New Host for Other Cruise Lines Board

[Host Jazzbeau]

I am writing to introduce myself as the new Host of the Other Cruise Lines board on Cruise Critic.

 

I have been a participant on this board for a while since I am very interested in small ship cruising, but until now I have only been officially hosting the River Cruising boards [since 2015]

 

We were recently informed that, due to the coronavirus, Cruise Critic has been forced to lay off half its paid staff.  This is especially sad for those of us who have worked with them and have seen how much they did 'behind the scenes,' but it will affect every aspect of Cruise Critic as the remaining staff can’t take up all the slack.  Therefore a number of Hosts have volunteered to take responsibility for additional boards that didn’t have a host in place.

 

A little about myself, which may help put some of my comments in context.  My wife and I have been cruising since 1974 [Costa Italia rt San Juan], but there was a gap called ‘children’ until 2011 when we began cruising in earnest.  Altogether we have taken 21 cruises on 12 cruise lines, including ships in every size category from the largest [MSC Seaview] to Ponant [180 pax] and AmaWaterways [28 pax on the Zambezi Queen].  DW and I do a blog after each cruise, and you can find the links in my signature.

 

We were booked on Windstar Star Legend Spanish Serenade for September 2020, but that cruise was cancelled when the Star Plus Initiative was delayed; and on Ponant Le Lapérouse Best of New Zealand for March 2020, but that cruise was cancelled at the last minute by the coronavirus.

 

We currently have two cruises planned for 2021: on Ponant [using FCC for the same New Zealand itinerary], and Noble Caledonia [b2b from Mallorca to Malta with a focus on Sicily]  In addition to those cruise lines I also actively follow new offerings on Azamara and Windstar, and river cruises.  As you can see, small-ship cruising is where my heart is.

 

I know that there is a great deal of anxiety and anger throughout Cruise Critic about the cancellation and refund process [on many cruise lines].  Please remember that Cruise Critic is still [and with fewer Admins, more than ever] an old AOL chat room.  We are each expected to police ourselves to maintain a friendly atmosphere. I have also added a Sticky about dealing with ‘difficult’ posts which includes links to the Cruise Critic guidelines.

 

This has always been one of the more congenial of Cruise Critic boards, and I am sure that this friendly community will keep it that way.  I look forward to reading all the new posts, and hope that that is all I will need to do!

 

Here’s hoping we’ll all be on a ship soon,

 

Host Jazzbeau

 

PS – you can reach me at my Cruise Critic email, which is in my signature

 

PPS – a word about my Cruise Critic handle and icon:  Al 'Jazzbo' or 'Jazzbeaux' Collins was a DJ and terminal hipster on various stations in NYC and SF back in the day.  You could look it up: https://bayarearadio.org/audio/al-jazzbeaux-collins-jazzbo

[terry&mike]

Welcome Jazzbeau to being the host of this board! I am familiar with you as I read a lot of the boards that you currently monitor, and find you to be both kind and fair. 

I am sorry for the staff reduction at CruiseCritic, but I know the travel industry is hurting now. I am a travel agent myself, and these are tough times, but hopefully they will pass soon.

Like you, I very much look forward to being on a ship again soon!