Roll Calls, obsolete?

[Russell21]

Just looked up the roll call for our trip in November and the same 2 people have registered, us and another pair from WA.

Now yesterday I looked up the vacancies for the ship and there was only a handfull. This to me says that Roll Calls are a waste of time even bothering to register.

[OzKiwiJJ]

Just looked up the roll call for our trip in November and the same 2 people have registered, us and another pair from WA.

Now yesterday I looked up the vacancies for the ship and there was only a handfull. This to me says that Roll Calls are a waste of time even bothering to register.

 

There was very little interest for our recent cruise, but our Christmas cruise roll call is a bit more active.

[Dizziedi]

Just looked up the roll call for our trip in November and the same 2 people have registered, us and another pair from WA.

Now yesterday I looked up the vacancies for the ship and there was only a handfull. This to me says that Roll Calls are a waste of time even bothering to register.

 

No, not at all. Some cruises attract massive roll calls. A lot seems to depend on where your cruise is going. If you are doing a Repositioning cruise, Transpacific, or what is known as a "popular" cruise, you will find the Roll Calls are very busy. I started a Roll Call for the NYE cruise on the Radiance - ridiculously quiet. We have two Diamond Princess cruises - not much action. We are on the Explorer to Seattle in April - ridiculously busy. Roll Calls for cruises out of the USA are nearly always busy. You have to remember that a lot of Australians are still relatively new to cruising and haven't yet found Cruise Critic. It is amazing how many people you meet on board that have never heard of it but if you give them a bit of information, they sign up.

 

I remember a cruise we did years ago with RMKW who organised a CC meeting in the Night Club on the Dawn Princess. A couple walked in and thought we were "Cruise Critics" and walked out in disgust thinking that we hadn't given the cruise a chance as it was only Day 2.:)

 

Don't give up on joining or starting Roll Calls on future cruises and enjoy your upcoming one.

 

Cheers

Di

[Kiwi Kruzer]

I think they still have a place for longer and "exotic" cruising .

With the shorter Milk runs to destinations that are well known to passengers , they just want to do their own thing.

[GUT2407]

I'm not sure why some take off and others have little activity.

[kaseyoz]

Also there are now other places to chat and share information

[Lea.B]

I must admit, I'd never even heard of this website until recently. I really only found it accidentally when googling different cruises and reviews. You also need to spend time on Cruise Critic to learn about the website, not everyone can be bothered. A few of the different cruise companies have Facebook pages and you can join their upcoming events/cruises, but even those don't seem to get a lot of interest. They can be a good source of information though.

[bpurton74]

I do wonder if it is a cultural thing as much as the destination. As Dizziedi says the ones out the the US seem much busier than those out of local ports.

 

As a case in point we are on the Radiance for NYE but I have not joined Dizziedi roll call yet. Why? 'cos no one else has. I better go fix that....

[PerfectlyPerth]

I find that Americans tend to be big users of CC roll calls while Aussies and Brits tend to head over to the Facebook roll call pages where there is far more interaction. The pages are generally started by the cruise company and are linked from the company or ships own page.

[Fletch1]

I think it is the luck of the draw. I have also found that some cruiselines tend to be more popular than others. Princess I have found are much more active than other cruise lines we have sailed on. Could be due to Princess being more American frequented overseas???

 

But definitely the ones out of the US are more active.

[The_Big_M]

I agree with Dizziedi. The holiday sailings (Christmas/New year) seem to be generally much quieter. I'm currently on one and it's pretty dead - and not the first time either.

 

I think a few factors come into play. For those celebrating, they're aboard to enjoy the time of year and not so worried about researching. Also, as mentioned above when they go to the usual local ports so many are familiar with them now so don't have a lot of reason to discuss from that side.

 

But other roll calls that are infrequent itineraries without so many locals e.g. Alaska, Panama Canal will often tend to be more busy I expect.

[Brisbanelionsfan]

We are leaving this Saturday on Golden Princess from San Francisco to Sydney and our roll call has been very active from day one over a year ago. We have 200 plus registered for the meet and greet and a lot of talk about the ports of call. About a third of the people are Americans and from speaking with them have noticed they are all very experienced cruisers and have been on CC for ages.

We have a number of things organised, M&G (2), lunches, cabin crawl etc.

It's 28 days on the ship so a few organised things will be great.

I have joined the roll call on all my cruisers and this is the largest.

Cheers

[Brisbanelionsfan]

Should have said 2/3 Americans.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

We are leaving this Saturday on Golden Princess from San Francisco to Sydney and our roll call has been very active from day one over a year ago. We have 200 plus registered for the meet and greet and a lot of talk about the ports of call. About a third of the people are Americans and from speaking with them have noticed they are all very experienced cruisers and have been on CC for ages.

We have a number of things organised, M&G (2), lunches, cabin crawl etc.

It's 28 days on the ship so a few organised things will be great.

I have joined the roll call on all my cruisers and this is the largest.

Cheers

 

Sounds like you are in for a great time. Another great thing about meeting people on the Roll Call is that you get to say Hello to folk as you move around the ship.

[Kinkacruiser]

I think they still have a place for longer and "exotic" cruising .

With the shorter Milk runs to destinations that are well known to passengers , they just want to do their own thing.

 

You're spot on David. Cruises with easy DIY shore excursion options don't attract many cruisers. The best I've been involved with was the 28 day 2011 South American, the 35 day 2012 to Hawaii & Tahiti cruise and the 21 day 2013 Sydney to China cruise. There was lots of excursion planning there.

Edited September 16, 2015 by Kinkacruiser

[Kinkacruiser]

We are leaving this Saturday on Golden Princess from San Francisco to Sydney and our roll call has been very active from day one over a year ago. We have 200 plus registered for the meet and greet and a lot of talk about the ports of call. About a third of the people are Americans and from speaking with them have noticed they are all very experienced cruisers and have been on CC for ages.

We have a number of things organised, M&G (2), lunches, cabin crawl etc.

It's 28 days on the ship so a few organised things will be great.

I have joined the roll call on all my cruisers and this is the largest.

Cheers

 

The Americans are big on roll calls and enthusiastic about planning shore itineraries.

Hope you have a great cruise.

[macntosh]

I agree with Dizziedi. The holiday sailings (Christmas/New year) seem to be generally much quieter. I'm currently on one and it's pretty dead - and not the first time either.

 

 

I can only agree that the Christmas rollcalls are certainly lifeless.

 

Our rollcall on Pacific Eden for Christmas (Syd to QLD) is very lonely when you are the only one that appears to be travelling... :)

[linanles]

I think more Americans are aware of this website hence the bigger numbers for cruises out of the US or relocation cruises.

Aussies, spread the word among your cruising friends and add a "Dislike" to the FB Roll Calls.

I don't have an FB account. Do they organise M&Gs?

[awesome girl]

I have been amazed at the number of people w have on the RC for our

upcoming pacific cruise on the Diamond, never seen it before and we

have done quite a few 14 night Pacific cruises.:D:D

I don't do FB either, not interested.:)

[The_Big_M]

I can only agree that the Christmas rollcalls are certainly lifeless.

 

Our rollcall on Pacific Eden for Christmas (Syd to QLD) is very lonely when you are the only one that appears to be travelling... :)

 

Yet P&O just mentioned 4 million members. Where are they all? (Yes I know, Facebook! ;-) )

[lyndarra]

I agree with Dizziedi. The holiday sailings (Christmas/New year) seem to be generally much quieter. I'm currently on one and it's pretty dead - and not the first time either.

 

I think a few factors come into play. For those celebrating, they're aboard to enjoy the time of year and not so worried about researching. Also, as mentioned above when they go to the usual local ports so many are familiar with them now so don't have a lot of reason to discuss from that side.

 

But other roll calls that are infrequent itineraries without so many locals e.g. Alaska, Panama Canal will often tend to be more busy I expect.

 

We cruised both Panama (X Infinity) and Alaska (X Millenium) this year. The roll call for Panama was very active whereas the roll call for Alaska was quite dead, comparatively. The Alaska roll call didn't go near meeting the required number for the onboard meet and greet. To Celebrity's credit they still went ahead with it even though only 8 cruisers fronted up. Our impression was that there were many first timers on the Alaska cruise compared to Panama. We would ask people if they were registered on Cruise Critic and most said they were not.

We have found the roll call very useful in getting information on ports we've never visited and for organizing private tours.

One tip I would give is if you are travelling with a group, get them all onto the roll call if they aren't already.

[Brisbanelionsfan]

The Americans are big on roll calls and enthusiastic about planning shore itineraries.

Hope you have a great cruise.

 

Thanks, we have been looking forward to this cruise for a long time!

We are in Telluride in Colorado and fly to San Francisco tomorrow. :)

[sun-set]

Just looked up the roll call for our trip in November and the same 2 people have registered, us and another pair from WA.

Now yesterday I looked up the vacancies for the ship and there was only a handfull. This to me says that Roll Calls are a waste of time even bothering to register.

 

That roll call you mentioned has just increased its number by 50%.

:)

[Pushka]

Our Med cruise was very busy. Too busy actually as lots of latecomers asking the same questions repeatedly and it all got a bit confusing. Our Alaska cruise next year is quiet. We were on a frantically busy roll call for QM2 on the first navigation of Australia a couple of years ago.

 

What I am not into are the dress ups for sailaway, cabin crawls, and gift bags!

Edited October 1, 2015 by Pushka

[Gaznjo]

I think they still have a place for longer and "exotic" cruising .

With the shorter Milk runs to destinations that are well known to passengers , they just want to do their own thing.

 

I would have to say on all of our long cruises we have had a really big roll call... our current roll call for our 2016 has over 100 people who will be boarding in Sydney.... mainly Aussies... followed by the Kiwi's and a smattering of Americans.

 

We had a great pre cruise get together last weekend ...