It Seems a Third of Tripadvisor's Reviews are Fake - Is Cruise Critic Just as Bad?

[txjim09]

That was my point, there are too many variables to be able to put total weight into ONE review and I know their trip clearly wasn't as positive as mine as she told me all about it in line. I did not dismiss their opinions, where did I say I dismissed their opinions? Instead what I was trying to say was read many reviews and average them out ... or pick ones that you wish to believe and move on. Equally, use many sources. I now look for the little messages in a review instead of the overall 'worst ever' or 'best ever' broad brush as there are definitely those that will be happy about everything and those that are hard to please ... just a fact of life.

 

Happy cruising!

I took your statement "my friend and I said quietly to each other 'wow wonder what she sailed on'. Our wait in line was really long and eventually we were talking to the couple and SURPRISE SURPRISE they were on our sailing. Huh ... how the heck could that be???!!!!" as being dismissive of their opinions, apologies if I misread your statement. Perhaps I read too many responses that "your complaint is invalid because I had a great time" comments on these boards.

[poffles]

I took your statement "my friend and I said quietly to each other 'wow wonder what she sailed on'. Our wait in line was really long and eventually we were talking to the couple and SURPRISE SURPRISE they were on our sailing. Huh ... how the heck could that be???!!!!" as being dismissive of their opinions, apologies if I misread your statement. Perhaps I read too many responses that "your complaint is invalid because I had a great time" comments on these boards.

 

All good. That was why I was happy to have talked to the couple to hear what they experienced. They (she) certainly had reasons for their thoughts but the woman mentioned her sister telling her so much about the ship and recommended it; it sounded like expectations were set really high. The husband did not totally feel the same or put the same weight into things like she did, she was so upset ... and i do mean UPSET ... she had very very strong emotions about it. Just goes to show how things can be so different from person to person and experience to experience.

 

I will add that I have been on the other side, I had strong negative thoughts about sailing NCL Epic, meanwhile there are many others that can't say enough about that ship :)

 

I'll stop now LOL ... this might have taken this thread a little off from the OP.

[champagne123]

CC reviews I disregard have these types of comments in them:

 

- all the food was inedible

 

-all the staff were rude or incompetent

 

- we had bedbugs and the staff didn't care

 

-it was our first cruise and everything was perfect!

You forgot the most important one: "Everyone on the ship thought the same thing" "Everyone on the ship was complaining" "Everyone that ate it said it was awful"

Every time I see the word, "EVERYONE", I automatically ignore it....because I know the OP is lying.

[tillyboy]

Just one more thing to add about TripAdvisor and their reviewers. DH and I have gone to the same restaurants, attractions, hotels, etc. and guess what? We had vastly different options on some of our TripAdvisor reviews. And all of our reviews were posted, good and bad, exactly as we had written them. Even long married couples like us sometimes differ. It doesn't surprise me that some cruise reviews are so different even though the posters were on the same cruise!

[les37b]

I think most reviews that get posted reflect the members thoughts on the cruise they’ve just taken. Most will reflect fairly and will have a mixture of good and bad points. Nothing is ever completely perfect, though niggles can be insignificant enough it’s not worthy of a mention. Similarly, nothing is completely negative.

 

When I see reviews so skewed I have my doubts to their accuracy and if there might be ulterior motives. Sometimes if you look into the posters history and see a continual barrage of negatives, the writing is on the wall before the ship has even sailed. Indeed I’ve made a recent prediction prior to a sailing, not only would it be worse cruise ever, but a demand for a refund would follow. No crystal balls needed. Some things are a given....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Elaine bader]

Cruise critic has not posted my negitive review of the Rotterdam ( Holland America) I resubmitted it two weeks later and nothing. I had my husband post it under a different style email and still they will not post it! No cuss words nothing derogatory just an honest review of our flooded wet smelly cabin that we were forced to stay in for 6 nights. 

[LHT28]

29 minutes ago, Elaine bader said:

Cruise critic has not posted my negitive review of the Rotterdam ( Holland America) I resubmitted it two weeks later and nothing. I had my husband post it under a different style email and still they will not post it! No cuss words nothing derogatory just an honest review of our flooded wet smelly cabin that we were forced to stay in for 6 nights. 

did you  get  an email saying they got your review?

It can take a few weeks to get it posted

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, Elaine bader said:

Cruise critic has not posted my negitive review of the Rotterdam ( Holland America) I resubmitted it two weeks later and nothing. I had my husband post it under a different style email and still they will not post it! No cuss words nothing derogatory just an honest review of our flooded wet smelly cabin that we were forced to stay in for 6 nights. 

Ouch!  We are 5 Star Mariners (HAL) and the Rotterdam is our least favorite ship because of its many maintenance issues (often ignored by cheerleaders).  But I am surprised that the CC Editors would not publish a review without least sending you an explanation.  Perhaps you should try sending a personal e-mail to help@cruisecritic.com and ask if they have even received your review and if there are issues that need to be addressed.

 

I will add that a few years ago we stopped submitting reviews because we found the review format not to our liking.  We prefer to say things in an open format (like these boards) so that others can post their comments, likes, dislikes, and sometimes even correct the error of our ways :).  A couple of years ago I did make some very negative comments, about the Rotterdam, on the HAL board and the feedback was very interesting.  My favorite was a "cheerleader" who essentially told me I was making up some of the issues (such as multiple buckets in the Lido to catch water from the ceiling leaks) when others admitted to having seen the same thing (we actually had photos which we did not post).  That particular cruise (not our first on the R'Dam) was the Voyage of the Vikings which is among the most expensive (cost per passenger day) of all HAL voyages.  It is also one of the most popular HAL cruises...and we were shocked that they would use a ship in such poor condition.  But soon after that trip the Rotterdam underwent its drydock and some posts indicated that the ship was again in decent condition.

 

Hank

[kira5]

I write reviews on TripAdvisor and also cruise reviews here.   A few years ago I left a lukewarm (3 star) review for an airport transportation/shuttle service that delivered us from the hotel to the wrong airport terminal.   They were friendly and on time and provided free water bottles so I didn't want to pan them completely.

 

We were able to get a free bus (once we realized the problem and sought out information) to the correct terminal a kilometre or so down the road.

 

The service must have disputed my review as I was asked by TripAdvisor to confirm the details.  I did and also provided them with a copy of our receipt showing the date and location of pick up and delivery.

 

The shuttle service must have looked up my review of our resort to determine where we were staying and then posted a response that they hadn't picked anyone up from our resort that day and we must have them mixed up with another shuttle service.   They also asked me to contact them to discuss which I did not do as I prefer to remain anonymous in these types of situations.   My review remained posted.

[whogo]

5 hours ago, Elaine bader said:

Cruise critic has not posted my negitive review of the Rotterdam ( Holland America) I resubmitted it two weeks later and nothing. I had my husband post it under a different style email and still they will not post it!

When did you submit the reviews? Reviews are not published immediately and I believe that all reviews are read first by Cruise Critic staff. I would hope that submitting three identical reviews would set off alarm bells in Cruise Critic's review processing system. There are too many negative reviews on Cruise Critic for me to believe that reviews are rejected just because they are negative.

 

[jargey3000]

Plus, you have to keep in mind that most people are more inclined to take action  & write a bad review when something go wrong, as opposed to when everything goes OK.

Thats why a lot of businesses have a Complaints Dept. (mostly called  "Customer Service" these days), but very few have a Compliments Dept.!

 

Then again...it could be all "fake news", folks!

[Canuker]

It's human nature that folk are more likely to publish a review if they have strong views, for or against. Poets without passion don't write much poetry.
If the cruise was near to expectations and little, in the opinion of the cruiser, out of the ordinary occurred, a review is less likely. Ho-hum.
It's also less likely because the cruiser may think that their views are not going to make much difference to others, being middle of the road.
The good news is that such a review is much less likely to be, shall we say, embellished.
Also, reviews that do not express opinion(s) of the writer, are more likely to be fabricated. "This is a fabulous place that you really must not miss!" says nothing about the reviewer and may well be suspect. When people write a review they want to tell other poeple how they felt - and in the process reveal a lot about themselves.  
Which brings me back to my first sentence.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Canuker

[zqvol]

The only reviews I believe are the ones posted in the forums, and of those I disregard some things based on who posted them.