New Merch& Meet/Greet Area

[Jaimie38]

The new area for Meet and Greets and the Merchandise will be in the Moonlight Dining Room on Deck 3.

Obviously, bigger layout.


I'm sure everyone already knew that, but I'm from Canada and I talk slow,eh??

[KDibildeaux]

The new area for Meet and Greets and the Merchandise will be in the Moonlight Dining Room on Deck 3.

Obviously, bigger layout.


I'm sure everyone already knew that, but I'm from Canada and I talk slow,eh??

Good to know!

[metal_steve]

It couldn't be any worse than 2012. The merch line and service (those 2 poor woman serving by themselves) was painful to be part of.

I did OK with the signings though - I got to say hello to Tobbias

[mooyagi]

The new area for Meet and Greets and the Merchandise will be in the Moonlight Dining Room on Deck 3.

Obviously, bigger layout.


I'm sure everyone already knew that, but I'm from Canada and I talk slow,eh??

Wasn't that where it was last cruise? Or was it the other dining room? Though I got merch in the lobby on deck 4 or 5. I think.

[rootleaf]

I still don't understand for the 70K merch why they can't just put together an order form pre-board that let's you pick what you want and they just deliver it to your room for you at some point? The merch was ridiculous and should not be that complicated to improve.

[KDibildeaux]

I still don't understand for the 70K merch why they can't just put together an order form pre-board that let's you pick what you want and they just deliver it to your room for you at some point? The merch was ridiculous and should not be that complicated to improve.

That has been suggested several times but for now won't seem to happen

[STACH100]

Whatever they decide about the meet n greet, the really cool thing is besides meeting the bands you meet a bunch of people who like the same bands as you.
I heard and shared a ton of concert stories while waiting in line.

[Dark Dreams]

The new area for Meet and Greets and the Merchandise will be in the Moonlight Dining Room on Deck 3.

Obviously, bigger layout.


I'm sure everyone already knew that, but I'm from Canada and I talk slow,eh??

Wasn't that where it was last cruise? Or was it the other dining room? Though I got merch in the lobby on deck 4 or 5. I think.

This is old news. Both M&G and merch was already in the dining room on deck 3 this year.

I think the merch area was much better then on the first cruise. To be honest, I only went late on the 2nd or 3rd day, don't remember but there was hardly anyone, I think there were one or two other people and I got what I wanted and I certainly got served faster then at some of the bars. The one in the Karaoke being the worst.

I think most people got freaked out by the first year and overran the merch on the first day.

[Dklean2003]

I liked the first year where you got your stuff signed first. Then there was a separate line so you could take group pics with the band. It seemed liked it ran alot smoother and people did not have to crawl over the autograph table to get a picture.

I liked the second year becasue they did all the signings in one day. I could get all my shit signed and then put it up and not have to worry about it anymore.


SO if they would combine the 2 that would be perfect.




But the Merch line was to much of a screw up. I should not have to wait in line half a day to get a shirt. They should do a preorder before the cruize even starts. Then on the custom band exclusive shirt the bands will know exactly how much to print. Seems pretty simple. As far as the 70000shirts, the cruizes should just charge $20 extra to the cruize. Everybody wants a shirt and its guaranteed money for them. Simple as that.


Also, what was up with the Air Conditioning. We are on a cruize ship. It should be hot outside but cool inside. Yes we are stinky metalheads but TURN ON THE AC. We pay alot of money for this.

[Disco]

The M&G is on the same deck as my cabin. That's convienient.

[Dark Dreams]

I liked the second year becasue they did all the signings in one day. I could get all my shit signed and then put it up and not have to worry about it anymore.

Maybe I don't remember this correctly but weren't the signings split over two days this year too?

[Blackfhyre]

I liked the second year becasue they did all the signings in one day. I could get all my shit signed and then put it up and not have to worry about it anymore.

Maybe I don't remember this correctly but weren't the signings split over two days this year too?

This past year was all done on one day

[KevinP]

I heard an interview with Andy where he inferred that the merch situation MIGHT not get all that better.

The cruise line is not used to AT ALL with people waiting on line to buy t-shirts, they are used to the slow stream of people buying all the typical cruise related items.

Apparently they also feel they still need some type of control of the intake of the merch, which apparently slow things down behind the scenes.

Writing down card numbers for purchases is a slow and tedious process. Cash would reduce the wait time (me thinks) by OVER 50%.

[KDibildeaux]

I didn't think the merch situation was too bad this year. I waited about 15 minutes

[mooyagi]

Still leaves preorder as an option. Hell, let us just order online and get the shirts sent to us before the cruise and cut Royal Caribbean out of the whole thing. The idea of having a preordered shirt waiting for me when I open my cabin door for the first time sounds awesome, but it'd be just as nice to have it sent to me before I get on broad or after I get home. At least the online store now exists. Put everything up on that bad boy and don't even sell merch on broad. Even let the bands use the UMC store to sell stuff if they can.

[KevinP]

I didn't think the merch situation was too bad this year. I waited about 15 minutes

The initial surge was well over 2 hours, not counting the dely in getting it open due to register problems.

If the RC wa smart they would allow CASH for this specific thing and make it less of a clusterfuck.

But that would go against the Cruise SACRED COW

[KDibildeaux]

I didn't think the merch situation was too bad this year. I waited about 15 minutes

The initial surge was well over 2 hours, not counting the dely in getting it open due to register problems.

If the RC wa smart they would allow CASH for this specific thing and make it less of a clusterfuck.

But that would go against the Cruise SACRED COW

I think part of the reason the initial line was that big in part because of people worrying the merch would sell out right away, like the day before.

Easiest solution would be to do the pre order thing that has been mentioned over and over here.

[KevinP]

Still leaves preorder as an option. Hell, let us just order online and get the shirts sent to us before the cruise and cut Royal Caribbean out of the whole thing. The idea of having a preordered shirt waiting for me when I open my cabin door for the first time sounds awesome, but it'd be just as nice to have it sent to me before I get on broad or after I get home. At least the online store now exists. Put everything up on that bad boy and don't even sell merch on broad. Even let the bands use the UMC store to sell stuff if they can.

that would work for the 70K shirt only. Bands don't always bring alot of stock and they would have to put photos online, then make sure they had enough, logisitcally it would be a nightmare for the BANDS.

Hence why I'm all for bands selling their shit at the pre party. The club doesn't take a cut and less need to worry about dealing with a line on the ship.

But like last year, I'm just gonna find a sap who's waiting, look at what I want, give them the order and pay them the cash later.

[KevinP]

And any band that I potentally would want a shirt from, I can ask them (via Facebook - suck it mooyagi) what they are bringing, so I know ahead of time

Last year the only band shirt I got was Candlemass (didn't even wait in line for it either)

[mooyagi]

Yeah, when I meant the bands could send the stuff out, I mean that UMC could use the store to take the orders but the bands could then send them out the way they usually do when someone buys something from their webshop. Obviously, they'd have to work out some kind of special payment system with the bands. Hell, the UMC site could maybe just have links to each band's store and a price/picture of it and people can then be directed to wherever they need to go to buy the shirt. It would just be nice to have all the options there in one spot for easy ordering rather than try to get to all the bands individually.

[KevinP]

Yeah, when I meant the bands could send the stuff out, I mean that UMC could use the store to take the orders but the bands could then send them out the way they usually do when someone buys something from their webshop. Obviously, they'd have to work out some kind of special payment system with the bands. Hell, the UMC site could maybe just have links to each band's store and a price/picture of it and people can then be directed to wherever they need to go to buy the shirt. It would just be nice to have all the options there in one spot for easy ordering rather than try to get to all the bands individually.

I guess, it would be too difficult to setup though. That would be like buying a tour shirt before even getting to the venue? Who does that? People re impulse buyers with this type of stuff to.

Going to a cash system for this and only this would alleviate 90% of the problems, but that's like world peace occurring tomorrow.

[mooyagi]

Going to a cash system for this and only this would alleviate 90% of the problems, but that's like world peace occurring tomorrow.

World peace has a better chance

[VorpalBunny]

I'm probably going to be one of the over enthusiastic people waiting in line...

I will take orders for others IF you bring me drinks. I have a short attention span but generally it can be refocused.

[nekrobarr]

I've always been in the school of thought that a shirt should be included with the 'package' we buy in general, perhaps bumping said price up $20 or so, which would act as a pre-order of sorts. Simply tack on an extra line or two to fill out with one's booking request that asks what shirt size ya want, and perhaps the choice of design on front (there've only been two per year so far, right?)
However, given that the announcements can be as late as the weekend prior to shipping off, that could make things difficult for getting the shirts printed, shipped, sorted, delivered, and whatever else needs to be done.

Given the latter part of my rambling, I'd personally be happy with a shirt being sent to me after the cruise, so long as I am somehow guaranteed one of proper size (and preferred style of front art).