Whats with the Oceania roll calls?

[patty1955]

My roll call for a Celebrity cruise next May only has 4 people following so it's not just a Oceania issue.

[PhD-iva]

Perhaps the avid travelers have switched to land programs.

[ORV]

2 hours ago, PhD-iva said:

Perhaps the avid travelers have switched to land programs.

My perception has been that the Roll Calls were starting to be less popular even before Covid. 

[LHT28]

1 hour ago, ORV said:

My perception has been that the Roll Calls were starting to be less popular even before Covid. 

since O Life with  the excursions came to be  it was harder to find others for private tours 

JMO

[DENIE]

Interesting thread!  We had a very active Celebrity roll call to the Baltic during Covid.  Of course, that cruise never sailed due to Covid.  There were several hundred posts on that roll call until it was cancelled. 

[LHT28]

8 hours ago, DENIE said:

Interesting thread!  We had a very active Celebrity roll call to the Baltic during Covid.  Of course, that cruise never sailed due to Covid.  There were several hundred posts on that roll call until it was cancelled. 

I have never sailed X  do they offer a free excursion deal? like Oceania does with the O Life ?

[patty1955]

1 hour ago, LHT28 said:

I have never sailed X  do they offer a free excursion deal? like Oceania does with the O Life ?

No, but their "Always Included" bookings include, gratuities, drinks and internet.

[LHT28]

32 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

No, but their "Always Included" bookings include, gratuities, drinks and internet.

so more people join the roll call on X for discussions on free drinks  😄

[patty1955]

3 minutes ago, LHT28 said:

so more people join the roll call on X for discussions on free drinks  😄

No, they discuss the same things as on the Oceania boards

[ORV]

3 hours ago, patty1955 said:

No, they discuss the same things as on the Oceania boards

In my experience, no. I rarely see a slot pull discussed on an Oceania RC, same for a cabin crawl/poker run. Although there is a bit of overlap on the two lines(I'm one of them myself) there is usually a completely different flavor to an Oceania Roll Call than there is to a Celebrity one. 

 

You do see Meet & Greet discussion, tour sharing, and of course the current weather in Paducah on both. 

[patty1955]

44 minutes ago, ORV said:

In my experience, no. I rarely see a slot pull discussed on an Oceania RC, same for a cabin crawl/poker run.

True but I haven't seen those discussed on Celebrity for a couple of years. Probably because of covid.

[ORV]

19 minutes ago, patty1955 said:

True but I haven't seen those discussed on Celebrity for a couple of years. Probably because of covid.

Yeah, I was referring to what has happened historically, especially pre covid, but who knows in the future. 

[DENIE]

On 6/11/2022 at 6:24 AM, LHT28 said:

I have never sailed X  do they offer a free excursion deal? like Oceania does with the O Life ?

Hmmm....I can't remember.  We typically would only do 1 or 2 tours by Celebrity.  I think they do, but not as comprehensive as Oceania.  We mostly do private tours. 🙂

[the more ports the better]

I’m on Paul Gauguin in August and there are 3 people on the roll call.  We had an active roll call for our O sailing in May.
 

I agree that people are doing land trips as testing on the ship can have problems.  If you arrive overseas and test positive, you cannot board and are stuck. You have to either test at home and go directly to the ship avoiding a precruise stay or have a back up hotel that is fully refundable.  
 

In Italy if you test positive, at disembarkation, you go to their government quarantine hotels which are pretty grim.  My daughter is a COVID tester at Walgreens and she, my mom, my son and I were on Riveria in May.  We brought an assortment of tests to assure that we were negative.

 

Riveria was testing complementary the last night of the cruise which we avoided.  My daughter tested us prior to heading to the airport.  We all had made an agreement that if one of us tested positive in either stateroom at embarkation, that person would get off the ship, head to a hotel and stay in until we tested negative.  The others would head home.  It made the trip a little nerve racking.

 

If you are on a land trip and you are already in a hotel, you don’t have to go to a government hotel and you can just stay in your hotel room if you test positive.

[roger b]

On 6/11/2022 at 3:37 AM, LHT28 said:

since O Life with  the excursions came to be  it was harder to find others for private tours 

JMO

We are on Rivera August 6th Athens to Barcelona ,not a posting on roll calls since May .

  I feel the the reason is because O have the Ultimate package no-one is looking to hook up for tours also for some reason this cruise is not selling well !!

[chocchic]

I did a bunch of small independent tours using Roll Call on Oceania a few years ago and it made the cruise way more enjoyable that boarding a  huge bus and the waiting for everyone to get on and off the bus and having no input about what you would like to see or do or when to stop for a break.We made friends with the people who we did tours with.   And most of all it totally eliminated waiting for that one rude passenger that kept everyone else waiting on the bus while he took time buying a cup of coffee. I have posted an invitation to roll call for January cruise and not received much feedback.  If I have to depend on Oceania excursions it will be disappointing.

[oskidunker]

Viator is a good option. You do not have to pay until three days before tour. Also less people thanbships tours

[Hawaiidan]

On 6/8/2022 at 7:17 AM, ORV said:

A few points about Roll Calls. First, there’s a pretty big difference in the amount of people on a Princess cruise compared to an Oceania one, with the exception of when they had an R ship. Numbers alone will dictate that Oceania will have less participation. Second, look at the demographics of O passengers compared to what you’re used to. Although not a hard fast rule many of Oceania’s guests will tend to be less of the social media type, more of just the facts please type people. Although many people do use the RC to connect for tours, that’s not really the main purpose. I think it’s more about the socializing and the anticipation of the cruise. 
 

Another thing I’ve noticed on the main stream Roll Calls is that you get a lot of useless posts that makes them look busier. I’m not really interested in the weather every couple of days in Peoria, or what someone’s cat did. You also get the posters that welcome every new arrival, as well as the keeper of the list that updates it every few days. There is a lot less of that on Oceania roll calls. 
 

But, the bottom line is that pretty much all the Roll Calls for all the lines are less busy than 5 years ago. It’s a common topic of discussion on CC. You can attribute some of that to FB, but not totally. You can attribute some to the shutdown, but RCs were waning prior to that.

 

The bottom line is there just seems to be less interest than there used to be. 

Very true.....For the most part many of O's passengers are well traveled and know a great deal about where the are traveling to.    Many are repeats on the same ports so require no interaction,  There is thus  very little need to set up or plan as these folks already have all they need. 

 Finally. as ORV said ,many are just not into social media.    The longer the cruise the less the chances that there will be  active  media people..    The older  generations just are not into that buzz.  likewise many are not on cruise critic at all.     All great people  just not into posting.  

[Hawaiidan]

53 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Viator is a good option. You do not have to pay until three days before tour. Also less people thanbships tours

another option is "Tours by locals"  you can take custom tours for the price of ot less than O tours.  Sometimes you can locate a tour guide that  is listed by Tours by locals,  but you  can book direct with then  at  a price far less then through tours by locals.!      One good thing about tours by locals is that they hold you deposit  by credit card in escrow and if you cancel  within 2 weeks of the tour you get a rapid  in a few days refund with no hassel...     I have used them several times  its a good operation.  if you want to go that route.     

[sunlover12]

3 hours ago, chocchic said:

I did a bunch of small independent tours using Roll Call on Oceania a few years ago and it made the cruise way more enjoyable that boarding a  huge bus and the waiting for everyone to get on and off the bus and having no input about what you would like to see or do or when to stop for a break.We made friends with the people who we did tours with.   And most of all it totally eliminated waiting for that one rude passenger that kept everyone else waiting on the bus while he took time buying a cup of coffee. I have posted an invitation to roll call for January cruise and not received much feedback.  If I have to depend on Oceania excursions it will be disappointing.

In defense of Oceania excursions, I've been on quite a few of them and they have been mostly good experiences.  My last cruise was small groups of about 12-15 people.  None of them were on "huge buses" although it does depend on the location. Many of them offer free time where you can stop for a refreshment or lunch. Oceania cruisers are well-traveled, mature people respectful of others and it's a rare occasion where the group is waiting for the rude passenger getting a cup of coffee.

 

My upcoming October cruise has very little activity on the roll call. Since the start of O Life with shore excursions and the YWC 25% discount, I believe more people are taking advantage of those offers.

 

JMO, YMMV

[patty1955]

Because of covid restrictions we had to take Oceania excursion on our European cruise. We enjoyed all of them. Maybe they weren't as crowded as usual since they were sailing at about half of capacity. 

[Hawaiidan]

On 6/10/2022 at 1:51 PM, PhD-iva said:

Perhaps the avid travelers have switched to land programs.

I have...just did Alaska and next week Switzerland  had 3 cruises this year..... cancelled all but 1. because of testing games

[Peterian]

Hi ..  we are travelling on the Oceania Regatta cruise from Singapore to Sydney on 21st November 2022.. Is there a roll call, or discussion group, related to this cruise? Thanks ..  Ian

[Beagle5]

46 minutes ago, Peterian said:

Hi ..  we are travelling on the Oceania Regatta cruise from Singapore to Sydney on 21st November 2022.. Is there a roll call, or discussion group, related to this cruise? Thanks ..  Ian

 

At the top of the page you will see a link to Find Your Roll Call.

Your cruise has quite an active roll call:

 

 

[chocchic]

On 6/21/2022 at 3:52 PM, sunlover12 said:

In defense of Oceania excursions, I've been on quite a few of them and they have been mostly good experiences.  My last cruise was small groups of about 12-15 people.  None of them were on "huge buses" although it does depend on the location. Many of them offer free time where you can stop for a refreshment or lunch. Oceania cruisers are well-traveled, mature people respectful of others and it's a rare occasion where the group is waiting for the rude passenger getting a cup of coffee.

 

My upcoming October cruise has very little activity on the roll call. Since the start of O Life with shore excursions and the YWC 25% discount, I believe more people are taking advantage of those offers.

 

JMO, YMMV

Thanks for the input.  Appreciate you sharing your experiences.  We had such a good time with the small groups that we formed lasting friendships - people I still keep in touch with years later.