Roll Calls

[bigque]

Roll Calls are nowhere near as what they use to be in the day where it was a chance to get to know other people that will be on your cruise and then finally meet each other and the meet & greet as well as other events you all might have set up. My upcoming cruise in October has had a roll call for well over a year but there has been very low and minimum participation but there are people signed up for the meet & mingle well above the number of people that have been in the roll call. This will be my first cruise where I did not sign up for the meet and mingle as I didn’t see the point of doing so when there was never really any communication in the roll call where bonds were established or anything as have been the case in all roll calls in the past that I have been in. 

 

So with all that said do you do you all think that roll calls and meet and mingles are becoming a thing of the past and is on its way out?? Like that is so yesteryear???? What you think??

[Esprit]

For me they have always provided information and "heads ups" that have been invaluable regardless of how active the roll calls for each cruise have been.

I always attend the M&M's and invariably there are sail away meet ups that were worth going to.  

[blackshirt]

Roll calls vary from cruise to cruise. I was on a Transatlantic cruise to Amsterdam followed by a Greek Island cruise this last May. Both roll calls were very active and I met quite a few on each cruise. Even arranged dinner companions and shore excursions through the roll calls. On the other hand, I have a back to back on Liberty booked in December. Both of those roll calls are dead. It just varies from cruise to cruise.

[shipgeeks]

One of our current roll calls has about 400 posts; the other two have 4 and 6 posts total.  It varies.

[XBGuy]

As has been indicated, every roll call has its own personality.

 

I am less than 30 days from our next cruise.  The roll call for that one is on page 13 (25 posts per page).  On this one, we don't seem to have many organizers.  So, there is no sign-up for things like Meet & Greet or Slot Pull or Cabin Crawl.  There are two informal M & Gs where people are saying "We're going to be here, drop on by" that have been proposed--one in a bar during the sailawy and one in a lounge the next morning.  Some people have said they would be at one or both of them.  

 

There has been some conversation on port excursions, and people have been exchanging information on excursion providers.

 

And, yes, there have been people who have met on previous cruises reconnecting.

 

All in all, I have found it a very enjoyable roll call.

 

Our next cruise is in January.  Right now the roll call on that one is pretty quiet.  I'm sure that will pick up in the coming months;

[h20skibum]

I use to coordinate slot pulls and poker runs for several of our cruises, but with the declining participation on roll calls, it just isn’t worth the effort anymore.  Haven’t done those on the last 3 cruises.  

 

Surprisingly, some cruises less than 7 days have more active roll calls than those 7 days or more. 

[denmarks]

Years ago we had a roll call with close to 100 members. It has slowly decreased over the years. With 3 months left my current roll call has 12.

[NantahalaCruiser]

Just depends - roll call for our Sept 6 cruise currently has 151 members with 2437 posts; 175 signed up for the M&M. And one member created a spreadsheet to keep track of our small group shore excursions - currently has over 50 shore excursions listed!

[JTBCruiser]

We have been pretty lucky as the roll calls on the ships we've sailed have been pretty active.  It's been a good source to find hotels, shuttles, places to eat and shop pre-cruise. 

[lenquixote66]

On 8/23/2019 at 11:09 AM, bigque said:

Roll Calls are nowhere near as what they use to be in the day where it was a chance to get to know other people that will be on your cruise and then finally meet each other and the meet & greet as well as other events you all might have set up. My upcoming cruise in October has had a roll call for well over a year but there has been very low and minimum participation but there are people signed up for the meet & mingle well above the number of people that have been in the roll call. This will be my first cruise where I did not sign up for the meet and mingle as I didn’t see the point of doing so when there was never really any communication in the roll call where bonds were established or anything as have been the case in all roll calls in the past that I have been in. 

 

So with all that said do you do you all think that roll calls and meet and mingles are becoming a thing of the past and is on its way out?? Like that is so yesteryear???? What you think??

Our first two cruises were before the internet existed.For our third in 2008,I posted on CC but had no interest in the Meet and Mingle.However,I met a couple on the cruise who said it was wonderful. On our next cruise we went and became friendly with a couple who became friends. We have since been on the meet and mingle for every cruise and have become very good friends with at least one couple from every one.

[lenquixote66]

On 8/23/2019 at 11:56 AM, shipgeeks said:

One of our current roll calls has about 400 posts; the other two have 4 and 6 posts total.  It varies.

We were on a cruise that had 200 people posting on CC for the m and m.When we went to the get together on the ship a total of 6 showed up.

[dolittle]

Many people have been turned off by gift exchange and some people who get a little over the top . It should be for info and hook ups for private excursions. I have no interest in the officers or the cruise director coming and trying to win brownie points with guests. I do not need food and drink ether .

[Janedoe2012]

I have enjoyed roll calls/meet and mingles  in the past for the info and organized private tours and a couple of activities on board like a sail away party or slot poll. 

 

Different story on my Nov 2018 cruise as there were 2 overly aggressive roll call members who had to do things their way and their opinions were the only ones that mattered .  Totally wrecked the nice MSC Divina Meet and Mingle party the staff hosted.

 

I notice ( at least for my Nov roll call) people are signing up for meet and mingle but not participating in the roll call forum. Could be because there is an eager beaver trying to organize literally 3 group activities each day.  

 

 

 

 

[lenquixote66]

41 minutes ago, Janedoe2012 said:

I have enjoyed roll calls/meet and mingles  in the past for the info and organized private tours and a couple of activities on board like a sail away party or slot poll. 

 

Different story on my Nov 2018 cruise as there were 2 overly aggressive roll call members who had to do things their way and their opinions were the only ones that mattered .  Totally wrecked the nice MSC Divina Meet and Mingle party the staff hosted.

 

I notice ( at least for my Nov roll call) people are signing up for meet and mingle but not participating in the roll call forum. Could be because there is an eager beaver trying to organize literally 3 group activities each day.  

 

 

 

 

There is also a third group,people who do not post on the roll call,do not sign up for the meet and mingle but just show up at the get together because they see crowds gathering and want to eat the food provided.

[SRF]

On 8/23/2019 at 10:56 PM, shipgeeks said:

One of our current roll calls has about 400 posts; the other two have 4 and 6 posts total.  It varies.

 

One for a cruise next year has the opening post.

 

One for a year after that is actually active.

 

It does vary

 

[LA_CA_GAL]

A lot depends on the cruise line / ship and itinerary.

 

Our cruises on RCL, Allure, Oasis, and Explorer had great roll calls.  They were pretty simple, no slot pulls, gift exchanges, but, we did a cabin crawl and we got together for sail away at the pool bar.

 

Our last three cruises on Celebrity and Princess were about as dull as paint drying.  We did have enough scheduled for a MM, but I chose not to participate.

[BlueRiband]

12 hours ago, dolittle said:

Many people have been turned off by gift exchange and some people who get a little over the top . It should be for info and hook ups for private excursions. I have no interest in the officers or the cruise director coming and trying to win brownie points with guests. I do not need food and drink ether .

Same here...I would not show up rather than be the party pooper who declined to participate in gift exchanges, slot pulls, poker runs, or cabin crawls.  To me a meet and greet should be just that - an opportunity to meet and connect names and faces with the postings seen on line here. 

 

There are also roll calls with people who post only on the roll call but seldom or never post anything on the board for that cruise line.  When I see names that I don't recognize I feel no connection and have no interest in attending. 

 

The other reason that roll calls have declined is the use of other social media.  Somebody will start a private social media forum which requires a request for admission.  Thus it becomes a private invitation-only event.

Edited August 26, 2019 by BlueRiband

[bigque]

Great comments! As I said with me, I always thought the meet & mingle was to meet and mingle and put faces to the names you have been communicating with in the roll call. But to have let’s say 60 people show up to the meet and mingle for a roll call that have had maybe 5 or 6 people communicating in the roll call every 3 or 4 months is not worth it to me as there was never any bonds made of people I would want to meet. It would really just be faces there as anywhere else on the ship. 

[SRF]

My experience is that things like slot pulls and cabin crawls are scheduled as a separate event.  It may be right after the Meet and Mingle, but it not specifically part of it.

 

You can M&M, without doing anything else.

 

I do agree about the gift exchange.  I do not participate in those, and might skip an M&M with one.

[squick64]

They're a bit of a mixed bag. I've done a couple now, I guess.

 

I organized one, and it went pretty well, but I don't want to do it again. It allowed people to share information on getting to and from port and arrange things together--one person had booked a coach, for instance, and was willing to take others.

 

My last one was one of the busiest roll call threads the site has ever seen, but the event was a bit of a wash. Only a handful of people turned up, and one of the people missing was the person who posted in the thread nearly every day and knew everyone and was chatting away for like 2 years beforehand.

 

On one of my current ones, someone posted about a deal the cruise line was offering. I would never have known had I not gotten the thread notification. It saved me a ton of money.

[navybankerteacher]

Roll calls do seem to be much less active - but they do sometimes give information about ports - and we have organized tours and transfers on them several times.  We might go to the meet and greet if there had been some good back and forth on the roll call, but other than that, we are not particularly interested — or certainly in a gift exchange which is simply a way to get burdened with some junk.

[taglovestocruise]

Our roll call for Allure 2020 TA currently has 4,700 replies and just hit 78,000 views and we are still 14 months away.  The members have set up games, activities, pub crawls, a gift exchange, they even have a conference room reserved on several days for a card game extravaganza, getting group discounts for hotels in Barcelona and setting up group excursions. One person has set up a M&M spread sheet that in now at 331.This is actually less active then our Symphony TA last year.  Guess it depends on the Ship. 

[mitsugirly]

When I first learned about cc and roll calls back in 2010, our roll call was VERY active. We all became friends and talked nonstop and couldn't wait to meet each other. After the cruise, a lot of us remained friends (still to this day) and sometimes we cruise together again, on each others social media and send each other stuff in the mail. I've even went down to someone's place in another state and met up with them and went out to eat and hang out. I have met some amazing people and friends.

 

I too have noticed over the years that it seems to dwindle down. There's not as much participation, people don't talk as much, the excitement is gone about gathering. Most of the time I don't even sign up on the roll call anymore and when I do, not much is said.

 

We cruise often and it doesn't feel to me like it's "just maybe that roll call" because it happens a lot over the last few years.

 

I don't even bother going to the M&M because the last several I went to, people just didn't really talk among each other and the only info you are really given at them is meeting the staff and given numbers. I can obtain those numbers, if needed, on my own time. 

 

It's just not what it used to be. :(