The perfect reviews. What do YOU look for?

[HappyCruiser383]

When you are reading a cruise review, what are you hoping to see? :confused:

 

Are there pictures you never see but wish somebody would take some?

 

My favorite parts are port details. I love it when people go into detail about the ports.

 

What are YOU looking for?

 

Arleen

[MrsPete]

I like to know the ages /make up of the group. I know that I'm more likely to "agree with" groups who are similar to my own family; for example, when I had small children, I was interested in knowing what worked well for other families with small children.

 

I do not care to hear about your trip through the airport or the restaurant where you dined the night before boarding. That has nothing to do with the cruise. I am interested in your night-before hotel only if the review is on the thread dealing with night-before hotels.

 

I'm very interested in details about your stateroom. Though at this point I have opinions on what I like and don't like, every one of us has to make this decision every time we book, and it's nice to see information on specific rooms.

 

I like hearing about food and activities you enjoyed on board, and I like hearing about what you did in ports. I don't care about reading generalities: "The food was awesome!" Instead, I'd like to hear details, for example: "We enjoyed the food in the MDR, especially ____ and ___. We didn't care much for the bread -- it was just ordinary stuff like you'd buy at the deli at home -- good but nothing special, so we saved the calories for dessert. Cheesecake and Tirimisu were wonderful, and the no-sugar desserts were a pleasant surprise -- sometimes better than their full-sugar counterparts." Details matter! I may not end up agreeing with every word you say, but seeing that you've thought it out and elaborated on "it was awesome" makes me think you're a reasonable, thoughtful person and I can trust your opinions.

 

I'm interested in tips about how to make your check-in, boarding, or other details easier.

 

And photographs are always appreciated!

[sjb317]

I like the reviews that are short enough to be all in one posting, or at least all posted consecutively. I get tired & lose interest in the ones posted in installments as it is irritating wading through all the comments trying to find the next installment.

 

Sherri:)

[oneputt18]

I don't like "live from" reviews, too long and drawn out.

[Desert Cruizers]

I enjoy seeing photos of the ports visited, crew members who made their trip memorable, I generally skip past the food photos although some look quite yummy and I think about trying some. Enjoy reading where they stayed with photos incase we might like to stay there and the pre travel photos.

[ryano]

I don't like "live from" reviews, too long and drawn out.

 

I dont consider those threads reviews myself :) I appreciate the time and effort a few put into those while on their vacation. I am always too busy having fun to even use the internet myself.

[onthewater51]

Completely agree with your response, but want to add one thing...

REASONABLE Expectaions...some folks nit-pic the minutia..those reviews I ignore...its vacation, enjoy it.

 

 

I like to know the ages /make up of the group. I know that I'm more likely to "agree with" groups who are similar to my own family; for example, when I had small children, I was interested in knowing what worked well for other families with small children.

 

I do not care to hear about your trip through the airport or the restaurant where you dined the night before boarding. That has nothing to do with the cruise. I am interested in your night-before hotel only if the review is on the thread dealing with night-before hotels.

 

I'm very interested in details about your stateroom. Though at this point I have opinions on what I like and don't like, every one of us has to make this decision every time we book, and it's nice to see information on specific rooms.

 

I like hearing about food and activities you enjoyed on board, and I like hearing about what you did in ports. I don't care about reading generalities: "The food was awesome!" Instead, I'd like to hear details, for example: "We enjoyed the food in the MDR, especially ____ and ___. We didn't care much for the bread -- it was just ordinary stuff like you'd buy at the deli at home -- good but nothing special, so we saved the calories for dessert. Cheesecake and Tirimisu were wonderful, and the no-sugar desserts were a pleasant surprise -- sometimes better than their full-sugar counterparts." Details matter! I may not end up agreeing with every word you say, but seeing that you've thought it out and elaborated on "it was awesome" makes me think you're a reasonable, thoughtful person and I can trust your opinions.

 

I'm interested in tips about how to make your check-in, boarding, or other details easier.

 

And photographs are always appreciated!

[luvscruising2007]

I love reviews that include photos.

I want to hear about the ports visited and the excursions taken.

I like to hear both positive and negative comments.

One thing that really bugs me is when the reviewer says the food was not good but they don't say what was wrong.

Not necessary but helpful is why a particular cruise was selected. And I do like to hear about the pre-cruise hotel and experience.

I enjoy most reviews. But, I read one on the review section recently that basically said we enjoyed everything on the ship but nothing about the ports. Not a good review in my opinion.

[Rufferto]

I like reviews where things are quantified as much as possible. For example, take the phrase “we waited in line for a long time”. How long is long? 10 minutes? 20 minutes? An hour?

I feel it is more helpful to say “we waited in line for 20 minutes, which felt like a long time”. The reader can then decide if a 20 minute wait is worth it or not.

[Zigggypup]

Generally, I like to see consistency in the reviews. I've read reviews from people on the same sailing, but after reading the reviews you would think that they were on different ships.

 

Opinions are so subjective that in the overall grand scheme of things I don't give them much credence. I rather just experience it myself and come up with my own opinion.

 

Most of the time I don't bother reading what the poster wrote, but rather just enjoy the pictures that are attached.

[MarilynTX]

I love ship and port pictures.

 

I really don't like pictures of food. I want to know if the steak was tough or the chicken was dry. I want to know if a specific restaurant in port or on the ship was good or bad.

 

I want to know if the service was slow at a certain time.

 

I want to know which areas of the port to avoid and which areas are good.

 

I want tips about places or things on the ship or in port that aren't well known.

[dpmfloyd]

i really like photos, but photos that have substance. tilted images, out of focus images, people using flash to capture something 50 feet away -- i'll stop reading your review immediately if your photos are garbage.

 

but, a photo-less review - i really like when people set up the arrival. leaving home, getting to the airport, leaving the airport - it makes me feel like i'm really part of the trip. excursion and port reviews are a guilty pleasure too.

[Dawniepoo]

I like reviews with pictures. I can look at 50 different pics of the same lounge and I usually see something I missed before. Unlike others, I like hearing about what they did before their cruise, like where they ate and where they stayed. I think I like feeling the anticipation vicariously :o.

[Aquahound]

 

What are YOU looking for?

 

 

Since everyone writes reviews from their own perspective, I look for the writer to have similar interests as mine, such as excursion, entertainment or food likes. Also, if I'm considering another line, I look for reviews made by others who made comparisons to lines I know well, such as RCI and Celebrity.

[Zhane's mum]

I like the poster to use a different font so I can easily scroll to their entries and lots of photos

[subtchr]

I love (good) photos and logical organization - it could be chronological, or by topic, or some other way to present the information that makes sense.

 

If it is presented in LONG paragraphs, I find that very difficult to read and usually don't even try.

 

I have written several illustrated reviews here on CC, and I use them for myself to remember some wonderful trips. I figure if they help anyone else in his or her planning, all the better. For our most recent cruise, I created a blog, to make it easier to access the information. Then I shared the link here.

 

I simply enjoy reading about others' experiences, and I take whatever information I find that will help us plan our own trips. To me that is the best part of being a CC member!

[A&L_Ont]

Having just completed a review I would state the following. I don't like the cruise review that takes weeks for the OP to complete.

 

I typed all of my review in Word prior to starting to post, broke it out into sections, and photos already chosen and loaded them into Photobucket. I actually started posting my review mid-afternoon and posted the final part of the review that night.

 

I like the live reviews, but would never do one myself. As for the reviews that post photos of 3 days prior to embarking, seats of the airplane, what was eaten the night before at the hotel etc... I do not care much about that. If it describes a unique aspect or a funny story it is worthy, but if it just banter and doesn't reflect upon the cruise I skim right past it.

 

It is a lot of work either way you choose to do it, but when you return and real life starts up again a cruise review very easily slides to the background. If you start one, please finish it. IMHO under a weeks time word be great, as things at home do need to be done too.;)

[Travel R]

A great thread and great timing since I am in the midst of writing my own review of my recent cruise (see my signature below for link).

 

So far, I think I am doing what half of the above posters would like in a review, and doing the opposite of the other half (kind of like the opinions on formal night, tipping, smuggling booze, etc.). But some good ideas, like writing the review in a different font to make it easier to find (although I do not know if it is too late for me).

 

As far as taking a long length of time to post a review, I am GUILTY. If anyone has read the posts for my review so far, they are fairly detailed and take time to write. I also have a family and gainfully employed, which takes a lot of time out of my writing schedule. For those of you that are following my reviews - sorry for the wait, but doing the best I can.

 

I happen to enjoy the pre-cruise write-ups. It provides familiarity with the writer and his/her party, and provides the basis for the cruise itself. [Which is why I made sure to include it in my review]

 

Although I like pictures on reviews, I have found that it is very time consuming to do so - to find the right pictures, to upload them to a hosting site, then adding them to CC. In my own review, I am adding pictures, but even at the snail pace at which I am writing the reviews, the posting of pictures is still trailing behind.

 

But as a current review writer, I am appreciating all of your feedback on what you would like to see in reviews, and I support further suggestions to help myself and other reviewers.

[jules815]

I don't like "live from" reviews, too long and drawn out.

 

I'm not too crazy about them either. Although I do appreciate people taking the time to do them while on their vacation.

 

I really like the reviews with ship tour photos! I can't get enough of looking at all the different areas of the ship, especially cabin and balcony photos. I especially like looking at the video ship tours that people have posted on youtube. Although I think I've seen just about all of them now, especially the ones for FOS! People need to get busy and post more--I don't sail until May!

[bigque]

I actually like all the review, especially with pictures. I can read the same reviews about the same ship from different peoplse perspctive all the time as multiple review give a more balanced view of what it could actually be like on that particular ship and cruise. I will follow the review if it is done in one day or several days as I know from doing a review that everybody can sit down and put it all together at one time be it in Word first or right in the thread itself. If it is several days I save the last page I read in my favorites and just follow along whenever it starts up again. I also like the hotel reviews and the restaurant reviews pre cruise also as the more of those I see could give me an idea on if I want to stay at that hotel or dine at that restaurant or not, however I'm not big on the food pictures because that will not influence me on what I am going to eat or not eat.

The type of reviews I am not really keen on reading are the reviews by one time posters who post that "EVERYTHING" the entire week of the cruise was bad and then throw in one little positive tidbid at the end to say something like "but the bartender at the skybar was very attentive and nice!. Also the reviews that give every minute by minute detail from home to cruise to back home such as "We loaded the Car at 3:30am and then took the cat my mother in laws house and after ahving a cup of coffeeand chatting with her we started out on interstate 95..........!"

[Kenlorz]

DETAILS! Details...sprinkled with humor :D.

The reviews that were absolutely invaluable to me when I was planning our last cruise were those that contained unbiased and specific data... Menus (invaluable in choosing where you want to dine), Photos (food porn, venues, cabins, ports, etc.), Cruise Compasses (because then I can get an idea of what things I would have done at that particular time), excursion details (where did it pick up, when did it drop off, what was included in the price, etc.). Opinions are subjective, facts stand alone. I like my steak still mooing, my sister likes it resembling shoe leather... our opinions on a steak house will vary accordingly. So, I enjoy reading people's opinions and WHY the liked or didn't like certain things, but I want that to be the side dish to the main course... the main course being good hard detailed FACTS.

[Mycraft]

I don't like reviews about bad food...if your steak is dry simply tell your waiter and get a new one...and if you expect high class meals on a ship...you're in a wrong place...it's mass tourism...

 

Also don't write too much...make it simple and readable...

 

Cabin Photos and Photos in general...good Idea...always write down where is the picture taken...

 

Port stories also very welcome...

[EpcotBill]

I like to see paragraphs and occasional photographs.

[Rick-n-Lisa]

I like the live reviews but it takes too long to read them because everyone comments "Thanks for the report" or "Hope you're having fun" or "What night is formal night" it seems like 100 times.:D

 

I have no problem with people doing so and understand and appreciate why they do but I wish there was a way to select if one chooses to read only the posts from the OP in these types of reviews.

 

Don't get me wrong folks! There are always some good questions asked and answered and that is what Cruise Critic is all about, its just there are times when I just want to get to the meat of the matter. :p

 

As far as the other reviews most of them are good info and good reads unless they are completely negative about every aspect. Love the pictures and I also like a little background on the cruisers to put the review in perspective.

 

And if people wrote and posted their reviews all at once we might have all got to read all of FWAcruisers review before it got pulled. :D

[cruisegirl1]

Good question - I never gave it much thought. The variety of “I like…” or I “I don’t like…” shows all the varied interests. I never understood why reviews would have pre crusie info in them and frankly skipped over that section. But, recently I wrote a review on the CC member reviews section and that pre-cruise type of info is suggested.

 

 

I will read those that seem to apply to my ship or sailing situation (ie kids/ no kids whatever).

m