Have Cruise Critic roll calls died?

[trivimp]

I was recently on a B2B that had two M&Gs, naturally.

 

The first week (which was not cross-promoted on other social media platforms) had a couple dozen people who were actively engaged, cheerfully participated in an icebreaker game, chatted enthusiastically with officers, &c.

 

The second week (which was heavily cross promoted) had nearly a hundred people who sat on their behinds & didn't really mingle outside of their seating groups.

 

Guess which was more enjoyable?

 

I have always thought that NCL valued the CC groups as being composed of (mostly) knowledgeable cruisers who are interested in giving interaction & feedback.  They know many of us write reviews.   They don't promote the event as a "****book Meet & Greet," do they?  

[geegee1]

The Roll Call for our cruise last week was very slow.  One person posted about a bar crawl for the trip that was posted on FB.  Since we're not on that site, they shared the info.  We had dinner reservations at the same time, so not sure how it went.  

I've never been a M&G person, but the traffic on the overall RC was the slowest I've ever experienced

[kelib]

I am an administrator for our cruise in January on the page that can’t be mentioned.

I have posted a link to CC and encourage them to also join the CC roll call. I think some have but you don’t know since there is no real sign up and people just lurk. At least I know that I have over 80 members on the other page, and we have a signup sheet for M&G and other functions on both sites. 
I wish that CC did not take away the PM function. So much easier and faster to use messenger when you want to discuss something off the page to a particular person. I’ll continue to encourage everyone to use both sites.

 

[SeaShark]

4 hours ago, dcipjr said:

I remember that as recently as 3 years ago, the CC roll calls and M&Gs were lively, had big crowds, slot pulls, etc.

 

 

In the two cruises I've taken in the last 2 years (one in Feb 2020, one in May 2022), the roll calls were way smaller, and the Meet & Greet was full of FB group participants.

 

I deleted my Facebook halfway through 2017, so I was sort of mystified as to the nature of these groups, but they've pretty much completely dominated the Meet & Greets. 

 

On my last cruise's M&G, I only found 3 or 4 people that were from the roll call. One lady asked me, "What's CruiseCritic?" 🤦🏻‍♂️

 

It's a real bummer, since those roll calls would often keep me going in the months before the cruise, and provide helpful information on the cruise. One time, we even had a bridge tour!

 

I'll continue to post to the roll calls for my cruises, as long as they're there, and will attend M&Gs if I meet people on the roll calls that I'd like to meet with in person.

 

It's just unfortunate that the roll calls aren't what they once were. Unfortunate for us CC members, and really, for all cruisers, since NCL did listen to us once in a while.

 

 

^^^THIS. All day this.

 

Over time, as FB has become more popular, people there started groups for their upcoming cruise(s). Inevitably, some people found themselves on both FB and CC. Some, while aware of both sites, stayed on FB as that was easier than "CC for cruises and FB for everything else". As NCL only has M&Gs for CC, people started inviting the FB people to come to the CC M&G. More and more people from FB would then crash the M&G that was being held for CC folks. The CC folks get tired of doing the work for M&Gs just to have a bunch of FB crashers....thus participation and attendance fall.

 

Eventually, NCL will catch on to the fact that what they are doing for CC is being crashed by non CC folks...and then NCL will end the M&Gs all together. 

[phillygwm]

I do actively participate in my roll calls, both here and at The Other Place.  Sometimes, if I've done an itinerary before, I can provide some insight to others.  If I haven't, I'm usually looking to others for ideas.  But I don't bother with the M&G's.  Never have...just not my thing.

[marktwothousand]

57 minutes ago, phillygwm said:

I do actively participate in my roll calls, both here and at The Other Place.  Sometimes, if I've done an itinerary before, I can provide some insight to others.  If I haven't, I'm usually looking to others for ideas.  But I don't bother with the M&G's.  Never have...just not my thing.

If people participate in the roll calls and then Specifically choose not to do the meet and greet.. that is a bit snooty and disrespectful. I understand if they’re too early or there’s some other conflicting event going on, etc etc but to deliberately choose not to participate… it makes it sound like the person feels they’re above it

[EllieinNJ]

I've hosted several m&g here on cc for NCL.  At one over 100 people responded they would come and only 30 showed up.  At another 60 responded and 20 showed up.  It's a little embarrassing having them prepare refreshments and having officers come with only a few of participants.

 

Now I'm doing one for a Princess cruise.  They don't offer refreshments.  Only a space to gather.  I opened it to the FB group to sign up by joining cc and they deleted my post saying anyone can come and not have to belong to cc.  I have no idea how many will actually attend.

[Red-Sol]

7 hours ago, Oxo said:

Noticed that over the past 6 months. When addressed the issue in CC, they removed the posting. 

CC did it to themselves. They became to controlling and showed to much favoritism to a select few.

People moved on.

JMHO!

 

In!

Absolutely agree that CC has done it to themselves. I still enjoy and try and keep active on roll calls...but for CC to not allow mention of all the other social media platforms out there who have taken a good chunk of their participants away...simply makes it worse. 

[phillygwm]

37 minutes ago, marktwothousand said:

If people participate in the roll calls and then Specifically choose not to do the meet and greet.. that is a bit snooty and disrespectful. I understand if they’re too early or there’s some other conflicting event going on, etc etc but to deliberately choose not to participate… it makes it sound like the person feels they’re above it

I'll disagree.  I'm not a naturally outgoing person.  Part of my job involves doing occasional cocktail parties, social events, etc. and I hate every minute of it.  So no, I'm not better than anyone else, but I'm not going to spend a minute of my vacation subjecting myself to something that gives me anxiety.  Sorry not sorry.

Edited July 26, 2022 by phillygwm

[Kenlorz]

I thought it was just me, lol. We haven’t cruised in several years, but prior we were very active on our roll calls and have hosted the Meet and Greets on board. We had well over 50 active and participating posters on my last cruise roll call. This time I had to create the roll call both here and on FB. One has two members (me being one of them) and the other has 7. So even the social media ones, though more active than CC, are iffy at best. Sad. I always enjoyed them. It helped pass the time to chat with others that were equally as excited to travel (and kept our family and friends from being driven nuts by my constant babbling and glee over our upcoming adventure, lol)

[mianmike]

6 hours ago, Paula_MacFan said:

Meanwhile I've seen many roll calls with spreadsheets so people can put their full names, cities, and other information for participation -- none of which is secure and is open to anyone to view.  Any unscrupulous person could easily do a Google search for addresses, etc that are all readily available online.  

 

Imagine the old common phone book which inside had white pages that listed your name, address and phone number and this book was distributed to everyone for free! Hate to break it to everyone, but your information is readily available to anyone with the most rudimentary of research skills.  

[sprint180]

3 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

If people participate in the roll calls and then Specifically choose not to do the meet and greet.. that is a bit snooty and disrespectful. I understand if they’re too early or there’s some other conflicting event going on, etc etc but to deliberately choose not to participate… it makes it sound like the person feels they’re above it

I'm snooty?  That's interesting.  I join roll calls to get info and help with planning.  No where does it say you are obliged to go to a m&G if you do.  And I don't by the way.  They two I have attended have been a bust with only a handful of people there.

[jbcallender]

I have a cruise in November and the roll call is like "Bueller? Bueller? Anybody?"

 

[LGW59]

36 minutes ago, jbcallender said:

I have a cruise in November and the roll call is like "Bueller? Bueller? Anybody?"

 

I’m on the roll call for a Celebrity TA in October and it is super active.  It’s at 62 pages of comments and 50+ cruisers.  Few tours already filled and a few others close to it. I just took the last spot for a slot pull and quite a few signed up for at least one of the meet and greets.  Cabin crawl thing looks active as well.  Though neither of those interest me, just not my thing, not a small talk guy,  to each his own I suppose 

[SunnySideUp100]

I am happy with the participation in my August cruise's roll call and RSVPs for it's meet and mingle.

[SunnySideUp100]

7 hours ago, casofilia said:

a "Who Are You" "Bingo" type game helps.

This sounds like a great idea for my meet and mingle.  Could you please describe this game?  Thanks 

[Snowrose]

We have a husband/wife team doing posts on both boards. Makes for more conversations  as some folks have never heard of CC.

[Shellbelle28]

20 minutes ago, SunnySideUp100 said:

This sounds like a great idea for my meet and mingle.  Could you please describe this game?  Thanks 

I did a cruise activity bingo game at our meet & mingle last fall. It went over really well. Here's a sample card. 

[rrraydon]

I agree with all of the previous posts about the reasons for CC roll calls dwindling as a result of the social media platforms. All four of my roll calls here are dead.

But the thing is, and I've mentioned this on my social media roll calls too, I find way more information here on CC than I can ever find on the social media roll calls. There's a wealth of information here that is easily obtainable through the various forums...you can't get that on the social media sites. I will always come to this site for my roll calls in addition to the others.

 

Additionally, I find the other roll call platforms too impersonal.

[SunnySideUp100]

22 minutes ago, Shellbelle28 said:

I did a cruise activity bingo game at our meet & mingle last fall. It went over really well. Here's a sample card. 

What a great idea and such a cute design, too!  I'll do this at my meet and mingle.    Thank you!

[casofilia]

@EllieinNJ

 

 I opened it to the FB group to sign up by joining cc and they deleted my post saying anyone can come and not have to belong to cc. 

 

TOTALLY INCORRECT

The Meet and Greet/Mingle that is an arrangement between the Cruise Line and Cruise Critic.   That is why NCL ships have a sign up sheet that NEEDS a Cruise Critic name.   That is also why the door states a "Private Function" and there is no mention of it in the "Freestyle Daily".   I also provide my contact on board with a list of CC names and cabin numbers so her office can contact them by phone if there is a last minute change of anything that has been arranged.

 

If someone on any Social Medium wants a similar arrangement as a Cruise Critic M&G/M then they will have to go through the same process we go through to set up a Cruise Critic M&G/M.

[casofilia]

@SunnySideUp100

 

Mine is similar but very different!!!   The main reason that I do it is to make sure that people are on their feet Meeting and GREETING/MINGLING.

 

I also arrange a lunch after the M&G where chatter can continue especially discussion about Private Shorex that should not happen in the M&G.

 

Contact at casofilia @ xtra . co . nz (Miss out the gaps)

[SunnySideUp100]

27 minutes ago, casofilia said:

@SunnySideUp100

 

Mine is similar but very different!!!   The main reason that I do it is to make sure that people are on their feet Meeting and GREETING/MINGLING.

 

I also arrange a lunch after the M&G where chatter can continue especially discussion about Private Shorex that should not happen in the M&G.

 

Contact at casofilia @ xtra . co . nz (Miss out the gaps)

Thank you!

[casofilia]

@EllieinNJ

 

I thought I would add the following.to help.

 

If you go to the following   https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/64-norwegian-cruise-line/

 

Look down the page and you will see

 

How to Set Up a Cruise Critic "Meet & Mingle" (or, Meet & Greet) on your NCL Cruise

 

Note that it is a CRUISE CRITIC M&M/G.

[phillygwm]

7 hours ago, sprint180 said:

I'm snooty?  That's interesting.  I join roll calls to get info and help with planning.  No where does it say you are obliged to go to a m&G if you do.  And I don't by the way.  They two I have attended have been a bust with only a handful of people there.

On earlier cruises, I used to go to the "Friends of Dorothy"/LGBT mixer.  When anyone showed up (and sometimes nobody did,) I found the people cliquish and quickly left.  Were they?  If I'm being brutally honest, it's equally likely that I was being standoffish because I felt awkward.  In any case, not doing that anymore.

 

Ironically, I have no difficulty speaking to others at bars etc.  But that's a 1:1 or 1:2 interaction.  It's "working a room" that gives me hives 🙂