Can 25 cruisers be wrong? Meet&Mingle Registration Website is inactive while 25 made it?

[HeinBloed]

I am onboard CELEBRITY REFLECTION. We are more than 25 registered guests.

 

They said they have no information from the shoreside about our wish to have a meeting and that the registration website is still inactive.

 

I told them it could not be more than 25 and we should have a party. Are 25 so wrong to use a static website?

 

Please check with Celebrity when you did the same: but connections@celebrity.com is not working either!

 

 

[Purplsmurf]

We sailed last month on Reflection. We had quite a few people signed up for meet and mingle. I think it was at least 50. We hadn’t had it and then close to the end of the cruise we were advised that we would have it, but it was around 7:30-8. We were at dinner at that time and hardly anyone showed up. It was a really dumb time to have it.

[Staci0615]

Just sailed on the Summit….over 40 signed up  never had it they said due to CoVid weren’t having it….we just made our own meet up at sail away.

[PurpleTraveller]

I was on Reflection for the June 3 cruise. We had many sign up for the Cruise Critic meet up but no-one received any information about the time or location of the meet up. Someone on the roll call made enquiries with the Captain's Club and was told that the officers were waiting for us on the first sea day but no-one turned up. A definite miscommunication.

[NJ Gal]

We were on the Summit in May. Many had signed up for the C/C party.  It was not held.  I was told that they did not get the list & that is why it was not held.  

[travlr21]

We were on the June 5 sailing of the Eclipse. We did not sign up for CC party. However, on the Monday morning sea day we were at reception around 9AM asking about something. I saw a pile of CC invites over the counter. I believe it was for 10:15 that morning. So someone knew about it, but the invites would never have been delivered in time.

[HeinBloed]

We are "lucky": the Concierge and the Captain tried to offer us a great "substitute" (which is much more better than a Connections Party)... only problem: I have no list of the others' cabin number to reach them and obviously the others have such a good time that they are not logging in to check the postings on cruisecritic.com. Sorry for them... But here with us: they excused for the mass and found a great solution.

 

[bEwAbG]

Maybe they will put a listing in the daily paper?  I would ask if they would.  If not, there is also usually an activities board where you can list the event and people who check it know it's going to happen.  

[Host Anne]

I have a message into our community manager about this topic.  She is off for the holiday weekend.  As soon as I hear back, I'll post the info here.

 

 

[groryjm]

20 minutes ago, Host Anne said:

I have a message into our community manager about this topic.  She is off for the holiday weekend.  As soon as I hear back, I'll post the info here.

 

 

Not quite in time for us as we sail on Monday and have 29 registered for the meet and greet.

 

I will try to contact the CC host when we board, but most people on roll calls tend to disapear and go off line once they board due to high WiFi costs, and wlll I post on our rollcall any timings for meet ups. These meet ups are the finale of months together on our CC roll calls and  much valued.

 

[HeinBloed]

The answer from cruisecritic:

 

Von: cc.help <help@cruisecritic.com>
Gesendet: Freitag, 1. Juli 2022 19:48
An: 
Betreff: Re: Celebrity Meet and Mingle

 

They must be accessing an old link   These parties are paused at this time

 

And my answer:

 

 

Well:

 

 You should not publish such links:

 

 

 

 

Maybe you should check your own website which confuses us members!

 

Regards

HeinBloed

 

 

 

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, HeinBloed said:

The answer from cruisecritic:

 

Von: cc.help <help@cruisecritic.com>
Gesendet: Freitag, 1. Juli 2022 19:48
An: 
Betreff: Re: Celebrity Meet and Mingle

 

They must be accessing an old link   These parties are paused at this time

 

 

Thanks for this.  It's hard to understand how we could be accessing an old link, since the links were affirmatively removed or inactivated at some point during the pandemic, I can't recall exactly which.  But I do recall there was also an affirmative statement that the Connections Parties had been paused.  More recently, the link became active AND there was no statement about the Parties being "paused," and thus lots of folks on many sailings were able to and did register.  (We have more than 60 already registered for the Silhouette TA, and that's not until October.)

 

So did Cruise Critic actually reactivate a link enabling registration for Parties that are still not happening?  🙄

 

I just took a look at the Celebrity Roll Calls forum and (unless I missed them) it looks like there are no links to register now (but no statement about the Parties still being paused, which is still the case in the RCI Roll Calls when you click on the "Meet & Mingle" link). 

[Luvcrusn]

If you go to the X website and enter Connections Party into the search bar and click enter, the first search result takes you to a page to sign up. There you enter your reservation #, last name, email address and ship and sail date. When you fill that out you get an immediate email response telling you you've made a connection and that as of that date there are x number of guests registered and that there needs to be 25 guests in order for the event to take place. Some on our Roll Call for a December cruise have successfully registered that way. Others receive a message that they must be booked on the cruise in order to sign up although they are booked. X IT is at work (or not) again!

[Arizona Wildcat]

Celebrity suspended connections parties for some months then restarted them, then suspended them and recently restarted again.  To complicate matters on cruises where there was a number of covid cases on the prior cruise the party was not held.

Totally suggest setting up a place and time for a sailaway and a M&G.  Ask people to wear a name badge from anything.

[goofysmom99]

They're still having the Captain's Club gathering where they announce the top cruiser.  Those are always in the daily.  I would imagine all roll call participants are Captain's Club members so, for the time being, you could remind your roll call to be sure to go.  

[dani negreanu]

We were on Beyond, June 13 cruise. Had 86 registered. The registration was like in "normal" times, and we received an email confirmation of the "connections party".

 

The first day of our cruise was a sea day -- ideally suited for this party. Nothing.

 

Celebrity Beyond guest services: "we can't access the list of those registered"....

 

Common, X, you should come with a much better reply than this...

[Turtles06]

20 hours ago, Host Anne said:

I have a message into our community manager about this topic.  She is off for the holiday weekend.  As soon as I hear back, I'll post the info here.

 

 

Thanks for looking into this. From the comments after yours, there now appears to be some confusion as to whether Cruise Critic reactivated a dead link to register for the parties although they are still paused, or whether CC and Celebrity think the parties  have resumed but the registration info is not getting to the ships. 
 

It would be great if this can get cleared up. Thanks so much for helping; have a wonderful holiday weekend!  

[Luvcrusn]

41 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

Thanks for looking into this. From the comments after yours, there now appears to be some confusion as to whether Cruise Critic reactivated a dead link to register for the parties although they are still paused, or whether CC and Celebrity think the parties  have resumed but the registration info is not getting to the ships. 
 

It would be great if this can get cleared up. Thanks so much for helping; have a wonderful holiday weekend!  

I signed up successfully directly on the X website for the Connections Party, and didn't use the CC links. I got a confirmation email. Others on our roll call tried the same method a few months later and got confusing messages back stating that they could only sign up if they were booked on the cruise (which they were). Furthermore the email address to contact them on the X website results in the email being returned as undeliverable.

[Turtles06]

26 minutes ago, Luvcrusn said:

I signed up successfully directly on the X website for the Connections Party, and didn't use the CC links. I got a confirmation email.

 

I think it's been pretty well established that the sign up link on the X web site is working in that it's taking registration information and people are getting confirming emails.  (All that the CC link does is direct you to that page of the X web site.)  But that doesn't mean any humans are involved on Celebrity's end nor that the Connections Parties have actually restarted.   So it will be helpful to know what @Host Anne is able to find out.

[analini]

I signed up for the Meet and Mingle for the August 8 sailing of the Beyond early this morning using the registration form on the Celebrity website, and received a confirmation email.  When I submitted the registration form, a message on the Celebrity website was displayed, which said that 25 people were signed up.

[Host Anne]

Sent a message last night.  I probably won't hear anything before Tuesday.  I will post as soon as I get a response.  Enjoy the holiday weekend if you are in the USA

[osborne66]

Our Cruise on the Eclipse in Oct now numbers over a 100 for the Cruise Critic Party and has been going up daily for the past fortnight. Hopefully Anne gets everything sorted out with Celebrity but I have everybody's E mail address and we're meeting for a huge Sailaway party 

[Host Anne]

Hi everyone ~ unfortunately I do not have good news.  I did not receive good new from our Cruise Critic Community Manager.  Celebrity is not hosting Cruise Critic parties onboard at this time.   I mentioned that a link on Celebrity's website is working and allowing people to register.  I suggested that she discusses this with Celebrity and suggest that they make that link inactive until they are doing parties again.

 

I cannot find any link here on Cruise Critic when I'm on the roll calls for various cruises that I have coming up in the next six months.  If you see a link on a roll call (without searching for a link, that is) please let me know and I'll pass that along.  Cruise Critic does not activate any links on Celebrity's website.  

 

For now, my recommendation is to select a location and time on your roll call for a get together.  Avoid lounges that are typically used during the day for ship activities.  If you select somewhere outdoors for sailaway or something earlier in the morning (say 9:00 AM) on a sea day, you can likely avoid other ship activities.

 

I'm very sorry that the parties aren't back up and running.  As soon as I hear they are, I'll post about it.

 

 

[dani negreanu]

31 minutes ago, Host Anne said:

If you see a link on a roll call (without searching for a link, that is) please let me know and I'll pass that along.  Cruise Critic does not activate any links on Celebrity's website.  

 

That was the link we used for registering (Beyond, June 13). Of course, it is not activated now, but before the cruise it was updated with every new member registering.

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/cruise-critic-connections

 

Edit -- now, when it is posted, you can register.... ☹️

Edited July 7, 2022 by dani negreanu

[Turtles06]

54 minutes ago, Host Anne said:

Hi everyone ~ unfortunately I do not have good news.

Thanks so much for looking into this. I really appreciate your efforts.