Why lack of roll call interest on Seabourn Cruises?

We recently booked our first Seabourn cruise for this June and I was surprised that no one had started a roll call for it. Looking around I actually saw very few roll calls for upcoming cruises.

This makes me wonder about the atmosphere on these cruises. I am used to a pre-cruise excitement with shared plans for private excursions and general information. I like meeting people electronically prior to boarding. The lack of interest in the roll calls makes me wonder if luxury cruising also means lack of adventure.

We are in our late 60s and often are DIYers in port. We enjoy meeting new people as well as connecting with the crew. We love the itinerary and small ship, but will we be misfits? Is this a more sedate dignified crowd? Not that we are party animals, but we like to have fun.

This is not to disparage anyone. There are enough cruise lines to appeal to everyone. I’m just trying to see if we will be happy on Sojourn.

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We disembark Sojourn on June 3rd, so guess we aren't on together. I am sure you will have a wonderful time. As a first timer with Seabourn you should check out the "sticky" referral coupon thread on this board, and get yourself $400 OBC.

We disembark Sojourn on June 3rd, so guess we aren't on together. I am sure you will have a wonderful time. As a first timer with Seabourn you should check out the "sticky" referral coupon thread on this board, and get yourself $400 OBC.

Thanks! We will miss you by one cruise. We board her on the 4th. Reading that pinned referral thread, I also discovered that Seabourn is owned by Carnival and I own their stock. So that’s a little more OBC.

Thanks!

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Very few Seabourn passengers have even heard of Cruise Critic. Plus SB is a relatively small cruise line.

It's a numbers game that means that the Roll Calls can tend to be quiet or even non-existent.

Just a bit more than a year ago SB's capacity was ca. 1300 pax across all three ships. Now with Encore it's approx 1900. (I know it will increase again with the launch of Ovation). It's far too early in the day for me to bother to launch calculator to provide exact figures, I'm sure someone else will come along who is happy to do so!

Compare this to cruise lines that have ships large enough to hold 1900 guests on just one of several ships, you can see why the Roll Calls are not so busy and why even this board is not so busy as other cruise lines.

Connecting with fellow guests onboard is unlikely to be a problem. I often cruise alone and find it very easy to make new friends, same when I travel with my partner. Interaction with the crew is easy and appreciated by crew members, plus officers are generally highly visible too.

With 450 passengers on the odyssey class ships you have a very small base from which to draw. It’s a numbers game

We find seabourn has the least active roll calls of any line we have cruised.

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It's much easier to meet people on smaller ships like Seabourn. With 3-5,000 pax on board a mainstream ship you need roll calls just to try and find each other and connect.

The private excursion issue is more to do with Cruise Critics lack of private messaging. They are very protective of "their" members and would rather seek to monetise excursions themselves.

We also do everything independently ashore.

Henry :)

Agree

Just harder to find others for private excursions in advance

But oceania roll calls for the 650 passenger ships are usually active because cruisers wanted to find others for private excursions given the ridiculous prices o charges. Olife with included excursions has impacted the roll calls

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With 450 passengers on the odyssey class ships you have a very small base from which to draw. It’s a numbers game

 

We find seabourn has the least active roll calls of any line we have cruised.

 

 

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Thank you all for your reassurance. It is very helpful.

We like small ship sailing and have been following the R-ships (680 passengers) within different cruise lines (Azamara, Princess, etc) for years. I do notice those roll calls are smaller than average, but do exist. It might also be affected by some of the more unusual ports we’ve visited that attract more chat. Our Seabourn cruise is for the inland passage. Many have done Alaska multiple times already and might not see the need for participating in a roll call.

Thank you again.

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Tours operators in Alaska generally do not require you to form a group. You sign up and so do others and the group is formed. You don’t need the roll call to plan tours (with a handful of exceptions). Another reason for a quiet roll call

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Thank you all for your reassurance. It is very helpful.

 

We like small ship sailing and have been following the R-ships (680 passengers) within different cruise lines (Azamara, Princess, etc) for years. I do notice those roll calls are smaller than average, but do exist. It might also be affected by some of the more unusual ports we’ve visited that attract more chat. Our Seabourn cruise is for the inland passage. Many have done Alaska multiple times already and might not see the need for participating in a roll call.

 

Thank you again.

 

 

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There were very active Alaska threads and roll calls last year if you want to look back for ideas. We booked several mentioned

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I started a thread for our Seabourn cruise last year and eventually grew to 12 couples. We planned several private tours, not all of us together the same at any time. One person had Seabourn arrange a meet and greet for us. It was a great group and we are still in touch with most. I just started a roll call for our cruise this November but nobody else joined yet.

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Here's my explanation: The small capacity size of Seabourn's ships limits the roll call possibilities. Fewer pax, fewer possible roll call participants. Also it seems the loyal Seabourn PAX are not necessarily big time CC users. On our big Seabourn cruise, the Roll Call was of very modest size. But once on board, we easily met most of the passengers. A very friendly bunch. And we shared ideas about private excursions.

Also most Seabourn CC users have already done many days so do not have questions about the ships,And questions from new cruisers tend to be answered in the main forum.

I have also posted on the roll call thread and have seen no one on our upcoming cruise post yet. One person that that he/she was considering our voyage. We did find the SB passengers to be very friendly on our last voyage. I agree that few SB passengers even know about Cruise Critics. I stumbled upon it by accident.

We recently booked our first Seabourn cruise for this June and I was surprised that no one had started a roll call for it. Looking around I actually saw very few roll calls for upcoming cruises.

 

This makes me wonder about the atmosphere on these cruises. I am used to a pre-cruise excitement with shared plans for private excursions and general information. I like meeting people electronically prior to boarding. The lack of interest in the roll calls makes me wonder if luxury cruising also means lack of adventure.

 

We are in our late 60s and often are DIYers in port. We enjoy meeting new people as well as connecting with the crew. We love the itinerary and small ship, but will we be misfits? Is this a more sedate dignified crowd? Not that we are party animals, but we like to have fun.

 

This is not to disparage anyone. There are enough cruise lines to appeal to everyone. I’m just trying to see if we will be happy on Sojourn.

 

 

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Just got off the Odyssey. We booked our cruise about four months in advance. Shortly after booking our cruise, we had a passenger post a roll call which I responded to. It ended up that four couples signed up. Several were staying at the same pre-cruise hotel and we all met the very first day on the cruise. One lady arranged for a great private boat trip and all four couples, plus two others joined the sail. It was great fun and as this was our first Seabourn cruise, it really helped to make our cruise experience. We also met many interesting, friendly folks on the sailing. Why don't you start your own roll call? You never know who you will meet.

Just got off the Odyssey. We booked our cruise about four months in advance. Shortly after booking our cruise, we had a passenger post a roll call which I responded to. It ended up that four couples signed up. Several were staying at the same pre-cruise hotel and we all met the very first day on the cruise. One lady arranged for a great private boat trip and all four couples, plus two others joined the sail. It was great fun and as this was our first Seabourn cruise, it really helped to make our cruise experience. We also met many interesting, friendly folks on the sailing. Why don't you start your own roll call? You never know who you will meet.

I did on Dec 30, but so far no one has showed up.

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You’re still 6 mos out. You’ll get responses eventually.

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I have sailed Seabourne Carnival and HollandAmerica among others. I have been involved in roll calls on all of them. But Seabourne has the fewest participants. It is easy to understand why. When a ship has 3000 or 4000 passengers, you might get 50 cruise critic members to sign up. When you have 300 or 400 on the ship, you will get a lot less.

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I have sailed Seabourne Carnival and HollandAmerica among others. I have been involved in roll calls on all of them. But Seabourne has the fewest participants. It is easy to understand why. When a ship has 3000 or 4000 passengers, you might get 50 cruise critic members to sign up. When you have 300 or 400 on the ship, you will get a lot less.

 

 

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I do understand that. We normally sail on Rships that have 680 passengers and have had great participation many months out. I hope to see more interest in this itinerary as it gets closer.

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We are currently booked on a celebrity Alaska cruise departing July. The rollcall for this cruise is also very slow. Very few postings. No movement.

I heard somewhere that rollcall participation has moved over to Facebook groups, reducing Roll call postings on Cruise critic. I don’t Facebook, so ....well.

I’m sure you will enjoy your SB cruise!

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Very few Seabourn passengers have even heard of Cruise Critic. Plus SB is a relatively small cruise line.

It's a numbers game that means that the Roll Calls can tend to be quiet or even non-existent.

Just a bit more than a year ago SB's capacity was ca. 1300 pax across all three ships. Now with Encore it's approx 1900. (I know it will increase again with the launch of Ovation). It's far too early in the day for me to bother to launch calculator to provide exact figures, I'm sure someone else will come along who is happy to do so!

Compare this to cruise lines that have ships large enough to hold 1900 guests on just one of several ships, you can see why the Roll Calls are not so busy and why even this board is not so busy as other cruise lines.

 

Connecting with fellow guests onboard is unlikely to be a problem. I often cruise alone and find it very easy to make new friends, same when I travel with my partner. Interaction with the crew is easy and appreciated by crew members, plus officers are generally highly visible too.

I have recently cruised on Azamara, which has two small ships (soon to be three) and it had a very active, friendly roll call. I had assumed it was because it was a small ship. Maybe not, maybe it is the culture of that cruise line.

I have recently cruised on Azamara, which has two small ships (soon to be three) and it had a very active, friendly roll call. I had assumed it was because it was a small ship. Maybe not, maybe it is the culture of that cruise line.

I cannot explain how this evolved, but there is a very CC-friendly culture on Azamara. An extraordinarily high percentage of AZ passengers are aware of and participate in CC. At the Azamara CC Meet-and-Greet, the Cruise Director and sometimes captain show up to demonstrate support. In short, Azamara seems to fully embrace the Cruise Critic system, and even provides staff support on the CC Azamara forum. Her name is Bonnie, and she replies to many postings. I have never found this amount of CC support on any other line.

I cannot explain how this evolved, but there is a very CC-friendly culture on Azamara. An extraordinarily high percentage of AZ passengers are aware of and participate in CC. At the Azamara CC Meet-and-Greet, the Cruise Director and sometimes captain show up to demonstrate support. In short, Azamara seems to fully embrace the Cruise Critic system, and even provides staff support on the CC Azamara forum. Her name is Bonnie, and she replies to many postings. I have never found this amount of CC support on any other line.

Yes, Azamara Journey embraced the CC System on my cruise, with the Captain, Cruise Director and Senior Management attending the CC Meet and Greet. After our warm welcome, a mike was passed around for us all to introduce ourselves, so we could meet each other afterwards.

This was quite the opposite of other cruises, which I have been on, where we were advised to be discreet at the Meet and Greet about any private tours we had arranged through CC.

I recall mentioning CC to a (former) Seabourn Cruise Director and his reaction was far from complimentary.

Generally the roll calls and meet ups are pretty small on the Seabourn cruises I have taken. My feeling is that CC is not well known amongst the majority of Seabourn passengers.