I am coordinating a Meet and Greet with some of my fellow passengers who are members of Cruise Critic . For those of you who are new to cruising, Cruise Critic is an online community of cruise travelers who share their experiences and can offer great advice. Anyway, I have hosted Meet & Greet events on NCL for fellow passengers and they are always well-received. Not to brag or anything, but one of my three God-given talents just happens to be bringing people together and creating a fun event, so the Meet and Greet concept is something that I'm really cut out for. (Oh, you're wondering what the other two are? Well, one is spelling and the other is..... sorry! If I told you I'd have to kill you!!!)
The event planning for both of my recent previous Meet & Greets on NCL were handled seamlessly with the NCL staff at Corporate and onboard. Basically, an e-mail to the event coordinator on my particular ship letting him/her know that I wanted to set up a Meet & Greet was all that was needed. In return I get an e-mail letting me know that the date/time/location I have requested is okay -- or they offer a different location or time if my request conflicts with another event. When I arrive onboard, there is a letter from NCL confirming my event information. NCL handles everything else. In fact, at the one I conducted in February, many of the ships' departments were represented by their department heads (i.e. hotel director, excursions manager, food & beverage manager, etc.) and each of these individuals gave a brief introduction of themselves and an overview of their departments' processes. It was a top-notch exhibition. For the first Meet & Greet I did on NCL, approximately 4-5 officers or staff attended, and while they didn't give speeches, they were on hand to answer questions of the M & G guests. In addition, both times the ship provided a sign outside the designated area indicating that a Meet & Greet was "being held here" and they provided refreshments (non-alcoholic) and pastries or cookies. I'm writing all of this down for you so you have some background into my mindset. Also, keep in mind that NCL is a MAINSTREAM cruise line with rockbottom fares -- nothing at all like Regent with its elegant and refined atmosphere, clientele and matching prices.
Okay, so let's fast-forward to my upcoming Mariner voyage. My last time out on the Mariner, there were only 6 cruise critic members that I was able to "hook up" with so the idea of a formal Meet and Greet obviously wasn't going to happen (although I did end up meeting everyone eventually and actually spent quite a bit of time with a couple of them......hey Ralph & Tony!) But this time, wow, we have got a boatload (pun intended) of CC'ers setting sail on January 11 so naturally I am coordinating a Meet & Greet so we can put some faces to our screen names. After amassing a group of approximately 30 potential guests, I contacted Regent to advise them of my plans and to find out the e-mail address of my ship's event coordinator. Silly me, I thought it would be as easy to do this as NCL makes it, but here's what happened.....
FIRST EMPLOYEE: Representative had never heard of Cruise Critic -- okay, that's understandable -- immediately switched me over to someone else
SECOND EMPLOYEE: Seemed to grasp the idea of a Cruise Critic Meet & Greet but had never heard of anyone ever doing one and did not know if there was an event coordinator on the Mariner, suggested I call a different number
THIRD EMPLOYEE: at the "other number", offered to sell me a cocktail package at $16.50 per person and when I explained that it sounded lovely but 1) we could all very well go pick up our drinks for free before entering the room and 2) I spent all of my money on my cruise tickets and didn't have $500+ left to unnecessarily pay for cocktails for a bunch of strangers, she was totally flummoxed
FOURTH EMPLOYEE: day 2 of phone calls because I was starting to get irate during my initial calls, and didn't want to come across as harsh in the unlikely event I actually got to talk to someone who could help me. Employee #4 actually had heard of cruise critic (hooray!) and stated that the request had to come from my travel agent. "Do you understand that my travel agent did not book cabins for all 30 of us?" "Well, then their travel agents would have to set it up." "But I don't KNOW any of these people!!!" "Is there a manager or supervisor available I can talk to?"
FIFTH EMPLOYEE (possibly a Manager, but I have my doubts): "This has to go through your travel agent"
Let me break here to assure you, kind reader, that:
1. I was speaking English during all phone calls as were the Regent employees
2. I am very well spoken
3. I was not inebriated or otherwise verbally incapacitated
The point I was trying to get across to all of these employees:
1. I was trying to do them a favor by requesting an out of the way location of their choice for our gathering, rather than having 30 passengers suddenly storm in to some inconvenient area
2. I was giving them the OPTION of having some staff there to promote the Regent brand
3. I was NOT asking for any other assistance -- I WILL DO announcements, I WILL DO invitations, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING
So basically, I just gave up and called my TA, apologized for making additional work for him and sure enough, the next day he got an e-mail from Kristen at Regent who said she would "look into it but couldn't confirm anything until December."
Meanwhile, I had this really cool idea for the Meet and Greet which I'm now going to have to tweak because not having the final confirmation until December will not give me enough time for my original plan. I can't say what it is because I suspect that some of my fellow roll callers might pop in to read this so the rest of you will have to wait until January 13th or later for pictures!!!!
