Do HAL Cruisers Know?

[psychboss]

about the Roll Call board?

 

We usually sail on Celebrity and their roll call boards are very active. This will be our first HAL cruise (2/16/08-Zuiderdam) and the boards here seem to be so quiet.

 

OR - is it something HAL cruisers just don't like to do?

[bepsf]

We like our Roll-Calls just fine.

 

But we do have 13 ships in our fleet (going on 14) - so it's a bit of a stretch that CC'ers might be on every HAL ship for every cruise...

 

I hope you find some new pals on your cruise!

:)

[SDHALFAN]

about the Roll Call board?

 

We usually sail on Celebrity and their roll call boards are very active. This will be our first HAL cruise (2/16/08-Zuiderdam) and the boards here seem to be so quiet.

 

OR - is it something HAL cruisers just don't like to do?

 

We like our Roll-Calls just fine.

 

But we do have 13 ships in our fleet (going on 14) - so it's a bit of a stretch that CC'ers might be on every HAL ship for every cruise...

 

I hope you find some new pals on your cruise!

:)

 

 

Hello psychboss:

 

Brian is indeed correct, we like our particular Roll Call boards every bit as much as any other cruiser. Some cruises just don't attract that many Cruise Critics, for one reason or another. Check out the Amsterdam's World Cruise and Grand Asia Pacific boards and you will find many, many, many posts with tons of information and plans for get-togethers.

 

I was on the Zaandam last October and "met" several fellow cruisers on the Roll Call board before even boarding the ship. Seven of us ended up eating dinner together each night in the Dining Room and then would meet up during the day either for a shore excursion or just for coffee in the Lido. Having "met" all those neat people beforehand certainly made my 10-day cruise much more enjoyable.

 

If you really want to see active participation then you should check out the Oosterdam's 02-09-08 cruise thread - we are really "cookin'" over there;) .

 

2/16/08 is a little early to be worried about lack of posts - as it nears time for your cruise you will probably find much more activity on that board. Don't give up hope, HAL cruisers look forward to, and enjoy their cruises every, bit as much as the Celebrity cruisers do.

 

Valerie:)

[Mary Ellen]

Are you asking if HAL cruisers aren't smart enough to find the Roll Call forum? ;)

 

As a long time HAL cruiser, until we took a CC group last year, we never participated in the Roll Calls. We really don't care about, or need the support/approval of our fellow passengers before we sail. We started cruising well before the Internet (1980, still in my 20s), so we didn't have the option. I suspect the Roll Calls are more important to newer cruisers.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I know about the Roll Call boards. Some cruises here attrack a lot of people - others don't. Really depends on the ship and itinerary.

[Krazy Kruizers]

psychboss

 

Give it time -- you have a popular cruise - maybe after summer is over more people will join in.

[psychboss]

Are you asking if HAL cruisers aren't smart enough to find the Roll Call forum? ;)

 

As a long time HAL cruiser, until we took a CC group last year, we never participated in the Roll Calls. We really don't care about, or need the support/approval of our fellow passengers before we sail. We started cruising well before the Internet (1980, still in my 20s), so we didn't have the option. I suspect the Roll Calls are more important to newer cruisers.

 

 

I did not mean that! I also am not a new cruiser, in fact I am a TA, but this is my first cruise on the Zuiderdam. I just find it interesting to 'meet' some of the people we are going to cruise with ahead of time. I 'certainly was not trying to insult anyone, I was just trying to meet some new people.

 

I am sorry if I worded my question badly.....:confused:

[sail7seas]

DH and I just returned from back-to-back cruises on Maasdam. We had a roll call for each week and both times was a great Meet and Greet. Until Noordam in January, though I've been on dozens and dozens of cruises, I never participated in any Roll Calls. Just wasn't something I thought about.

 

Now I enjoy them. Fun meeting folks we chat with here in the Boards.

I wish I'd seen more of some of them throughout the cruises. Somehow we got busy into 'our own thing' and hardly ran into any of the CC'ers. :(

 

:) except for Grumpie and Slinkie. Grumpie has threatened ways he plans to 'manipulate' a photo he took of me to make it look like I was doing something I Wasn'T. :eek: :D

 

[Krazy Kruizers]

I just found the Roll Call for our Aug 25th cruise and checked in there.

[Krazy Kruizers]

sail

 

I know what you mean. I have signed us for some roll calls in the past. Some we were able to make - others we couldn't because of the time it was scheduled.

 

Rarely do we ever see any of the people after we have met some of them at the Roll Call.

[shonuf]

For our Osterdam Jan '06 cruise we had a small but very vocal group for our roll call. Most of us met for drinks the night before we sailed. Others joined us at sailaway, including Mr. Deering, who had been following our roll call. We were all invited to the VIP party; two of us in suites had a roving cocktail party at the same time (we were across the hall from each other); one night we met for drinks and photos in the Crow's Nest, had a CC Q&A with Mr. D, and joined up for excursions and lunch. Even my husband, who was leery about the whole idea of "buddying up" with all these strangers, admitted the CC group made the trip more fun. I still correspond with some members.

 

On the other hand, our roll call group for our Zuiderdam '07 cruise never really got off the ground. Several of us did meet at sailaway but nothing seemed to click. I met a couple others during the week who missed sailaway.

 

We are now booked on the Voyager OTS for Feb '08 and our roll call (started more than a year prior to the cruise) has only 55 postings, few recently. In contrast, for the same sailing for the week prior which happens to be a CC cruise, the roll call has over 2200 postings!!

 

It just depends on the people/personalities involved.

[betonic]

I sailed last year on the Noordam transatlantic and we had a great roll call with a very good meet n greet. Then on the Noordam in December we had a table in the dining room of all CCer's.

 

I'm now booked on the Westerdam September 25th and it's very, very slow. I guess it just depends on the ship and the route.

[JohnQ]

I have to agree with psycheboss regarding inactivity on many HAL rollcalls. I have been trying to get ours for July back to back to Alaska off the ground for at least a month and still no action. We found the same with Princess for a Sep Alaska cruise. HAL cruisers seem to post on the HAL and Alaska boards but not some indiv roll calls. For our last Alaska cruise on Summit, we had at least 45 cruisecritic members on board and saw many of them all week. On our Carnival Pride cruise to Mex Riv, we had lots of roll call participation and also met many of them on different tours.

[bepsf]

except for Grumpie and Slinkie. Grumpie has threatened ways he plans to 'manipulate' a photo he took of me to make it look like I was doing something I Wasn'T.

 

What could he possibly manipulate it to look like?

 

...a photo of You and Slinkie passing up an opportunity to buy Jewelry?!?

:eek: :D ;)

[Mary Ellen]

I did not mean that! I also am not a new cruiser, in fact I am a TA, but this is my first cruise on the Zuiderdam. I just find it interesting to 'meet' some of the people we are going to cruise with ahead of time. I 'certainly was not trying to insult anyone, I was just trying to meet some new people.

 

I am sorry if I worded my question badly.....:confused:

I'm sorry if you were offended by my teasing on your wording. That was why I put the 'winky' face in there. While HAL cruisers may not be 'joiners' we do have a (wicked??) sense of humor. You'll see that we DO have the Roll Call 'sticky' at the top of the HAL forum, so I guess there was a (very small) part of me wondering about the question. We do get a certain number of posters thinking HAL is a 'floating nursing home' and that every passenger is senile (or almost there).

 

Have a great cruise. :D

[RuthC]

I would turn the question around: "Do roll-Call posters know there's a HAL board?". I've found that there are posters on roll-calls who don't post over here much, if at all. It's as if we're in two different worlds and don't know each other at all.

 

Once when I Googled (when did "Google" become a verb?) my Prinsendam cruise I was taken straight-off to the Cruise Critic Roll-Call forum. I suspect that's how many people find that board while not finding the HAL board, or the rest of what CC has to offer. It's possible that no longer happens since it's a private area now, but we may still be dealing with the fall-out of that.

[ldog]

Our roll call for the Rotterdam last October is still going strong! We're sharing future cruises now. And like each other very much.

 

I've twice tried to start a roll call for our Panama Canal transit on the Volendam and it's fizzled.

 

Who knows why some work so well and others don't:confused:

[MrsMuir]

Well, I've been trying to kick-start a roll call that someone else started and who never said a peep after that. Another cruiser, a HAL veteran, did respond and he and I exchanged a couple of getting-to-know-yous. If not for that I'd really wonder if it's my bedside manner, or what.

 

I've a mind to start another roll call, for the same cruise, but I guess that would be against the CC rules. Maybe I was too effusive in answering Messymarie's query about the cruise and scared her off. Sorry, I just can't be blase when it comes to talking about cruise plans and ships. In case you're wondering, the roll call that seems to have no charisma is the October 31 Ryndam sailing to the Sea of Cortez. Is there a Smiley for a sigh? :o

[jtl513]

Well, I've been trying to kick-start a roll call that someone else started ...

We've got one of those no-activity roll calls too. Just 2 couples and one non-CC friend are "registered" so far and we're inside the final payment period. All verandah cabins are booked so I know it's not an "empty" ship! :confused:

[sail7seas]

I just found the Roll Call for our Aug 25th cruise and checked in there.

 

 

Is there one for the 25th, KK?

 

I was reading the two for the back-to-backs we just did and don't think I have even looked for August Roll Calls. I'll have to look later.

Thanks for mentioning it.

[haligonian37]

On the other end of the scale there's the roll call for our Dec 3rd sailing of the Volendam. I never thought I'd find a roll call already set up after I booked in February but boy, there was one and it had been started....in April...of 2006!

It's quite the hive of activity as I believe it's up to 13 or 14 pages and we've still got 147 days to go!

 

I think the roll calls are a source of great info about your ship and give you the opportunity, if you wish, to meet a lot of new people. I'll even take a peek at other Volendam roll calls to pick up hints or tips.

 

Now that my friend has suggested Alaska for our '08 cruise, it's time to start scouring for all of that info :)

[sail7seas]

What could he possibly manipulate it to look like?

 

...a photo of You and Slinkie passing up an opportunity to buy Jewelry?!?

 

 

 

:D :D Moi!!!?? Jewelry shop? Who told you that rumor? :eek:

 

 

No....actually it's something about 'sail' on Maasdam wearing jeans and his putting it into a 'different setting'. He actually was very funny and had a plotting expression on his face........

 

In advance, I deny I deny I deny....... :D

[localady]

I've been blessed with some awesome HAL roll calls like the Noordam TA last year.:D The CCer's on these cruises have been sensational and made the whole experience much more fun.

We have an excellent group for our upcoming Veendam trip and I have no doubt that we will come away with additional fond memories of the group!!:D :D

[eh2zed]

about the Roll Call board?

 

We usually sail on Celebrity and their roll call boards are very active. This will be our first HAL cruise (2/16/08-Zuiderdam) and the boards here seem to be so quiet.

 

OR - is it something HAL cruisers just don't like to do?

 

Just get it started and it will develop. Great source of info, ports, etc.

[kryos]

about the Roll Call board?

 

We usually sail on Celebrity and their roll call boards are very active. This will be our first HAL cruise (2/16/08-Zuiderdam) and the boards here seem to be so quiet.

 

OR - is it something HAL cruisers just don't like to do?

I have a feeling that the problem is simply that a lot of HAL cruisers are older, maybe no longer work, and don't care enough about a computer to bother having one in their house. Therefore, they certainly don't spend a lot of time (if any at all) on the internet. I think you'll find a lot more active roll calls on the Vista ships with their shorter sailings, and thus more young people on them.

 

A lot of the other cruise lines have a much larger percentage of younger people on their sailings, since those sailings are often shorter ... and as a result much more active roll calls.

 

That's my take on it anyway.

 

Blue skies ...

 

--rita