HAL Roll Calls - What's Up?

[Sequim88]

Maybe I just got spoiled by the level of activity on the RCCL roll calls but comparing similar Ship/Itineraries (MS Amsterdam and Radiance oTS) there difference in post counts is striking. Most of the upcoming Amsterdam cruises (August Sept) have single digit post counts whereas Radiance they are in the mid-hundreds - if not thousands. Do Holland America passengers just not appreciate the roll calls? Is there something about RCCL that attracts more participants?

 

Or is this smoking gun evidence of the perception that the HAL clientele is older being true and maybe less online oriented? Heck, even my almost 90 yo dad is on his computer most of the day.

 

The difference so so striking there must be a reason. :confused: I'm speculating there is a critical mass needed to make a Roll Call useful otherwise people don't use them and HAL cruises don't hit that level.

[Cruising-along]

I'm on 4 roll calls right now (3 HAL, 1 Celebrity). Right now the one for X is the most active but it's also the cruise coming up soonest. It had a dead time too.

 

Over the years and many roll calls I've learned to be thankful for the good ones. It usually takes a minimum of 2 chatty posters, and probably only 50% of mine have had that.

 

Pet peeves: the OP who starts the roll call, cancels the cruise and never posts a "so long"; and roll calls that turn into private tour gathering with no interaction otherwise.

[saatuk]

 

Or is this smoking gun evidence of the perception that the HAL clientele is older being true and maybe less online oriented? Heck, even my almost 90 yo dad is on his computer most of the day.

 

The difference so so striking there must be a reason. :confused: I'm speculating there is a critical mass needed to make a Roll Call useful otherwise people don't use them and HAL cruises don't hit that level.

 

In my experience it varies a lot. I'm on one roll call right now that's over 100 pages and the cruise doesn't begin for 3 months. I've also been on ones that only a handful of people frequent. (shrugs). I don't think it's cruise line dependant.

[oaktreerb]

Have only cruised on RCCL (Liberty), HAL many times. The RCCL roll call and meet and greet were very active. RCCl encouraged the roll call and offered simple gifts for a drawing and the cruise director attended. HAL gives you the space for the meet & greet and drinks and cookies but doesn't do much to promote the gatherings. I also noticed the RCCL group did a lot of arranging small group private shore excursions.

 

I have never attended a HAL meet and greet because there is always another activity that I want to attend so even if I say I will be there I may not go. The roll call for the Amsterdam cruise is probably for Alaska which is such a "destination" cruise that many cruisers already have things they want to see and do. Also, while many cruisers are repeats visitors to Alaska, probably more are new to cruising and may not even spend time on cruise critic. The land and sea itineraries also fragment the destinations for many with some going to Denali and some to the Yukon, There is a lot going on outside of the 7 day cruise for most on a HAL Alaska cruise in August and September.

 

On the other hand some of the Hawaii and South Pacific roll calls are very active. It just takes a good organizer, a longer cruise, and a bunch of cruise critic members.

Edited July 21, 2016 by oaktreerb

[kazu]

Roll call activity varies. It really depends upon how much people participate, etc.

 

My last number of roll calls have been VERY busy. Prinsendam was over 5,000 posts and the mods closed it after our cruise so no one posted on it as it was taking up "so much space". LOL.

 

Our Westerdam cruises were all really busy as well.

 

My upcoming cruise is slower but it is certainly still a ways up and starting to pick up. It's early so not a lot of people have "signed on" yet. I find about 3-6 months out a lot of people come on.

 

I agree with the previous pet peeves posted - OP's that start the roll call and don't even tell us they have cancelled (happened on my Westerdam Sail a Way roll call) and "just" talking about tours. There's a half way point between that and chatting a bout what you did all day. LOL.

 

Every roll call needs a spark plug or two. So, maybe you need to be one on yours? Just a suggestion.

[Viesczy]

FWIW I think the cruise itself (length & destination especially) has a lot to do how active they're going to be. The most active calls I have been involved with were HAL and Princess doing their month long Hawaii/South Pacific calls. Just daily things going on, even just friendly banter and such.

 

When I found out 2 of the roll call mates had passed from the HAL call I was truly upset. I mean miss Bud (BigGreen) to this day and I only met/talked w him via CC and spent a month on the Westerdam with him.

 

Other calls though, once you're less than 10 days they are a ghost town it feels like to me.

[jtl513]

You're 11 months out yet. I wouldn't expect a lot of activity until Jan-Feb or so.

Edited July 21, 2016 by jtl513

[kazu]

yikes, double post somehow. apologies.

Edited July 21, 2016 by kazu

[Sequim88]

It usually takes a minimum of 2 chatty posters

 

I'm chatty - online. :D

 

More so than RCCL I suspect the expectation for activity was related to the complex transatlantics to Europe we had been doing. Plain vanilla Alaska R/T from Seattle may not warrant activity. :( We booked the TA's 18 months out (the morning bookings opened) and had dozens in the Roll Call within a week. and in the end over 3,000 posts on over 100 pages.

 

I'll give this one some more time to bake. ;)

[whogo]

Different strokes. I visit roll calls for private excursions, don't like the chit chat. A roll call with thousands of posts is my idea of hell.

[kalliekae]

As most have stated, it depends upon the cruise. On our last Royal cruise on the Allure, the roll call had about 50 people and it wasn't until a month before the cruise that it got busy. I was really looking forward to the meet and greet and it was a bust. No CD showed up and there was very little turnout.

 

The two most active rolls calls I've been on have been the HAL Baltic and Mediterranean cruises we did. People shared private excursions and shared excellent advice for those of us who were doing these itineraries for the first time.

[rajkr74]

We just got done with a 14 day Sea-Land cruise on the Volendam with us getting off in Skagway after 3 days on ship. The cruise continued on ship for a total of 7 days round trip to and from Vancouver BC. There were only two of us on the Roll Call?????? The other party stayed on the ship and never get any activity on the Roll Call. We did a 22 days Med. cruise last year and had great activity with a Meet & Greet on ship that had 76 participants.......never know what will happen.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Some are hot and some are dead :):)

[SeagoingMom]

I'm on 4 roll calls right now (3 HAL, 1 Celebrity). Right now the one for X is the most active but it's also the cruise coming up soonest. It had a dead time too.

 

Over the years and many roll calls I've learned to be thankful for the good ones. It usually takes a minimum of 2 chatty posters, and probably only 50% of mine have had that.

 

Pet peeves: the OP who starts the roll call, cancels the cruise and never posts a "so long"; and roll calls that turn into private tour gathering with no interaction otherwise.

 

Roll call activity varies. It really depends upon how much people participate, etc.

 

My last number of roll calls have been VERY busy. Prinsendam was over 5,000 posts and the mods closed it after our cruise so no one posted on it as it was taking up "so much space". LOL.

 

Our Westerdam cruises were all really busy as well.

 

My upcoming cruise is slower but it is certainly still a ways up and starting to pick up. It's early so not a lot of people have "signed on" yet. I find about 3-6 months out a lot of people come on.

 

I agree with the previous pet peeves posted - OP's that start the roll call and don't even tell us they have cancelled (happened on my Westerdam Sail a Way roll call) and "just" talking about tours. There's a half way point between that and chatting a bout what you did all day. LOL.

 

Every roll call needs a spark plug or two. So, maybe you need to be one on yours? Just a suggestion.

 

Seems as though the functions a Roll Call may serve for others are not those you value. I'm curious to know what you are looking for in a Roll Call?

[oaktreerb]

I just remembered the RCCL roll call I was following for my Liberty cruise out of New Jersey. Some of the posters on the roll call were having a contest to see who could get certain numbers on the post, like 1,000, etc. Certainly there was no substance in that...just trying to drive up the numbers. Kind of silly, but I guess they thought it was a fun competition.

[Cindy]

I've had two HAL roll calls. One was very active, and one was a cruise that I booked at the last minute and started the roll call. Nobody ever joined.:(

 

There have only been three or four people who have posted on my Westerdam roll call for next year. Right now I feel like I'm talking to myself:o, but hopefully that will change once we get through summer and more people start making firm plans for 2017.

 

I've really enjoyed my active roll calls, and even though I haven't hit it off with everybody, I've made some lasting friendships because of them.

[Sequim88]

I'm curious to know what you are looking for in a Roll Call?

 

Things I've found useful are:

1. Prior knowledge of ports

2. Sharing information found online

3. Getting to know people a bit prior to the cruise (ice already broken)

4. Link up with others to split costs on private tours

5. Maintain excitement level across the long months

6. If there are others from home area set up a local pre-cruise meet

(more likely now that we are cruising from Seattle)

7. Coordinate sail away meet-up

8. New (for me) able to share local advice beyond the departure port forum

[Cuizer2]

Maybe I just got spoiled by the level of activity on the RCCL roll calls but comparing similar Ship/Itineraries (MS Amsterdam and Radiance oTS) there difference in post counts is striking. Most of the upcoming Amsterdam cruises (August Sept) have single digit post counts whereas Radiance they are in the mid-hundreds - if not thousands. Do Holland America passengers just not appreciate the roll calls? Is there something about RCCL that attracts more participants?

 

Or is this smoking gun evidence of the perception that the HAL clientele is older being true and maybe less online oriented? Heck, even my almost 90 yo dad is on his computer most of the day.

 

The difference so so striking there must be a reason. :confused: I'm speculating there is a critical mass needed to make a Roll Call useful otherwise people don't use them and HAL cruises don't hit that level.

 

Maybe people saw 2001 A Space Odyssey and don't want to take a chance that HAL could be listening.

[blizzardboy]

Maybe I just got spoiled by the level of activity on the RCCL roll calls but comparing similar Ship/Itineraries (MS Amsterdam and Radiance oTS) there difference in post counts is striking. Most of the upcoming Amsterdam cruises (August Sept) have single digit post counts whereas Radiance they are in the mid-hundreds - if not thousands. Do Holland America passengers just not appreciate the roll calls? Is there something about RCCL that attracts more participants?

 

Or is this smoking gun evidence of the perception that the HAL clientele is older being true and maybe less online oriented? Heck, even my almost 90 yo dad is on his computer most of the day.

 

The difference so so striking there must be a reason. :confused: I'm speculating there is a critical mass needed to make a Roll Call useful otherwise people don't use them and HAL cruises don't hit that level.

If you have 5800 passengers on RCCL vs. 1800 on HAL, you obviously shouldn't expect the same volume of activity on roll calls.

I do think HAL cruisers tend to be more experienced, therefore might have fewer questions, and be less inclined to post questions before attempting to find answers on their own. I ran an internet-based company, national in scope, starting in 2002 so I'm far from an internet novice. IMO, today's "on-line oriented" individuals, as you put it, often seem incapable of doing more than posting every thought or question as soon as it pops into their mind, fully expecting instant gratification. Us "older" folks, as you also put it, were taught to investigate and do some critical thinking for ourselves. Someone has to have done the work to come up with the answers you "youngsters" expect to be instantly made available. It was probably us.

Us "older" folks do tend to be more guarded in our social outreach as we come from a time when friends were mostly made face to face. Joining a roll call requires more personal involvement than just posting on CC, and some may hesitate to join a roll call as being asked to a "meet and greet" or other like activities, and being faced with declining or ignoring such an invitation, might make them uncomfortable.

Edited July 21, 2016 by blizzardboy

[towhee]

We've been on two Celebrity roll calls; one was VERY busy, the other wasn't. The busy one had a core of about 6 people posting that had sailed together several times. It reminded me of a high-school clique. They had a competition to see who could create the most posts, but there was also useful information such as weather, what to bring, port and tour information. One of the members had a suite and we would gather for drinks before dinner each evening. The other Celebrity roll call included the usual "what are you doing in...?", "we have room for ? more on our tour".

We've also been on several Princess and HAL roll calls (several of which I started). Sometimes it felt like pulling teeth to get people to respond, but the last 6 weeks before the cruise the activity would heat up.

Bottom line - RCCL and Celebrity sponsor Meet and Greet, while the Carnival lines do not. I roll call is only as good as the people on it. You can provide a place for people to interact, but the people have to WANT to interact. I don't think it's because HAL or Princess seems to attract an older crowd. I think it has to do with the cruise itself and the people who have signed up for the cruise. I see very few Millennials on the roll calls, but they are certainly on the cruises.

[Sequim88]

If you have 5800 passengers on RCCL vs. 1800 on HAL,

 

MS Amsterdam - 1,380

Radiance oTS - 2,143

 

So only about 1/3 fewer.

 

I understand the net demographics having done retail web sites for several companies. Done IT development for over 40 years now and at 61 I'm probably the middle of the HAL demographics, but probably a little more tech forward.

 

I agree with the cruise savvy aspect for HAL though.

[blizzardboy]

MS Amsterdam - 1,380

Radiance oTS - 2,143

 

So only about 1/3 fewer.

 

I understand the net demographics having done retail web sites for several companies. Done IT development for over 40 years now and at 61 I'm probably the middle of the HAL demographics, but probably a little more tech forward.

 

I agree with the cruise savvy aspect for HAL though.

 

My bad. Saw the cruise lines compared and didn't pay enough attention to the specific ships.

[kazu]

Seems as though the functions a Roll Call may serve for others are not those you value. I'm curious to know what you are looking for in a Roll Call?

 

Don't misunderstand - we do private tours and I organize a lot of private tours, but IMO a roll call should not be limited to only talking about that. Not everyone does private tours.

 

Lots of things to discuss -things to do in port, ideas for sea days on board, where people are from, etc.

 

We've formed trivia teams, bunko groups, etc. On some roll calls along with PG lunches, etc. It varies by roll call of course, but, we've had enough interaction on several roll calls that a lot of us felt like "they knew each other" and were looking forward to finally meeting face to face ;)

Edited July 22, 2016 by kazu

[Krazy Kruizers]

There was a time when I did join the Roll Calls.

But once they started to plan games to be played, exchanging gifts, cabin crawls, slot pulls, etc., I dropped out. In fact I haven't even read a Roll Call for the last few years for any of our cruises.

[POA1]

Maybe I just got spoiled by the level of activity on the RCCL roll calls but comparing similar Ship/Itineraries (MS Amsterdam and Radiance oTS) there difference in post counts is striking.

 

Radiance holds well over 1,000 more passengers. That probably accounts for much of the difference.