Why don't people join in discussions on the Connections Board?

[judyfssw]

We're sailing the Infinity to Alaska on July 25th. I've tried to get a conversation started several times, but only one person has responded. Is it possible that the ship is chartered? or a group booked it and they are not aware of the CC boards? There are also only 7 people signed up for the CC party so that means no get together. I'm puzzled. Anybody with an answer.

Judy
Summit, Alaska - 7/22/05 - [img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=00ffff&cdt=2005;7;22;17;45;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]
Constellation, Southern Caribbean - 2/19/05 - [img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=00ffff&cdt=2005;2;19;23;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]
Infinity, Alaska - 7/25/04 -[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=00ffff&cdt=2004;7;25;17;00;00&timezone=PMT-0545[/img]
2/21/04 - Constellation, Southern Caribbean - Another incredibly wonderful cruise
2/22/03 - Constellation (Just a wonderful, wonderful cruise)
2/22/99 - Mercury
Monarch of the Sea

[Guest]

Judy ~ anything is possible. You can ask your TA to find out if there is a large group booked on the ship. That's something good to know regardless of your Cruise Critic party.

Sometimes, for no explanable reason, some of the roll calls don't take off. I can't give you a real answer why some are so active and others aren't. It's ashame because it is so much fun to get together "before" the cruise.

If you don't reach 25 for a "formal" Cruise Critic Party, plan you own (I used to do that before Celebrity started doing it for us). Pick a location and time those of you who have been conversing can agree upon and have your own little get together. You'll be glad you did. If you need any help with it, let me know.

Have a wonderful cruise!

~Host Anne
[email]aygoyer@one.net[/email]

[mazza]

Hi Judy

I'm have the same experience. I started a thread for our 23 July Summit Alaska cruise from Seward, and two people have responded, and we've got a conversation going, but we are all relatively new cruisers. It would be got to be able to have a virtual conversation with folks who have cruised before as well. Since some of the roll calls get hundreds and hundreds of responses though, it makes me wonder whether there might be some sort of secret sign you need to know to get a response [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] We have 19 people for our CC party, so we are getting close!

If you're leaving on 25 July, maybe we can wave to each other if the ships pass? [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Maree

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=800000&cdt=2004;07;23;21;00;00&timezone=GMT-0800[/img]
Until Summit 23 July 2004



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<a href="http://www.escati.com/counter98/free_time_codes.htm">
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[Nancyquilts]

Perhaps another reason is that the search isn't working, and it would take too long to plow through all the listings. Nancy

[Lois R]

Hi Judy[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] 2 out of my 3 cruises only had a few people on the Roll Call...we did what Anne suggested and met on our own anyway....
When we sailed on The Mercury in March our small group ended up being absolutely FANTASTIC [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img].
We never reached 25 on here to have "an official party"..but that was ok....
Our group had a blast together throughout the entire week.

Now, I am going in September and we have 16 signed up and only about 6 or 8 of us are keeping the current roll call going...we are big talkers though [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]we have 15 pages already!
Hoping others will join us but I have learned alot since my first cruise (thankfully Anne helped me ALOT)...some roll calls get 100's of people while others stay small....no rhyme or reason about it [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Next up...HORIZON Sept 18th to Bermuda!

See My Century and Mercury Pictures at:
[url="http://community.webshots.com/user/lovescruising"]http://community.webshots.com/user/lovescruising[/url]

[lv2cruz80]

Hi Judy!
Different spot for us!

The last time we cruised on Celebrity was before they had the official parties. There were a group of us (maybe 10-12) that would chat before-hand and we just all agreed to meet up at the Schooner Bar the evening of the first full day. We had a great time, even though it wasn't sponsored by Celebrity.

And speaking of no one joining in on a thread, is anyone else going to join us on the 2/19/05 cruise on the Constellation?

Julie

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=ff0000&cdt=2005;2;19;23;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]
Until the Constellation!

Oceanic - Bahamas/Disney 2/1988
Sovereign of the Seas - Bahamas - 2/2000
Infinity - Southern Caribbean 2/2002
Grandeur of the Seas - Western Caribbean 2/2004

[Seabee]

It may be because that particular Forum stays in a state of perpetual confusion! I just went over to post again to our Roll Call, and once again found that the order of posts is totally screwed up! It seems that whatever the problems are with Info-Poop are exagerated on the Roll Call Forum. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]

******************************************************
With Compassion for others we build...we fight for peace and freedom

[nealberk]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Seabee:
It may be because that particular Forum stays in a state of perpetual confusion! I just went over to post again to our Roll Call, and once again found that the order of posts is totally screwed up! It seems that whatever the problems are with Info-Poop are exagerated on the Roll Call Forum. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]

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With Compassion for others we build...we fight for peace and freedom<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Be patient, hopefully all these problems will be solved with the new board.

As much as I hate to say it, have you tried posting on other boards, if only to get other people to sign up here at CC?

[trcori]

Cross-marketing is missing, for one -- I don't have the e-mail handy, but I don't recall a cross-plug to "make sure you start or join a roll-call discussion on Cruise Critic 'Connections'" in the e-mail confirming that we'd signed up for the party ... And it really is rough to wade through that board unless you go daily. I know our hosts and CC management and so forth already do a heroic job but I wonder if there is a way to further refine this board -- at least break it down by ship -- kind of the way the Ports of Call area is broken down -- so Summit roll-calls would all be in one area, Infinity in another, etc. I suppose you could go even farther and separate it by month -- July 2004 Infinity, July 2004 Summit, etc. -- IF there was a way to automate that, wow, what a great tool it would be. But I worked in dot-comsville and I remember how turbulent things could get when you tried to make big changes to the "back end" ...

TR
Millennium 12/12/04
****
Mercury 4/04, Infinity 8/03, Century 3/03 & 9/02

[goouchjac]

Hi, having the same problem with my posting on 1/7/05 Summit,,,last Dec. our roll call was so active and so great, don't what's up with this one,,,having second thoughts about this cruise, maybe it's chartered or some big group going on board,,,have to check with my ta to find out...

[nctxmix]

Same here on my Cruise that starts Saturday (Century June 12, Eastern Caribbean). I've had 2 threads started, one was answered by 2 people and the other started about 2 weeks ago, no response. WE have 16 signed up for the CC, and 11 of those are family that's traveling with us. Oh well, I'm still excited. Fly out to FLL in 3 days. We'll start the party going.

[mmp13]

I really think the biggest issue is that nobody can find the roll calls right now. If they get the search feature running when the new boards come up I bet there will be a lot more response. The only way I can find the roll call for our galaxy cruise is because I bookmarked it. otherwise I would not have the patience to scroll through the roll call board searching for it! We have very few people on ours as well. I'm sure not all these cruises have large groups on them. On our last cruise our roll call was quite active but at that time you could find them easily with the search feature. it really did work at one time[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Peg
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2004 Celebrity Galaxy 10/8/04
2003 Carnival Legend 10/4/03
2002 Celebrity Galaxy 9/20/02
1977 Southward/skyward
1976 Song of Norway
1975 Leonardo Davinci
1974 frederico C
1973 Doric
1972 Homeric
1971 Homeric
1970 queen anna maria

[katalyst61]

Please be patient...when i started a roll call in february (for may sailing), found only 1 person...in march, tried again and found that same person! my new friend tried again in april, had a slow trickle of fellow passengers come on board! but by beginning of may had still only found about 10 people (our sailing was for 5/22). But i'll tell ya,those 10 people were great! we agreed to have our own get together whether we reached 25 or not. well, lo and behold 2 weeks before sailing we reached our 25!!! (actually had 32 on day we sailed.) Only half of which even posted to the roll call. I met everyone at the cc party onboard but still couldn't understand why some signed up for the party but never posted to the roll call thread. Funny thing was, the original posters were the ones who ended up partying together and having a blast! We even re-arranged our dinner seating so we could sit together! So plan your own get together if you can't get 25, and enjoy the few fellow passengers you manage to connect with. Chances are they're the ones you'll have the most fun with anyway!

Celebrity Century...5/22/04

[KSTAZMAN]

We sailed on Carnival 2 years ago. As we know there is no party for CC`ers over there.We had a group of 30 people by the time we hit sailaway.I would say that starting the night before til the last night we had 6 or 8 different get togethers where all of us were there.And many more where one couple would just meet in the hallways with another and we would have a great time for the evening.So hang in.Even without the incentive of a party CC`ers will make for a great time.You don`t need alot of them either.

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=191970&cdt=2004;9;18;16;30;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]

September Centurian

Century Sept 18 2004

2338 Posts B.C.(Before Change)

[judyfssw]

Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I'm sure that the one other person and I will meet and enjoy at least a drink together. In any case, I will have a great cruise. How can one help enjoy a cruise on a Celebrity ship.

Judy
Summit, Alaska - 7/22/05 - [img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=00ffff&cdt=2005;7;22;17;45;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]
Constellation, Southern Caribbean - 2/19/05 - [img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=00ffff&cdt=2005;2;19;23;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]
Infinity, Alaska - 7/25/04 -[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=00ffff&cdt=2004;7;25;17;00;00&timezone=PMT-0545[/img]
2/21/04 - Constellation, Southern Caribbean - Another incredibly wonderful cruise
2/22/03 - Constellation (Just a wonderful, wonderful cruise)
2/22/99 - Mercury
Monarch of the Sea

[Brahmama]

Hey Judy,
Thought I'd add my 2 cents. It's WEIRD! We are going on 2 cruises in Aug and Sept and this is the 5th time we have been involved with CruiseCritics trying to make connections. One of them NEVER got off the ground - just some guys from Austin and us waved in the halls and had a drink together. But the next two were fabulous. We've become friends (even visiting across the country) with 3 couples and are sailing again with them.

Which brings us to this year! 166 have signed on one board, and that's too many (imho). I have made a little contact with 2 couples - but haven't been able to work out much in the way of port tours etc. and that's too bad because you can save a lot of money and have a better tour. Noone seems to respond to email!

The other cruise we have 32 - but only 2 post except for the ones that sign up and post then but never again. I have some great port tours - but am not making contact with the people. I like to email ahead of time and kind of get a feel for people that I'm going to tour with.

So, I think that advice someone gave in a previous reply is right on. Just enjoy whoever you are making contact with - I think that people who are rude (not answering email or not responding to questions) are going to be losers in person too! You'll have a great cruise and meet nice people! If you think about it, the people on the Boards are just a small percentage of the total that sail.

Carol