Has a roll call ever caused you NOT to book?

[momofmeg]

Wow -- this is the first that I have heard of such a large Meet & Greet. When I used to join the Roll Calls -- they were usually anywhere from 8 - 100 people.

I would be upset if they closed down a bar each evening just for a get-together.

I haven't even bothered to read the Roll Calls for the last couple of years for our cruises.

I got turned off them when they wanted to do gift exchanges and cabin crawls.

 

On the Connie in 2007 we had over 200 people.

[FlaGrl4Evr]

One of our cruises had a roll call that was started and taken over by a group belonging to a tailgating-camping club. They only talked to each other on the boards and completely ignored all newcomers. Some days it was 2 pages of chit-chat about non cruise topics ie; Tailgating Sally's latest surgery etc... It was clear that the Meet and Greet was for club-members only. A newer member of the roll call finally started an official cruise roll call for that sailing and the other original roll call was moved over to a thread in the Floatway Lounge where that group kept thier own personal roll call. I do not know if one of the host's caught on to what was going on and moved it or if it was reported that there were two roll calls and one was moved ???? We ended up having to change our cruise date, due to work issues but it was nice to know that one orgainzed group was not going to be allowed to dominate the entire roll call.

 

We have only been on two cruises so far with a third planned but do enjoy belonging to a roll call and being able to gather really good information from seasoned cruisers such as; pre-cruise hotels, cruise ports, excursions etc.. Not to mention, meeting some really nice people that without being on the roll call may have never had the opportunity to cross paths with.

 

:)

[johneeo]

Not to mention, meeting some really nice people that without being on the roll call may have never had the opportunity to cross paths with.

 

:)

 

I've been on two roll calls, and I can say I met some really fantastic people.

 

On each, the best time that we had was meeting at sail away. Nothing like sail away, and getting to meet up with some of those on the roll call.

 

The meet and greets were both hit and miss, only about half made it, nothing to rave about. I did get free internet prizes at both though, which was nice.

[solocanadian]

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?

Good grief, NO! That would turn me off also.

[preschool teacher]

No for me also....we have always met a few people we clicked with.....can't be friends with everybody......

[scottbee]

Wow!

Should anyone find any roll calls like this, please point me to them!;)

Seriously .... I can also be emailed at my user name at gmail.com

 

I'd prefer not to involve a 3rd party, other than CC, that's just not fair.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Some are good and some are dead ..

[Bowie MeMe]

Only one that came close to figuring in my decision to cruise or not is for the Asian cruise that we will go on this SAT.:p. I was booking it last October and reading a current and a year from now roll call where I saw pictures and heard descriptions of Golden Week in China. I knew I did not want to be in Beijing the first week of Oct. I changed to the Oct. 25 sailing of Diamond Princess and will do my land travel from Oct. 13 -25.

 

I lurk among several sailings and you find different vibes from one to another. I cruise about 3 times a year and sometimes make the M&G sometimes not. Almost never see or hear from the folks again unless I make the effort to meet up. It's a big ship and CC seems mighty here but it really has little impact on the cruise (unless you meet someone you really like and that is really extra!)

 

Places I have really learned much from reading the posts is on the Cruise Air thread, the cruise fashion and beauty thread and the ports threads. Once I cruise I tend to go to the next trip to start the planning.

[Sinppu]

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?

 

Hi, I know the cruise and the roll call :p

I booked the Celebrity one instead. The itinerary is almost identical, so are the dates and the price is even cheaper.

Join us on that cruise?? ;)

[Putterdude]

I would never not consider taking a specific cruise because of a roll call but could see us not attending a M&G because of a roll call. We have participated in cabin crawls but have no interest in gift exchanges. To date all of the roll calls I have participated in and all of the M&G I have attended have been positive experiences....allbeit several M&G have only consisted of several people and could have been held in a very small phone booth.:)

[lady_cruiser]

I never book or cancel a cruise by what is going on with a roll call.

[Jana60]

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?

 

Realistically there are usually only 50-100 people on most cruise roll calls and unless you make plans to do so you are unlikely to actually see these people on the cruise so I certainly wouldn't let a roll call discourage me from going on a cruise. While they may have invited people to participate I'm sure they did not require it.

[DanJ]

I managed to get info from a roll call that convinced me not to book that cruise. Was seriously looking at a HAL cruise this January, and in reading the roll call, found that there is a large religious group (like half the ship or so) on that cruise. After doing some checking into their past cruises, and how many events they do, I decided I wasn't interested in a cruise where half the people belong to any particular group.

[tip]

I would neither book nor cancel a cruise based upon the roll calls. We have participated in many of them and have received many good tips regarding pre and post cruise hotels, excursions, (etc.) and it was fun to put some faces with names when attending the meet and greets. We usually attend the meet and greets, but don't really go beyond that in terms of forging relationships.

 

The only meet and greet that really left me disappointed was one that we attended on the Noordam last winter. We were one of the first to arrive and chatted with the organizer who immediately launched into a political tirade and made a very inappropriate remark regarding violence. We just walked away from her and chatted with some others. Had she made a comment like this on the roll call, we would not have attended the meet and greet, but we certainly would not have cancelled our cruise.

[mrsd912]

The roll call from our cruise didn't make me want to cancel, but it did make me switch our cabin. There were a lot of people in the roll call booked on the same deck as we were, and I called Carnival to change cabins the moment I saw them talking about "party in the halls!". That's just not mine and DH's scene.

They held two get togethers in bars, and talked a lot about drinking and pub crawls. Since DH is an alcoholic (presently sober), I did a disappearing act from the roll call. I must not have been missed since someone I had conversed with on the roll call later suggested on a random thread that I join the room call:rolleyes:

It worked out for the best. I loved the cabin we ended up staying and had an awesome time. With that being said, I may participate in another roll call, and while I wouldn't let it effect me choosing that cruise, it might have me change my game plan for the week.

[boulders]

I'm currently booked on two cruises in early 2014. I will be cancelling one. I was trying to decide which one. One of the cruise lines is HAL. I cruised on the Nieuw Amsterdam this summer and loved it. The other is the Celebrity Infinity. I've never cruised on Celebrity, but I'd be elite because on my Diamond status on RCCL. The itineraries (to South America and Antarctica) were different, but I liked both.

 

It was a toss up until I checked out the roll calls. I had been following Infinity's roll call, which has been very very active, even 18 months out. Some of the participants had been on the same cruise before and were going back. This boded well for that cruise. On the HAL roll call.... wait! there isn't one! Ummm, why? I did more digging on the ship and recent reviews talk about mass flooding, water running down walls, elevators out of order for months. OK, I think I found the one I'll be cancelling! So yes, the roll calls are part of the research I do for a cruise and are part of the booking/cancelling decision process.

[momofmeg]

Realistically there are usually only 50-100 people on most cruise roll calls and unless you make plans to do so you are unlikely to actually see these people on the cruise so I certainly wouldn't let a roll call discourage me from going on a cruise. While they may have invited people to participate I'm sure they did not require it.

 

That is not true of longer cruises. A lot of retirees do those cruises and yes they are very active on roll calls and also very cliquish and many tend to do these type cruises every year together.

 

On our 12 day north Atlantic TA in 2007 on Celebrity Constellation there were over 200 people on our roll call. I will say this although I was viewed as an "outsider" with them everyone treated me kindly and answered many of my questions as that was my first time with such a trip. I only found one person on that roll call distasteful and it was more that they were a complainer and this was POST cruise. They did not enjoy their cruise at all it seemed. They loved RCI and in their mind Celebrity did not hold up to their expectations. I guess they expected Celebrity to be a clone of RCI since they are owned by the same parent company. It seemed they did not stop to think WHY the parent company would have different cruiselines to attract different types of clientele. However even they were nice-I just found some of their posts irritating.

[cruiserfromalabama]

I would never let a Roll Call dictate my decision about booking or cancelling a cruise. I use Roll Calls as a great way to check out travel tips and excursion tips(I guess I am a stalker)! I did try a Roll Call with our last cruisetour to Italy in June, but no one would respond to my posts or questions(maybe because of my sign on revealing that I am from Alabama)! I decided to drop out of that Roll Call, because I did feel a little rejected. My husband and I travel alone, but we make friends on all our trips and enjoying cruising very much. I love Cruise Critic and find the comments and reviews extremely fun to read and they always get me in the travel mode!

[Shorex]

No, we have never cancelled a cruise based on a roll call. However, the roll call for a cruise we have booked for next year exemplifies all the negatives that have been mentioned here previously: bickering, name calling, finger pointing, insider cliques, pages of gossipy posts unrelated to the cruise, etc.

 

Interspersed in the drama are some useful! references to websites, private tours, hotel suggestions, and ship information.

 

I will never "join" the roll call -- that would be like being dropped into a soap opera -- without the script.

[MrsPete]

I'm not sure this is exactly what you're talking about, but we did once change our date (by a couple weeks) because we realized we'd be sailing with the Hogs on the High Seas.

 

I realized they'd be sailing with us through the roll call, and as I read about their group, I read a couple things that were very unappealing to me: Something about a penis apron that they consider a joke and wear around the pool area -- not something I'd like to have my kids see. And I read that they all planned to wear motorcycle leathers (is that the right term?) to dinner on formal night. I feared that this large group might shut down some portions of the ship, and I was able to see that all balcony cabins were already sold out (which guaranteed I wasn't going to get a price drop on that cruise).

 

I don't want to dictate what that group can and can't do on their cruise, but I also felt that their style of fun would've cut into our family's cruise -- I feel sure we did the right thing by changing to another week.

[tarheelmjfan]

We were previously booked on a different cruise for next week. The roll call for that cruise was the only roll call I didn't enjoy. There was a core group that had sailed together & they completely took over. The person who started the thread was pushed out. One person seemed to make all the rules & the others in the group supported him. I do mean rules. There were subcategories for all cruise related topics. The roll call was to be used for non-cruise chatting only. Every time anyone asked a cruise related question they were admonished & told to post in the right location. It was really unbelievable. I finally quit using the roll call as did many others. There really should have been 2 roll calls for that cruise. After that experience, it didn't take much to get me to switch cruises. Our current roll call is very friendly, which has been the case for all cruises we've taken except the one we cancelled. So yes, I guess the roll call did influence our decision to switch cruises.

[wwcruisers]

We were previously booked on a different cruise for next week. The roll call for that cruise was the only roll call I didn't enjoy. There was a core group that had sailed together & they completely took over. The person who started the thread was pushed out. One person seemed to make all the rules & the others in the group supported him. I do mean rules. There were subcategories for all cruise related topics. The roll call was to be used for non-cruise chatting only. Every time anyone asked a cruise related question they were admonished & told to post in the right location. It was really unbelievable. I finally quit using the roll call as did many others. There really should have been 2 roll calls for that cruise. After that experience, it didn't take much to get me to switch cruises. Our current roll call is very friendly, which has been the case for all cruises we've taken except the one we cancelled. So yes, I guess the roll call did influence our decision to switch cruises.

 

Yikes! :eek: Did you report this bizarre behavior to the moderators? Last time I checked, they were the only ones who get to make / enforce the rules around here. Don't blame you for bailing though. After all, who wants to start their cruise experience, dealing with bossy, unpleasant people?

[Lois R]

Yikes! :eek: Did you report this bizarre behavior to the moderators? Last time I checked, they were the only ones who get to make / enforce the rules around here. Don't blame you for bailing though. After all, who wants to start their cruise experience, dealing with bossy, unpleasant people?

 

Hi, I echo your post.....I know the moderators would want to be

informed about something like this:eek:.....one really good reason

to use that little triangle in the corner of the box.

 

That person sounds downright mean and ugly:mad::(

[momofmeg]

Hi, I echo your post.....I know the moderators would want to be

informed about something like this:eek:.....one really good reason

to use that little triangle in the corner of the box.

 

That person sounds downright mean and ugly:mad::(

 

Sadly if this trend keeps happening I can see CC doing away with the roll call feature. I enjoy the rollcalls and the meet and greets. I would hate to see this happen.

[tarheelmjfan]

Yikes! Did you report this bizarre behavior to the moderators? Last time I checked, they were the only ones who get to make / enforce the rules around here. Don't blame you for bailing though. After all, who wants to start their cruise experience, dealing with bossy, unpleasant people?

 

Hi, I echo your post.....I know the moderators would want to be

informed about something like this.....one really good reason

to use that little triangle in the corner of the box.

 

That person sounds downright mean and ugly

 

I didn't report it, & I don't know if anyone else did either. A few of us tried to defend those who were new to the roll call & dared to post a cruise related question there, but others in the pre-established group would come to the defense of the ring leader. Some of them were actually very nice, but they were too easily influenced by the "boss". Several of us eventually moved to Facebook, but that's not like having a CC roll call. I usually love chatting with others leading up to the cruise. The RC is usually the first place I go on CC. Unfortunately, it seemed impossible to read that roll call & not get upset. It made me lose my excitement for the cruise, which is the opposite of what a RC normally does. I was so much happier, when we switched cruises & I began chatting with that group. That experience makes me never want to cruise with a group who have cruised together before.