Have a Minute To Help Us Out? We're Redesigning Our Ship Review Page!

[newfarmers]

Thanks for the opportunity to comment Laura

 

As so many have said the photos are next to useless. This appears to be cruisecritic-wide - when we upload photos etc the size is extremely limited so we have to use links to get bigger photos posted. Maybe a server issue?

 

So photos need to be much bigger and as has been suggested possibly member photos and not what the cruise line reviews are more useful froma review perspective

 

The link to the cc review needs to be more prominent

 

advertising - we all hate it but without it cc would cease to exist so I can live with it

 

Square footage of cabins - although averages are good I think the cc reviews should also comment on specific cabins that are larger or smaller than the average or have larger or smaller balconies. on most ships there are only so many of these cabins that are way outisde of the 'average'.

 

Also possibly length and depth of cabins - especially the more 'standard (non-suite) cabins may give members a better idea of a cabin's size rather than square footage?

 

possibly make more use of recent member reviews and incorporate into the cc review?

 

thanks again, pete

[lvcruiser]

Laura - Thank you for allowing the members of Cruise Critic to assist you in the redesign of your review pages.

 

Overall, I think your review first page is quite satisfactory, providing an overview of the vessel and links to the entire review and/or specific areas of the review. Your layout is fine; colors are subliminal and do not have a conscious effect on me, so i cannot comment on changing them. I have always found your reviews helpful and rely on them more heavily than individual cruiser's reviews because they are supposed to be more objective. However, that leads me to one of two things I would like to see changed.

 

1) Many of your reviews appear to be more gracious or contain higher review marks than the preponderance of reviews made by the cruisers after sailing on the ships. One of my cruising friends actually asked me if I thought Cruise Critic was taking payoffs from particular lines to provide glowing reviews on ships that did not deserve them. Personally, I would not go that far with my opinion, but when a majority of cruisers that sail on a particular ship provide a completely different opinion than that which Cruise Critic provided, there is something wrong that requires attention. One potential problem may be the age of your review compared to the more recent submitted by the cruisers. How often do you re-review a ship? If you have reviews that were made just after the ship was christened ten years ago, that may be the problem. A good example of that may be the NCL Epic. You still have your "sneak peak" review online, which had nothing bad to say about the ship, but subsequent reviews by cruisers were not very complementary. I realize that updating reviews on hundreds of ships is a daunting task, but if there are others like me who look to a professional review to be more objective than those submitted by cruisers which will be inherently subjective by their very nature, and if you want to retain the respect of the cruising community that you have already gained, I suggest thinking about doing so. Right now, I am giving more weight to many of the ship's reviews made by the cruisers than I am of those provided by the professional reviewers. That should not be the case.

 

Grace and discretion has its place in everyday life as well as in a review. However, glossing over negative points of a ship may be a problem for those readers who have to be hit over the head to understand the point that is trying to be made. Many people will not realize that an "attractive, but well worn carpet" means it needs to be replaced until they see the carpet for themselves. If you're going to be truly objective, call it the way you see it and don't try to make it sound better than it really is by your choice of words. I haven't read every review of every ship that you have generated, but I would be willing to bet there aren't many that recommend avoidance to your readers. It isn't possible to have a perfect industry from one end to the other.

 

2) Something stated in my first suggestion leads to my next. Maybe my memory is fading, but I thought you used to have the date of the review on each one. Now, I cannot find a date. If you would provide the date the review was made, it would give the readers another way of determining just how much faith to have in what they read. That assumes that the most recent reviews will be the most accurate. It also gives leeway for possible variations on the reviews that have aged. Obviously, a review that is 10 years old will have less weight than one that was made earlier this year. I certainly give more weight to the reader's reviews that are most recent than those with age.

 

Just my two cents for which you asked. Thank you again for allowing us to share our thoughts.

 

John Stephens

lvcruiser

[JUGGER]

HI---I LIKE YOUR SHIP REVIEW PAGE----INFORMATIVE---OF COURSE EVERYONE CANNOT AGREE--BUT THAT'S LIFE----WE HAVE TAKEN 42 cruises ON CARNIVAL AND 43 --LEGEND --FROM TAMPA COMING UP---VERY SATISFIED WITH EVERYTHING ABOUT THE LINE--THEY ARE VERY GOOD TO RETURN PASSENGERS. AND, OF COURSE, THE PRICE IS RIGHT. THE ACCOMMODATIONS ON ALL THEIR SHIPS----EXCELLENT--LARGE STATEROOMS. AND WE THANK YOU FOR KEEPING US INFORMED. JUIGGER THE TWO OF US--

[shiplover222]

The review is fine. I dont complain on something that I could not do better,so I wont. I sailed on the Millineium in March of 08 ( alantis charter. and had a great time. Norman

[Alberta_Cruisers]

Hi Laura,

 

Thanks for asking us all our opinion !!

 

I'd like to see more pictures and less ads (or ads down at the bottom).

 

There's a recurring theme on the boards around "does anyone have any info/pictures on cabin xxx", "recent menus", "recent patters", etc. I'd like to see a link to some sort of details section that's set up like the roll calls. For example, I'd like to be able to drill down to Princess, Pacific Princess, Cabin 8002 and see pictures and comments from others that have been in this cabin. Of course, it'd be up to us to populate but I would definitely return from my cruise and update the cabin I was in with my pictures and comments.

 

Looking forward to seeing the redesigned pages !!

[fun_seeker]

Hi everyone!

• If you were sailing on Celebrity Millennium, do we have everything you need to make a decision about the ship?
  
• What other information would you like to see on the page?
  
• Is there too much of something on the page? Too little?
  
• What about the colors? Do you like them? Any suggestions?
  
• If there were one single thing you could change on the page, what would it be?
  

We're really interested in your opinions and ideas, so let it out!

 

Oh, and thanks!

 

Laura

 

Hi Laura,

To answer your question, you do not have everything we need to make a decision about the ship.

• There is too much detail about the junk food venues and not enough about the food in the casual, main and for-charge restaurants. The details about the food in the latter three are dismissive rather than descriptive.
  
• There is insufficient information about the fitness area, such as, what equipment is available, how crowded is it, do the classes exclude others from using the equipment and when are the best times (fewest people in there) to go.
  
• We may have missed it, but we didn't see anything about laundry and dry cleaning.
  
• On the plus side the descriptions of the cabins and the sizes of the cabins were excellent.
  

To summarize, the addition of the items we mentioned above would go far in providing the reader with the information needed to make a decision about a ship.

[hansolosmom]

hi Laura - thanks for the opportunity for input

 

I have to say the LO looks like every other page. I like the picture of the ship up on top - I would make the name of the ship stand out more.

 

As many have said the pictures are the same ones I would see on the cruiselines site - a little more variety or non-professional ones would add more value for me.

 

I like the bullet items on top saying why I should take that ship BUT I was TOTALLY turned off by the 'upgrade to concierge class' line item since that's more off a nice thing that should be somewhere else instead of a ship feature

 

I know you make your living on ads, but the ones right under this section break up the page too much. I almost missed the fact there were deck plans/more photos on the right since I thought that whole section was ads. Maybe if they could all be on the sides (?)

 

I need more info on cabins & the types available again with pictures.

 

It's hard to explain but I don't like the "feel" of the review page. The review itself sounds too much like a PR person wrote it. When I come to CC I want reviews written by real people so I usually go straight for the members reviews of a ship. I'm currently looking into an Alaskan trip & after determining which ships we might be interested in, I went to the member reviews to see how they felt about their trip & the ship.

 

These are always my basic questions when looking into doing a crusie:

What are the cabins like - how much noise can you hear from the neighbors/hallway?

Where is smoking allowed?

What actvities are there - does anyone have Navigators/Compass' (daily actvity sheet) from a recent trip?

What food options (pizza/snack type stuff) for my teens?

Can you bring alcohol onboard?

 

If I can get that information then I'm good

[lazycruzer]

I agree the ships name needs to be much more prominent.I would like to see more detail. How old? Review says a decade since launch. Has she ever been upgraded? Space ratios? What is overall size of ship? What do the current cabins look like? What is square footage of cabins or dimensions by cabin category? Has this cruise line/ship ever won any significant awards? Special items/ideas about cabins? What is lacking? What suggestions does the professional reviewer have to make?

 

Way too many distracting adds. If I am looking at celebrity, why would this website put in ads for HAL? Doesn't CC know I am interested in Celebrity? Or is CC just trying to sell any cruise on any line?

[StrangeBrew]

I was going to say I would like to see the ship layout , but I see now that it is there , so I am good .

[Richard in Panama]

I'd like the complete review on one page - not having to click to another page - I know it adds page views and ad revenue, but . . .

 

I think the overall colors/design needs to be crisper and updated . . . it's a little old

 

I'd add some pictures into the review itself . . . breaks it up, adds interest.

 

I'd like to be able to get to member reviews for ships more directly from the home page . . . by ship name, not first to cruise line . . . again, I understand the need for page views and ad revenue, but . . . you asked.

 

Regards, Richard

[dan40]

Since I do not read other people's reviews or write my own. There is little I could say, pro or con, on the review page. I have looked and found it simple to navigate for me. And that's about all I look for in a web page. Decor is not a factor for me, on ships or ships review pages.

[willemel28]

I just joined and can not give any opinion. I'll wait first.

[jnc411]

Hi Laura: After checking over the ships page I found it to be interesting but not too exciting. I think the graphics need a bit more pizzaz , to bring the eye to the bullets , etc.

When planning a cruise I always check the CC Review page, but I must admit , I also go to the passanger reviews and that plays a part in my decision. I like to know things like, are the dining rooms busy and is there a line for alternative dining, are there lounge chairs on the promanade deck , what is the lay out of the pool area's , just small things but they make a big impact on your enjoyment of the cruise. By the number of pages on this thread it looks like you have lots of responses to gage your page by. Thanks for asking us for feedback.

Cori

[pfernand]

I like the review page as it is, it has helped me in the past to select a particular cruise ship.

[StarSong]

It would be extremely helpful to add a dateline and itinerary for the review and/or the cruise itself.

 

Other than that, I like the review format and included information.

[Cruz-On]

First glance it is cluttered. Information is very good! Ship's name need to be more prominent. Use members pictures instead of those tired pictures we can get from company website. Thanks for asking my opinion!

[outerspaceguy]

Hi,

 

I'd add in two new sections for each ship:

 

"Its Hidden Gem:"

This is the thing about that ship that experienced cruisers of that ship know about and love, but a new cruiser would not know about. For example: on Millie it could be the existence of the Aqua Spa cafe. On a RCCL ship, it could be how to get to the (usually open) Helipad. Or it could be some cool little detail about the ship: I was on RCCL's Radiance of the seas last month, and was talking with a manager on the backstage tour: The Radiance of the Seas uses special "Crown and Anchor" confetti.. because that manager happened to know someone who got him a great deal on logo'd confetti. Apparently all of the other RCCL ships just use normal confetti (I've not yet fact checked that one [G]).

 

 

"Beware of:"

This is the antonym of the above. For example: on Sapphire Princess, the jogging track is both small (for a ship that big) and is limited to being open only during ridiculous hours (I think they put the jogging track right above the spa.. and Princess doesn't want a constant :thump:, :thump:, :thump: going on overhead during the spa treatments....

 

 

All of us, collectively, know this information. It just has to be distilled and captured. That's your cruise-critic value-add, though, IMHO.

[jdr93]

except for the ads plastered all over it the page looks good. and i like the review feature of cruise critic already

[ljandiernp]

Hi, I have been going through these reviews recently about a particular ship that I have not cruised on before. As a general comment I hate how difficult it is to stay in a thread about one ship. Once you read one review by a participant or by CC staff, you can't easily go back to that ship's reviews. You can end up back in a thread about the western (or other location based on the location of the reviewer's cruise), or Princess, or other cruise line, but not readily back to the particular ship. Thanks!

[klingoncruiser]

I find the page O.K. nothing WOW. However it is a great starting place for a ship. I like other would REALLY like to see the ship stats there as well. I use this often to look at a new ship I am going on and size is a consideration. Seems it would be fairly simple to put those stats along side a larger picture.

[andre4259]

I think the setup of the page is very logical. One thing I notice photos of ships are bland to generic. Cruising is sexy, fun and off the page and the ships (most) are very boring pics. I know you are not doing a glossy retail presentation and you want to be a "critic." I know how valuable CC is to me, but other first timers that may see your pages may think them not capture their attention. Here is my suggestion. Do a competition for cruiser submitted pics of the ships and use CC swag as a way to get more people involved in writing reviews and helping future cruisers.

[ARcruisin2]

Laura,

Let me start by sayin CC gives the most info out there - you guys are great.

 

I have to say that i feel better knowing that i am not the only one that used to scroll down looking left and never noticed the CDC score, deck plans etc. those are great. So I'd definitly suggest moving the sponsored links. I do not mind the side adds, as we all know they are what pays for us to get the great info.

 

I would like to see the ship's year put into service and last refurb. If the ship is scheduled for refurbishing that could be noted there as well.

 

thanks for asking,

Amy

[walterharris]

Already checked it out Rick. Nice page. What else you putting up?

[dmurray431]

I have found Cruise Critic to e AWESOME! Great info from other cruisers in preparation for my cruise this week...Thanks!

[silverwillow]

On the front page I feel there should be better directions to members reviews and the links on the left should not just go to the editors review but to members reviews on the topic. So if I click families there could be a selection of reviews of the ship by those who sailed as a family.