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Cruise Critic Website Problems and Questions


Ust2cud
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1. There are very few details from people in my roll call. No contacts. No one has befriended anyone. No one has provided contact information.

2. One individual in my Roll Call has mentioned we now have 33 individuals

signed up. There are only 11 listed so I don't know how he knows the total as

it is certainly not apparent.

3. And most important, when I go to the complete member list and put in the

names of individuals in my Roll Call, I get the answer that they are not listed

among Cruise Critic Members. This appears to be a database problem or

perhaps you only update about every six months or so.

 

I would be glad to communicate with any in my Roll Call and have left postings but no responses.

 

Information anyone?

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Well, I can tell you that the Connections Party (CC official meet-n-greet) sign-up process has been problematic, in the past -- at least for us X cruisers (don't know what cruise line you are sailing). Even if you are able to sign up -- when you check the numbers -- they're all over the place. On my last X r/c, we all just signed up, and hoped that we got a Connections Party invitation in our cabins, once we were onboard!

 

But, it sounds like you might have what is sometimes called a 'dead' roll call thread. Those happen, sometime. Some folks just sign up, but don't participate much. Nothing you can do, except pop-in, once in a while -- just to see if the pace has picked up, a little.

 

As far as folks on your r/c not showing up as CC members (and how often the list is updated) -- you'd have to ask the techies at CC about that one. Somewhere on this forum, there is a link called "ask here, if you're having trouble using these boards" -- or something like that. You can post a technical question there, and the tech mods will reply. They are a great bunch of folks, and have helped me with several posting issues that have come up, over the years.

 

As to the lack of friends and contacts. Well -- there is no I/M or personal contact function at CC -- never has been, as far as I know. The 'friends' list is just a cute function, that most folks don't even use. And, as far as posting personal contact information on this forum -- it is discouraged, even on the r/c threads -- spybots & cyber-theives are everywhere, these days! So, don't think less of your fellow r/c-ers, if you find that they are reluctant to post any personal information, on a public website. Hope this helped -- good luck!

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I appreciate your information. I had concluded that they need better systems personnel to handle such an important web site. It needs to be updated just as some of their ships need it.

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I appreciate your information. I had concluded that they need better systems personnel to handle such an important web site. It needs to be updated just as some of their ships need it.

Cruise Critic is not owned by any cruiseline. If the cruiselines work with your rollcall, it's just as a curtesy. Not sure to whose ships you are referring.

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OVgirl, you state:"Cruise Critic is not owned by any cruise line. If the cruise lines work with your roll call, it's just as a courtesy".

It would appear to me that Cruise Critic would not be in business if they work with only a few cruise lines. They obviously profit by having the website or else it would not exist. And, if ships provide Meet and Mingle parties as a result of the number of individuals joining Roll Calls for each cruise - as shown in Cruise Critic- then there is obviously support from all the cruise lines for the site and conversely, an obligation by the website owners to provide up to date and correct information. The individuals in my cruise Roll Call (including me) are not listed among the members when I check the entire membership roll. None are listed.

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OVgirl, you state:"Cruise Critic is not owned by any cruise line. If the cruise lines work with your roll call, it's just as a courtesy".

It would appear to me that Cruise Critic would not be in business if they work with only a few cruise lines. They obviously profit by having the website or else it would not exist. And, if ships provide Meet and Mingle parties as a result of the number of individuals joining Roll Calls for each cruise - as shown in Cruise Critic- then there is obviously support from all the cruise lines for the site and conversely, an obligation by the website owners to provide up to date and correct information. The individuals in my cruise Roll Call (including me) are not listed among the members when I check the entire membership roll. None are listed.

 

CruiseCritic is owned by TripAdvisor and Expedia. Just like you can go write reviews on TripAdvisor about anything you want, it doesn't exactly have to be accurate. Same with Expedia, there are hundreds of hotels, cars, etc., listed through Expedia.

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Teknoge3K -- I knew that CC was owned by Trip Advisor, but was unaware of the link to Expedia. So, thanks for that tidbit of information -- I learn something new, every day that I log onto this forum! :cool:

 

And to the OP -- yes, anything that the various cruise lines provide to CC members IS simply a courtesy. For one thing, not all of the mainstream cruise lines host a CC 'meet-n-greet', of any sort. Princess comes to mind, and I think I've heard folks say the same about NCL. If I'm wrong about that, I'm sure that someone from NCL will correct me. ;)

 

Here again, OP -- we can all see that you are new to the forum, and trying to figure thing out. There is extensive information available on that -- just click on 'community guidelines', 'using these boards', etc., and you'll get the gist of things pretty quickly. As with most new experiences, it rarely helps to go charging-in, with a list of preconceived notions about how things do/don't/should work. Good luck, with your research! :)

Edited by wwcruisers
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A couple of things may help you understand what you're seeing.

 

First, I believe that new users on Cruise Critic must post a certain number of posts before their names appear on the Member List. Not sure what that number is, but that would explain why you don't see your name or the names of some others on your roll call.

 

Another thing - if you're seeing a lot of one line messages on your roll call with a message like "Hi Everyone! I am sailing on this cruise and looking forward to all of you." - this is an automated message that is explained in this link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=52287632 These people come to check out the board and may or may not ever visit again.

 

Cruise Critic is simply providing a mechanism for those who are sailing on the same voyage to communicate and plan activities IF THEY CHOOSE TO. It does not require anyone to give specific information or to participate at any particular level. No one is required to keep a list of names and events - it only happens if someone volunteers. Some roll calls, especially for longer voyages, attract hundreds of members and thousands of posts and are very well organized. Others seem to be dead in the water - for whatever reason, there simply isn't enough interest.

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OVgirl, you state:"Cruise Critic is not owned by any cruise line. If the cruise lines work with your roll call, it's just as a courtesy".

It would appear to me that Cruise Critic would not be in business if they work with only a few cruise lines. They obviously profit by having the website or else it would not exist. And, if ships provide Meet and Mingle parties as a result of the number of individuals joining Roll Calls for each cruise - as shown in Cruise Critic- then there is obviously support from all the cruise lines for the site and conversely, an obligation by the website owners to provide up to date and correct information. The individuals in my cruise Roll Call (including me) are not listed among the members when I check the entire membership roll. None are listed.

 

You seem to have a very incorrect understanding of CC. I am not sure if there is a FAQ someplace or if they figure that most people will just figure it out.

As far as I can tell CC is a commercial operation that subsists on advertising income. Some cruise lines take advantage of the large concentration here of potential clients and actively participate in discussions, others are more stand-offish. But CC is at heart a service for travel agents. Wonder why one of the fundamental rules on CC is "do NOT ever talk about your travel agent by name..."? CC understandably does not want their clients, the TAs, to have to face competition from other TAs who would profit from free word-of-mouth advertising.

 

Like it or not, it is what it is. They have never asked me to pay a dime and so every benefit I receive (and there have been many benefits in the form of useful information), every benefit is just total gravy.

 

And by the way, the CC Roll Call for any given cruise has nothing zero nada zilch to do with any Cruise-supported onboard get-together. CC provides a link that you can use to sign up with the cruise line for their party, if that line provides those parties and if the cruise line's website is not broken. You could have 10 or 10 hundred on a CC roll call but the official count on the cruise line's site might be zero. If/when you follow the link and sign up for a Meet 'n Mingle or whatever, the cruise line's site might tell you that you are the 75th person to sign up. But at the same time you may be the only person on the CC Roll Call. Nothing strange, just two different organizations with two different purposes each doing their own thing. I think there have been times on some ships on some lines where a CC volunteer has coordinated with cruise line personnel. In my opinion, it is no business of the cruise line who is here on CC. If a Roll Call maintainer starts to give my information to a TA or cruise line or anybody else I am going to be very peeved.

 

I hope you do find value here, this is a good community.

 

Stan

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