Roll calls : not the flavour of the month anymore?

[wombat13]

Yes I remember a great time was had by all including staff on the Solstice Honolulu to Sydney mic😀 lots of sea days , cabin crawl, and a few m&m it was a party ship.

[cruisine21]

The roll call for our September 11th cruise is very active with 740 posts.

[silverwillow]

It really is a shame. We had an amazing roll call on our recent Mediterranean cruise thanks to one amazing person who lead the way with a spreadsheet where we could all join private tours and organise get togethers. This was so valuable and we enjoyed the private tours over the ships excursions hands down for every one of them. I will always try and organise or look for small group tours now not just for the saving in costs but the friendships and the amazing experiences you can have in a small group as opposed to a big, slow, lumbering ships excursion.

[charmed101]

I believe that the majority of people join in their respective roll calls for the same reason that they are on cruise critic, to gain valuable information.

You can get other peoples views on hotels, places to eat, and arrange excursions at different ports etc.

After doing many cruises most people tend to participate less in their roll calls because they are usually dominated by a handful of people talking about family and their daily current lives,,,, not saying that there is anything wrong with that, but lots of people are really not into that sort of thing.

So you end up with a certain percentage of cruisers interacting with others and a lot of people viewing and gathering valuable info for their next vacation.

There is nothing wrong with either group, people just decide what's best for them.

Just my opinion !

[Kinkacruiser]

Hi Anna

Yes, it seems to be that roll calls are not the present flavour

Our Diamond cruise out of Singapore on 17th Sept is very poorly represented on the rollcall and the only active member apart from us, had to cancel last week because of family health concerns

It is certainly nothing like our Bangkok to Sydney Diamond cruise 3 years ago when everyone joined in and we organised several tours between us

There were some interesting characters too

I can only hope that now that final payments are due we may get more joining

 

John

 

Hello John,

Ah that was a great cruise, wasn't it. The days of large group bookings with tour operators could be over. Hope you're keeping well.

Cheers,

Anna

[timtam2]

After doing many cruises most people tend to participate less in their roll calls because they are usually dominated by a handful of people talking about family and their daily current lives,,,, not saying that there is anything wrong with that, but lots of people are really not into that sort of thing.

 

This is generally why I don't participate....if a roll call just becomes a chi chat forum about personal stuff, I'm out. The info shared sometimes is way over the top!

[MicCanberra]

Yes I remember a great time was had by all including staff on the Solstice Honolulu to Sydney mic lots of sea days , cabin crawl, and a few m&m it was a party ship.

 

It was a great cruise, with lots of activities, the previous cruise to that one was even more involved, with slot pulls and all sorts of games organised.

[MicCanberra]

I believe that the majority of people join in their respective roll calls for the same reason that they are on cruise critic, to gain valuable information.

You can get other peoples views on hotels, places to eat, and arrange excursions at different ports etc.

After doing many cruises most people tend to participate less in their roll calls because they are usually dominated by a handful of people talking about family and their daily current lives,,,, not saying that there is anything wrong with that, but lots of people are really not into that sort of thing.

So you end up with a certain percentage of cruisers interacting with others and a lot of people viewing and gathering valuable info for their next vacation.

There is nothing wrong with either group, people just decide what's best for them.

Just my opinion !

 

This is generally why I don't participate....if a roll call just becomes a chi chat forum about personal stuff, I'm out. The info shared sometimes is way over the top!

 

I know what you mean but I am willing to engage with that to get the information and to some extent get to know the other people. I find if I am joining an shorex with two other couples for the day, I sort of want to know a little bit about them (as much as you can in an online forum) before committing to the shorex with my hard earned.:D

[NSWP]

I reckon if the name 'Roll Call' was Changed to 'Meet and Greet' it may be more appealing. 'Roll Call' sounds like being back in the Army !!!

[MicCanberra]

or school :eek:

 

I am present.:p

[mr walker]

PRESENT!:)

 

I have always posted on the roll-call threads since I joined in late 2012. Most have been fairly active & I agree the longer cruises are more active. I have learnt a lot from them & hopefully contributed a little.

I have even met some posting on this very thread :D

 

My next cruise, Carnival Spirit Melb Cup has a virtual non-event roll-call, with only 3 contributors and no action for over 3 weeks. Maybe the OP on the roll-call scared them off :)

[benjoon]

We had a fabulous roll call for our Solstice cruise last December. It was very active that one of our US members would get up during the night to see what the southern hemisphere members were writing.

 

We had a wonderful meet up the evening before in Auckland. We had sail away, lunches, cabin crawls, group photos and loads of other meet ups.

 

I'm now on 3 other roll calls that have very few members.

[goodycruising]

Thanks for starting this thread, we had forgotten to jump on the roll call and register for the meet and mingle on our next RCI cruise.

 

Interestingly there is 20 registered for the meet and mingle but not a lot of posts on the roll call. So maybe some people like to do the meeting on board, but don't know what to say on the roll call. We are a bit like that. Maybe it will get busier closer to the sail date.

 

We also have had mixed results for the meet and mingle, it is really a combination of how the staff on board run it, and whether the other people sitting near you have a chat or are heading off elsewhere. Last cruise we chatted to friends we had meet on a previous cruise roll call, and didn't mingle much due to the layout of where it was held.

 

On a Celebrity cruise last year we had a bunch of officers and even the Captain came along and said hi, and the atmosphere was really buzzing. It was a dedicated area and there was much more mingling.

 

I also found this time that I had trouble locating all the tabs and links to get to the roll call and to register, and I have done it a few times, but they had changed the look of it all here. I think a newbie could find it very hard to actually find the places to go.

Edited June 22, 2015 by goodycruising

[MicCanberra]

A roll call can really provide a great cruise experience and some roll calls are just fantastic but as a consequence we get spoiled and expect that type of experience every time. It isn't going to happen. However, that doesn't mean the cruise will be bad and you will end up meeting people that just click and who were not on the roll call anyway.:D

[The_Big_M]

This is generally why I don't participate....if a roll call just becomes a chi chat forum about personal stuff, I'm out. The info shared sometimes is way over the top!

 

Had that on one of my last roll calls. It actually caused a few bust-ups as people got offended at each other, some just left, and there was scandal around an agent revenue raising dividing some into pro and against camps who got barred.

 

Like an online version of "Days of our life!"

 

And then on the cruise, we found a shadow group of lurkers had tried to hijack behind the scenes a tour operator, and as a result messed up the actual tour. The tour operator gave some compensation for the mess-up. It was certainly an active and eventful roll call.

[The_Big_M]

Thanks for starting this thread, we had forgotten to jump on the roll call and register for the meet and mingle on our next RCI cruise.

 

Good point - I've done the same. As an earlier post said, in this case it's an itinerary we've done before, so wasn't actually thinking about it.

[cruisine21]

I received excellent information on the ports for my upcoming cruise. Several of the people on the roll have done the cruise previously. I was also given information on day tours post-cruise as there are a few Canadians onboard.

[Jackie42]

I agree with you NSWP as roll call is a bit dated and reminds you of school days, we are all there to enjoy ourselves and make the most of our cruise without hearing ones ailments and family problems

[GUT2407]

I only found CC in the lead up to my last cruise.

 

It was nice to have at least met a few people [only online] before we left [though t turned out I'd known one since we were kids].

 

But I must say that roll call for an 8 night cruise was much more active than the one for our upcoming 30 night cruise.

 

Doesn't worry me in the slightest as I'll either meet people or not as I go, fortunately I'm quiet happy just to be with HER, she on the other hand would like to0 meet nice people.

 

I suspect it just comes down to who is on the cruise, what they are looking for and perhaps where they are from.

[Kinkacruiser]

Thanks everyone for the interesting discussion on this topic. I agree that "Roll Call" is a terrible label.

[Guest zafra63]

We noticed that there is not much action on our roll calls for October and November 2015 on the Golden Princess. May be, we all have done these itineraries before and people are not interested to create private tours. We are looking back on some great private tours with really nice and interesting people, and we liked the Meet and Greet, so you can put a face to a name. We loved all the planning beforehand, but we just have to do things on our own this time. But good to know that we are not on our own, more people have encountered this lack of interest.Happy cruising to everybody wherever your destination may be. Thanks Anna for starting this topic.

[tickford]

Our first roll call - Alaska- was quite active, it was on FB which is where Princess directed us when we booked. Loads of people said they would come to the meet and greet, there were a total of 4 turn up, hubby and I and the organiser and her Mum, was terrible though I do believe the organiser met up with others during the cruise, we were 2 of about 6 Australians on board. I am still friends on FB with the lady who organised it.

 

2nd Roll call, Aus - NZ cruise, again Princess roll call on FB, quite a bit of activity, about 12 of us turned up at the meet and greet, was not the most successful event, again.

 

Have joined in 2 more roll calls here on CC as Princess do not have them on FB anymore and although I am on FB every day I can never seem to find private roll call groups. For the 3rd cruise no meet and greet organised and roll call was dead. Next cruise a meet and greet was organised privately on FB, we didn't go, didn't know much about it but I don't think it was well attended.

 

I have given up on them...On our last cruise at one port where we hadn't organised a tour we found a couple from our ship on the wharf going round in circles trying to find transport, we said come with us, they did and it was good. That's they way we will roll in future, plenty of chit chat with others on board.

[Guest zafra63]

Our first roll call - Alaska- was quite active, it was on FB which is where Princess directed us when we booked. Loads of people said they would come to the meet and greet, there were a total of 4 turn up, hubby and I and the organiser and her Mum, was terrible though I do believe the organiser met up with others during the cruise, we were 2 of about 6 Australians on board. I am still friends on FB with the lady who organised it.

 

 

 

2nd Roll call, Aus - NZ cruise, again Princess roll call on FB, quite a bit of activity, about 12 of us turned up at the meet and greet, was not the most successful event, again.

 

 

 

Have joined in 2 more roll calls here on CC as Princess do not have them on FB anymore and although I am on FB every day I can never seem to find private roll call groups. For the 3rd cruise no meet and greet organised and roll call was dead. Next cruise a meet and greet was organised privately on FB, we didn't go, didn't know much about it but I don't think it was well attended.

 

 

 

I have given up on them...On our last cruise at one port where we hadn't organised a tour we found a couple from our ship on the wharf going round in circles trying to find transport, we said come with us, they did and it was good. That's they way we will roll in future, plenty of chit chat with others on board.

 

 

Hi, Facebook has a page called Princess Cruises Platform, it is a closed group, just join up and you can see lots of Princess cruises roll calls.

[Guest zafra63]

Sorry, it is called Princess Cruises - Passenger Platform.

[cassamanda]

We find the roll calls on Royal in the main are very good with the better ones being those that are likely to have mostly non Australians.

 

An added bonus is that the meet and mingle is organised by the line rather than individuals on the roll call with Royal organising prizes and food and drinks.

 

The roll call discussion can concentrate on lots of topics including organising shipboard get togethers and outings and its good to meet up with those on the roll call at the separately organised meet & mingle.