Boo-hoo Why are Roll Calls not popular?

[clcmdse]

We are new to river cruising (as my many earlier posts can attest) but we are not new to ocean cruising or to joining roll calls on CC to meet fellow travelers ahead of time. Yes, mostly to create DIY private excursions when in ports, but it was also fun to "know" folks before we boarded.

 

I must confess I am missing having a roll call. Are river cruise roll calls not popular because excursions are built in so there is no need for them? Or perhaps because the boat is small and we will get to know most people once on board? Would love to know.

 

Catherine

 

PS, we will be on Uniworld's Budapest to Prague in July. We will be the definite newbies! Looking forward to meeting other CCers who are on that cruise.

[WisRiver]

I think there is little interest in Roll Calls for river cruises for several reasons. First, river cruises have much smaller passenger loads. On our Viking River cruises in May, there were 190 and l84 passengers on each leg, a much smaller group than cruise ships. Second, there is no need for meet and greets. With a daily briefing in the evening before dinner and non assigned seating at all meals, there is ample opportunities to socialize with fellow passengers. Finally, not everyone is a Cruise Critic user. On ocean cruises I occasionally hear a discussion of Cruise Critic. Cruise Critic never came up in our 21 day trip from Bucharest to Amsterdam.

[krillsister]

I think it is more of any issue of the boat being small. We love river cruising and end up meeting most of the people in board for that reason. Hope you enjoy your cruise.

[Peregrina651]

I miss it, too, but the truth of the matter is that the riverboats are just to small to support roll calls, especially when there are no tour shares or "Meet and Mingle" as an added incentive to participate.

 

But mostly, I think, it is simply a matter of CC's small market penetration. On an ocean cruise, on average, you get less than 5% of cabins participating in Cruise Critic and its roll calls and probably closer to 2%. On a ship with 1000 cabins, that is only 50 cabins (yes, some roll calls do twice or thrice that, but we are just talking averages). On a riverboat with 100 cabins, you are looking at 5 cabins and because there aren't the same tour sharing opportunities on an itinerary that offers included tours, you are probably looking at an average of under 2% participation--which is you and one other cabin.

 

Roll call loving CCers have found a way around the low participation for river cruises and have taken to creating roll calls by year and itinerary. It isn't the same as an ocean roll call but at least you have a better change of having someone to chat with.

[wheezedr]

Simply do the math. On an ocean cruise with 2500 passengers maybe 60 to 70 on average will show up on CC in a roll call. So that is roughly 2%. If you extrapolate that to a river cruise with 150 to 190 passengers then 3 or 4 passengers which represent 2 cabins might be on CC. That is why you see grouped roll calls such as all Viking 2018 for a particular itinerary. On my Amsterdam to Budapest 14 day there was one other person on the roll call. I recognized him at lunch the first day because his T-shirt was for the Bosox and we had compared baseball teams pre cruise. I have not seen your other posts regarding river cruising but I hope you are aware of the fact that comparing river to Ocean cruising is really an apples to oranges affair. The primary thing they have in common is that they both occur on water and take place in a ship. We enjoyed river cruising, although DW much prefers the ocean but you need to approach it with a different set of expectations.

[clcmdse]

Thank you all for the math angle. Had not considered that! Makes perfect sense.

 

Catherine

[Hoyaheel]

There isn't anyone on my 450 pax upcoming Alaska cruise, so I would never expect a river cruise to have other ccers. Though ironically, mine did - but we didn't know until after the fact ;-)

[CaroleLee]

We are new to river cruising (as my many earlier posts can attest) but we are not new to ocean cruising or to joining roll calls on CC to meet fellow travelers ahead of time. Yes, mostly to create DIY private excursions when in ports, but it was also fun to "know" folks before we boarded.

 

I must confess I am missing having a roll call. Are river cruise roll calls not popular because excursions are built in so there is no need for them? Or perhaps because the boat is small and we will get to know most people once on board? Would love to know.

 

Catherine

 

PS, we will be on Uniworld's Budapest to Prague in July. We will be the definite newbies! Looking forward to meeting other CCers who are on that cruise.

Hi,

It might be that river cruisers are unaware of CC & roll calls. On 2 prior river cruises none of the pax I spoke with had ever heard of CC. Several totally relied on their TA to do all the research ,booking etc.

Have booked AMA for June 2019 and do not see anyone on roll call for our sailing.

CArole

[Peregrina651]

Hi,

It might be that river cruisers are unaware of CC & roll calls. On 2 prior river cruises none of the pax I spoke with had ever heard of CC. Several totally relied on their TA to do all the research ,booking etc.

Have booked AMA for June 2019 and do not see anyone on roll call for our sailing.

CArole

 

Most ocean cruisers are also unaware of Cruise Critic, as well. The size of river roll calls is in line with the stats--just a few percent of all pax participate

 

However, be careful what you wish for. If 50% of ocean cruisers knew about Cruise Critic and even half of those people participated in roll calls, there would be hundreds of people on each roll call. Meet and Mingle/Meet and Greet events would be impossible.

[Lois R]

There isn't anyone on my 450 pax upcoming Alaska cruise, so I would never expect a river cruise to have other ccers. Though ironically, mine did - but we didn't know until after the fact ;-)

 

My roll call has nobody on it either......my ship is about 400 pax.. Oh well. I always end up meeting people on board anyway.:D

[Peregrina651]

Simply do the math. On an ocean cruise with 2500 passengers maybe 60 to 70 on average will show up on CC in a roll call. So that is roughly 2%. If you extrapolate that to a river cruise with 150 to 190 passengers then 3 or 4 passengers which represent 2 cabins might be on CC. That is why you see grouped roll calls such as all Viking 2018 for a particular itinerary. On my Amsterdam to Budapest 14 day there was one other person on the roll call. I recognized him at lunch the first day because his T-shirt was for the Bosox and we had compared baseball teams pre cruise. I have not seen your other posts regarding river cruising but I hope you are aware of the fact that comparing river to Ocean cruising is really an apples to oranges affair. The primary thing they have in common is that they both occur on water and take place in a ship. We enjoyed river cruising, although DW much prefers the ocean but you need to approach it with a different set of expectations.

 

JINX!!! :evilsmile: We were both typing the same post at the same time! :evilsmile: Well, up to a point because I'm not much of a sports nuts.

 

I hope you had your team shirt on as well so that he could find you!

[Peregrina651]

There isn't anyone on my 450 pax upcoming Alaska cruise, so I would never expect a river cruise to have other ccers. Though ironically, mine did - but we didn't know until after the fact ;-)

 

There is still time. I am amazed at the number of people who start coming out of the woodwork once they get their docs. I'm one of those who books a cruise and then immediately goes looking for the roll call and starts one if needed (and then sits there wondering where everybody is).

[Coli]

Uniworld are wonderful. You don’t need a roll call, honestly you get to know people quickly. Have an amazing trip.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[mskaufman]

We are on a River Cruise this summer and understand the math so did not expect people from our sailing on the roll call. However, it is a single roll call for everyone on the same itinerary (probably sails 2 - 4 times a week) so I had hoped that there would be more people comparing notes.

[clcmdse]

Uniworld are wonderful. You don’t need a roll call, honestly you get to know people quickly. Have an amazing trip.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Thank you! We have done a lot of research and are very excited for this trip based on all the terrific feedback.

 

Catherine