Meet And Mingle Farce

[LauraS]

and it is blank on the M&M List & no phonecall on FREE excursion for Diamond members. What a major difference from the Jewel member cruise last May.

 

First, these are two separate things -- one has nothing to do with the other.

I've been told that the party will be held on the first sea day (Monday) at 10:30 am in Olive or Twist -- spilling over to the Viking Crown lounge if necessary.

 

Also, as a "Diamond" member I didn't receive a phone call with info re: a free excursion on my Mariner of the Seas Crown & Anchor cruise. It was a 'surprise'!

[lkb125]

Did you look at the "confirmed Meet and Mingle Party List" before you left home? It is a link at the top of this forum. It should have had a date, place and time for your party, so even if you didn't get the invitation in your cabin, you would have known where it was to be held. If there was nothing listed, then RCL dropped the ball on this one.

 

I sure hope this doesn't happen for my upcoming Jewel cruise.....there would be about 140 unhappy people!!!

We had a great Meet and Mingle on the April TA, the CD on that ship Karen is her name and she did an outstanding job. I hope that yours turns out well. Lorelle

[LauraS]

It is nothing more than a gathering, no special awards, no free drinks, nothing, just several passengers who chatted online sharing their excitement and information before the cruise.

 

 

 

Um, yeah...that *is* what is it all about. Folks finally meeting each other after many months of chatting and planning their cruises. The folks I'm sailing with on FOS on 10/15 have been talking for almost two years...I can't wait to meet them and, to be truthful, having Royal Caribbean "handle" the arrangement for over 300 people is a good thing!

 

That's really what it is about. Royal Caribbean taking over and arranging a gathering place for our members.

 

Rolloman is incorrect about a few items. For the record folks - they *do* serve light refreshments -- cold appetizers or cookies -- lemonade and coffee, which is served depends upon the time of day. They do raffle off a giveaway. The new invitations are really cool -- each comes with a commemorative magnet PLUS when you attend the party each and every person gets a nice gift from Royal Caribbean. However, the staff isn't there to entertain you -- YOU ALL are the entertainment! When folks write me about how they can make their Meet & Mingle successful, the first thing I say is: DO NOT SIT DOWN. This isn't a "show" or a seminar. It is called a Meet & Mingle because that is what it is....get up, walk around, and mingle.

 

Let me assure you that the folks are Royal Caribbean are committed to our Meet & Mingle program, and the folks I'm in contact with are extremely helpful and eager to fix anything that goes wrong. Understand, too, that they ARE a huge organization and that sometimes mistakes happen.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it today and probably again -- mistakes notwithstanding, it is up to our MEMBERS to make their experience a good one.

[ginag]

Why doesn't RCL have M & M's for 5 day cruises?

[navygf]

Rolloman is incorrect about a few items. For the record folks - they *do* serve light refreshments -- cold appetizers or cookies -- lemonade and coffee, which is served depends upon the time of day. They do raffle off a giveaway. The new invitations are really cool -- each comes with a commemorative magnet PLUS when you attend the party each and every person gets a nice gift from Royal Caribbean. However, the staff isn't there to entertain you -- YOU ALL are the entertainment! When folks write me about how they can make their Meet & Mingle successful, the first thing I say is: DO NOT SIT DOWN. This isn't a "show" or a seminar. It is called a Meet & Mingle because that is what it is....get up, walk around, and mingle.

 

Thanks for the correction, Laura. On the 8/26 Empress sailing, they did put out quite a few canapes and beverages for our group. Granted, shrimp cocktail at 930am wasn't what I was expecting, but it still was nice.

 

The gift and raffle part were a nice surprise. I wasn't expecting anything except to meet the folks that I happened to meet with online. Although I only chatted with them for a couple weeks before the cruise, it was nice to put faces to screen names.

[rolloman]

Um, yeah...that *is* what is it all about. Folks finally meeting each other after many months of chatting and planning their cruises. The folks I'm sailing with on FOS on 10/15 have been talking for almost two years...I can't wait to meet them and, to be truthful, having Royal Caribbean "handle" the arrangement for over 300 people is a good thing!

 

That's really what it is about. Royal Caribbean taking over and arranging a gathering place for our members.

 

Rolloman is incorrect about a few items. For the record folks - they *do* serve light refreshments -- cold appetizers or cookies -- lemonade and coffee, which is served depends upon the time of day. They do raffle off a giveaway. The new invitations are really cool -- each comes with a commemorative magnet PLUS when you attend the party each and every person gets a nice gift from Royal Caribbean. However, the staff isn't there to entertain you -- YOU ALL are the entertainment! When folks write me about how they can make their Meet & Mingle successful, the first thing I say is: DO NOT SIT DOWN. This isn't a "show" or a seminar. It is called a Meet & Mingle because that is what it is....get up, walk around, and mingle.

 

Let me assure you that the folks are Royal Caribbean are committed to our Meet & Mingle program, and the folks I'm in contact with are extremely helpful and eager to fix anything that goes wrong. Understand, too, that they ARE a huge organization and that sometimes mistakes happen.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it today and probably again -- mistakes notwithstanding, it is up to our MEMBERS to make their experience a good one.

 

You can pump it up all you want Laura but the reality is every time I have gone with the ship invitation it turned out to be a big nothing. I understand your goal is to make it as you describe but the fact its not even close to being consistant. I think everyone will agree with me. I also think my message of set it up on your own will cover you in case the formal meeting does not work out. Just my opinion. Oh and FYI they serve light refreshments all over the ship 24/7 so how is that a big deal?

[TexasMom2]

Our M&M on the Rhapsody Sept. 4 (2nd day, 12:30pm, Moonlight Bay Lounge) was a huge success. We had canapes, tea, coffee, and prizes. There were no sales pitches, just a few jokes by the Asst. Cruise Director and thanks for coming. We had a gift exchange that was a lot of fun. We weren't expecting a huge spread or alcohol, just a dedicated space to meet and a few light refreshments. It worked out perfectly.

[Coralc]

We do disagree with you rolloman. I think the Meet & Mingles are a very nice gesture on the part of both Cruise Critic and Royal Caribbean. We have always had a nice time at them. Before M&M's we did arrange our own and people can still do that. On my current roll call the official one will be ALL we are doing. It's a different sort of a group.:D

[Gingee]

What kinds of gifts did they give?

[Pemcorgimum]

. The new invitations are really cool -- each comes with a commemorative magnet PLUS when you attend the party each and every person gets a nice gift from Royal Caribbean.

 

When did the commemorative magnet and gift start? We didn't have those on the Mariner last month.

[caroden]

Having posted the original starter thread on this post, I have been interested to see both positive and negative experiences with Meet and Mingles.

 

However, it seems that Royal Caribbean need to investigate what is going wrong with the Meet and Mingles that never get confirmed by the Miami Office to the ships concerned.

 

Until the underlying problem is addressed this thread will continue with further stories of failed Meet and Mingle parties, all being down to clerical failures at Miami by not forwarding details on of confirmed passenger lists for these parties.

 

And, I am still waiting for an acknowledgement of my complaint from Miami.

 

Carole

[grandsix]

Having posted the original starter thread on this post, I have been interested to see both positive and negative experiences with Meet and Mingles.

 

However, it seems that Royal Caribbean need to investigate what is going wrong with the Meet and Mingles that never get confirmed by the Miami Office to the ships concerned.

 

Until the underlying problem is addressed this thread will continue with further stories of failed Meet and Mingle parties, all being down to clerical failures at Miami by not forwarding details on of confirmed passenger lists for these parties.

 

And, I am still waiting for an acknowledgement of my complaint from Miami.

 

Carole

 

It appears some ships are better than others. We have experienced a hit or miss, not only on RCL, but with it's subsidiary Celebrity. I am sure you will also find that in many instances, notice of the meeting are delivered the morning of the meet & mingle when most of us are out of our cabins.

[rubrrick]

Um, yeah...that *is* what is it all about. Folks finally meeting each other after many months of chatting and planning their cruises.

That's really what it is about. Royal Caribbean taking over and arranging a gathering place for our members.

 

Let me assure you that the folks are Royal Caribbean are committed to our Meet & Mingle program, and the folks I'm in contact with are extremely helpful and eager to fix anything that goes wrong. Understand, too, that they ARE a huge organization and that sometimes mistakes happen.

 

Laura...........we had our best M & M on the Jewel this past spring, both on the transatlantic portion, where we had 2 parties, both with plenty of food, and alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages, and the ships staff went above and beyond their duties with a guessing game, where everyone was given a famous name, posted on their back, and they had to guess who they were!

 

Now we are faced with what our group thinks is going to be the worst M & M party on our upcoming Jewel trip. They want to hold this between the 1st and 2nd seating on the 3rd night out. I have written to the ship about the situation, and the first response was that they would not change it. Our group would rather forget having an M & M put on by the ship, if that is the only time for it.

 

Granted that it is not a large gathering......maybe 35 of us, compared to almost 150 on our transatlantic trip. But just because it's 35 should not matter. So, we shall see how committed RCCL is to the M & M program.

 

Rick

[rubrrick]

Let me assure you that the folks are Royal Caribbean are committed to our Meet & Mingle program, and the folks I'm in contact with are extremely helpful and eager to fix anything that goes wrong. Understand, too, that they ARE a huge organization and that sometimes mistakes happen.

 

Laura............are you aware of a mandate that says that the M & M party must take place on the first 2 days of the cruise. I just got that from the Jewel. Our cruise has a sea day on day 4, but that is out of the boundry set up for M & M's. If this is true, at least we know why they must pick some interesting times to try to provide for us.

 

Rick

[TexasMom2]

Re: gifts received from RCI....my ticket was drawn in the raffle and I got a photo album, notebook/pen, luggage tag and navy baseball cap with logo. There were about 5 other tickets drawn with multiple prizes each.

[LauraS]

Laura............are you aware of a mandate that says that the M & M party must take place on the first 2 days of the cruise. I just got that from the Jewel. Our cruise has a sea day on day 4, but that is out of the boundry set up for M & M's. If this is true, at least we know why they must pick some interesting times to try to provide for us.

 

Rick

 

I believe what they call it is a 'gold standard". Reminds me of a rule book, where various procedures are outlined from start to finish.

 

When you think about it...it makes sense to have the Meet & Mingle as early as possible in the cruise, but NOT on a port day. So, logic says: first available sea day. I'm pretty sure we can fix this one for you.

 

Please send me an e-mail with the sailing date, ship etc at lauras@cruisecritic.com.

 

Laura

[Robert Christen]

hi all,

 

We looked forward to meeting everybody but nothing happened...

 

We asked where and when it would be held but nobody at Guest Relations could give any information.

 

I thought it was a really good idea to meet up with people you have already spoken to here on the forum. The more disappointing it is when it does not take place.

 

Guest relations did not organise it even after several people asked for it. I think that if you have several pasengers asking for it they could have set it up...

 

Anyway, next time we'll organise it ourself as well so we are sure we meet up with some of the pasengers.

 

Robert & Silvia.:cool:

[superjerryw]

Having cruised with RCI for quite some time, let me address some issues about the Meet & Mingles. I have been to some that have been successful and some that have been a flop. The M&M's that were a flop were usually scheduled at ridiculous times such as one hour before dinner on formal night when all the early seating passengers need to get dressed. In other cases the meeting was a flop due to the passengers simply not showing up even though the meeting time was convenient. I remember one instance where over 50 people signed up and less than 10 showed up even though the M&M was scheduled for something like 3:00 PM on a sea day.

 

Before RCI offered to have an organized M&M, the people on this board arranged their own meetings. By arranging it ourselves, we were sure that it would be scheduled at a convenient time. We usually had them in the afternoon on a sea day so there were no conflicts with meal times and no one would have to rush out. We usually had them in Viking Crown lounge since it would be pretty empty at that time. In order to be able to identify each other we all wore a rubber band on our wrist. Hence, the parties were called rubberband parties. These rubberband parties were the forerunner of today's M&M's. The bottom line is that it's a good idea to arrange your own meeting. If the RCI sponsored M&M comes off, consider it a bonus.

[winncove]

We didn't have the magnets on the Serenade last week. I can't complain because I did win my second mouse! Also we had a nice tray of appetizers which I'd never had before [3 Mariners]. 'Guess it's like Alaska weather, you just never know. Has anyone else noticed the nice lanyards have the opening for your Sea Pass in the bottom of the clear section? We still use our old ones so we don't lose the pass! They've been out for over a year now so either no one has complained or they bought about a million of them in the beginning. :)

[kleg59]

We just returned from the Voyager Sept 16 cruise to the Med. Our M&M was confirmed by email to be Sept 17 th at 5pm (1st formal night) in the High notes lounge.

We arrived promplty at 5pm to find out it had been cancelled(no notice from RCL) and that it would be our last sea day at 1pm! About 8 of us were there so we sat and chatted for a bit.

I was not happy to learn it was changed to the last day of the cruise, what good is that?

We did receive an invitation in our cabin for the new date, but no mention of why it was changed.

We went on the 22nd {the same 8 people showed ) I believe he was the asst. cruise director(he never said who he was) was there. He was just chatting with the guests.

There was off in the corner a pitcher of water and a pitcher of lemonade. That was it nothing else!!! I wasn't expecting a buffet but was hoping for more than that!

He handed out neck wallets and then it was over.

What a huge disaster, why have it the last sea day? Isn't the whole point of the M & M to meet felow passengers, as the cruise is beginning?

All in all it was a fantastic cruise, but for the future I will meet up with fellow cruise critic members on my own and not expect RCL to come through on their promise of a meet and mingle!

Kim

[LauraS]

I believe what they call it is a 'gold standard". Reminds me of a rule book, where various procedures are outlined from start to finish.

 

When you think about it...it makes sense to have the Meet & Mingle as early as possible in the cruise, but NOT on a port day. So, logic says: first available sea day. I'm pretty sure we can fix this one for you.

 

Please send me an e-mail with the sailing date, ship etc at lauras@cruisecritic.com.

 

Laura

 

For the record, I just want to share that RCI came through with flying colors on this and has changed their Meet & Mingle to a more acceptable time.

 

After speaking via e-mail with the folks at RCI's HQ this week, I've learned that over the past few weeks -- in migrating over to a new mainframe computer system -- the shoreside information had not made it to the ships in a timely manner. So, the ships erroneously thought there were no scheduled parties for some sailings. Their IT department has been working on this issue, and they confident that problem is now fixed and we're hoping things go much smoother in the future.

 

Laura

[wench58]

Thank you Laura for working on our behalf on the M&M situation.

 

I, too, wondered about shrimp cocktail at 9:30 AM, but we enjoyed it anyway!

 

With the lack of space on the Empress, we were told that the time and location is driven by events open to everyone on the ship. Hence, the M&M is subject to less than ideal times.

 

The M&M will be what you make of it. So to quote RCI, "Get Out There", and have fun.

[caroden]

For the record, I just want to share that RCI came through with flying colors on this and has changed their Meet & Mingle to a more acceptable time.

 

After speaking via e-mail with the folks at RCI's HQ this week, I've learned that over the past few weeks -- in migrating over to a new mainframe computer system -- the shoreside information had not made it to the ships in a timely manner. So, the ships erroneously thought there were no scheduled parties for some sailings. Their IT department has been working on this issue, and they confident that problem is now fixed and we're hoping things go much smoother in the future.

 

Laura

 

Laura - It's good to hear that future problems should be avoided now the IT department at RCI Head Office has fixed the problem.

 

Perhaps you can also fix it for the passengers on the VOS 9th September sailing, who were treated appallingly by Guest Relations, to all receive personal written apologies from RCI Head Office for the mess up regarding our Meet and Mingle.

 

When we queried what had happened to the Meet and Mingle Invites, we were told they knew nothing about it as they had not received confirmation of registered passengers for the party from Head Office at Miami.

 

On the 2nd day of our sailing, they told us it was too late to contact Miami for the registered M&M passenger list, their excuse being that by the time they had emailed them and received a reply, it would be the end of the cruise!! Have they not heard of telephones??

 

Then finally, on the 5th day of our cruise, I was left a voice mail in my stateroom saying that if I came to Guest Relations they would release the cabin numbers of the Meet and Mingle passengers who had left their details at reception so that I could telephone them myself and arrange our own Meet and Mingle!! Why couldn't they do it??

 

Quite frankly, I am disgusted that I haven't even received so much as an acknowledgement to my email that I sent to RCI Head Office, and the fellow passengers that I am still in contact with feel just as annoyed about this.

 

The very least they can do after such a disappointment is to offer a written apology.

 

Plus, it seems that every RCI ships Cruise Directors need to attend a crash course on how to arrange successful Meet and Mingle parties, so that there are never any flops!

 

Carole

[Fran Harp]

For the record, I just want to share that RCI came through with flying colors on this and has changed their Meet & Mingle to a more acceptable time.

 

After speaking via e-mail with the folks at RCI's HQ this week, I've learned that over the past few weeks -- in migrating over to a new mainframe computer system -- the shoreside information had not made it to the ships in a timely manner. So, the ships erroneously thought there were no scheduled parties for some sailings. Their IT department has been working on this issue, and they confident that problem is now fixed and we're hoping things go much smoother in the future.

 

Laura

 

Oh, I hope so!!! I know my cruise is still 14 months away, but we have a big roll call already and I know they won't all fit in my little cabin:D

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this, Laura.

 

Fran in Toronto

[Cam6959]

Laura thank you for looking into the problem for all! I just wanted to add in my 2 cents :D On my Celebrity cruise to Hawaii there was no Invite for a meet and mingle in my roomby the 2nd day so I went down to the Customer Relations desk and asked about it they had not heard of us having one. Even though we had confirmation via email! I then handed them a list of all 120 of us and asked them to let each member know there was not going to be one. They were very apologetic and asked if they could make a copy of my list with first names cabin number and call handle names and the confirmation information that one of our group had made up and I printed off before coming on the cruise. I said sure and the next thing I know I had the CD calling himself and telling me the M&M was going to be at this time at The Edge of the Earth. It was a great time and funny and we had so much fun the CD scheduled a follow up one at the end of the cruise so we could all say bye to each other. We had coffee, iced and hot tea, water and danishes. No door prizes or anything though as I said great time at both M&Ms. Celebrity really came through, I think they all will if you have concrete information to give them. JMHO.:D