Pay for CruiseCal.com?

[Kempa]

CruiseCal has great information. For me, it is information that is nice to get, but not something i need to get. So, the price point is way above what I am willing to pay for information I can do without.

[Molly BPOE]

Okay... new to this site. What is Cruise.cal?

Cruisecal is a website where you can type in the dates you will be in a port and it will show you what other ships will be in port with you the same day.

[sea_u_onboard]

My website does fine with the ads it generates. I'm not making money - but that's not why I have it. It's a labor of love and I like to share the info.

 

Good thing I checked my sailings just yesterday. I only use it when I'm close to sailing (as things change). Checked both my April and September cruises - so I wouldn't have used it again until my June 2009 cruise got closer. Oh well - on to other sites.

[Cruisegolfer]

Are you kidding me $24.99 a year $2 per month? My employee's time is worth a lot more then $2 per month per employee - I don't want my people wasting time searching cruise line websites for port and ship times - CruiseCal is the best tool in the industry for ship location info. Brian is a one man show making a few hundred dollars a month from google ads - I support his efforts 100%. If you can't afford $24.99 per year, why would you even care where all the cruise ships are currently? You should be looking for openings at Mc Donalds making $8 an hour instead of surfing the internet. Just think after three hours of work at Micky D's you could surf Cruisecal for 365 days, seems fair to me.

 

CruiseCal is a dream come true!!!! I would pay $24.99 a month and still be thanking Brian for his site.

[anaslile]

I loved the resource when it was free, however it's not worth it for me to sign up for $25/2 years. Not when I doubt I'll take more than 1 or 2 cruises within the next 5 years (3 this year is an anomaly and won't happen again), especially if they raise cruise prices a lot.

 

I don't need the information that much, even if it is the most comprehensive site on the 'net. Many port sites provide almost the same information, and I'll just look at the various port sites. I'd happily pay a one time life time fee of $20 or so, but not $25/2 years.

[sea_u_onboard]

Brian is a one man show making a few hundred dollars a month from google ads

WOW - a few hundred dollars a month. I wish I could make that. My site has been up since November and I haven't made the 100 dollar mark - and I thought I was doing good. If you know this for fact then that's pretty good change if this isn't his full time job and he does it for the love of cruising as I do. I'm surprised the mods even let his site be mentioned here if he makes money off of it. I can't mention my site anymore because of my "advertising".

[Cruisegolfer]

My website does fine with the ads it generates. I'm not making money - but that's not why I have it. It's a labor of love and I like to share the info.

 

Good thing I checked my sailings just yesterday. I only use it when I'm close to sailing (as things change). Checked both my April and September cruises - so I wouldn't have used it again until my June 2009 cruise got closer. Oh well - on to other sites.

 

I hope your not comparing CruiseCal to your site - Cruisecal is an industry tool. All due respect you're comparing apples and oranges, good luck w/ your site and happy sailing onboard CCL.

[FLACRUISER99]

I removed the site from my favorites.

[Cruising89143]

Are you kidding me $24.99 a year $2 per month? My employee's time is worth a lot more then $2 per month per employee - I don't want my people wasting time searching cruise line websites for port and ship times - CruiseCal is the best tool in the industry for ship location info. Brian is a one man show making a few hundred dollars a month from google ads - I support his efforts 100%. If you can't afford $24.99 per year, why would you even care where all the cruise ships are currently? You should be looking for openings at Mc Donalds making $8 an hour instead of surfing the internet. Just think after three hours of work at Micky D's you could surf Cruisecal for 365 days, seems fair to me.

 

CruiseCal is a dream come true!!!! I would pay $24.99 a month and still be thanking Brian for his site.

 

Nice of you to sign up here today and both of your posts are in support of Crusie Cal. Yeah, who are you behind the screen?:rolleyes: The proof of the charge will be how many people actually sign up for it. My bet is it will fail.

[maxamuus]

CruiseCal is a dream come true!!!! I would pay $24.99 a month and still be thanking Brian for his site.

 

Thats the great thing about the free market you can charge whatever you want and hope for the best.

 

With that said, If you honestly believe Joe and Betty cruiser that make one maybe two cruises a year is going to pay that to see how many ships are in port on any given day you are a dreamer!

[Kempa]

Are you kidding me $24.99 a year $2 per month? My employee's time is worth a lot more then $2 per month per employee - I don't want my people wasting time searching cruise line websites for port and ship times - CruiseCal is the best tool in the industry for ship location info. Brian is a one man show making a few hundred dollars a month from google ads - I support his efforts 100%. If you can't afford $24.99 per year, why would you even care where all the cruise ships are currently? You should be looking for openings at Mc Donalds making $8 an hour instead of surfing the internet. Just think after three hours of work at Micky D's you could surf Cruisecal for 365 days, seems fair to me.

 

CruiseCal is a dream come true!!!! I would pay $24.99 a month and still be thanking Brian for his site.

 

Are you a travel agent who handles questions from customers regarding how many ships will be in port on a certain day? CruiseCal is certainly a valuable tool for you.

I am just a cruiser looking for that information once a year when I cruise, or when someone here asks about it. For me it is a fun tool to look at.

Brian does a great job concentrating all that information in his website. I looked recently and saw that he was also listing delays and missed ports. That takes time and investment to create and keep current. As an tool for the TA, it is fantastic. As a tool for the occasional cruiser, it is not worth the price.

[bs_kc]

I'm Brian, the webmaster of CruiseCal (he says, donning his flame retardent suit).

I'm sorry you all feel the way you do. I take alot of pride in CruiseCal. I get emails daily asking for new Cruise Lines, and other new features. This website is very time intensive. To justify the work I need to charge a subscription fee. The ads on the site barely cover my hosting costs.

As for taking donations, I tried that. I received $3.65 in 6 months (one 5$ donation minus PayPal's processing fees).

"OK.. so ONE of us needs to PAY... then we can all share the log-in information..." I'll keep an eye out ;)

"I hope knowone joins and maybe it will go back to being free!!" People have been joining (and paying) all day.

I was really alarmed at the emails I am getting hoping for my failure, "A big THUMBS DOWN for doing this. Hopefully someone will create a free service that will sink this new 'enterprise'"

I honestly do not think $2.08 per month is asking alot. I have had the site for almost 4 years. Along the way I have developed good relationships and procedures with many in the industry.

The point is, I am not doing this to get rich or even make a living off of it. I just want to be able to put the time into it to make it what it can be.

Brian

[kwbrad]

I'm Brian, the webmaster of CruiseCal (he says, donning his flame retardent suit).

I'm sorry you all feel the way you do. I take alot of pride in CruiseCal. I get emails daily asking for new Cruise Lines, and other new features. This website is very time intensive. To justify the work I need to charge a subscription fee. The ads on the site barely cover my hosting costs.

As for taking donations, I tried that. I received $3.65 in 6 months (one 5$ donation minus PayPal's processing fees).

"OK.. so ONE of us needs to PAY... then we can all share the log-in information..." I'll keep an eye out ;)

"I hope knowone joins and maybe it will go back to being free!!" People have been joining (and paying) all day.

I was really alarmed at the emails I am getting hoping for my failure, "A big THUMBS DOWN for doing this. Hopefully someone will create a free service that will sink this new 'enterprise'"

I honestly do not think $2.08 per month is asking alot. I have had the site for almost 4 years. Along the way I have developed good relationships and procedures with many in the industry.

The point is, I am not doing this to get rich or even make a living off of it. I just want to be able to put the time into it to make it what it can be.

Brian

 

Good luck with your site improvements, I hope it works out for you. I know that I cannot justify the expense when I am only going on one or two cruises a year, but I am sure others will be glad to continue to use the site.

While you are here, do you have any plans on updating cruise dailies.com? I know I personally sent you some compasses to post that were never posted, and I know that some others here have emailed you some that were never posted, so I just assumed you decided to stop working on that site.

Thanks for the work you did on both sites while they were free, I enjoyed using both of them to help with planning, but just not worth paying per year when I dont cruise that often. Again, good luck to you.

Sincerely,

Kelli

[Cruising89143]

I'm Brian, the webmaster of CruiseCal (he says, donning his flame retardent suit).

I'm sorry you all feel the way you do. I take alot of pride in CruiseCal. I get emails daily asking for new Cruise Lines, and other new features. This website is very time intensive. To justify the work I need to charge a subscription fee. The ads on the site barely cover my hosting costs.

As for taking donations, I tried that. I received $3.65 in 6 months (one 5$ donation minus PayPal's processing fees).

"OK.. so ONE of us needs to PAY... then we can all share the log-in information..." I'll keep an eye out ;)

"I hope knowone joins and maybe it will go back to being free!!" People have been joining (and paying) all day.

I was really alarmed at the emails I am getting hoping for my failure, "A big THUMBS DOWN for doing this. Hopefully someone will create a free service that will sink this new 'enterprise'"

I honestly do not think $2.08 per month is asking alot. I have had the site for almost 4 years. Along the way I have developed good relationships and procedures with many in the industry.

The point is, I am not doing this to get rich or even make a living off of it. I just want to be able to put the time into it to make it what it can be.

Brian

 

 

Then maybe you should look to more advertising. It will be just as easy for me to look up the ships on the cruise line websites as I only cruise two or three times a year and fifty bucks a year is pure greed on your part. Good luck but judging from the comments here I seriously doubt that you have folks lined up to sign up. Adios.

[sea_u_onboard]

I hope your not comparing CruiseCal to your site - Cruisecal is an industry tool. All due respect you're comparing apples and oranges, good luck w/ your site and happy sailing onboard CCL.

Didn't want to make it sound like mine is an Industry tool - it doesn't compare. Just asking how you would know how much someone makes on their advertising? I'm glad Brian got on here to explain as really he is the only one who knows his situation.

 

While I can see how this is upsetting to some I can also see his side and respect anyone who takes the time to set up a site. They are a lot of work - not just to set up but to maintain (and mine isn't half of what his is). No one doing these type of sites are doing it to make money. That was my point is pointing out the few hundred a month seemed kinda high to me for the types of ads on the site. To make the real money on websites you need solid advertisers like the ones Cruise Critic has - not just floating ads like google.

 

If someone wanted to donate money to my site I wouldn't turn it down but I got a great deal on my URL and server so right now I'm making enough on the google ads to cover my expenses and hope to be able to keep that rate of income going for the next 3 years (time I have paid for both). I've even contiplated(sp) removing the ads once I have covered my expenses. This was because then I could post my site to Cruise Critic. Since I have the google ads I'm not allowed to mention it as it violates CC rules. If I don't make enough in 3 years to cover my expenses then so be it. I'm doing it because I want to and the money really isn't an issue. Not pointing any fingers or saying it is that way for others - just how I see MY situation.

 

Hopefully Brian will get enough people to sign up that it will keep it afloat. I can see where the site could be worth it to a travel agency or an at home TA that wants to impress their clients. As for someone like me that NORMALLY cruises once a year I have the time to look up each port (in most cases) and see what ships will be there.

 

Good luck Brian and great job all these years.

[TheDMan]

I say in about two-three months there will be a thread with the title "Do any of you guys remember that site that used to show when the ships were in port". Nobody is going to pay that much just to see where and when their ship will be in a certain port when they are only taking one or two cruises a year.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

I'm Brian, the webmaster of CruiseCal (he says, donning his flame retardent suit).

I'm sorry you all feel the way you do. I take alot of pride in CruiseCal. I get emails daily asking for new Cruise Lines, and other new features. This website is very time intensive. To justify the work I need to charge a subscription fee. The ads on the site barely cover my hosting costs.

As for taking donations, I tried that. I received $3.65 in 6 months (one 5$ donation minus PayPal's processing fees).

"OK.. so ONE of us needs to PAY... then we can all share the log-in information..." I'll keep an eye out ;) "I hope knowone joins and maybe it will go back to being free!!" People have been joining (and paying) all day.

I was really alarmed at the emails I am getting hoping for my failure, "A big THUMBS DOWN for doing this. Hopefully someone will create a free service that will sink this new 'enterprise'"

I honestly do not think $2.08 per month is asking alot. I have had the site for almost 4 years. Along the way I have developed good relationships and procedures with many in the industry.

The point is, I am not doing this to get rich or even make a living off of it. I just want to be able to put the time into it to make it what it can be.

Brian

 

Perhaps you should consider some type of CREDIT system. I have e-mailed you 3 times (or so!) over the last few years giving (what you admitted was) new and helpful information. Perhaps people who help you keep the site accurate should obtain some type of "compensation" - although I do appreciate the "thanks" you sent my way. :)

 

Tom

[sea_u_onboard]

Perhaps you should consider some type of CREDIT system. I have e-mailed you 3 times (or so!) over the last few years giving (what you admitted was) new and helpful information. Perhaps people who help you keep the site accurate should obtain some type of "compensation" - although I do appreciate the "thanks" you sent my way. :)

 

Tom

Exactly what I was thinking. I would think the one site would only remain up to date by people continuing to "give" information. How will that information be obtained if you have to pay to use?

 

It reminds me of a genealogy website where they want you to submit your info but they will only give you matching info if you pay them. I removed my tree from their site since the only one that was benefiting from that deal was them. While I understand they have to pay for the site - they wouldn't have the site if it wasn't for people giving their info. If they had offered me so many matches free for placing my info on there then I might have stayed. One site once you submitted your info it became their property and you had to pay to even search. That site didn't survive.

[Cruisegolfer]

Nice of you to sign up here today and both of your posts are in support of Crusie Cal. Yeah, who are you behind the screen?:rolleyes: The proof of the charge will be how many people actually sign up for it. My bet is it will fail.

 

Wow, cruidingator2 you're breath of fresh air and very bitter about this $24.99 deal which don't use often anyway. My bet is you don't sail much on Silversea, if it fails or not it doesn't change your life at all. I wish CC the very best because I'm a paying member and look forward to a long relationship w/ CC.

[anaslile]

Brian-

 

Why not a one time fee of $20 or something? I can see more people being willing to pay a one time fee, than the prices you are charging right now. Some TAs might, but you're going to lose all of your occasional cruisers, especially when CCers are telling people that you can find almost the same information in multiple places.

[Cruising89143]

Wow, cruidingator2 you're breath of fresh air and very bitter about this $24.99 deal which don't use often anyway. My bet is you don't sail much on Silversea, if it fails or not it doesn't change your life at all. I wish CC the very best because I'm a paying member and look forward to a long relationship w/ CC.

 

Well DUH!!!!!!!!!!!! This is the Carnival board and not Silversea. Can you read? I also have my doubts that you are a Silverseas customer either. Hey, you want to pay knock yourself out by paying for a site. Go for it. Still find it amusing that you joined Cruise Critic today to post on the Carnival board about Cruise Cal. Who are you really behind the screen? Bet we don't see you back here posting on any other subject which tells me that you are more than likely someone joined at the hip with Cruise Cal.:rolleyes: Oh by the way, not bitter at all. I just call a spade as what they are. Nothing more or less. I don't mince my words.

[Single Cruiser]

Well I've submitted information to Brian, including quite recently, spending my own time to help as it was useful to other people. But as a not-for-profit organisation. Related ads or even a sponsored ad from one of the big cruiselines should more than cover the hosting costs, with donations either in monetary paypal or by doing pre-work, formatting, getting info..

 

As it stands I'm very disappointed and will also remove it from my favourites!!

 

Perhaps cruise critic can add a calendar/database that we can add info onto instead?

:mad:

[cruisnpat]

they won't get my 24.95

[Cruising89143]

Well I've submitted information to Brian, including quite recently, spending my own time to help as it was useful to other people. But as a not-for-profit organisation. Related ads or even a sponsored ad from one of the big cruiselines should more than cover the hosting costs, with donations either in monetary paypal or by doing pre-work, formatting, getting info..

 

As it stands I'm very disappointed and will also remove it from my favourites!!

 

Perhaps cruise critic can add a calendar/database that we can add info onto instead?

:mad:

 

There are plenty of websites out there that have the cruise ship schedule for the more popular ports. Maybe we could get Laura to post a sticky at the top of each page where we can add links. I think that most of us only care about the more popular ports of call.

 

Example would be.

 

Key West - http://www.caribenautical.com/200804Apr/200804Apr.htm

 

Cozumel - http://www.cozumelinsider.com/?Page=CruiseShips&Sort=Arrival

 

St. Maarten - http://travelcal.traveltalkonline.com/sxm.cgi

 

Grand Cayman - http://www.caymanport.com/schedule.htm

[rh3]

Can often get the same information by going to the official port site for the destination, and examining the port schedule. Some destinations/ports are better than others at having the "accurate" information available. Glad I printed out the in-port info from cruiecal for my 4/6 cruise a couple of weeks ago!