Have You Noticed...Roll Calls Are Getting Very Sparse These Days?

[Rick&Jeannie]

It may just be me and the particular sailings I have booked lately...but it seems that there is much less interest in many (not all) Roll Calls these days.  If it's a somewhat longer cruise such as a Transatlantic or a more "exotic" type cruise the Roll Calls seem to really take off and help the excitement build.  Caribbean sailings I can understand...after you've done a few of those there's just not a lot (strictly my opinion) to get excited about.  New cruisers...sure; but there aren't a lot of new cruisers who latch on to CC early on.  Many people really look forward to Alaska sailings but even those seem to have somewhat died down considerably.

 

It may just be me... Has anyone else noticed this?

[JF - retired RRT]

Yes. On our most recent cruise...5 days to Cabo, the roll call was moribund.

[insidecabin]

UK a lot of Princes cruises this year have a lot new to Princess passengers not all the CC community is back cruisin.

 

A lot of people are migrating to other place for general discussion and roll calls.

 

It's pretty obvious what some are fed up with.

 

[cr8tiv1]

I checked out a couple of roll calls.  The Alaska cruises are pretty tame.  My guess is that many are blue cc members who don't know about Cruise Critic.  Also, the younger clientele. migrate to twitter (of which I am not a member) and other social media platforms.

 

You do still a lot of pages for longer cruises.  I, for one, have stopped trying to organize roll calls for 7 day or less cruises.

 

Interesting observation.  Thank you.

[PacnGoNow]

12 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

I checked out a couple of roll calls.  The Alaska cruises are pretty tame.  My guess is that many are blue cc members who don't know about Cruise Critic.  Also, the younger clientele. migrate to twitter (of which I am not a member) and other social media platforms.

 

You do still a lot of pages for longer cruises.  I, for one, have stopped trying to organize roll calls for 7 day or less cruises.

 

Interesting observation.  Thank you.

I agree. Also, so much negativity on CC, some don’t want to participate. 

[cr8tiv1]

2 minutes ago, PacnGoNow said:

I agree. Also, so much negativity on CC, some don’t want to participate. 

 

You have to be "joshing".  Isn't that what Cruise CRITIC is here for?  my bad....

[Steelers36]

52 minutes ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

It may just be me and the particular sailings I have booked lately...but it seems that there is much less interest in many (not all) Roll Calls these days.  If it's a somewhat longer cruise such as a Transatlantic or a more "exotic" type cruise the Roll Calls seem to really take off and help the excitement build.  Caribbean sailings I can understand...after you've done a few of those there's just not a lot (strictly my opinion) to get excited about.  New cruisers...sure; but there aren't a lot of new cruisers who latch on to CC early on.  Many people really look forward to Alaska sailings but even those seem to have somewhat died down considerably.

 

It may just be me... Has anyone else noticed this?

Yes, and one might expect more activity for Europe sector in Med with several "exotic" ports.  I have used RC's in past to "meet" fellow cruisers and organize small-group private tours.  It's tough to get people when few are on the RC and a number of those want to book with Princess.  

 

Otherwise I don't use RC's.  Never have used on for a Caribbean voyage.

[PacnGoNow]

42 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

 

You have to be "joshing".  Isn't that what Cruise CRITIC is here for?  my bad....

You are bad!! 😝 

[LACruiser88]

Agree, our Med and TA Roll Calls for the Regal in Oct/Nov are extremely active.

[JimmyVWine]

I don't know if my experience translates to others, but upon our return to cruising, we intend to use the time to reconnect with my family, especially since my daughter moved to another country just as lockdowns hit, and for two years it was all but impossible for us to see each other.  Couple that with the uncertainty of interacting closely with relative strangers while Covid is still a thing and you get a cruiser (me) who is more inclined to stick with his immediate family and who has less interest in joining cabin crawls, slot pulls, meet and greets and group excursions with others.  And while it would be perfectly fine for me to join a RC simply to exchange ideas and chat, I would feel awkward spending so much virtual time with people who I don't intend to spend actual time with once on board.  Even just typing this out makes me feel selfish and standoffish, which I assure you I am not. (I even attended an onboard wedding of perfect strangers in the Chapel one time when the bride invited people to attend because she didn't have very many family or friends who could make her wedding cruise.)  But this time around, I need to step back a bit, enjoy time with my wife and daughter, and relax.  I'll chat up people in the bars or by the pool.  I'm no hermit.  But RC fun and games just isn't my jam right now.   

[LACruiser88]

6 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

has less interest in joining cabin crawls, slot pulls, meet and greets and group excursions with others. 

We are very similar.  We follow the Roll Calls more to see what excursions folks are doing, but we do not participate in any of the organized activities or share any excursions.

Edited June 30, 2022 by LACruiser88

[memoak]

I stay away from most roll calls because it always seems that most people are way too interested in minor things like arrival times, excursions or ways to get by as cheaply as possible   Boring 

[GottaLuvCruising]

We leave on an Alaskan cruise tour a week from today.  We've planned for two years, saved for longer.  We're psyched.  Of course, we are disappointed that covid is still an issue and concerned about flight delays / cancellations, but NOBODY on our roll call engages.  No meet & greet, no slot pull, no cabin crawl.  I've offered to organize, but whatever.  Bon voyage! 

[PhotoGal07]

1 hour ago, JimmyVWine said:

I don't know if my experience translates to others, but upon our return to cruising, we intend to use the time to reconnect with my family, especially since my daughter moved to another country just as lockdowns hit, and for two years it was all but impossible for us to see each other.  Couple that with the uncertainty of interacting closely with relative strangers while Covid is still a thing and you get a cruiser (me) who is more inclined to stick with his immediate family and who has less interest in joining cabin crawls, slot pulls, meet and greets and group excursions with others.  And while it would be perfectly fine for me to join a RC simply to exchange ideas and chat, I would feel awkward spending so much virtual time with people who I don't intend to spend actual time with once on board.  Even just typing this out makes me feel selfish and standoffish, which I assure you I am not. (I even attended an onboard wedding of perfect strangers in the Chapel one time when the bride invited people to attend because she didn't have very many family or friends who could make her wedding cruise.)  But this time around, I need to step back a bit, enjoy time with my wife and daughter, and relax.  I'll chat up people in the bars or by the pool.  I'm no hermit.  But RC fun and games just isn't my jam right now.   

This tends to be how we are as well, even pre-covid.  I like using the RC to see what other people are doing in ports, get excited about the trip, but our vacation time is dedicated family time.  We don't dine with others, we don't partake in a the various ship crawls etc.  

We'll of course chat people up if we're sitting in the theatre or a lounge waiting for something, but we primarily use our vacation time to be in our own little family bubble.  We have a limited time with the kids before they're off doing their own things and have busy lives of their own. We're determined to make the most of it.

[Cruise Raider]

We've joined in on some fantastic in the past .. and even a couple since the restart but I do agree that most fellow passengers are just doing their own thing lately and aren't really interested in a large gathering of strangers.  

Our largest roll call, which was before the pandemic, was close to 600 fellow passengers.  Maybe we will get back to those days??  Who knows??  There sure were some valuable tips and get togethers in the past.  

[bjkTX]

We have been away from cruising a couple of years - we're Elite on Princess.  I was very involved in Roll Calls for years, and mostly disappointed.  But there were times when we had great groups and made lifetime friends.  Our issue was we almost always were cruising with friends who weren't on CC and had no desire to participate with any of the CC activities.  Now we have booked two cruises later this year, are traveling by ourselves, and would welcome an active group - and both Roll Calls are extremely quiet.  Maybe in another month or so 🙂

[CineGraphic]

A friend of mine just went on a Virgin Voyages Med Cruise....his roll call had 1 post.

[ladocevita]

Yes I have. So disheartening and disappointing. Do not know why. Guess I’ll blame Covid and peoples habits. 

[Rick&Jeannie]

26 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

A friend of mine just went on a Virgin Voyages Med Cruise....his roll call had 1 post.

I've actually seen a couple like that only to find out that someone else had started a previous thread that was "properly titled" and that was the one that everyone was using.  Those are usually done by relatively new CC members...

[ElkGroveCruiser]

IMHO, I believe that the lack of participation in roll calls is for a couple of reasons:

     There's way too much negativity on the roll calls that I've been on...

     As a previous poster noted, not everyone has returned to cruising....

     Since most lines no longer are hosting M&G's, there's less interest in getting active/involved.

 

Again, this is just my opinion but we've cruised 5 times since the restart and participation in all of the relevant roll calls has been tepid at best.

[AZjohn]

Sadly, I think another part that could play a roll into this is how ….. not sure how to say this… divided we have become. It’s something we shelter ourself from now unfortunately.

 

Just being honest.

[PrincessLuver]

18 hours ago, Rick&Jeannie said:

It may just be me and the particular sailings I have booked lately...but it seems that there is much less interest in many (not all) Roll Calls these days.  If it's a somewhat longer cruise such as a Transatlantic or a more "exotic" type cruise the Roll Calls seem to really take off and help the excitement build.  Caribbean sailings I can understand...after you've done a few of those there's just not a lot (strictly my opinion) to get excited about.  New cruisers...sure; but there aren't a lot of new cruisers who latch on to CC early on.  Many people really look forward to Alaska sailings but even those seem to have somewhat died down considerably.

 

It may just be me... Has anyone else noticed this?

 

Really not much new on old Princess except the fact that you can now wear shorts to the MDR on Formal Nights..... 🙂

[caribill]

In general (there are exceptions), Roll Call participants have been 2%-5% of the ship's capacity.

 

Post shut-down, many Princess ships have had a greatly reduced number of passengers, so 2%-5% of less passengers will be less participants in a roll call.

 

Many of the Princess cruises lately have been for Alaska and historically these have a greater number of new-to-cruising passengers, with very few of them even aware Cruise Critic exists.

 

Of two roll calls that I am currently in, one is a cruise out of Galveston in December and so far has only 1.2% of passengers represented, but has only been available for booking for less than two months. The second is a TA for next spring which has 2.9% participation, within normal participation range.

[rhblake]

Is there a way to find out how many different people are in your roll call? I am in a roll call with 1567 comments but many are by the same people.

[vjmatty]

1 hour ago, rhblake said:

Is there a way to find out how many different people are in your roll call? I am in a roll call with 1567 comments but many are by the same people.

 

Near the top there is a number of how many are following but I don't think posting on the Roll Call automatically adds you to the list.