Has a roll call ever caused you NOT to book?

[mek]

I've been on roll calls where people openly admit that while they like to chat before the cruise to pick up travel tips, they don't intend to participate in the on board activities. Lots of people sign up for the M&M and then don't show up, so I don't think what happens on a roll call has anything to do with the actual cruise, (unless you commit to private tours and then IMO, you must follow through with your commitments.)

[cruise kitty]

If 500 of these ''train spotters'' try to take over a bar on our cruise, there will be tears.

 

May I offer you a tissue? :D

[Lsimon]

If 500 of these ''train spotters'' try to take over a bar on our cruise, there will be tears.

 

While there may be 500 people on the roll call, I doubt more than a small fraction of that would be involved in any activity like meeting at a particular bar. Those things tend to be smaller groups and no where near a large percentage of the entire roll call.

[Elusive_Cruiser]

If you like the roll call then participate, if you don't then don't participate. But as others have said it is a very large ship and if you don't want to join in with the roll call activities then they won't bother your cruise at all.

 

I've also noticed that almost all Celebrity TA cruises have huge roll calls like this one. I think this is because TA's have a particular appeal to frequent cruisers.

 

As far as the roll call itself and the various activities and bios. Like the cruise you can participate fully, not at all, or part way. Just because some participants are very active doesn't mean all have to be.

 

We've had roll calls with the extensive bio forms too - although I didn't look at the one you mentioned. These are used as a means of getting to know one another in advance of, and on, the cruise. Some participants provide all the information, some very limited information (such as only their first name and their screen names) and some provide no info for these but still participate a little on the roll call. Any of these levels of information will be just fine for everyone else on the roll call and no one will complain.

 

We've also been on roll calls where we have a lot of past cruisers chatting. Sometimes we know the other people and sometimes we don't. We've never found these people to be exclusive or to have any desire to exclude others although some occasionally get that mistaken idea. The fact is that most of these people met the others on roll calls for past cruises and are hoping to make new cruise friends on the current cruise and want newcomers to join in so they will have the opportunity to meet them. So feel free to either join in or to be shy and just lurk or anything in between. But please don't feel bad about the cruise because of the roll call.

 

Yet another fine response by Mr. 10,000+ posts! Thanks Larry - keep them coming!

[Elusive_Cruiser]

I understand, and agree with the concern of many posters, including the OP.

 

One of our sailings roll calls started quite early and a few shared much personal information about jobs, health, family, and way TMI in my opinion.

 

However, since we are interested in private excursions, and this is the main reason we participate in the roll call, we ignored the chatter and posted our excursion plans, and carried on.

 

We filled all of our excursions, were happy with the results, and life goes on! Our group planned a sailaway, including name tags- we showed up and after 10 minutes, left - no foul, no harm. They also arranged a gift exchange at the cc connections party. We had signed up, and did bring the gifts, but an unplanned situation otherwise directed us, so we did not attend... oh well, such is life...when you are on vacation...and a cruise ship, how stressed should we get about these situations?

 

You decide..:D

 

Would we change our plans based on a roll call? Absolutely not - some are good, some not so much, but the cruise itself is your experience, and what you make of it...

 

just sayin' :):D

[Hlitner]

"Has a Roll Call ever caused us not to book?" Absolutely not! But, Roll Calls have sure caused us to not go to the Meet and Greets :)

 

Hank

[bula squeak]

May I offer you a tissue? :D

 

Ha! They won't be my tears.

[uktog]

A roll call would not cause me not to book but it might influence my pre cruise thoughts about things that might or might not be so good on the trip. However I also know these are only thoughts and the reality will only emerge on board

 

We participate up to a point in roll calls, but are very reluctant to get invovled in off boards website pages/facebook pages. This is only because one of the conveniences of cruise critics is that it is a one stop shop. It is easy for newcomers to pop in without barriers and I do not want to be posting in several places to make sure I have not missed anyone including new comers and lurkers.

 

Sometimes roll calls get taken over by "an organiser". In some cases, this is driven by

* a genuine desire to pull together some activities

* in one case on a cruise I was on it was because the person believed that by appearing to be "the organiser" this attached an importance rating to them and the guest would be looked on more favourably for onboard perks/captains table etc (their face the second formal as DH and I walked passed her at her less than great situated table en route to the Captains Table was a study)

* there are some people who just have to be control freaks - its lovely to observe roll calls were there are "power struggles"

 

Anyway all of this is a reflection of the world and the communities we live in, some join in, some do not, some are organisers some are not, some have control freak tendencies. And we all know which of these hats we wear!

 

In my experience, there has been absolutely no correlation between how active a roll call is and the extent to which we enjoyed a cruise. One of the best trips where we made many new friends whom we still cruise with from time to time was a trip where the roll call was dead.

 

As others have said, the most number of individual posters I have seen on a roll call has only equated to less than 25% of those on board. The best attended cruise critic event in terms of % of those on the roll call to those who attended was 65% So all in all your roll call represented at most less than 20% of the guests onboard.

 

The transatlantics do have a slightly different feel to them, but that is no reason for you not to book. If you do, you decide the extent to which you engage with the roll call and/or attend CC events

 

Most important choose the cruise you want and then go about your pre cruise and on board activities and socialising as you want - what is right for one person is not necessarily right for you, only you know what is right for you

[swmichigan cruiser]

I did let a roll call help me decide. I choose a cruise based on many things. We were planning on our first med cruise and TA back to the states this fall. We usually cruise with Royal as we are Diamond Plus and get some nice perks and we were planning to do the Liberty of the Seas out of Barcelona. But we hadn't booked yet and they had a very active roll call going on the TA. So that meant to me the cabin selection might not be to good and the prices might be high because of demand. So I started doing some research and found the Liberty of the Seas was much more expensive than the NCL Epic which also is a very nice ship and one we have been on before and has a similar itinerary. So the roll call helped with my decision. Actually we just upgraded to a two bedroom suite on the Epic which is less than half of the current cost of a Grand suite on the Liberty for the TA. By the way I do realize this is a Celebrity board and we do have an 11 night cruise booked on the Equinox before the end of the year. Just my two cents and this was the first time that the roll call helped with the decision.

[JRJARS]

I love a good roll call. They make for great reading material prior to the cruise. Who is going to be that first person to post "Who's going with us" - two years out! I can only imagine the stiff competition to be the first. And then we start the spreadsheet - who, where, when, your cabin #, your flight #. I'll make the name tags, bring the beads, let's wear a funny hat, who wants to sew, who wants to see my cabin, how about 50 of us eat at the specialty restaurant one night, it goes on and on and on like the energizer bunny.

 

Personally I don't get it and can easily see where many people would and are turned off by it - but in my nearly 30 cruises I have found not to worry about it when you get on board because in the end you really don't notice the roll call people - sure on sailaway you easily spot those stupid beads and funny hats but that lasts about an hour and they all disperse.

 

I find it amusing reading the roll call after the cruise to see how many people write how sorry they were that they couldn't make the events or wished they could have met more people etc...I think a lot of people get caught up in the excitement pre-cruise on their computers at home and once on ship decide it's not for them. Now I'm sure many of you will start flaming me with how many people showed up at your sail away party and so on - that's okay I have my flame retardent suit on!

 

So long story short - don't let roll calls scare you! Happy cruising

[cruisemom42]

It wasn't on Celebrity, but I was strongly influenced by a roll call to re-think my decision to cancel a particular sailing. (To be fair, there were other factors as well.)

 

For some situations, I think the roll call can be a significant factor. In this case, there were 3 reasons that the roll call was important to me:

 

1. On this cruise I was going to be traveling solo, so of course I was hoping to meet some like-minded travelers, e.g., to have a few friendly faces aboard ship that I recognized.
   
2. It was a trans-Atlantic cruise, so there are a lot more sea days and fewer port days, making ship activities and folks aboard ship a bit more prominent.
   
3. I was looking to share private tours in some of the (Med) ports, as I'm not interested in ship excursions.
   

The roll call was very fast-paced from the beginning. I can't remember how many folks there were, but if you didn't check in daily it was hard to keep up. There were a ton of ship activities being organized, private tours, spreadsheets, photo page, etc. I gamely tried to keep up with it all but it was seeming more like work than fun.

 

Also, I had some ideas already of what I wanted to do on private tours, but a couple of posters really bulldozed here and were trying to set up every tour for everyone. (I'm sure they were getting free tours for themselves and their party....) When I'd try to ask a question or suggest that better options might exist, I was either ignored or shouted down. They just kept filling up van after van with their preferred providers' tours.

 

All of this I probably could've dealt with, but the final straw was that the person who was maintaining the spreadsheet of information basically GAVE the names and emails of all the folks who had signed up to someone on CC who was "promoting" their own travel-related website. Next thing, I'm getting emails from this person and wondering how they got hold of my email address. Turns out the person who provided this info didn't think there was anything wrong with it! :eek:

 

In the end, I cancelled this cruise. As I said, there were other factors too -- such as not being sure that the many sea days would be a good fit for me, and the opportunity to book a more intereresting cruise -- but the roll call situation did weigh heavily in my decision.

[constantcruiser]

Thanks for all the different viewpoints about roll calls. Two of the cruises we're considering are X, the other two RCI. We, too, enjoy roll calls for info on private tours, ports of call, etc. But I have no intention of reading through hundreds of pages of chatter for 2 years before the cruise just to pick out those pieces that are important to me. And if the degree to which this group has dominated the roll call is the slightest indication of how they'll dominate the cruise, I'll be on another ship. Two years in advance they've already organized a mini-golf tournament and assigned someone to bring a prize for the lowest score on each hole!

[Scrappytraveller]

If your only interest in the roll call is in finding excursion information, you can use the search tool within the roll call. You'll find a list of every post that discussed Port ABC, or activity XYZ. There's no obligation to read every single post or particiapte in anything you don't want to. But some people enjoy chatting and virtually getting to know other people they'll be sailing with, and I don't think those people should have to censor themselves for fear of a roll call becoming too long and hard to keep up with. There are extremes of course, which I could see being a turn off, but generally I like an active roll call. This is what Cruise Critic has to say about Roll Calls:

 

"WHAT ARE ROLL CALLS?

 

Roll Calls were started for individual cruise lines so you can "meet up and chat with" other Cruise Critic members on the same cruise on-line before you sail! Your Roll Call is the place where members can get to know one another before they sail, and exchange tips and information about their particular line, ship, Ports of Call, shore excursions/tours, transportation, etc."

[coolbreeze2]

I like an active roll call specially for T/A 's and European cruises. In addition to

"meeting" people before the cruise, Its nice to read the travel research from

other posters; and also to post my travel experiences and research to the group.

 

Al & Jan

[Karynanne]

Thanks for all the different viewpoints about roll calls. Two of the cruises we're considering are X, the other two RCI. We, too, enjoy roll calls for info on private tours, ports of call, etc. But I have no intention of reading through hundreds of pages of chatter for 2 years before the cruise just to pick out those pieces that are important to me. And if the degree to which this group has dominated the roll call is the slightest indication of how they'll dominate the cruise, I'll be on another ship. Two years in advance they've already organized a mini-golf tournament and assigned someone to bring a prize for the lowest score on each hole!

 

Wow...organizing a golf tournament! Now that's an active Roll Call.

 

We find that each Roll Call is different. Some very active...some where people only post every so often. But we've made some wonderful friends throughout the years.

[jdarch]

Hm. Well, I was going to answer on this thread, but after reading all the other posts I've decided to go elsewhere... :D

[CPT Trips]

Yeap, I have . . . twice that I can think of. One was a situation where we were trying to decide between two cruises. Made the decision based on several people on the roll call who met on another cruise . . . way too pushy for our taste on that roll call and then confirmed my "bad vibes" on the cruise. The other was a tentative cruise . . . the roll call itself developed too many "rules" and there were folks pushing for participation and information. Cancelled that and booked another.

[JLSPOOL]

DH & I are at the very early planning stages for an 18-nt. transpacific cruise in spring 2014, and we're considering several options with slightly different ports. I'm always curious why passengers choose a particular ship/itinerary, so I checked the roll call boards for our top 2 favorites.

 

Frankly I was surprised that both already have active roll calls...one that has been going for over a year and with 1000+ posts. The vast majority of posts are made by about 50 people who have obviously traveled together several times in the past. They have a website (with several tabs), a facebook page, and have already organized two exclusive CC parties on-board and several private excursions. I thought that was a bit much, but what really turned me off was when they requested a bio for each participant (they supplied the questions), a photo and a "special" screen name to be used only for this roll call. Their target is to get at least 500 people to attend the CC party! They also plan to "take over" at least one bar every evening.

 

Well, that narrowed down our options and we immediately crossed that cruise off our list. Has this ever happened to you?

 

 

I check the number of pages on a roll call. 200+ pages means forget the roll call, not the cruise.

[Petoonya]

I'm booked on the same 18 nite cruise you mentioned, but not affected by the role call. But it IS a little overwhelming.

DH and I are quiet cruisers. On any cruise it's great if we meet a few couples to chat or tour with, but large groups, parties aren't our thing. I'd be VERY surprised if the group reached 500 CC's, but who knows? It's not going to affect our cruise, dining rooms, bars, rambunctiousness or whatever. We can always find a quiet place to relax. As others say, I use those threads to learn from others (maybe the Aussies this time), but the rest of it I ignore.

 

Hope you change your mind. :)

[C 2 C]

Just imagine (no imagination on my part) that you are going on a cruise with the only person that matters and you never even heard of a travel board. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

[wwcruisers]

Just imagine (no imagination on my part) that you are going on a cruise with the only person that matters and you never even heard of a travel board. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

 

Well said (as always), Arno! :cool:

[ghstudio]

I'm booked on the same 18 nite cruise you mentioned, but not affected by the role call. But it IS a little overwhelming.

DH and I are quiet cruisers. On any cruise it's great if we meet a few couples to chat or tour with, but large groups, parties aren't our thing. I'd be VERY surprised if the group reached 500 CC's, but who knows? It's not going to affect our cruise, dining rooms, bars, rambunctiousness or whatever. We can always find a quiet place to relax. As others say, I use those threads to learn from others (maybe the Aussies this time), but the rest of it I ignore.

 

Hope you change your mind. :)

 

The longer and more "exotic" cruises seem to draw out that want to socialize with all the passengers before they cruise. We are on a couple of singapore cruises next year and the non cruise related posts in those roll calls is just amazing....ranging from "good morning everyone" to "how was your dinner party last night". There is so much social chatter that I've actually stopped following the roll calls and that's almost unheard of for me. I chalk it up to folks being lonely and yes, that's a reality as one gets older...I'm not trying to insult anyone. We'll chance making friends on board....and I'll continue to use roll calls that actually talk about the cruise, the ports or cruise related stuff.

[Petoonya]

completely agree. found this to be true on "exotic" and transoceanic cruises as well. a story about a roll call that made dh and i reluctantly popular on a cruise......

 

several years back was contributing to an oceania rollcall. oceania was still doing complimentary lovely open bar parties for cc members. maybe i contributed too often, or asked too many questions on the roll call? but somehow oceania thought I was a "group leader". when cc-ers arrived in their staterooms an invitation was waiting for that "mr. and mrs. petoonya" were hosting a cocktail party for all. at the party, much as we explained to the party goers that it was oceania throwing the party, providing libations, we were thanked effusively throughout the cruise for the fantastic party "we" threw. it was nice to be thought of as so generous, hee-hee.

[celebrity]

completely agree. found this to be true on "exotic" and transoceanic cruises as well. a story about a roll call that made dh and i reluctantly popular on a cruise......

 

several years back was contributing to an oceania rollcall. oceania was still doing complimentary lovely open bar parties for cc members. maybe i contributed too often, or asked too many questions on the roll call? but somehow oceania thought I was a "group leader". when cc-ers arrived in their staterooms an invitation was waiting for that "mr. and mrs. petoonya" were hosting a cocktail party for all. at the party, much as we explained to the party goers that it was oceania throwing the party, providing libations, we were thanked effusively throughout the cruise for the fantastic party "we" threw. it was nice to be thought of as so generous, hee-hee.

 

That is hilarious. Hope you had a great time.

[mylove]

The longer and more "exotic" cruises seem to draw out that want to socialize with all the passengers before they cruise. We are on a couple of singapore cruises next year and the non cruise related posts in those roll calls is just amazing....ranging from "good morning everyone" to "how was your dinner party last night". There is so much social chatter that I've actually stopped following the roll calls and that's almost unheard of for me. I chalk it up to folks being lonely and yes, that's a reality as one gets older...I'm not trying to insult anyone. We'll chance making friends on board....and I'll continue to use roll calls that actually talk about the cruise, the ports or cruise related stuff.

 

Good afternoon Doug........like most have responded to you on our Exotic cruises,if you don't like the chatter skip over it,easily done,and as far as being lonely and old I and most everyone else that chats on our boards are neither of these you mention.Everyone has always responded to you about any tours or cruise related things you would like information about.I have made very dear friends on cruises and will continue to chit chat as I feel the need.

 

Kimberley