Lessons Learned as a Roll Call Organizer

[skurvish]

I don't know where else to post this so I am posting it here.

 

On a recent 22 day cruise I traveled with a group of 28 friends. We booked the cruise all together. I had been involved in CC Roll Calls before so did quite a bit of research on what shore excursions I wanted to do. I started this planning more than a year ahead of time. When I found an excursion I wanted I put it out to my group to see who else wanted to participate. My plan was to top-up with CC people to fill vans as required. Over time it became much more complicated than that. I learned a lot in the process and decided to share this learning here for others who find themselves in the same position.

 

The topics below may or may not be in any organized order. I am trying to get down all my thoughts before I forget them. I will try and reorganize before posting but it may still jump around.

 

First, if you are not familiar with what a Roll Call is you should head over to the Roll Call section of Cruise Critic and read up. This is an invaluable place for you in helping you plan your cruise. 

 

Second, this job is not for the faint of heart. It was a lot of work, and I mean a lot of work. Would I do it again? Yes, but with some modifications which I will discuss below.

 

The Roll Call Spread Sheet

I have been involved in many roll calls and most did not use a spreadsheet. Those roll calls were filled with postings asking if space was still available on various excursions, yes there was email me, missed your email, no all full, maybe, I am waiting to hear from someone, and on and on. All this noise makes reading through the roll call excruciating for people who come to it after it has been going for a while. So much so that some people will not even bother trying to wade through it all and will simply post looking for any space availability in various ports and this then adds to the noise level.

 

I came across the use of a google docs spreadsheet a few years ago on another cruise I was on. What a blessing as it almost completely eliminated this noise and reduced the clutter on the roll call to a minimum making it much easier to read. The spreadsheet is set up with multiple tabs, one for a list of participants (names, handles, email addresses, hotels etc), the itinerary, a tab for each port, and a pre and post cruise tab. On these pre/post and port tabs, roll call members can list the excursions they plan to book, how many empty spaces there are, and room for roll call members to sign up. Participants can now see in an instant what excursions have been organized and where there is space for them to join. When a member starts an excursion they should post all the details (description, numbers, pricing, how to pay, etc.) on the Roll Call itself, and point people to the spreadsheet to sign up. Once the excursion is full it should be marked as such on the spreadsheet. I think you can see how much noise this would eliminate on the roll call itself.

 

I created a spreadsheet template with setup instructions and posted it on CC for anyone to use. You can access the posting here:

Filling the Bus

As I stated above, I was part of a group of 28 people. This is not a good number when it comes to booking excursions because in most cases you want to split up into multiple vans; 16 or less. Many tour operators can get a bigger bus to handle the entire group but then you might as well just use the ships excursions (not considering costs). One of the values of private excursions is the smaller numbers. 

 

The problem was complicated when not everyone in my group of 28 wanted to do the same thing. So in some ports I found more than one excursion choice. Depending on how many people wanted each excursion I would need to go to the roll call in search of a few extra to fill the vans to get the pricing we needed. So I would add the excursion to the spreadsheet, show how many seats I already had and how many I needed. I then posted the details on the roll call and advised people what they needed to do to book (deposits etc). This process worked very well and given that I started it a year before the actual cruise those people who jumped on the roll call early got early access to all this availability.

 

The Trap I Fell Into

So, as time went on, new people signed up to the Roll Call and found that many of the existing shared excursions were full. Some people went off in search of other suppliers and created their own excursions on the spreadsheet. Others though asked me if I could contact the suppliers I had already booked and ask if they had another van they could put on. Seemed an easy enough question to ask. However, as more vans got assigned it seemed I became the lead person for those excursions as well by virtue of having the relationship with the supplier. This is where a lot of the extra work came in. At the end of the day I believe it helped things run smoother on the day of the tour but it did add a lot of extra work. I would have to think carefully about doing this again and it would probably depend on how many ports there were.

 

The Effect of Time

Having started this process a year in advance many things can change by the time the ship pulls out of port. Some people who came to the roll call early and signed up for excursions will cancel the cruise for one reason or another. As the excursion organizer I needed to make sure their names got taken off the roll call. Not everyone who cancelled bothered to do this. Then there are the excursions they had booked. If by cancelling this opened up space then this needed to be filled. If there was a waiting list these people needed to be contacted to see if they still wanted the excursion. If no waiting list then post back to the roll call that there is now space. It can be further complicated if these people had made deposits. Work, work, work.

 

For some suppliers it is necessary to lock in numbers and pay by a certain date. For example, let's say the van can hold 12 and the pricing is a fixed amount per van, say $600. At the cutoff date you have 8 people and they agree to split the costs at $75 per person. Later another 4 people ask if they can join the tour. Split 12 ways the cost would be $50pp. That is a big savings for the original 8 so yes, please join us. What if the $600 has already been prepaid by the 8? They need to be reimbursed for the amount they have now overpaid. I had a number of cases where this happened, most were transfers to/from the port, airport or hotels, but there were a couple of excursions as well. One easy way is to have one person of the original 8 collect the $200 from the new 4 people and distribute $25 to each of the original 8. Another way to handle it is described below in handling money.

 

Excursion Availability

The spreadsheet does a great job of showing what space is available on the various excursions. It can however get overwhelming to people who join the roll call in the few weeks or months before the sailing. I found that as we got closer to sailing, posting a summary on the roll call of what excursions still had space available made it easier for the newbies to see quickly what was available and to grab it while they could. I started posting this weekly starting 2 months out and then every few days as we got closer to sailing.

 

Handling Money and Participant Lists

This is a something you may or may not wish to do. It is also possible some people won't want to participate. This is also a lot of work in preparation and managing so consider carefully if you want to do this. But I have to tell you this one thing saved us considerable time and basically eliminated no-shows.

 

As the sailing date grew closer I (well my wife did actually) created an excel spreadsheet listing everyone that had signed up for one of our excursions. This list included their names, email addresses and stateroom numbers. She then created a tab for each excursion and listed each participant/couple with their stateroom and amount owing or due (see The Effect of Time discussion above) and who the money was owed to. She then created a summary tab listing each person/couple down the left-hand side, each excursion/transfer along the top, and the amount owed or due at each intersect if there was any. At the far right all the values were summed by person/couple showing the total amount outstanding or due. At the bottom each excursion was summed and these totals were checked against the individual tour tabs and should match. This was a great way to make sure everything was covered. This summary tab was copied onto a tab of the roll call spreadsheet for everyone to review and make sure they agreed with. Many people thanked us for this as it gave them a better handle on what moneys were outstanding.

 

At the Roll Call Meet and Greet (see that section below) we collected the outstanding amounts from each participant. As each paid, they and my wife initialed beside the balances. Also, confirm their stateroom number as we had a number of people who took last minute upgrades or moves and we were unable to reach them with important excursion information. I was actually quite amazed when 60+ people handed over what amounted to more than $18,000 USD. Not one person objected or was concerned we would run away with the money. Thankfully we are pretty trustworthy people and I think over the months of roll call participation people came to trust us. We were a little nervous though as we headed back to our stateroom to lock this cash up in our safe. 

 

Doing it this way served a number of useful purposes. It allowed us to simplify the issue of monies owed back to people as a result of changes/additions as discussed above in The Effect of Time. These amounts were all factored into the per person/couple balance. It allowed us to create separate envelopes (make sure you bring these with you, I suggest using the larger 5x8 envelopes) for each tour and put the amount owing in each envelope. We had pre-labeled these prior to leaving. Having already payed we had no no-shows on the day of the tour, or if we did we already had their money and the tour operator wasn't out of pocket. Providing the tour operator with a single envelope with all outstanding money significantly reduced the time required to get going on the tour. Please triple check the amounts in each envelope by at least 2 people, there were a number that were wrong even after counting twice.

 

You will need to bring a fair amount of small bills with you to make change. As you start collecting though you will probably find you have an overwhelming number of 10's and 20's. Head to the guest services desk on the ship and they will happily exchange these for larger bills as they are often in need of smaller bills to exchange for other guests. Most tour operators will prefer to receive large denominations, $50's & $100's. Also make sure they are not ripped or written on as some countries will not accept them that way.

 

Having a participant list for each tour served a number of useful purposes. It provided a call list (make sure you have correct stateroom numbers) if you needed to call everyone for meeting time and place or any changes. It provided a checklist to ensure that everyone was where they were supposed to be and if anyone was missing you had the stateroom number to call. It was useful to match up with the list of the tour operator.

 

Tenders

Tenders are the worse nightmare of tour operators. All tour operators want you on the earliest tenders possible. Since many tours cannot leave until all guests have gotten ashore it is imperative that as a group you all get off together as soon as possible. Each cruise line handles tenders differently. On a recent Celebrity cruise I was able to get in line for tender tickets early and get as many tickets as I needed. I traded off this duty with others so it was not necessary for me to be waiting in line at 6:30am each day.

 

On my most recent 22 day trip on the Holland America Zaandam I went to guest services on day 2 which happened to be an at sea day. I had with me all of my participant lists and a summary of total participants for each day we were touring. I asked guest services if there was a way we could help them help us with tenders and docked disembarkation. Guest services wrote down the number of pax for each tender port and told me I would receive a call. Later that day I received a call from someone in guest services that asked how early we wanted to get off, to which I answered as early as possible. She then advised that I should collect my group in a specific location by a specific time and someone would come and get us. For example, we were due into port at 8:00am. We were to be ready by 7:30. At 7:50 someone came and got us and took us down to the first guest tender. This was even before the arrival announcement. This process happened for each tender port. Thank you Holland America. I can of course not claim any other cruise line or even other HAL ships will do the same but it is worth asking.

 

It is important to note that in all cases I had 30+ people. One day I had 60. Make sure you confirm your number with guest services each day so they know exactly how many. This is a large enough number for the cruise line to want to handle separately. I would not expect such treatment if I had only 8 or 10 people. 

 

I found I had to stop at guest services the afternoon before the tender port to confirm the meeting time & location.

 

You will need to call every stateroom the day/night before to advise them of when and where. Make sure they check their message waiting lights each evening. I found it easier to do this at a time I expected most would not be in their rooms so I could just leave a message. If they answered I found they often wanted to chat and it took much longer so you can image how long it took to call 16 or more cabins. In all the tenders ports I had only one occasion where someone was not where they were supposed to be and it turned out it was because they had not advised me of a cabin number change. Use your participant lists to check off names as they arrive at the meeting place. Once everyone is there advise guest services. This lets them know you are ready, and helps remind them you are waiting. When they come to take you to the tenders have a specific person in the lead and a specific person at the tail so you know when everyone is off. Check your lists again when you get to the tour operator so you can advise them when everyone is there.

 

Docked Excursions

Docked ports are a lot easier to manage than tender ports, but they should still be handled similarly. Decide on a meeting place and time on the ship. Guest Services can often suggest a good spot. Call everyone the afternoon or evening beforehand with this information. Use your checklists to ensure everyone is there. When they are, everyone should go together. Have a lead and a tail person so you know when everyone is off. Use your checklists again with the tour operator.

 

Caution - Tour Operator Outside Bookings

Some tour operators will take individual bookings from your ship outside of your group. They may not be able to start the tour until everyone is there. We had one case where we had 45 people off on the first tender and ready to go only to have to wait for almost an hour for 4 more people to get a tender on their own. If this is the case (check with the tour operator) ask the tour operator for the names of those extra people and call them and ask them to join you with your group for disembarkation (docked or tendered). Make note of the names and staterooms on your participant lists so you can check them off when they arrive. This will help get the tour going on time. These outside people may still have to deal with payments.

 

Dealing with Cancellations

People get sick on ships; it is a fact of cruising. When this happens they may wish to cancel out of one or more excursions. I made it very clear beforehand that once the money was collected there were no refunds unless the tour operator agreed. There were a few cases where I was able to find someone else to fill a spot here and there but there were also cases where I was not. Some tour operators were OK with the no-show and I was able to reimburse, others were not. This did of course involve extra work on my part but no-one was unhappy with me if they did not get their money back.

 

Cruise Critic Meet & Greet

Most cruise lines will help you set up a Meet & Greet for Cruise Critic Roll Call members. Each cruise line handles this differently and sometimes gives them a different name. Celebrity call is a Connections Party. If you go to the high level Roll Call section on Cruise Critic for the cruise line you are using, you should find a link to details on how to set one of these up. If you don't see a link then check the general forum for the cruise line. 

 

Appoint/Ask one person of your roll call to coordinate the Meet & Greet with the cruise line. You don't have to do all the work yourself. try and impress upon everyone on the roll call that they should attend. in this way they will get a chance to meet everyone, especially you, and you can start to collect all the money if you have decided to go this route.

 

One thing of note, HAL confused my request for group tenders as a different group than the Cruise Critic group. The person who managed the Meet & Greet was also called and asked about tenders for the group. When you talk to Guest Services make sure they understand that it is the Cruise Critic group you are asking for. On my last trip they ended up calling us the ***** group because that was the group name on my reservation. It was just a little confusing at first so just be aware of it.

 

OK, I am out of steam writing all this down. I hope it is helpful for some of you on future cruises. Please feel free to ask questions and I will try and answer as best I can.

[mnocket]

6 minutes ago, fyree39 said:

My word.  I can't imagine going through that much work both before and during a cruise.  You are an angel!

Agreed.  I'd need a vacation when I got home!

[Phoenix cruiser]

I was on the cruise with Alex and we have elevated him to god-like status. There is no way we could thank him enough. He made a memorable cruise into something so much more. 

[LHT28]

I only read  half of the post & I would be so stressed out  by the time of the cruise

I usually  do privates tours  & the max  is 12  pax  depending on the size of the van  after that  others are on their own to organize  their  tour

I once did  a tour  had my group  then someone asked  for the guide's  name

fine ..they then got  a group  together

problem was  we had a van big enough for my group of 10 with some space

the new group had less people & managed to scoop the van we had & we were stuffed into a smaller van . no room to breathe

lesson learned ..do not share info

[Kala89]

We would like to echo what "Phoenix Cruiser" has said above. We met so many people because of the very active Roll Call and made friends because we were so often in the same groups with others.  It greatly enhanced the trip.  Thanks a million Alex for all your wonderful work in facilitating the spreadsheet and the tendering process.  Alex was wonderful about sharing details of how to copy the spreadsheet, add names, etc.  It was such a pleasure to be part of this cruise.  Happy travels everyone!

[skurvish]

I don't regret any of the work I put in to this trip. I wanted to go on these tours myself and if it wasn't for my new friends on the roll call some of the tours would not have run or they would have cost me a lot more. Most of the work was done during down times anyway so yes, I did lose some down time but I still managed to read 4 books during the 22 day cruise.

 

I have a 19 day baltic/transatlantic coming up in a years time and expect I will be just as invested in that one as I was in this one.

 

Thank you Marc & Ada for your comments. Makes it all worthwhile knowing your trip was enhanced by my efforts.

[johonew]

Just read over Alex's comments and I must say that I have to reiterate that his efforts made the trip the best one I have ever been on.  The itinerary was absolutely fantastic, the weather was the best of the season, and Alex's organization made the entire experience unbelievably smooth.  Alex (and his wife) are simply fabulous people who have made a lot of people very happy by enhancing their travel experience to the Antarctic.  My wife and I count ourselves as fortunate to have met him and to experience his organizational skills.  Thank you, Alex!

[teacherplus]

I also add my thanks to Alex and Maureen.  The trip was amazing and all the hard work that the two of them put into the tours and spread sheet was much appreciated.  My DH and I had a great trip and as John said it was the best trip ever and the best roll call ever.  We are so glad to have met Alex and Maureen and hope to see them again on a future trip.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for the information, I have done some of this (Shorex for a group of 8 max) and will never get involved in the other bits. 😎

[dogs4fun]

Wow - I thought that I was an inveterate planner but the OP has me beat by a mile! 

[Markanddonna]

You need to post your travel schedule so that I can book any big cruise you are on. Great info, Alex.

[Frank47]

We tell our friends that this was the best trip we've ever taken.  Thanks to Alex and Maureen, tours ran smoothly and were very organized.  Thanks very much you two.  I also must say that we enjoyed the company of everyone on the tours.  It was a very congenial and friendly group.  It was nice travelling with all of you.

[wheezedr]

I’m on a cruise with a group of 30 in November. At this point I do not anticipate playing an active part in the Roll call as I will already be involved planning activities for that group and I cannot conceive adding additional responsibility for others I do not even know.

[jagsfan]

I think this Roll Call post was about the best I’ve read in my 18 years on Cruise Critic. 

Very clear, no whining, and  know there had to be things to whine about, super informative and organized. 

Thank you. 

[bob brown]

Thanks so much for this very informative accounting of your experience in organization.   Having only organized cabin crawls, with all that entails, I certainly do respect the extraordinary amount of work you have performed to make your cruise such a successful endeavor.   Congratulations!

👍

[crazyank]

On 3/13/2019 at 4:04 PM, skurvish said:

ask the tour operator for the names of those extra people and call them and ask them to join you with your group for disembarkation (docked or tendered). Make note of the names and staterooms on your participant lists so you can check them off when they arrive. This will help get the tour going on time. These outside people may still have to deal with payments. 

I read your entire post, what an amazing amount of work!  There is only one thing I disagree with and that is asking a tour operator for details of other people on the tour who are not connected with your group.  I would be very upset with a tour operator giving out my details in those circumstances.  I understand the intention is to get the tour going on time but asking for information about people not connected with your group is out of line.

Edited March 15, 2019 by crazyank

[skurvish]

1 hour ago, crazyank said:

... I understand the intention is to get the tour going on time but asking for information about people not connected with your group is out of line.

I can see how you might think that. Given the issues we had in the one port I did ask on a couple of subsequent ports and was given the info quite readily. When I called these people they were quite appreciative and very happy to join us for an early tender. I got zero pushback. This was a benefit to them, why would they be unhappy about it?

[crazyank]

1 hour ago, skurvish said:

I can see how you might think that. Given the issues we had in the one port I did ask on a couple of subsequent ports and was given the info quite readily. When I called these people they were quite appreciative and very happy to join us for an early tender. I got zero pushback. This was a benefit to them, why would they be unhappy about it?

You, as a private tour organizer, have no business asking for information on people who are not part of your group.  The tour operators who gave you that info are equally in the wrong.  The fact that you got "zero pushback"  does not make your request for info right. Why should they be unhappy about it?  Consider this, cabin numbers given to a complete stranger, not a cruise line employee.   Seems like a very good reason to be unhappy.

[SPacificbound]

You are far more patient than I.  

 

I have done a few of them, but my limit is 8 to 10 people, depending on what vehicles are offered. 

[MicCanberra]

On ‎3‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 9:46 PM, Markanddonna said:

You need to post your travel schedule so that I can book any big cruise you are on. Great info, Alex.

Agreed.

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, SPacificbound said:

You are far more patient than I.  

 

I have done a few of them, but my limit is 8 to 10 people, depending on what vehicles are offered. 

Agreed, I would just not want the work let alone the stress that is likely to follow.

[rugerdog]

On 3/14/2019 at 6:55 PM, jagsfan said:

I think this Roll Call post was about the best I’ve read in my 18 years on Cruise Critic. 

Very clear, no whining, and  know there had to be things to whine about, super informative and organized. 

Thank you. 

 

 

100% agree.  Thank you for taking the time to so precisely describe your process.  Well crafted and a true pleasure to read.

[Bizmark'sMom]

You are an absolute saint!

I don't even do this for family groups I travel with. 

[Brandy14]

Thanks for sharing! I’m using your spreadsheet for my upcoming South America cruise. It was so much easier since I only had to edit instead of start from scratch!

[travelholics]

We are going on the Zaandam in January 2020 and your spreadsheet has helped us so much in planning and we are so grateful for ideas on tours. We are planning to use the same tour company for a post cruise 3 night trip to Iguazu, could you confirm if they provided satisfactory service? We would love to travel with you, hope our paths cross in the future.