Roll Calls-Very Slow Activity

[LAKECLIFF]

Is there some reason that everyone is staying off the Roll Calls????:confused:

We are leaving on an Alaska cruise in less than 2 weeks and having a very hard time getting any responses to a Meet and Greet. I have never seen such a slow Roll Call.

 

Any ideas why the Roll Calls are becoming so inactive?????

[CowPrincess]

HAL roll calls are overall a bit quieter than other lines, for some reason. Our May/08 Alaska roll call had 2 participants, me and a fellow from NJ (???) Not much posting on it :) The ship sailed full, though, and a good time was had by all.

 

Remember, too, not everyone who cruises is on CC.

[Yukon]

Our Roll Call for the repositioning Infinity sailed in May was VERY busy - some 50 people talking - and about 25 people showed up for the events we had. Then the 3 Roll Calls for the Coral Princess in June were slow, and only 1 other person showed up at one of the meet-n-greets and nobody at the other 2 :( Some folks like to meet new people and some don't.

[CruisinDawn]

Alaska was our first cruise we didn't even have enough people for them to have a Meet & Mingle :( Think our thread was maybe 4 pages and most of it was me talking to myself. Kinda a bummer huh.

 

BonVoyage

Dawna

[Tricia724]

I think the 7-day Alaska cruises are a whole different ballgame than some other destinations. On a Caribbean cruise where people are lazing around on deck and enjoying the sun, it seems more natural to spend time socializing. Most people who cruise Alaska are focused on the port stops, the scenery, the wildlife viewing, and the excursions and are concerned with what is outside the ship, rather than inside. Many people are with their families and try to pack as much as possible into their port days and are exhausted when they return.

 

There isn't even a roll call for our HAL September cruise, and I don't particularly care. Normally I do enjoy meeting CC people at the meet and greets, but on this cruise our early sea days will be cruising College Fjords and Glacier Bay, and I intend to be on deck as much as possible. We have a couple of excursions lined up at the ports but are allowing ourselves the freedom to set our schedule as the weather and our moods dictate. So the meet and greet thing wouldn't work so well for us this time.

[rsohn65820]

Our roll call for our August 28th sailing on NCL has had a few people come in and post once saying that they are going or that they have parents who are going on that sailing, but basically I have been talking to myself since January. They will post that they are going and I will welcome them to the roll call ask them a question about where they are from or if they have any excrusions plan etc trying to get a converstion rolling but they don't answer. I think they come back and read what I post as the view counter continues to increase. A couple of people have expressed interest in a meet and greet with themselves or their parents that are sailing but I kind of feel a meet and greet should be a place and time to meet people you have been chatting with while waiting for your cruise. :confused:

[BIG_Steve]

I think the 7-day Alaska cruises are a whole different ballgame than some other destinations.

 

That could be. Our June sailing had very few participants. And only a few of us made the meet and greet on board. That's a shame, because NCL sent the cruise director, the Hotel director, and I think another officer to greet us. They set up coffee, cold soft drinks and danishes too. Way too much for the few of us to enjoy.

[LAKECLIFF]

Thanks for all the great replies. I think you all have valid comments. Our last Alaska cruise on HAL had a very active Roll Call and a well attended M&G. It was held on the first sea day and it was a lot of fun to run into familiar faces in ports, the casino, and all around the ship during the week. BUT, we went the last sailing to Alaska in mid-September when all the kids were back in school. Maybe it makes a difference when families are all together. We live on the water and don't usually cruise in the summer months. We booked this cruise at the last minute when a special deal came up and we have had 100 degrees for so many days, it is not even pleasant on the boat. So we are getting out of the heat! :eek: Hopefully!

I was beginning to worry that the Roll Calls and the Meet and Greets were going the way of the Traditional dining and the Formal Nights. I hope not! I enjoy the Roll Calls so much before the cruises and have made many friends who I stay in touch with. If only on-line......

We do have 11 signed up and HAL said they would not require the usual 25 if we want to go ahead on the first day at sea. They will just put us in the piano bar instead of the Crow's Nest. And the small group may be just great!

Thanks again Everyone....

[wwinfl91]

We are doing the Royal Princess's 14 day Alaskan cruise leaving Aug 16 and have over 30 signed up for the M&G. It has been a pretty active roll call for a small ship cruise.

 

We did a Panama Canal in 2009 on HAL that had an active roll call. We made some great friends and had some great times with the people from the roll call.

 

Sorry your roll call is slow but sometimes that happens.

 

Have a great next cruise anyway.

[CruisingGoddess]

We did our Alaska cruise on Princess on July 5th. The roll call was very quiet. I felt like I was talking to myself most of the time but there were a few people who chimed in once in awhile. I scheduled the Meet & Mingle by just posting a time and place on the roll call but no one committed to coming so I did not get Princess involved. (I didn't want officers showing up when it was just me and DH!) I also tried to bribe people by saying that I'd had out free gifts at the M&M and said that I would leave if no one showed up in 15 minutes. LOL! I seriously thought no one would come but lo and behold, we had 10 people with 6 of us wearing the shirt I designed for our cruise! I was so happy!! So you never know! It doesn't hurt to schedule one and see what happens. By the way, the free gifts were magnets and postcards with our cruise logo on them.

[MisterBill99]

Ditto for us on the 8/8 Statendam. There are 2 other people posting. One is with a 31 person group (who hasn't posted since starting his own roll call that no one else from his group joined) and the other is traveling with his wife and 2 other women. Last year we did a Med cruise on Celebrity and we had such a great roll call group that many people did private tours together and a bunch of us took the train to Athens together. What a difference this year.

[welly world]

We were wondering the same thing! On our previous cruise, we had a nice roll call and met for drinks before dinner on the first night. Maybe there are so few responses since Alaska is known as 'the trip of a lifetime'! If this is true, maybe there are so many first time cruisers that they don't even know about CC and what it has to offer!

[ITMan]

Our cruise on Sea Princess 10th August had 2 of us posting until around a montha go.. I joked our M+M would be in a phone booth!!

 

Now up to around 20 I think....

 

Someone suggested Alaska roll calls were quiet because most people are not Cruise Affectionados, more just people taking a cruise cvacation, so they dont join up to CC.

[lilipad2]

Same with us. Our cruise sails on the 31st -- in just 5 days -- and there have been 3 of us total. I think the last post was over a week ago. That's ok, I think we'll have a great time in any case.

[NorbertsNiece]

I feel blessed. We've had a wonderful roll call for our RCCL cruise leaving August 6th. A few of the posters will also be taking land tours first or visiting with relatives before/after. We've more than enough for an official Meet & Mingle on board. Last year we made the best friends you could ever hope to meet on the roll call for Panama.

[CruisingGoddess]

Ditto for us on the 8/8 Statendam. There are 2 other people posting. One is with a 31 person group (who hasn't posted since starting his own roll call that no one else from his group joined) and the other is traveling with his wife and 2 other women. Last year we did a Med cruise on Celebrity and we had such a great roll call group that many people did private tours together and a bunch of us took the train to Athens together. What a difference this year.

 

Absolutely agree with this! Our RCI Med cruise had a very active roll call with over 100 people in it!

 

Someone suggested Alaska roll calls were quiet because most people are not Cruise Affectionados, more just people taking a cruise cvacation, so they dont join up to CC.

 

This makes sense with our experience. On our Med cruise with over 100 people, almost everyone had taken more cruises than us (we had taken 3 at the time).

 

In Alaska, we had taken more cruises than most people we talked to (still only 4) and many of them were first timers.