Royal Champions

[ruskatab]

I did read the post and in your quote those are the words you used, the previous poster meant it in a different way, you had a choice, you did not have to use the phrase again, but you choose to which I found insulting, but wutevaaa!!

im really surprised that some of you choose to keep comming back to argue, its out now, so maybe Cc should just make some guidelines regarding the RC's and call it a day

 

First of all how do you know how I meant it? She was responding to me and in no way did I feel insulted. I felt she knew exactly what I meant by "little people." See your are assuming something that is not true and this is how most of arguments get started on CC.

[ruskatab]

On a lighter note....There is a San Antonio cruisers group dinner tomorrow night. Go to the Floataway Lounge San Antonio thread for information!

[booze brothers]

We owe great gratitude to Anita Dunham-Potter, whose posts can be followed on Tripso.com, for giving us unbiased information and creating transparency where none existed. We all knew that paid reviewers skewed their reviews, either because of receiving free or reduced rate cruises and special treatment from the cruise lines (or to placate advertisers), but I for one certainly relied on the reviews and commentaries by other Cruise Critic members to be unbiased. Now we know that there was collusion between the management of Cruise Critic, a major cruise line (and advertiser) and the cruise line's specially selected marketing partner-boosters. It certainly poses the question of this site;'s integrity and such skepticism and negativity now has accrued to the advertisers - including Royal Carribean.

 

 

Say what ? LOL LMAO!!!!:p

[Alexis]

I have read the whole 43 page thread and I think I now have the whole story straight.

 

1. RCCL contacts CC and asks them if they will give them some RCCL posters email addresses.

 

2. LauraS says no but she contacts the posters and gets their permission for RCCL to contact them.

 

3. RCCL contacts these people and asks them a bunch of info about themselves and the posters all happily give it.

 

4. But none of the RC's have any idea what it is for because none of them asked RCCL any questions about it.

 

5. RCCL gives the info to their marketing company but they don't disclose this to the RC'ers.

 

6. The 50 Charter RC Members were the first group and then another set of RC'ers were brought in late 2008.

 

7. Some RC'ers put that title in their signature and some don't.

 

8. Most RC members have a Diamond or better status.

 

9. Some of the RC'ers got free inaugural cruises and some didn't.

 

10. But if they chose to take this free cruise' date=' they had to pay their own expenses to get there.[/color']

 

11. The RC'ers are exposed by some article or blog.

 

12. Regular posters are upset with RC'ers, CC, and RCCL for the deceit they feel they were dealt.

 

13. RC'ers have to defend themselves from the angry attacks of posters.

 

14. CC takes a big hit in their reputation because they agreed to contact the posters for RCCL in the first place.

 

15. RCCL has someone come on this thread to try and do some damage control for this mess they started.

 

16. Regular posters want the RC'er to either put "Member of Royal Champions" in their signature or have something by their avatar.

 

If I left anything out, please feel free to add it yourself. :)

 

# 11. I guess number 11 bothers me to use the word, "exposed". It makes me feel like I was hiding something.

You can not hide from something you did not know you were doing to begin with. ;)

[Alexis]

You understand what was done and don't care- that is perfectly fine. But not caring is one thing-refusing to believe that it was going on is quite another.

 

What do you want all of us to do?

 

Ask for a free cuise as compensation?

 

Personally, I do not feel used. I have posted as myself since 2002 and I will continue to do so. :mad:

Read my posts. I do a lot of these too.

Can I fudge the Dry Dock schedules.

The Hump cabin pictures?

The time clocks help?

[glgolfer]

What do you want all of us to do?

 

Ask for a free cuise as compensation?

 

Personally, I do not feel used. I have posted as myself since 2002 and I will continue to do so. :mad:

Read my posts. I do a lot of these too.

Can I fudge the Dry Dock schedules.

The Hump cabin pictures?

The time clocks help?

 

 

Alexis

 

i think that's what most of us do and i think that went a long way toward why we were picked.

 

check out my posts on the other cruise lines board re Hurtigruten.

 

also talked about river cruises.

[Sailfish]

This was posted today at Tripso:

 

A contagious virus? Marketing campaign sinks Cruise Critic

 

by Anita Dunham-Potter

[Alexis]

This was posted today at Tripso:

 

A contagious virus? Marketing campaign sinks Cruise Critic

 

by Anita Dunham-Potter

 

You are late. We are already discussing that post. ;)

[cruisenfever]

Ummm im the one who made the "little people" statement in my post NOT cruisinfever. What I meant by little people is that im not a seasoned cruiser with RC, I have only sailed with them 4 times. Whatever I can learn from a more experienced cruiser will help me with future cruises. YOU are the one who needs to think and read carefully before YOU open your mouth.

Cruisinfever was very helpful with her reply.

 

Thank you for updating the phone number and sorry about the little people issue!

 

First of all how do you know how I meant it? She was responding to me and in no way did I feel insulted. I felt she knew exactly what I meant by "little people." See your are assuming something that is not true and this is how most of arguments get started on CC.

Not to worry..........this matter was cleared up. Please don't ask me where to find it............it's buried!:D

 

It was a misinterpretation of words.................which can happen on a message board.

 

Glad you got the correct phone number..............you would have really thought I was jumping off the deep end if you would have called the original number I posted.:eek:

[cruisePRN]

“In trying to shortcut the natural progress from brand exposure, to brand adoption and finally advocacy, Royal Caribbean now faces a far worse problem,” he adds. “All the wholehearted, genuine reviews of their brand and service that are positive run the risk of being eyed with a jaded view. Is this a real review, or is this one they bought?”

 

It doesn't matter if each Royal Champs thinks they are objective they are not. They were duped into a position they didn't bargain for. I for one will take what they say with a grain of salt knowing they wouldn't dare jeopardize their invite to the next inaugural.

I am glad several cruise articles written by two different authors have brought this to light, information is wonderful.

[xpcdoojk]

“In trying to shortcut the natural progress from brand exposure, to brand adoption and finally advocacy, Royal Caribbean now faces a far worse problem,” he adds. “All the wholehearted, genuine reviews of their brand and service that are positive run the risk of being eyed with a jaded view. Is this a real review, or is this one they bought?”

 

It doesn't matter if each Royal Champs thinks they are objective they are not. They were duped into a position they didn't bargain for. I for one will take what they say with a grain of salt knowing they wouldn't dare jeopardize their invite to the next inaugural.

I am glad several cruise articles written by two different authors have brought this to light, information is wonderful.

 

Misinformation misinforms... I hope you enjoy being misinformed.:D

 

jc

[Elizanessie]

information is wonderful.

 

 

Correct information is a lot better than wrong information.

[jaxon41]

Actually, when I read the response of RCI, I think to CC's questions, I too was struck at how poor a CYA this was but knew, or at least felt, most could/would not see through it, at least on this site.

 

What is RCI to do? Are they to say, oh yea, our marketing manager was right on when she said, "The key to success in viral marketing is to subtly influence the influencers without them overtly realizing they are being influenced.” Well of course the fire team is out but for the life of me, I can't figure it out. They again are using a waterless hose. They did the same similair PR blunder with the fuel surcharge.

 

But there was a difference between these two issues. On the fuel surcharge I felt a personal harm to me in the unjustly added cost. This issue does not cause me any personal cost and I have therefore left it to the companies, CC and RCI to decide how they handle viral marketing efforts in their companies in the future, since, of course, it is their business. My only recourse is how I view the veracity of CC and their stated guidelines, or interpretation of the guidelines. As far as RCI, I have pretty much determined how I view their veracity when it has come to controversial issues

 

If I was RCI, and of course I'm not, but some may want to accuse me of being Alan based on what I'm reading on this thread, I think I would have said yes we certainly did utilize folks who were passionate about the product and who we thought could continue to be positive ambassadors of RCI by giving them the opportunity to be part of some of the special preinaugural events. I would continue by saying, in hindsight, it appears we may have put some of these people in awkward positions by not fully disclosing our intentions and for this we are sorry as we did not intend for this to be covert in any way.

 

Now whether that was true or not, who cares. At least I might be more able to figure they were trying to help the RCers get off the misplaced hook they didn't belong on in the first place. My own feeling is that RCI has pretty much left the RC group to flounder through this on their own and their weak PR response was to CYA with little to no help to the RC folks..

 

I think you give good advice -- you would be good a damage controller. Good damage control we forget, but bad damage control makes things worse, or becomes the hind end of a million jokes. I think of Craig's -- I have a wide stance. I would add that if I were RCI, I would have sent with that other email to the RC's the other day, a request that RC's identify themselves as such in conformance with industry guidelines (and of course, some were already doing that in their sig lines.)

 

I was discussing all of this with my swim mates who said -- It's just like Madoff using the exclusivity hook. He was a charmer and would tell people, "I like you so I will let you in." They were made to feel special so the hook was FIRMLY planted. Then you get the "family" thing, or "home team" thing going. Geewillikers, consider how this concept has worked in history. Act locally, think globally -- for me, it is seldom more than what a wonderful Professor once said to me. "I had to leave the highly paid corporate world because of what I saw going on there. I knew the only hope for the profession was to come back and teach -- instill the ethics so lacking in corporate America."

[Alexis]

“In trying to shortcut the natural progress from brand exposure, to brand adoption and finally advocacy, Royal Caribbean now faces a far worse problem,” he adds. “All the wholehearted, genuine reviews of their brand and service that are positive run the risk of being eyed with a jaded view. Is this a real review, or is this one they bought?”

 

It doesn't matter if each Royal Champs thinks they are objective they are not. They were duped into a position they didn't bargain for. I for one will take what they say with a grain of salt knowing they wouldn't dare jeopardize their invite to the next inaugural.

I am glad several cruise articles written by two different authors have brought this to light, information is wonderful.

 

And who was furious, and posted it on here, that they were left at home when some others were invited to these pre-inaugurals and they were not.

How RCCL let down their most Loyal Customers and supporters?

That is also calling the kettle black!

Please remember, anyone can look up all of our past postings.

I have nothing to hide in mine. ;)

[xpcdoojk]

I think you give good advice -- you would be good a damage controller. Good damage control we forget, but bad damage control makes things worse, or becomes the hind end of a million jokes. I think of Craig's -- I have a wide stance. I would add that if I were RCI, I would have sent with that other email to the RC's the other day, a request that RC's identify themselves as such in conformance with industry guidelines (and of course, some were already doing that in their sig lines.)

 

I was discussing all of this with my swim mates who said -- It's just like Madoff using the exclusivity hook. He was a charmer and would tell people, "I like you so I will let you in." They were made to feel special so the hook was FIRMLY planted. Then you get the "family" thing, or "home team" thing going. Geewillikers, consider how this concept has worked in history. Act locally, think globally -- for me, it is seldom more than what a wonderful Professor once said to me. "I had to leave the highly paid corporate world because of what I saw going on there. I knew the only hope for the profession was to come back and teach -- instill the ethics so lacking in corporate America."

 

O good lord, now this is like the Madoff scandal. :rolleyes:

 

Socialism is the new capitalism they say. Thanks for sharing the Illinois version of that with us. :rolleyes:

 

jc

[jaxon41]

You are late. We are already discussing that post. ;)

 

Take a look at the referenced article within Potter's article. I swear to God, I am going to barf.

 

"This isn't the first time this has happened, or the first time that the people behind these shill-nets have outed themselves and their practices. At the 2006 PhoCusWright conference of travel executives, as I reported at the time:

Nowhere was travel marketers' focus clearer than in the workshops on blogs and community media. I had hoped there would have been some interest in using them as a tool for learning about what consumers and travellers want. But no -- they were seen only as a channel that could be exploited to push top-down commercial messages."

 

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/index.html

[xpcdoojk]

Well, I don't know about the banning bit, but let's be fair. This sticky, has by far, been the most tolerant of questioning not only each other, but RCI as well as CC. Quite frankly, even if they did it after the fact, I commend them for letting the discussion go forward. It is my opinion that CC is indeed evaluating and getting a sense of opinion or they would have long ago shut this off. They have it in their power to block any discussion they deem not in their best interest.

 

Again, I am not one to easily throw out comendations, but in this case, I give it to CC for letting this discussion proceed.

 

Congratulations! You have finally made a post that I can mostly agree with! Good job! Keep up the positive trend!:)

 

jc

[cruisingcowboy]

Could you please explain how you "know" that the RCs wont dare jeopardize their invite to the next inaugural?

 

I for one will take what they say with a grain of salt knowing they wouldn't dare jeopardize their invite to the next inaugural.

[Alexis]

Take a look at the referenced article within Potter's article. I swear to God, I am going to barf.

 

"This isn't the first time this has happened, or the first time that the people behind these shill-nets have outed themselves and their practices. At the 2006 PhoCusWright conference of travel executives, as I reported at the time:

Nowhere was travel marketers' focus clearer than in the workshops on blogs and community media. I had hoped there would have been some interest in using them as a tool for learning about what consumers and travellers want. But no -- they were seen only as a channel that could be exploited to push top-down commercial messages."

 

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/index.html

 

 

I am going to assume, which makes an (a$$ out of u and me) that they have not read the postings of today. :confused:

Or, they would have known that we were discussing that, and another article, posted earlier. :D

Nothing more and nothing less. You have to stop looking for underling things in every word posted. ;)

[coxswain]

Correct information is a lot better than wrong information.

 

 

 

Does that go along with Transparency ?

 

 

Another hard hitting article http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/03/13/company-bribes-its-fans-to-secretly-flood-websites-with-praise/

 

 

 

 

 

jj......

[Alexis]

Well, I don't know about the banning bit, but let's be fair. This sticky, has by far, been the most tolerant of questioning not only each other, but RCI as well as CC. Quite frankly, even if they did it after the fact, I commend them for letting the discussion go forward. It is my opinion that CC is indeed evaluating and getting a sense of opinion or they would have long ago shut this off. They have it in their power to block any discussion they deem not in their best interest.

 

Again, I am not one to easily throw out comendations, but in this case, I give it to CC for letting this discussion proceed.

 

You can get up off of the floor now.

I bet you never thought you would get that from me. :D

But thank you. ;)

[Ocean Boy]

You can get up off of the floor now.

I bet you never thought you would get that from me. :D

But thank you. ;)

 

He is probably still trying to recover from J.C.'s compliment.

[xpcdoojk]

Gosh what a wonderful world we live in... have a web page be your own New York Times.

 

The facts are all right here in this thread and still people are eager to find the real super secret conspiracy by scouring the internet for another crank point of view.

 

It is apparent that there is a block of people that are unwilling to see any other possibility other than what they believe. Truth is dead. Welcome to the future.

 

jc<---- is disgusted and sad at how many people don't care about truth:mad:

[cruisinMike]

Congratulations! You have finally made a post that I can mostly agree with! Good job! Keep up the positive trend!:)

 

jc

 

I realize you just can't help yourself....but try at least.

[jaxon41]

I am going to assume, which makes an (a$$ out of u and me) that they have not read the postings of today. :confused:

Or, they would have known that we were discussing that, and another article, posted earlier. :D

Nothing more and nothing less. You have to stop looking for underling things in every word posted. ;)

 

say huh??

 

In any case, another I just saw:

 

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/cruises/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=64050869.blog