Why bother with Ship Coordinator- Meet n Greet

[M&MCruisin]

Any good reasons to bother with organizing the meet n greet through the ship coordinator? We are on the Crown 4/12/08 sailing and Im not having the best response from the coordinator. When I did the NCL Pearl, they were fantastic. I know Princess doesnt "OWE" cruise critic members anything, but we just want a place to meet and if they want to send the officers by...great.

 

One thing I thought of....if you do a gift exchange, which some folks like to, it makes it difficult to do unless you have a private area organized by the ship.

 

So please let me know your thoughts on organizing through the cruise line versus organzing on your own. Thanks for your feedback.... oh and this isnt a debate on whether to have one or not!!!:rolleyes:

[Times Prince]

I believe the big difference is having a bar tender/wait staff for your meeting in what might otherwise be an unused venue during the day. Otherwise, without some onboard coordination you might be limted to the more public meeting places. For our last cruise they also posted a "private party" sign at the entrance to the Wheelhouse Bar (Grand Princess).

[CrusinAgain]

We went thru the coordinator for the Caribbean Princess and it was held in Skywalker's. They were suppose to have the bar open, a table for our gift exchange and snacks for us. The bar was closed, there was no special table and there were no snacks. The week before we left we were informed that our meeting had to be cut short and moved up a hour making people leave Princess Cayes earlier. So there was definitely no advantage to us and they were not accommodating at all. I have read mostly on the NCL's meet and greets that the captain and officers will come to the meeting and go out of their way. We'll see since I will be trying them in November.

[West Coast]

Your cruise is still quite a ways away... so maybe the coordinator does not see it as a high priority right now. Of course, that doesn't mean it's okay to ignore you. A simple, 'write again when it's closer to your sailing date' would be appreciated. But, it sounds like you haven't even been given that much of a courtesy...

[critterchick]

What do you mean by "not having the best response?" None at all? I'll get back to you within 45 days of sailing? The latter is what I would expect.

 

Princess doesn't normally sponsor a meet & mingle the way RCI or Celebrity do. The usual setup is a cordoned off area with a dedicated waiter and "dry snacks" (pretzel mix). If you have a CD who is "into" Cruise Critic, let him or her know about the group once you board - he (are there any female CDs on Princess?) may, MAY, host a party. We had that happen on the Island Princess last year - in addition to our corporate-arranged M&M's (we had 2), the CD had a champagne/mimosa party for us one afternoon and dragged along half a dozen of his staff to chat with us. It was a very nice affair.

[Coral]

It is possible because the trip is so far away?

 

Maybe in January of next year they will be more responsive. The location really doesn't have to be decided this far in advance.

[spongerob]

Most of the time we arrange our own meets. Usually the first one is right after muster drill, then we might agree to just get together at a specified location the next day. We just organize all this through a roll call thread. This works very well if your roll call group is a manageable size, say less than 2 dozen "active" participants.

 

When you have a large group, you might be able to arrange something on board through Princess. Wait until about 8 weeks before sailing (any time after final payments have been made) to do this. Before then, you probably won't get much of a response.

[M&MCruisin]

Thanks everyone.

 

Several week ago, I sent an email to a coordinator I had the name of, which wasnt the right one for the Crown. That person immediately forwarded my email to the appropriate coordinator and copied me. I replyed with thank you and I look forward to hearing from the new person.

 

over 2 weeks went by with not a peep from the new person. I then emailed the other day saying...just following up. Any information you can give me would be great. I completely understand that if its too far out to plan, no problem, just let me know.

 

Although we just want a place to meet, I did have several specific questions about what we can and can not do and some ideas I had for our group. I did finally get a response yesterday that did not address any of the questions, just to let me know to contact my TA to arrange it and they would need to know how many.

 

This is why I say, not the best of responses. I got a delayed response, but it didnt address any of the questions I had. I did respond again, just simply asking one of the questions again and told her I would contact my TA once I knew if what I wanted was possible.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

[DougandEric]

We've been part of but not a coordinator of CC groups on 2 cruises. On the first cruise, the unofficial leader was very active and got everyone fired up. We met at the hotel the night before and then again during sailaway. Most people who said they'd attend on the boards did.

 

On the 2nd cruise, only about half who said they'd attend did. Those that did had a great time. There was no 'go getter' in this group and it was kind of mediocre on attendance although the people who did attend had a great time and we constantly ran into each other during the 14 days.

 

The leader from the 1st cruise was on another cruise this past January and said the group there was less than involved as well. I guess it all depends on the people.

[Seal]

I think that you can usually find a good meeting place easily--unless your group is gigantic--after muster etc.--I think that planning your 2nd meeting may be the important one for location--usually for the first one meet at a bar other than by the pool for sailaway.

 

We just had a very active group--that started with hardly anything--we gave a couple of sailaway parties in our stateroom--the CD comped our final party Champagne and real appetizers--the real deal shrimp--canapes etc.--not the favorite (DRY SNACK) that they usually give--this was for 20 people--lots of champagne and appetizers--room service keptreturning to refill the trays

 

We didn't ask for this--someone just saw the CD and mentioned that we were having another gathering and he offered--It seems that when you ask for a room for your group to meet--you're hoping to be given drinks and appetizers--it may happen occasionaly--I feel lthat you have a better chance mentioning a gathering to the CD once on the ship--only my opinion

 

I realize that most every time you're on a roll call--someone or more want to start asking for a meeting place--probably ok--but probably not necessary--

 

Good Luck

 

Nancy:D

[fathercop]

Since joining CC I have been to a couple of meet-n-greet on Princess ships. Not that I am expecting anything, but it would be nice if Princess would acknowledge that CCers are on board. I know that many of the people on the Princess boards do quite a bit of selling the cruise line to friends and family. In the end the word or mouth marketing benefits Princess when some we have spoken to decides to take a Princess cruise. Certainly, shmoozing CCers is not something that needs to be done, but it might be good PR and that might mean even better business.

 

Anyhooooow, that is my two and 1/2 cents worth.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks everyone.

 

Several week ago, I sent an email to a coordinator I had the name of, which wasnt the right one for the Crown. That person immediately forwarded my email to the appropriate coordinator and copied me. I replyed with thank you and I look forward to hearing from the new person.

 

over 2 weeks went by with not a peep from the new person. I then emailed the other day saying...just following up. Any information you can give me would be great. I completely understand that if its too far out to plan, no problem, just let me know.

 

 

Those people are changing constantly in those positions so chances are your request will be messed up that far out anyway. I would wait until you are closer. :)

[joand452]

I was the "coordinator" for our roll calls' meet on the Crown in April. We had decided to meet after muster at Tradewinds (we all wore party beads so we'd be recognizable to one another). I had read on CC about the Princess ship coordinator, so a couple of months or so before the cruise I wrote asking for a space for us to meet. It was a loooong time before I had a definitive response (I had to write back a few times). We had about 30 active participants (with spouses, SO's, etc., about 60) on line. They gave us 5 pm in Skywalkers the 2nd day of the cruise (which happened to be St. Thomas) with a bartender and dry snacks. We had a couple of dozen people show up at Tradewinds, and only about a dozen at Skywalkers.

 

We had a great group and got together quite a bit during the week.

 

We had been hoping the time and location would be published in the Sunday Patters, but it wasn't. We didn't use CC as part of our name. My favorite part was getting letters in my mailbox thanking me for our "group" cruise, did we need special arrangements for disembarkation, etc.!

[West Coast]

I did finally get a response yesterday that did not address any of the questions, just to let me know to contact my TA to arrange it and they would need to know how many.

 

That must have been from Bernadette or else someone she's 'trained'.

 

As others have mentioned, it's easy enough to set up your own... and if you're not familiar with thip there are many others who can help you identify a good spot!

[M&MCruisin]

Thanks all. I think many of you are right. I think I will wait until we get a little closer to really try to organize through the ship and then also have a back up plan in place incase we dont get a good response. maybe Princess can help with the last sea day get together we have planned and I will do the first one on my own.

 

Thanks for all the advice, suggestions, tips, etc.! CCer's are the best!