Holland America Bringing O’s Reading Room Fleetwide

[SetAnOpenCourse]

I think the "cult of personality " mentioned a little earlier, or something like it, is a force behind the Oprah deal. Maybe cruise lines were just getting their feet wet with the celebrity chefs. Oprah was probably seen as a safe choice, although since the deal's planning stage, more people may have started associating her with politics.

 

Of course there are going to be idiotic statements to be found somewhere on the internet. That goes for any topic or public personality. Those of us who don't want such marketing as part of our vacation do not need to defend ourselves against insinuations that associate us with the worst comments found on the internet.

 

As for myself, on a cruise I want to "get away from it all". That means the marketing of personalities. The Oprah deal is simply a bad sign, and I'm glad for all civil pushback.

[OlsSalt]

Glad you cancelled you obviously have issues with how HAL is being run. I find some of the comments on Facebook appalling especially the one women who over and over again keeps pointing out that HALs president is African American. The whole thread over there sounds like it was written by trailer park residents.

 

I never saw such singular posts in the FB page I was reading. Were they taken off? Everyone needs to read this FB page for themselves instead of passing on second hand versions of it. Insert any other polarizing personality in place of Oprah, and it would generate the same reaction. Ivanka Trump's Favorite Things. Meryl Streep's Book Club. Bill Cosby's Fitness Center and Spa.

 

C'mon HAL don't make your politically partisan commercial marketing so blatent. Get back into the hospitality cruise and travel industry. Hospitality means you don't go out of your way to offend at least half of your customer base. Now that Oprah is toying with running for President of the United States of America, will you make her pay to tear down all her self-marketing signs now plastered on HAL ships?

[sail7seas]

Wow, those Facebook comments are something else. I wonder why the older generation is so opposed to diversity and change? I don’t think Oprah is the racist one here...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Pllease don't lump all in the 'oldergneration' as of one mind. We are Not anymore than millenials or Gen X are of one mind. We 'older folks' deserve the same distinction.

[idiebabe]

SetAnOpenCourse , OlsSalt and Sail! (y)(y)(y)

[OlsSalt]

Wow, those Facebook comments are something else. I wonder why the older generation is so opposed to diversity and change? I don’t think Oprah is the racist one here...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Huh. Why are you being so ageist?

[Cruise Junky]

I never saw such singular posts in the FB page I was reading. Were they taken off? Everyone needs to read this FB page for themselves instead of passing on second hand versions of it. Insert any other polarizing personality in place of Oprah, and it would generate the same reaction. Ivanka Trump's Favorite Things. Meryl Streep's Book Club. Bill Cosby's Fitness Center and Spa.

 

 

Oprah has had a very successful bookclub following since 1996. Lumping her in the same category as Bill Cosby shows more about your lack of character than hers. She has probably had the most successful bookclub ever. If HAL wanted to start a book club, she would be the obvious partner.

[OlsSalt]

Oprah has had a very successful bookclub following since 1996. Lumping her in the same category as Bill Cosby shows more about your lack of character than hers. She has probably had the most successful bookclub ever. If HAL wanted to start a book club, she would be the obvious partner.

 

No. Oprah got lumped with equal opportunity personality exploiters. Not sure what criteria you are using for a "successful book club ever" or why that is even relevant to this wholesale Oprah Lifestyle Marketing now running rampant on HAL ships, fleet wide. I always assumed reading Mad Magazine was the "most successful book club ever".

 

Our biggest issues are with the extinction of the former libraries and crows nest, which led to the cancellation of a long Westerdam cruise. The Oprah theme saturation on the rest of the ships is like putting up with bad wall paper and carpeting choices. Those fall generically into the what were they thinking category, but are not material to our own dissatisfaction with the trend of the HAL hardscape changes.

[OlsSalt]

HAL President Ashford states: HAL passengers are "very energetic readers".

 

HAL President Ashford concludes: The Oprah Winfrey Book Club will be an immediate hit on all HAL ships. Plus we will take away all the former Library space and put in a few cubicles of "curated" books of little general reading interest, but devoted to specific destinations for people who have probably already done their destination research before they chose the cruise in the first place.

 

CEO management decision grade: F

[Cruise Junky]

HAL President Ashford states: HAL has very energetic readers.

HAL President Ashford concludes: The Oprah Winfrey Book Club will be an immediate hit on all HAL ships.

 

CEO management grade: F

 

Are you basing the F on a few disgruntled Facebook posters and some of the old guard here? That's funny. Thankfully the rest of the world aren't as small minded.

[OlsSalt]

Are you basing the F on a few disgruntled Facebook posters and some of the old guard here? That's funny. Thankfully the rest of the world aren't as small minded.

 

I am basing the F grade on the management decision that recognized HAL passengers are "energetic readers" and then chose to knee-cap them with these ridiculous and alienating "library" changes. I don't mind if HAL has to make changes due to a hard analysis of its bottom line, but don't make changes that are destructive to its current core of passengers and then claim they will love these changes.

 

Just be more honest. HAL passengers understand corporate pressures. It is too bad CCL uses only consolidated financial statements so we never know what is the fiscal health of each of its cruise line partners. Is HAL losing money for CLL, or making more than its fair share for CLL.

 

But when HAL says their customers are "energetic readers" and then guts the libraries and tosses out crumbs as recompense, something sounds fishy. Is this clear?

[SetAnOpenCourse]

Are you basing the F on a few disgruntled Facebook posters and some of the old guard here? That's funny. Thankfully the rest of the world aren't as small minded.

 

You seem to connect various thoughts somewhat recklessly.

[OlsSalt]

You seem to connect various thoughts somewhat recklessly.

 

Agree, there is an undercurrent to some of the responses that is reading far more into what others post this than what is on the table. They need to come clean about their own agenda.

[Cruise Junky]

Agree, there is an undercurrent to some of the responses that is reading far more into what others post this than what is on the table. They need to come clean about their own agenda.

I don't have an agenda. I'm Canadian. What's going on in the US is not my circus and not my monkey's. I do however think a lot more people are reading things into a Book Club that aren't there.

 

On that note, this thread is so far off track it's not funny. I'm unsubscribing so you can keep squabbling amongst yourselves.

[cbr663]

Does anyone else see the irony of posters blasting HAL's marketing efforts by proclaiming that they want to get away from it all apparently have no problem with HAL's other marketing efforts? From the responses that some would like us to believe, it is as if they have never seen other brands on HAL's ships. America's Test Kitchen, BB Kings, Coca-Cola, Elemis, Greenhouse Spas, Polo, Billboard, Double R Ranch, Microsoft, Lincoln Center Stage, BBC Earth, Celebrity Chefs....

 

It is blatantly clear that some posters are displaying their intolerance for a different political view point. As this reflects on them and not HAL, I am sure that it will have no impact on HAL's decision whatsoever.

[OlsSalt]

Does anyone else see the irony of posters blasting HAL's marketing efforts by proclaiming that they want to get away from it all apparently have no problem with HAL's other marketing efforts? From the responses that some would like us to believe, it is as if they have never seen other brands on HAL's ships. America's Test Kitchen, BB Kings, Coca-Cola, Elemis, Greenhouse Spas, Polo, Billboard, Double R Ranch, Microsoft, Lincoln Center Stage, BBC Earth, Celebrity Chefs....

 

It is blatantly clear that some posters are displaying their intolerance for a different political view point. As this reflects on them and not HAL, I am sure that it will have no impact on HAL's decision whatsoever.

 

You nailed it. Some posters are intolerant when partisan and personal political viewpoints are shoved in their faces during their chosen vacation time. What is partisan and personality driven about your other abstract marketing examples?

 

It is bad enough we have only the highly partisan and political NYT as the HAL sponsored US daily news source. And MAC users have no use for the Microsoft workshops. The Oprah thing, the Library relocation and the Crows Nest destruction was finally collectively a bridge too far for many of us. I am surprised they have not yet discontinued the FOX news channel for in-cabin viewing.

[cruisemom42]

Oprah has had a very successful bookclub following since 1996. Lumping her in the same category as Bill Cosby shows more about your lack of character than hers. She has probably had the most successful bookclub ever. If HAL wanted to start a book club, she would be the obvious partner.

 

No. Oprah got lumped with equal opportunity personality exploiters. Not sure what criteria you are using for a "successful book club ever" or why that is even relevant to this wholesale Oprah Lifestyle Marketing now running rampant on HAL ships, fleet wide.

 

Our biggest issues are with the extinction of the former libraries and crows nest, which led to the cancellation of a long Westerdam cruise. The Oprah theme saturation on the rest of the ships is like putting up with bad wall paper and carpeting choices. Those fall generically into the what were they thinking category, but are not material to our own dissatisfaction with the trend of the HAL hardscape changes.

 

I would have to say Oprah's book club is certainly the most successful I've heard of. Can you name a more successful one?

 

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/oprah-launches-influential-book-club

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-12-26/news/0912240401_1_book-club-jonathan-franzen-book-s-sales

 

(to list just a few...)

 

And although I know you are unhappy about the libraries and the Crow's Nest, this thread IS supposed to be about "Holland America Bringing O's Reading Room Fleetwide".... as per the title.

[cruisemom42]

It is bad enough we have only the highly partisan and political NYT as the HAL sponsored US daily news source. And MAC users have no use for the Microsoft workshops. The Oprah thing, the Library relocation and the Crows Nest destruction was finally collectively a bridge too far for many of us. I am surprised they have not yet discontinued the FOX news channel for in-cabin viewing.

 

 

....and I see that you are completely nonpartisan. :')

[totheworld]

Oprah's Book Club was the most successful book club in that she drove sales of books to stratospheric levels. Now that she no longer has her show, sales are still strong enough to the point that most authors would want his/her book to be an Oprah selection. The sales indicate she appeals to a broad segment of the public (though clearly not to all the posters here) and so from a marketing perspective, an association with Oprah is more mass market than niche and a book club makes sense given her brand.

 

Also, she has confirmed she will not be running for President.

[OlsSalt]

I ...........

 

And although I know you are unhappy about the libraries and the Crow's Nest, this thread IS supposed to be about "Holland America Bringing O's Reading Room Fleetwide".... as per the title.

 

No, the thread is about the OP's first comment tying the Oprah book club to the loss of HAL ship libraries. And so it is.

[taxmantoo]

Never has so much been said about so little ;p As I said in an earlier post, last month on the Koningsdam only 5 or 7 passengers (not guests :rolleyes:) attended these sessions.

[OlsSalt]

Oprah's Book Club was the most successful book club in that she drove sales of books to stratospheric levels. Now that she no longer has her show, sales are still strong enough to the point that most authors would want his/her book to be an Oprah selection. The sales indicate she appeals to a broad segment of the public (though clearly not to all the posters here) and so from a marketing perspective, an association with Oprah is more mass market than niche and a book club makes sense given her brand.

 

Also, she has confirmed she will not be running for President.

 

Let's have Harry Potter themed ships, or has Disney cornered the market for "literary themed" cruising. How do former book sales equate with the imposition of a personally chosen single title book clubs, onboard shop choices and an entire onboard lifestyle program?. The first Oprah book club choice is already highly controversial because it treats abortion as a positive alternative. Do we need that agenda imposed on us in lieu of more free choice reading titles?

 

Bridges of Madison County dominated book sales too - and was pure drivel, and a badly written celebration of infidelity. Same with the Da Vinci Code - huge sales, good romp of a read but should that direct the total saturation of a cruise ship theme.

 

Why did HAL decide they needed to go there in order to drive its bottom line. That is the curiosity. Oprah from last reports was waiting for a message from God to help her make her final decision whether she will run for President in 2020 or not - pays to read widely to keep up on her latest self-promoting shenanigans.

[3rdGenCunarder]

No, the thread is about the OP's first comment tying the Oprah book club to the loss of HAL ship libraries. And so it is.

 

It is ironic that we have the intersection of three things:

 

1. Libraries are being removed as crows nest renovations are done.

2. HAL recognizes that many of their passengers are "fanatical readers."

3. A book club featuring one book and what sounds like only two sessions is supposed to excite the "fanatical readers."

 

Did HAL intend the book club to replace the library? Probably not, but the timing makes it feel that way.

[sail7seas]

IMO, HAL has been setting a very bad course for several years and they need a new compass..........

 

The "Admial" of this fleet seems to have no clue who his customers are and what we want/ like. Hope he does not run a ship aground.

[albingirl]

So you would dislike something, sight unseen, just because someone you dislike might have recommended it? A thousand pardons, but isn't it better to make up your own mind than engage in knee-jerk reactions?

 

You would no doubt not be interested in such universally recognized classics on her list as:

 

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

East of Eden (Steinbeck)

The Good Earth (Buck)

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (McCullers)

The Sound and the Fury & As I Lay Dying (Faulkner)

Great Expectations & A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)

 

Or these acclaimed contemporary classics:

 

One Hundred Years of Solitude (Garcia *******)

The Poisonwood Bible (Kingsolver)

Daughter of Fortune (Allende)

 

Not to mention that I suspect many readers may have already read (and hopefully liked) books by authors on her list including Maeve Binchy, Ken Follett, Anita Shreve, Elizabeth Berg, Joyce Carol Oates, and more....

Agree. I forgot that she did pick some good ones. I was thinking of all of the downright depressing books she's liked. About poverty and so forth. But, makes the world go round, I guess. I would really like it if Holland America didn't promote her so much. I think, for the most part, we are interested in a library. A good library. Plain and simple. However, I'm more interested in loading up my kindle when I travel, I confess.

[OlsSalt]

....and I see that you are completely nonpartisan. :')

 

Discontinuing FOX could be viewed as partisan. What is your point. I personally don't watch FOX "infotainment" and only reluctantly read the HAL daily printed NYT scandal sheet, because I am an "energetic reader". Again, stick to what is said, and not what you read into what is said.