Comments About the New River Cruise Format

[cruisingmimi]

Hi everyone,

 

I haven't posted on these river cruise threads in a while and noticed that changes have been made. I am of the opinion that all of you don't like the new format and prefer the old ones. I can appreciate that Laura/Cruise Critic want to improve the river cruise site but perhaps the old one worked just fine.

 

When I first started investigating river cruises a few years ago, I knew nothing about them so looked to these river cruise posts for guidance and information to help me make an informed decision about which itinerary, cruise line, etc. would best fit my needs. I liked the fact that I could go on the river cruise boards and do a search for specific info regarding what I was looking for, be it itinerary, cruise lines, etc. This gave me the ability to select the best option for booking a river cruise.

 

The only thing that I see now to look for information is the general discussion category. To find info on specific cruise lines (Viking, GCT, etc.) I still need to search those sub-categories to access that information. I am not sure that re-organizing the river cruise boards to the new format is the easiest and most user-friendly. I do think that having a Roll Call by cruise line is a good idea once a person has booked a cruise, just as it is on the other areas of the board. The river cruise category is a very small one compared to the other ocean cruise sections and was certainly very easy to navigate. Sometimes change can be a good thing but in this particular instance, I think that the older format was much easier to use.

 

I am also wondering why Grand Circle and Vantage do not have their own sub-categories such as those of Viking, AMA, etc. These two companies are large companies and many people book river cruises with them. I recently did a transatlantic cruise with Princess and discussed river cruises with many of my fellow passengers. A good majority of people booked with Grand Circle and Vantage so I do think that they should be included separately like Viking and the other companies. The smaller and more unknown companies are ok grouped together.

 

It would certainly behoove CC to listen to what people are saying about these boards. After all, we are the ones that are making referrals to our fellow cruisers about using the CC boards and making recommendations about cruise lines, river cruises, etc. CC would not be where they are today were it not for all of us. Thanks for listening.

[GiannaD]

Hi everyone,

 

I haven't posted on these river cruise threads in a while and noticed that changes have been made. I am of the opinion that all of you don't like the new format and prefer the old ones. I can appreciate that Laura/Cruise Critic want to improve the river cruise site but perhaps the old one worked just fine.

 

When I first started investigating river cruises a few years ago, I knew nothing about them so looked to these river cruise posts for guidance and information to help me make an informed decision about which itinerary, cruise line, etc. would best fit my needs. I liked the fact that I could go on the river cruise boards and do a search for specific info regarding what I was looking for, be it itinerary, cruise lines, etc. This gave me the ability to select the best option for booking a river cruise.

 

The only thing that I see now to look for information is the general discussion category. To find info on specific cruise lines (Viking, GCT, etc.) I still need to search those sub-categories to access that information. I am not sure that re-organizing the river cruise boards to the new format is the easiest and most user-friendly. I do think that having a Roll Call by cruise line is a good idea once a person has booked a cruise, just as it is on the other areas of the board. The river cruise category is a very small one compared to the other ocean cruise sections and was certainly very easy to navigate. Sometimes change can be a good thing but in this particular instance, I think that the older format was much easier to use.

 

I am also wondering why Grand Circle and Vantage do not have their own sub-categories such as those of Viking, AMA, etc. These two companies are large companies and many people book river cruises with them. I recently did a transatlantic cruise with Princess and discussed river cruises with many of my fellow passengers. A good majority of people booked with Grand Circle and Vantage so I do think that they should be included separately like Viking and the other companies. The smaller and more unknown companies are ok grouped together.

 

It would certainly behoove CC to listen to what people are saying about these boards. After all, we are the ones that are making referrals to our fellow cruisers about using the CC boards and making recommendations about cruise lines, river cruises, etc. CC would not be where they are today were it not for all of us. Thanks for listening.

 

 

I agree 100%. Please list Vantage and Grand Circle and set up a site for general questions. Thanks

[tommui987]

set up a site for general questions. Thanks

 

The problem with just a general question site might be the loss of needed information.

 

For instance, I am generally interested in perhaps a river trip between Paris and Prague.

Before CC changed the format, I looked at MVPinBoyton excellent photos and comments on his voyage. He took the trip on AMA. That reference would now be buried in the AMA section and not necessarily in the general question site.

 

I'm sure that such information might be found in the GCT, Viking, et al "specialized" sites and would require a tremendous amount of searching in each site - which may be off-putting to someone married to Avalon cruises.

 

If free exchange of comments, critiques, photos etc about voyages is the rationale behind Cruise Critic, a general site would be better.

 

One can always search in their favorite river cruise line for ship, housing, ambiance reviews.

[LHT28]

I agree 100%. Please list Vantage and Grand Circle and set up a site for general questions. Thanks

see how confusing it is :eek:

this IS the forum for General questions

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=782

[cruisingmimi]

To avoid any further confusion about these forums, perhaps my "Comments About the New River Cruise Format" thread should be moved to the other General Forum questions thread that has been started. Sorry if I got confused about where to post!

 

Mary

[cormike1]

send an e-mail to the cc moderators that look after the boards and voice you opinions about this new format. Maybe they will change it back. Let's hope so.

[slidergirl]

I just started investigating river cruising. The way the river forums are set up is totally counterproductive to anyone "browsing" to see if river cruising would be their thing.

Sometimes, people change things because they have the power to do so, not thinking of the general good. I believe this is what happened this time. I'll go elsewhere than CC to look for my info, as I have no desire to look at each individual sub-group for each cruiseline. It is just a waste of time and will not help in any comparisons between lines for the newbie.

[cruisingmimi]

slidergirl, nice comments and we are all in 100% agreement w/ you. Perhaps the powers to be are listening!

[DonfromNC]

People are very confused on where to post things. An example is the thread on Danube River Levels which should be in the general "Comments" section.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1500953

 

It has to do with a Luftner cruise, but is posted in the Viking forum.

 

I'll add my voice to those who enjoyed scrolling through all the river cruise information in one forum. I'm less inclined to scroll through all the individual forums so I'm likely to miss some interesting and informative topics.

 

I do like adding the "Roll Call" section for river cruises.

 

Don

[nordski]

After a couple of weeks trying the new format, I apprecate the effort made to divide posts by cruise lines as on the ocean-cruising boards, but it just doesn't work that well with so few posts. You end up having to check each cruise line to get any feel of activity on this board

 

I really liked the suggestion of keeping the General Discussion heading but dividing the other threads by geographical location, such as Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia as examples. I'm sure others have better suggestions.

 

Since the river cruise experience is so similar regardless of cruise line those headings would allow a critical mass of commentary to develop.

 

Thanks for those who made this suggestion earlier. I'm just resurrecting it to see if it appeals to the hosts on this board.

[Ozjohnno]

I hope the powers that be are satisfied. The radical changes made to the River Cruise Boards and the total lack of response to concerns of posters have successfully killed off what was once a busy and informative means of planning a river cruise. I once used this board to plan our river cruise adventure; many posters helped me in that planning and I thanked them all before we left and then posted a review upon return.

 

If I had to start today to do all of that I would not know where to start. The intransience of the CC moderators on this issue has offended me and by the lack of posts recently many other regular posters as well.

 

If anyone wants to know about our recent experiences and how we went about deciding on what cruise and company to use then may I suggest you email me at rodmky@optusnet.com.au as posting anything on this board now is likely to be missed by those you are enquiring from.

[BPCruiser]

I have posted previously my negative comments about the new changes in the river cruising forum and I have emailed Laura directly.

 

Maybe if enough of us email her directly how counter-productive this new format is some of the "powers to be" will wake up and realize they made a huge mistake by tampering with a great river cruise forum that was working quite well for those of us that used it.

 

I am all for changes that are beneficial but not all changes are good for the majority!:mad:

[cruisingmimi]

Wow, there is so little activity here on these river cruise boards now. THIS BOARD IS INDEED DEAD AND THEN SOME! What a shame! People have been able to accumulate so much info when planning their river cruise. I hope that those powers to be will consider modifying them again back to the old format for our research. I do think having the Roll Call set up is a good idea once you have organized your cruise. I am not sure that I will continue to use these river cruise boards as it is to confusing trying to use them.

 

I also have other sources that I use when doing research so will probably use them. I am looking for a river cruise for the spring so will look to other avenues. It's a shame what has happened here!

[LHT28]

I have posted previously my negative comments about the new changes in the river cruising forum and I have emailed Laura directly.

 

Maybe if enough of us email her directly how counter-productive this new format is some of the "powers to be" will wake up and realize they made a huge mistake by tampering with a great river cruise forum that was working quite well for those of us that used it.

 

I am all for changes that are beneficial but not all changes are good for the majority!:mad:

They are aware but still not willing to change back

 

I had asked a few times for the ROLL Call area for river cruises to be sorted at least by cruise company but the response was it was too much trouble basically

Did not seem too much trouble to mess up the regular forum :rolleyes:

[LauraS]

It isn't that we are unwilling at all.

 

What about this:

 

- Move posts about the lines into the General Discussion forum.

 

- Change the titles of the river lines to indicate they are now "ROLL CALLS"

[jacksonnh]

Hi Laura,

 

Moving the lines into the general discussion board would bring it back essentially to the way it was before the relocation, would it not?

 

Change river lines titles to "roll calls" - Would you then remove the title from the existing roll call forum?

[cb222]

Hi Laura,

 

That sounds good to me.

 

Is it possible for you to send a mass email to everyone who was on the River Cruise Forum to let them know it has been changed? I'm worried that people who left won't know about the changes.

cb

[sitraveler]

The problem with roll calls on the river cruises is that each voyage is only a couple of hundred passengers so the groups are very small.

 

Also so many of the excursions are part of the cruise that independent tours are few.

 

I still like the geographic grouping suggested by several other posters.

[LHT28]

It isn't that we are unwilling at all.

 

What about this:

 

- Move posts about the lines into the General Discussion forum.

Yes ..The way it was before

- Change the titles of the river lines to indicate they are now "ROLL CALLS"

Or move them to the Roll call area & continue to organize the ones in the roll call area by cruise company

Adding some of the other lines like Scenic, Vantage etc in the breakdown

makes more sense to organize the ROLL CALLS by company

 

Lyn

[Condocat]

For the River Cruise Category, have a General Discussion area which would be similar to before, removing all the names of the individual river cruise companies.

 

For the River Cruise Roll Call, have the names of the river cruise companies listed to help bettter orangize it.

[YoungDubFan]

Thanks for finally responding to all of the posts / comments about how much the members of this forum really DISLIKE the changes that you have made. I hope that you realize how much less active this section is with the changes. So many people got so fed up with the changes and then the complete lack of response from the powers that be that they have left the forum completely. What a shame to lose some of the more knowledgeable members.

 

From all of the comments, under all of the sections that I have read, I think a lot of those of us left would appreciate the suggestion of moving all of the threads under the general discussion section. This seems the closest to just doing away with the changes that you have implemented. I"m still not sure why you just can't revert the boards to the old format. If you are insisting on keeping some type of new format, please get rid of the individual sections for each company. So much of the discussion in this section is really applicable to more than one company. If someone is asking about two different companies to compare, the thread was only showing up in one section.

 

I think most are okay with the roll calls being divided by company. Please implement the corrections as soon as possible so that we don't lose any more members.

[cruisingmimi]

Hi Laura,

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to all the comments being posted here about the new river cruise formats. I have been a very active member of the CC boards for a long time and have always felt that these boards have been an invaluable source of information, be it ocean cruising or river crusing. Here is my input on what has happened.

 

When I first started trying to navigate the CC boards, I found them so very confusing. There was so much information there and trying to find the right place to search was indeed daunting. I consider myself to be a seasoned CC member. I have referred many many other people looking for info on cruising to these boards. I also participate in the TA forums and when I have seen a post pertaining to cruising on that board, I would take the time to do a post and suggest that they go to the CC boards as they had much more information on cruising than other boards. I would also give them a detailed description of how to access the boards. Many people would tell me that they found the boards to be very incriminating in how to access and navigate them. I would tell them that once they became familiar w/ the boards, they would find them to be invaluable in their search for information about cruising.

 

That said, here is how I feel about the new format. If I were going to look for info on a particular ocean or river cruise, I would go to CC and click open the website. I would then go to the "Boards" category at the top left and click that open. This is where it could be confusing for those not familiar w/ how to navigate the boards. Once you get to the Boards category, what next? I would scroll down to the cruise lines categories and look for the cruise line I was interested in. Having it organized by the alphabet makes it fairly easy to find the cruise line you are looking for. E.G. I am looking to book a Celebrity cruise, find Celebrity and open that. Voila, all sorts of info located there about cruising on Celebrity and people can post questions. I decide to book the Celebrity cruise I was interested in, go back to the boards, scroll down to the Roll Call, open the ship and find my date of cruising. Very simple process. I can then access the Roll Call and participate in the thread.

 

So why can't the river cruises be organized the same way? Very simple for people to ask questions, find info on river cruising, post questions, etc.

 

You could put another category for river cruises below the ocean cruise. You would probably not need to break it down by A-O, etc. as there are not that many river cruise companies out there. People can look for info on river cruise companies, itineraries, etc. and post general questions for discussion here.

 

Then go one step beyond and have Roll Calls for the cruise lines - AMA, Viking, GCT, Viking, etc. By now, people have become acclimated as to how the boards are organized and they can then go directly to the Roll Call section and post there, the same as for the rest of the CC boards. I don't think that it is that difficult to figure out the easiest and most accessible way to get river cruise info.

 

I think that organizing the river cruise section by these 2 categories would make it very simple for people to find and access the info they are looking for.

 

There is a deep sense of frustration about the new format and unless CC is willing to listen to those that are regular and frequent posters here, the river cruise category is going to go by the wayside and people will seek other avenues to find the information they are looking for.

 

I hope that you will take this in a constructive way and really think about re-organizing the river cruise section in a way that will be pleasing to all. Thanks so much.

 

Mary

[fred111]

Laura, you blew it when you fiddled with a good system. Your new formatting doesn't work and has set the river cruising discussion board back many years if viewed by the number of postings (other than complaints about the new formatting). Please don't compound the problem by coming up with "new" unwanted solutions -- just return to the old format, send and email to all old posters on the river cruising board, and don't unilaterally make changes without asking for advice from the people who use the board.

 

Thanks.

[nordski]

Well, it was an interesting experiment to reorganize the board and I do appreciate the re-assessment of the changes that will lead to some adjustments.

 

There were a number of interesting suggestions from users, suggestions I'm sure you'll consider. I like the idea of dividing the threads into geographical areas similar to those used by the cruise lines themselves but that may not be useful.

 

Regardless, thanks for all of your efforts in the past and whatever happens I'm certain this board will be a useful resource.

[CPT Trips]

It isn't that we are unwilling at all.

 

What about this:

 

- Move posts about the lines into the General Discussion forum.

 

- Change the titles of the river lines to indicate they are now "ROLL CALLS"

 

Laura, you blew it when you fiddled with a good system. Your new formatting doesn't work and has set the river cruising discussion board back many years if viewed by the number of postings (other than complaints about the new formatting). Please don't compound the problem by coming up with "new" unwanted solutions -- just return to the old format, send and email to all old posters on the river cruising board, and don't unilaterally make changes without asking for advice from the people who use the board.

 

Thanks.

 

Well said Fred! I must add that I suspect the "old," now inactive posters do drop in from time to time so a mass email probably isn't worth the effort (unless it keeps the mods away from "innovating").

 

I can't imagine that the number of roll calls with more than a single post (or one poster coming back to bump) could possibly justify the server space required.