Anyone ever used a "group" roll call?

[clojacks]

We are on a Silhouette sailing that includes Israel in Sept of 2017. Our CC roll call is incredibly small at this point (at least, that's the way it seems to me after being involved in one that was almost 100 pages long for South America). Our sailing is being group marketed as a Holy Lands Cruise by a special interest company. I'm trying to determine if our cruise is just extremely poorly sold through at this point, or if maybe there are a lot of cabins already booked by the special interest group, and they possibly maintain their own roll call? We like to join small excursion groups, and since this cruise also includes Naples and Athens, there are a few places we would like to do that. Any opinions or info?

[NCHPcruiser]

My guess is that many people simply haven't joined the Roll Call yet. We have been booked on a Baltic's cruise in July 2017 and while I have joined the RC I haven't started planning excursions, etc. Some people may have a cruise between now and then and are concentrating on the first one. We have a cruise in September and I didn't begin to think about excursions until February or March. Hopefully you will end up with an active Roll Call!

[DrivesLikeMario]

That is weird for your itinerary. Seems most people really plan far in advance for the more off-the-beaten path itineraries (compared to Caribbean for example).

 

I do think you'll get more traffic after New Year's. A lot of people don't book until later in the game. Hang in there and try to be patient. You might go ahead and book the private tours and then just add people to them as the roll call gets more busy. Otherwise, you risk losing out on the best private tour companies. Good luck!

[Goes Cruising]

I am on essentially the same itinerary this September, and it took forever before the roll call got busier, and even at that, it's nothing like some of the other roll calls I have been on.

 

There have been some pretty good prices advertised after final payment date, and I think the roll call is busier now that it has been for the almost 2 years I've been on it.

 

Many of us have completed all of our planning months ago but the newcomers are scrambling to find spots in existing tours.

[jelayne]

We are on a Silhouette sailing that includes Israel in Sept of 2017. Our CC roll call is incredibly small at this point (at least, that's the way it seems to me after being involved in one that was almost 100 pages long for South America). Our sailing is being group marketed as a Holy Lands Cruise by a special interest company. I'm trying to determine if our cruise is just extremely poorly sold through at this point, or if maybe there are a lot of cabins already booked by the special interest group, and they possibly maintain their own roll call? We like to join small excursion groups, and since this cruise also includes Naples and Athens, there are a few places we would like to do that. Any opinions or info?

 

Possibly the special interest company is marketing a package that may include pre/post hotel, air and some excursions so folks may be less inclined to be on CC. It could be that their is a group FB page set up by the company for folks that booked tge cruise.

Edited August 17, 2016 by jelayne

[cruisin lady ca]

We are on a Silhouette sailing that includes Israel in Sept of 2017. Our CC roll call is incredibly small at this point (at least, that's the way it seems to me after being involved in one that was almost 100 pages long for South America). Our sailing is being group marketed as a Holy Lands Cruise by a special interest company. I'm trying to determine if our cruise is just extremely poorly sold through at this point, or if maybe there are a lot of cabins already booked by the special interest group, and they possibly maintain their own roll call? We like to join small excursion groups, and since this cruise also includes Naples and Athens, there are a few places we would like to do that. Any opinions or info?

 

We are on Reflection this September. Our roll call is small (under 50 members) but pretty active. We began working on excursions in earnest about 6 months before our departure date and have booked small group/shared tours with members of our roll call.

 

We are booked with PK Travel for a full day tour in Athens and with Mondo Guide Shared Tours for Rick Steves for a full day tour of Pompeii, Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. The best part of using these tour companies is that each of us signed up to join the group on our own so that price per person was fixed and the group could vary in size so long as the minimum group size was met. Our groups grew throughout the past two months and I'm under the impression that all of the excursions have filled up.

[Gracie115]

We were on a cruise with a similar itinerary in 2011, we booked it the day it became available almost 18 months ahead of sail date. The roll call remained mostly dead until about 6 months out then took off....I just think you're too early at this point. Enjoy your trip...Israel for us (and we had 3 1/2 days there because they cancelled our stop in Egypt) was the most amazing time we have ever had on ANY trip......