HAL Roll Calls - Weak

[dateacher]

Why are the HAL roll calls so rarely used? I have cruised on other lines and there is plenty going on for the roll calls. Is it the demographics?

Edited April 22, 2014 by dateacher

[DaveOKC]

Why are the HAL roll calls so rarely used? I have cruised on other lines and there is plenty going on for the roll calls. Is it the demographics?

 

It really seems to vary. I have been on some great, active roll calls and some that were just dead. It seems to take several people to get involved to get things rolling and then others will join in.

 

DaveOKC

[mame42]

Why are the HAL roll calls so rarely used? I have cruised on other lines and there is plenty going on for the roll calls. Is it the demographics?

 

I find it is the itinerary rather than the demographics. Coastal North America and Caribbean roll calls tend to be sparse. Exotic and port intensive itinerary roll calls seem to become active as soon as the first cabin is booked. I have booked an upcoming HAL East Coastal cruise and a longer Hal Med cruise. Both follow this pattern.

[Cruising-along]

I have been on a few good ones, but lately not so much. :(

 

What bothers me more than anything is when posters only come to a roll call to look for others to fill out their private tours, and then disappear.

 

Unlike mame42, I have found the opposite, my European roll calls are the dead ones!

Edited April 22, 2014 by Cruising-along

[rkacruiser]

Most of the Roll Calls that I have joined have been active. A few have resulted in making lasting friendships with some of those on the Roll Call.

 

I cannot say that demographics or itinerary has made any difference in participation. I was in a very active Roll Call for a Caribbean cruise and when the time came for a Meet and Greet, I was the only one who made an appearance.

 

Frankly, in comparison to my sole Roll Call for a Celebrity Eclipse Caribbean cruise, I prefer the HAL ones. The Celebrity Roll Call was very active. And, the M & G was overwhelming in the attendance. I never did meet folks whom I had hoped to meet; there was such a huge crowd in attendance.

[Alberta Quilter]

My Alaska roll call has been fairly active for the past year - over 1100 posts. Some of it is chitchat but a fair bit is about Alaska ports and tours. That said, it has recently picked up because we are past final payment date and as the price decreases, more people are coming on and finalizing their plans.

 

Same thing happened with my Med roll call last year. There were those of us who had our tours arranged months before some even started.

[kazu]

an interesting topic. I guess I have been lucky. All our roll calls have been relatively active. Relative for the Caribbean and busy, busy for our Panama in 2015 (already over 1000 posts) and our Prinsendam in the fall.

 

In the past I have been on busy, busy roll calls that kept you hopping - especially our Wizard and Witches for our Prinsendam roll call.

 

I haven't ever been on a dead roll call, but I also believe that you have to generate some enthusiasm and try to get people going - so whether it's talking about potential private tours in ports, updating the meet and greet or just doing a countdown for the cruise - that stuff can help.

 

You need to keep your roll call near the top of the page - if it slides off the front page it can't be seen.

 

I consider myself lucky to have met the wonderful people that I have at our meet and greets - and yes, our meet and greets are nearly all fully attended.:D

[496and706]

On my recent cruise I was extremely embarrassed at the Meet and Greet because as soon as the person "in charge" got the mic from the Cruise Director he started talking about how anyone who owed him money for private excursions should come over to his table and pay him.

 

For goodness sake, people, it's a HAL Meet and Greet. Talk about your private excursions later, after the HAL officers have left the room.

 

I find that most of the names in a roll call are people that I have never seen on these main boards. I mentioned this board to a few people at the Meet and Greet and they had no idea what I was talking about.

[dateacher]

Thanks for the insight. I am on a July 30 Volendam to Alaska and I was the second and last post. I will try to bump it up. I've started looking at other roll calls just to get ideas of things to do but most of the July to Alaska are dead.

 

Hopefully, my ship isn't full of people too old to even know what a computer is.

[eandj]

Agree... from my experiences, the HAL boards just don't draw the numbers and interest that Princess or Celebrity draw.

The fewer number of passengers on the small/midsize older HAl ships would be my first reason.

[Krazy Kruizers]

When I used to join in the Roll Calls -- some were very active and some were dead.

Very hard to predict how a Roll Call will go.

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

an interesting topic. I guess I have been lucky. All our roll calls have been relatively active. Relative for the Caribbean and busy, busy for our Panama in 2015 (already over 1000 posts) and our Prinsendam in the fall.

 

In the past I have been on busy, busy roll calls that kept you hopping - especially our Wizard and Witches for our Prinsendam roll call.

 

I haven't ever been on a dead roll call, but I also believe that you have to generate some enthusiasm and try to get people going - so whether it's talking about potential private tours in ports, updating the meet and greet or just doing a countdown for the cruise - that stuff can help.

 

You need to keep your roll call near the top of the page - if it slides off the front page it can't be seen.

 

I consider myself lucky to have met the wonderful people that I have at our meet and greets - and yes, our meet and greets are nearly all fully attended.:D

 

I would say that the enthusiasm of Kazu makes her roll calls work well. Although we eventually did not go on the cruise, I was on one of her roll calls and she kept it jumping. Also, IMO the longer the cruise and the more interesting and/or exotic the itinerary, the more active the HAL roll call will be.

[FredT]

Our Volendam far east roll call for this February was pretty quiet UNTIL about a month out. Then it took off. Same happened with our Antarctica cruise a few years ago.

 

I do agree with the comments concerning the "exoticness" (If that's a word) of the cruise. With the "vanilla" cruises there are so many experienced travelers that there are fewer questions or desire for shore excursions...

[kazu]

On my recent cruise I was extremely embarrassed at the Meet and Greet because as soon as the person "in charge" got the mic from the Cruise Director he started talking about how anyone who owed him money for private excursions should come over to his table and pay him.

 

For goodness sake, people, it's a HAL Meet and Greet. Talk about your private excursions later, after the HAL officers have left the room.

 

I find that most of the names in a roll call are people that I have never seen on these main boards. I mentioned this board to a few people at the Meet and Greet and they had no idea what I was talking about.

 

 

 

I would be too. As a meet and greet organizer and also a private tour organizer I have NEVER discussed private tours at this time.

 

there are lots of discreet ways to do this which can be done with an envelope before hand or a meeting afterwards.

 

In fact, on our very intensive cruise of 31 days where there were a lot of private tours organized (and people were emailed with full details so there shouldn't have been too many questions) along with the invite to the meet and greet - I inserted a little note that the meet and greet was to meet people and that the people organizing the private tours would be around after for any questions.

 

there is a time and place for everything and I truly believe that a meet and greet should be focussed on meeting the people and if you are lucky enough to have some officers or staff - to listen to them.

 

Details of private tours should have been worked out long ago. Tour organizers should have their emails and room numbers and there is NO reason to bring this up at a meet and greet IMO.

[PathfinderEss]

I have found that especially the Alaska roll calls are dead. I believe it is because you have lots of first timers doing them and they have no idea about roll calls.

On our past few Alaska cruise we have had lots of Austrians, English and Canadians with few Americans. They tend to come over in groups touring the United States with a cruise thrown in.

[25thden]

On previous cruises, there were either no roll calls started, or we weren't invited to a Meet and Greet because we didn't have our guarantee cabin assignments until the last minute, and we weren't told how to contact the leader.

 

BUT -- We have a fantastic roll call for a Baltic cruise next month! Many people have joined it. It has been wonderfully organized by our leader, with frequent and friendly updates, and we've had number of people who've shared their questions and ideas on a variety of topics (tours included, but no pressure to join them). There has been wonderful communication and welcome.

 

We are looking forward to meeting so many people, some of them from towns we've lived in over the years. After reading these posts, it looks like we are very lucky to have such great organization and participation! (Nancy, I hope you see this!)

[utahtea]

I have found that especially the Alaska roll calls are dead. I believe it is because you have lots of first timers doing them and they have no idea about roll calls.

On our past few Alaska cruise we have had lots of Austrians, English and Canadians with few Americans. They tend to come over in groups touring the United States with a cruise thrown in.

 

Obviously you're not talking about this years 14 day Alaska Cruises. There are a lot of us that are lurking and posting on the other 14 day cruises since there are only 4 of these cruises this year and we have so much in common. :D

 

My first time as a cruiser was to Alaska and I don't think I joined the roll call but I do remember following it. What I also found was that on the 7 day cruise a lot of people got off after 3 or 4 days and then new people got on because they were either going off on a land tour or getting on after one. It was very hard to make friends with such a short turn around.

 

Utahtea

[Linda&Vern]

I stopped posting on Roll Call threads because there was too much time/space devoted to planning a Meet & Greet - which I don't attend. I wanted to talk about the ports and excursion recommendations, not M&G.

[sherilyn70]

What bothers me more than anything is when posters only come to a roll call to look for others to fill out their private tours, and then disappear.

We have someone like that in ours. Popped in out of the blue, didn't say hello or introduce themselves. They clearly only came on to it to fill their tour and nothing more. They don't interact with anyone unless they are interested in joining their tour.

 

Over allour Canada roll call is pretty slow. It just stayed picking up more now that were left than 2 months out.

 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[PathfinderEss]

Obviously you're not talking about this years 14 day Alaska Cruises. There are a lot of us that are lurking and posting on the other 14 day cruises since there are only 4 of these cruises this year and we have so much in common. :D

 

My first time as a cruiser was to Alaska and I don't think I joined the roll call but I do remember following it. What I also found was that on the 7 day cruise a lot of people got off after 3 or 4 days and then new people got on because they were either going off on a land tour or getting on after one. It was very hard to make friends with such a short turn around.

 

Utahtea

 

Obviously I am not. The longer cruises tend to have more activity on their roll calls. Some of the best roll calls I've been on are 30 day cruises.

[Vict0riann]

Our Volendam far east roll call for this February was pretty quiet UNTIL about a month out. Then it took off. Same happened with our Antarctica cruise a few years ago.

 

I do agree with the comments concerning the "exoticness" (If that's a word) of the cruise. With the "vanilla" cruises there are so many experienced travelers that there are fewer questions or desire for shore excursions...

 

That is so strange! We had a very active roll call for our Feb. 3 and 17th cruises on the Volendam. We were on for 28 days and made a lot of new friends on tours and at the M&G's. I think I had been posting on the roll call for over a year beforehand!

[dateacher]

Wow, I've had more posts on this than my roll call. Too bad all of you aren't on my cruise.

[Cruising-along]

Wow, I've had more posts on this than my roll call. Too bad all of you aren't on my cruise.

 

And that, I believe, is the problem of many "dead" roll calls. When the majority of a (small) roll call are posters who don't post here on the HAL board, or are new to cruising and CC, it's a struggle to keep it floating.

 

The most active roll calls I've been on were with posters who visit the HAL board regularly and post at least once in awhile. It's hard to generate interest otherwise. ;)

 

You say you were the second and last poster -- so even the OP hasn't been back? I don't think mine has either. :D

[POA1]

The moderators *could* put a link to the Holland America roll call forum at the top of this forum. It would make it easier for newbies to find the roll call board. It's always good to provide alternative navigation paths. It would probably be helpful to have a link from the HAL roll call forum that lead back here, too. It would work for any cruise line really.

 

 

Why, yes - I have read the vBulettin manual! :)

[serendipity1499]

The moderators *could* put a link to the Holland America roll call forum at the top of this forum. It would make it easier for newbies to find the roll call board. It's always good to provide alternative navigation paths. It would probably be helpful to have a link from the HAL roll call forum that lead back here, too. It would work for any cruise line really.

 

 

Why, yes - I have read the vBulettin manual! :)

 

There is a notice right at the top of this board.. It also includes the ships & several of the roll call links.. Have no idea when it went up but above that is a note about organizing a meet & Mingle (meet & greet) which has been there for years..

 

Both notices are at the very top above announcements in a white box which is entitled "Holland America Line"..

 

The last notice has a big star next to it & it says: New "Find your Holland America Roll Call"

 

 

 

Betty

Edited April 23, 2014 by serendipity1499