this is not a cost cutting move on Viking's part.

 

I would think that there are a number of hurdles before Cruise Critic will be ready to resume. First and foremost, the cruise line has to agree that it is okay to resume them.  My gut says that it will be later rather than sooner, certainly not until we see how the most recent changes to air and sea protocols effect the health of passengers on board.

 

 

[Azulann]

Hope CC brings them back  by 2023. Our pre covid " meet and greets "were well attented and so fun in the Wintergarden .  

If one has a good room call it is even better. My current roll call is dismal. I think more people are doing the FB thingy when they book a cruise  which is not my cup of tea. 

[NewSalty]

I recently signed up for one on an Oct. 2022 Azamara cruise, organized by/thru Cruise Critic.  So they would appear to be resuming these on a line-by-line basis...

[Peregrina651]

54 minutes ago, Azulann said:

I think more people are doing the FB thingy when they book a cruise  which is not my cup of tea. 

 

I could never figure out why people would want to to talk about future travel plans, dates and all, in a forum where they are posting under their actual names.

 

1 minute ago, NewSalty said:

I recently signed up for one on an Oct. 2022 Azamara cruise, organized by/thru Cruise Critic.  So they would appear to be resuming these on a line-by-line basis...

 

Interesting. I checked the Meet and Mingle tab last night and it says that Online registration for M&M is paused.  

[Clay Clayton]

18 hours ago, Frenchberet said:

In my experience (3 Viking Ocean cruises), the Meet & Mingles were not well attended.  Each time there were 20 people that signed up on Cruise Critic but only 4 or 5 showed up.  I felt very sorry for the crew members and staff waiting with trays of Hors d’Oeuvres and drinks.  I think an informal gathering/meet up makes more sense.

Sorry to hear that. On our four ocean cruises we had the exact opposite. Each time it was basically standing room only in the Winter Garden!

[CCWineLover]

3 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Sorry to hear that. On our four ocean cruises we had the exact opposite. Each time it was basically standing room only in the Winter Garden!

Clay - on each one of our four pre-COVID ocean cruises on Viking, we had the same experience - very well attended!   We had them all in the Winter Garden as well and it was overflowing!  And the drinks and appetizers were flowing as well.  All of them were great parties, ranging from perhaps 40 to 90 people.

However, I have heard of reports on other cruises where very few show up and it was embarasing for those who did, as Viking had all this food and drinks and hardly anyone there.

 

My guess is they won't be back until at least 2023 - and perhaps they could set it up so people could sign up for them ahead of time.  Even with no-shows, that would at least give them an idea of how many people might attend, and solve any attendance issues.

[Peregrina651]

58 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

and perhaps they could set it up so people could sign up for them ahead of time.  Even with no-shows, that would at least give them an idea of how many people might attend, and solve any attendance issues.

 

We have always had to sign up in advance, using a link here on Cruise Critic. That is what makes it so embarrassing: people signing up then not bothering to show up. Viking wasn't guessing how many would attend; they had a list of names to work from.

 

Invitations were delivered to our cabins (with date, time and location). As a private party, the M&M was never listed in the Dailies, so the only way to know when and where was via the invitation.

[CCWineLover]

35 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

We have always had to sign up in advance, using a link here on Cruise Critic. That is what makes it so embarrassing: people signing up then not bothering to show up. Viking wasn't guessing how many would attend; they had a list of names to work from.

 

Invitations were delivered to our cabins (with date, time and location). As a private party, the M&M was never listed in the Dailies, so the only way to know when and where was via the invitation.

Peregrina - you are so right!  COVID must have given me a brain fade - I had forgotten about that since it has been well over 2 years ago! 🙂.  I do remember all the invitations going out.

So, maybe there would be a way to have people "reconfirm" their planned attendance, perhaps by dropping something back off at Guest Services.   I imagine lots of the no shows come from 1) people who forget what day it is or 2) they find something better to do and figure no big deal.   Both of which are not good.

I guess we've been lucky on our cruises that we've had some good people who are prompt and conscientious and who considered attending this private party an honor and a privilege.

[molymoo]

5 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

We have always had to sign up in advance, using a link here on Cruise Critic. That is what makes it so embarrassing: people signing up then not bothering to show up. Viking wasn't guessing how many would attend; they had a list of names to work from.

 

Invitations were delivered to our cabins (with date, time and location). As a private party, the M&M was never listed in the Dailies, so the only way to know when and where was via the invitation.

On two occasions we signed up for M&M but never received an invitation so assumed they had been canceled for some reason.  Did go to guest services the first time and the young lady there was trying to be helpful but had no idea what I was talking about.  Please know that in some cases it wasn’t a matter of “not bothering to show up”.  

Edited June 25, 2022 by molymoo

[DGHOC]

On 6/24/2022 at 5:34 AM, JDincalif said:

We were fortunate to have Viking arrange a meet and mingle for 15 or so of us on the recent Viking Mars Chairman's Invitational Cruise. Although we'd contacted Viking via tellus a couple of times before sailing, it was only after meeting with Guest Services at embarkation that approval and arrangements were confirmed. Everyone who showed interest showed up! 

And how lovely it was too! Thanks J for all of your hard work in organising it!

 

The comment here about the staff lingering with a low turnout is true. There were a good few of us and I could see that we were going to be contentedly chatting for a while whilst the waiters bearing canapés and trays of bubbly were just stood aside waiting. I suggested that they just lay the platters and drinks on the tables between us so they didn't have to wait for hours. They were hesitant to do so but were finally persuaded.

 

Despite no M and Ms at the moment, as ever, Viking sent the usual message invites to our cabins and looked after us very well.

[Clay Clayton]

8 hours ago, molymoo said:

On two occasions we signed up for M&M but never received an invitation so assumed they had been canceled for some reason.  Did go to guest services the first time and the young lady there was trying to be helpful but had no idea what I was talking about.  Please know that in some cases it wasn’t a matter of “not bothering to show up”.  

I heard of similar on one (or maybe two) of our cruises. Someone on our rollcall (sometimes me) has always posted the time and date once the invitation is received just in case everyone didn’t get one or it got overlooked on the tray with all the other Viking paraphernalia. 

[vabeachlady]

We are going on Viking Venus at the end of Jan 2023 and am hoping they do start doing the Meet and Mingles again.  Looks like we have a fun group of people going by the roll call.  Would love to be able to say hi to people.  

 

The Meet and Mingle's on Viking that I've attended have been very well attended.  On one voyage, we ended up having 2 M&M's because several people complained that they didn't get the invite.  Way to go Viking!  

 

Keeping fingers crossed they start up soon!

[Azulann]

This was the reply from Host Ann, on the Celebrity board ,when I inquired about when CC will start M& Greet, yesterday.
"It's not up to Cruise Critic.  It is up to the cruise line.  If I hear of anything I will post it here but thus far, I don't have any additional information."

 

So I suggest  someone on a roll call  contact Viking about two months before sailing and try to set it up  on the ship your cruise.  I plan to do it with my roll call  next Spring.  

Edited August 28, 2022 by Azulann