Cruise Critic Party

[blackpool belle]

How do I contact the Cruise Director of the Golden to organise an "official" party/get together for everybody on our roll call? I attended one last year but was not the organiser so dont have a clue how to go about it. Do I start by contacting Princess and asking them to pass my request on? Has anybody else been successful in arranging a private party?

[spongerob]

I arranged one on board simply by speaking with guest services and arranging to have bartenders present in one of the lounges that did not have a scheduled activity. That's a lot of work, and requires that you have a list of everyones' cabins so you can contact them.

 

Some CD's have been hosting parties as a matter of course. Keep your eye on the Patter or Wakey-Wakey Show to see if one is going to be scheduled.

 

The most common thing is to join a roll call and have everyone meet at a mutually agreed-upon spot on sailaway day or the first sea day.

[ccrain]

info from Princess

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Please advise your fellow cruise critic's to contact onboard services at Princess Cruises with these types of request. The ship's are busy with other priorities.

 

We at Princess Corporate offices do all the setting up of parties, meeting's etc for the various ships.

 

Princess does not sponsor complimentary cocktail parties unless it is an earned amenity. If you wish to have a party we can do a no host party (everyone pay's for their own drinks), as I have done in the past for the Cruise Critics, or a based on consumption party, billing the escort.

 

I am attaching our price list so you will know what your options are.

 

Following is a list of names and ships they coordinate with their email addresses:

 

Grand and Island Princess - Sue Tieman - stieman@princesscruises.com

Star Princess - Sergio Lopez - slopez@princesscruises.com

Coral Princess - Coleen Reyes - creyes@princesscruises.com

Diamond and Sun Princess - Diana Hall - dhall@princesscruises.com

Pacific, Tahitian Princess - Jan James - jjames@princesscruises.com

Regal and Sapphire Princess - Jenny Streeck - jstreeck@princesscruises.com

Caribbean and Sea Princess - Berda Davis - bdavis@princesscruises.com

Golden and Dawn Princess - Berna Grayer - bgrayer@princesscruises.com

 

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

[Ula]

I understand setting up a CC meeting on Princess can be stressful. I know on our last cruise a person tried and it got way to much for her.

My next cruise there are only six on roll call, and the line is known for the get togethers but they need and it is understood more people. We are having a great time planning private meetings. But there are like six of us. With that few it is exchange cabin numbers and say lets do lunch. Since we are all using the same transportation to the ship we can start there. This is a unique situation.

[Merion_Mom]

info from Princess

---------------------------

Please advise your fellow cruise critic's to contact onboard services at Princess Cruises with these types of request. The ship's are busy with other priorities.

 

We at Princess Corporate offices do all the setting up of parties, meeting's etc for the various ships.

 

Princess does not sponsor complimentary cocktail parties unless it is an earned amenity. If you wish to have a party we can do a no host party (everyone pay's for their own drinks), as I have done in the past for the Cruise Critics, or a based on consumption party, billing the escort.

 

I am attaching our price list so you will know what your options are.

 

Following is a list of names and ships they coordinate with their email addresses:

 

Grand and Island Princess - Sue Tieman - stieman@princesscruises.com

Star Princess - Sergio Lopez - slopez@princesscruises.com

Coral Princess - Coleen Reyes - creyes@princesscruises.com

Diamond and Sun Princess - Diana Hall - dhall@princesscruises.com

Pacific, Tahitian Princess - Jan James - jjames@princesscruises.com

Regal and Sapphire Princess - Jenny Streeck - jstreeck@princesscruises.com

Caribbean and Sea Princess - Berda Davis - bdavis@princesscruises.com

Golden and Dawn Princess - Berna Grayer - bgrayer@princesscruises.com

 

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

ccrain: Is this a cut-n-paste from your email from Princess, or did you re-type/paraphrase?

[ccrain]

ccrain: Is this a cut-n-paste from your email from Princess, or did you re-type/paraphrase?

 

 

A member of our roll call contacted Princess and they sent him his reply. I contacted the Island Princess (Sue Tieman) POC and set up a meet and greet for each group on each cruise. They confirmed by email and by letter in my cabin on day of embarkation.

 

The first was a very nice setup in a section of the wheelhouse bar with dry snacks and a dedicated waitress and a no-host bar. We'll see how the second one goes tomorrow.

 

It was a pretty simple process.

[pasto5]

Our group from the May13th CB cruise had a sponsored get together that was advertised on the Patters. We also had a get together planned on our own later in the day. Both were well attended and started the week off well. We managed to have a umber of events we planned spontaneously during the week that people could attend if they wanted to. It was a blast and many tears were shed as we said good bye this past Friday. One of our group made magnetic door signs for all of us which helped us find each other and most of us had posted our cabin numbers so we had a list to print out before we left.

[Psee]

Princess is still working out the bugs on CC parties but you should contact Berna (The Golden Princess coordinator) a few weeks before the cruise and she will contact the onboard staff to alert them of your party.

 

On our recent Golden cruise we decided on the Wheelhouse Lounge (the first day) and Berna confirmed it a few days before we sailed. Unfortunately the Wheelhouse staff were not alerted but after a few minutes we were accomodated and the assistant CD came by to offer any assistance. :)

[chris2597]

We had a wonderful Meet and Greet for The Grand 2/25 Roll Call this year. Bluey258 (Joann) arranged it. She made contact with the person listed on an above post for the ship, via email. A time and place was arranged. We had a private designated area in The Wheelhouse Bar with dry snacks and a pay as you go bar. Those interested on The Roll Call emailed Joann their names and cabin #'s and of course their email addresses. We had a fun group and enjoyed the initial M and G....a second meeting was planned mid week in The Wheelhouse Bar and on Fri the CD, Neal Chandler hosted a Champagne Party for CC pax's. The announcement was made on his Wacky wacky show and was in Patter's.

We really appreciated Joann setting up the initial meeting but I dont think it was unduly stressful....The PCL rep she contacted made it fairly seamless.

[Pam in CA]

CC parties really depend on the CD. Richard Joseph on the Island Princess is great about putting together get-togethers. He said that the best thing to do is to contact him when you board and let him know when your roll call group is scheduled. He'll stop by and get names, cabin #s, etc. and arrange for a special party. One comment he made is that emailing or sending him a message ahead of time would get lost in the shuffle -- he's too busy while on the cruise to read a lot of email but he's more than happy to accommodate groups once he knows you're onboard. He arranged a party with mimosas for us in the Explorer's Lounge and had some of the entertainers stop by.

 

On our Royal Princess cruise last year, one person arranged with the Maitre D to have two luncheons. It was a 21-day cruise and the Maitre D set aside an area in the dining room just for us.

[jrobinso]

I agree, we just got off the Island last week. We had a very active CC roll call group. A frequent cruiser from our group (colocruiser) contacted CD Richard Joseph who in turn did arrange a wonderful get together for all of us. Thank you so much to Keith and Richard Joseph, it made for a memorable cruise. All in all we had 3 CC get togethers, it was wonderful. Are all the other ships as accomodating of CC groups?

[chris2597]

As I said, we were on The Grand and found the CD and his staff to be extremely accomodating of our CC group. I think they read CC to get the scoop on what pax's are saying....As most of you know....reviews, remarks and comments are usually very candid among the CC members....If you want to know what is going on with a particular cruise....CC is the place to find out....Enquiring minds want to know...hehehehehe..

[custompcsys]

For our upcoming Star Baltic cruise next month, I e-mailed John Lawrence directly (he has a web site where he sells Baltic port DVDs, etc). He answered back stating that he has a standing CC get-together on the first sea day of every Baltic cruise which is announced in the Patters, so no need to do anything in particular.

 

I agree with the other posts - it really depends on the CD.

[jplewis]

To echo Jrobinso above - we were on the same cruise and were very pleased at the way CC's were treated. Richard Joseph did a great job of putting together a meet & greet with mimosa's, etc. We appreciate it very much. Also, Jean "critterchick" did a great job of making name tags for us.

[ccrain]

We're on the Island right now and Richard has contacted us to arrange a special party for the CC'ers on board.

 

I think Princess is coming around to the Celebrity Point of View about us..

[critterchick]

I'll echo the thanks to Richard Joseph for our official party on the Island Princess! I had emailed Sue Tieman for a sailaway party for our group, and she arranged to have a section of the Wheelhouse Bar reserved for us for one hour (we stayed for 2!). Then jrobinson emailed her and got us another party in Crooners later in the cruise. Both were no-host bars with "dry snacks" (pretzels and peanuts). Then colocruiser contacted Richard once we were on board, and he arranged for a champagne/mimosa party, which included those drinks plus canapes, and several members of the ship's entertainment staff. Richard also stopped by to say hello. It was really a memorable event.

 

Two tips: First, make sure you get everybody's cabin number. Many people don't want to post them publicly on a Roll Call, so you might try to designate one organizer on your roll call to collect them via email or once you're onboard. Several members of our Roll Call didn't know about the party that was arranged after we were onboard because there was no cabin number to deliver the invitation to. Also, the name badges were a big help in putting names to faces (not tooting my own horn, really!;) )

[MoonPet]

We had a wonderful Meet and Greet for The Grand 2/25 Roll Call this year. Bluey258 (Joann) arranged it. She made contact with the person listed on an above post for the ship, via email. A time and place was arranged. We had a private designated area in The Wheelhouse Bar with dry snacks and a pay as you go bar. Those interested on The Roll Call emailed Joann their names and cabin #'s and of course their email addresses. We had a fun group and enjoyed the initial M and G....a second meeting was planned mid week in The Wheelhouse Bar and on Fri the CD, Neal Chandler hosted a Champagne Party for CC pax's. The announcement was made on his Wacky wacky show and was in Patter's.

We really appreciated Joann setting up the initial meeting but I dont think it was unduly stressful....The PCL rep she contacted made it fairly seamless.

 

I was on the Grand the week before you and had an equally wonderful Meet and Greet and CC party on board.

[Pam in CA]

We're on the Island right now and Richard has contacted us to arrange a special party for the CC'ers on board.

 

I think Princess is coming around to the Celebrity Point of View about us..

Hmmm... not sure about Princess but Richard Joseph is definitely aware of Cruise Critic and goes out of his way to welcome us.

[chris2597]

There were a couple sentences during the week in Patter's about CC....The first being the Meet and Greet for CruiseCritics in The Wheelhouse on embarkation day, then another M and G for CC in Wed. patters....Several of us that met during the M and G would meet at the Aft pool, Horizon Court, Wheelhouse for before dinner cocktails, and then dinner throughout the week. On more than one occasion when we were together in a group of 5-8 couples...we heard other pax's whispering...."there goes the cruise critics"....or "those are the cruise critics"....We all got a good chuckle out of that....especially since we heard it more than a couple times...It appeared CC was taken literally....I guess they really were buzzing when Patter's announced that there would be a CC champagne party.....

[Tinknock50]

There were a couple sentences during the week in Patter's about CC....The first being the Meet and Greet for CruiseCritics in The Wheelhouse on embarkation day, then another M and G for CC in Wed. patters....Several of us that met during the M and G would meet at the Aft pool, Horizon Court, Wheelhouse for before dinner cocktails, and then dinner throughout the week. On more than one occasion when we were together in a group of 5-8 couples...we heard other pax's whispering...."there goes the cruise critics"....or "those are the cruise critics"....We all got a good chuckle out of that....especially since we heard it more than a couple times...It appeared CC was taken literally....I guess they really were buzzing when Patter's announced that there would be a CC champagne party.....

 

LOL......I had the same experience on the Island. I was doing a zipline tour in Ketchikan and one of the guides said "so you are a cruise critic?".

 

I explained its only a group ....not my job. :)

[Tinknock50]

I'll echo the thanks to Richard Joseph for our official party on the Island Princess! I had emailed Sue Tieman for a sailaway party for our group, and she arranged to have a section of the Wheelhouse Bar reserved for us for one hour (we stayed for 2!). Then jrobinson emailed her and got us another party in Crooners later in the cruise. Both were no-host bars with "dry snacks" (pretzels and peanuts). Then colocruiser contacted Richard once we were on board, and he arranged for a champagne/mimosa party, which included those drinks plus canapes, and several members of the ship's entertainment staff. Richard also stopped by to say hello. It was really a memorable event.

 

Two tips: First, make sure you get everybody's cabin number. Many people don't want to post them publicly on a Roll Call, so you might try to designate one organizer on your roll call to collect them via email or once you're onboard. Several members of our Roll Call didn't know about the party that was arranged after we were onboard because there was no cabin number to deliver the invitation to. Also, the name badges were a big help in putting names to faces (not tooting my own horn, really!;) )

 

Jean,

Go ahead and toot your horn! You did a great job on the tags. Jan and Colocruiser have my thanks too!

[blackpool belle]

Thank you all for your contributions to this post. I will now e-mail Berna and see if she is as accommodating as Richard was on our meet & mingle last year on the Golden. He was the best. Think I've been spoilt for future parties:D