Have Cruise Critic roll calls died?

[EllieinNJ]

I went on my first "Carnival" cruise in April and the "meetup" was arranged by the FB group at a bar by the pool.  Only the bar and two hightops there.  People standing around not saying much.  Very awkward.

 

I also went to their slot pull.  They had over 50 people and doing only one machine.  It took over 2 hours to finish.

Edited July 26, 2022 by EllieinNJ

[Dcoy]

2 minutes ago, EllieinNJ said:

I went on my first "Carnival" cruise in April and the "meetup" was arranged by the FB group at a bar by the pool.  Only the bar and two hightops there.  People standing around not saying much.  Very awkward.

Seems people can only communicate online and can’t in person. What is this world coming to?

[LGW59]

6 hours ago, casofilia said:

@SunnySideUp100

 

Mine is similar but very different!!!   The main reason that I do it is to make sure that people are on their feet Meeting and GREETING/MINGLING.

 

I also arrange a lunch after the M&G where chatter can continue especially discussion about Private Shorex that should not happen in the M&G.

 

Contact at casofilia @ xtra . co . nz (Miss out the gaps)

Why should private shorex discussion not happen at a M&G?

[RosieCanberra]

Most of the roll calls I have joined are on the quiet side. Prior to covid they were busier. Not sure if it's because there are fewer cruising, or fewer on cruise critic. Most likely both. 

[LGW59]

1 minute ago, RosieCanberra said:

Most of the roll calls I have joined are on the quiet side. Prior to covid they were busier. Not sure if it's because there are fewer cruising, or fewer on cruise critic. Most likely both. 

All I can say is that I know I am in the minority when it comes to using (I don’t) social media 

[Markanddonna]

Our roll calls on CC have been much less active since cruising resumed. In May, the social media group was more active, but on a big one coming up, CC wins. No one has set up any onboard activities. The functions are all about info and sharing tours.

[jkrelph]

After reading this topic, I went on our roll call and made a post...  Our roll call has a M&G and other activities that folks are signing up for.   I think it's great.  I'm not sure we will do those activities, but nice to know we can sign up if we need to.

 

I also after reading this topic went on Social Media and found the groups that are a discussion here...

 

Found a couple that did our exact same flights to Rome out of San Diego.   They gave me some great tips for going to Rome and coming back....  Also, it was quite fun to see the groups posts while onboard in quick real time...

 

That being said....  I like CC and the other Social Media to get the most info I can, to have the best cruise.

 

LOL, but hey being on a cruise, is always the best.   It's what you make out of your adventure.

[Travelling2Some]

13 hours ago, phillygwm said:

I'll disagree.  I'm not a naturally outgoing person.  Part of my job involves doing occasional cocktail parties, social events, etc. and I hate every minute of it.  So no, I'm not better than anyone else, but I'm not going to spend a minute of my vacation subjecting myself to something that gives me anxiety.  Sorry not sorry.

Many people, including myself, are simply introverts.  Growing up I found it peculiar that my parents believed sending me to my room (where I could read my book in peace) was some sort of punishment.  Making me attend parties would have been much more effective, lol!!!

[schmoopie17]

10 minutes ago, Travelling2Some said:

Many people, including myself, are simply introverts.  Growing up I found it peculiar that my parents believed sending me to my room (where I could read my book in peace) was some sort of punishment.  Making me attend parties would have been much more effective, lol!!!

Meeting strangers can be stressful. I can relate. And so can Jerry and Elaine from Seinfeld:

 

Elaine:  "I'll never understand people."

Jerry: "They're the worst."

[CruisingSince1982]

That other social media site has taken over 😉 

[geegee1]

15 hours ago, marktwothousand said:

If people participate in the roll calls and then Specifically choose not to do the meet and greet.. that is a bit snooty and disrespectful. I understand if they’re too early or there’s some other conflicting event going on, etc etc but to deliberately choose not to participate… it makes it sound like the person feels they’re above it

Snooty?   I always go on my roll call to get tips and see if there is anyone from my area on there. Been to two M&G's found them both extremely boring and of no use to us.

 

2 hours ago, LGW59 said:

All I can say is that I know I am in the minority when it comes to using (I don’t) social media 

Hate to break it to you, CC is social media 🤣😂

[ontheweb]

14 hours ago, EllieinNJ said:

I've hosted several m&g here on cc for NCL.  At one over 100 people responded they would come and only 30 showed up.  At another 60 responded and 20 showed up.  It's a little embarrassing having them prepare refreshments and having officers come with only a few of participants.

 

Now I'm doing one for a Princess cruise.  They don't offer refreshments.  Only a space to gather.  I opened it to the FB group to sign up by joining cc and they deleted my post saying anyone can come and not have to belong to cc.  I have no idea how many will actually attend.

Presently, I am on a roll call for a Prima cruise next summer, and it is all but dead.

 

It's been a while since our last NCL cruise which was in 2012 on the Epic. There was a large roll call, but only 2 small tables worth of participants showed up. One of the non-attendees was even the person who set up the roll call. One table was made up of passengers who had agreed to share some shore excursions, so they met to meet each other and presumably agree where to meet for their excursions.  We were the other table with one other couple. The husband from the other couple remembered that I had posted that my DW was an art teacher, and most of the conversation was him questioning my wife about the art they would be able to see in Florence.

 

NCL sent two officers. They must have wondered where all the people who signed up were.

[rrraydon]

I went on the roll calls for my 4 cruises on the social media site this morning and I must say, not too much cruise chatter on them either. 
Yes, events are being planned and people are signing up, but not much discussion.

I’m not interested in signing up for events with people I haven’t socialized with prior to the sailing. 
For instance, why would I want to join a M&G or a pub crawl or a slot pull with people I had no discussions with prior to the sailing?

 

Those planned events came into fruition as a direct result of groups of people socializing and getting to know one another on sites such as this for many months prior to the actual sailing, not just sign up with a bunch of people you have no knowledge of…it befuddles me.

“Sign up for M&G for 2nd sea day at 1 o’clock Alchemy Lounge!”—- I’m like who are all of you? No one has had any real discussions with each other on this social media platform. Why would I want to sign up?

[LGW59]

17 minutes ago, geegee1 said:

Snooty?   I always go on my roll call to get tips and see if there is anyone from my area on there. Been to two M&G's found them both extremely boring and of no use to us.

 

Hate to break it to you, CC is social media 🤣😂

This is very true but it certainly does not and never will have the influence (good/bad) and reach that other social media does.  

[sprint180]

5 hours ago, phillygwm said:

On earlier cruises, I used to go to the "Friends of Dorothy"/LGBT mixer.  

On my first cruise I noticed several Bill and Dorothy get together.  I didn't know what these were but I thought that Bill and Dorothy must have a lot of friends to get together so much!

[mking8288]

CC's roll calls, IMHO, aren't what they used to be pre-pandemic, for variety of reasons and not necessary because of other "competing" platforms/online sites and I'm cautious to declare it ... 

 

As far as I'm concerned, personally, "our" upcoming one is alive & well at 50+ days out, 75 on the CC roll call roster, 45 or so affirmed plans to be at the M&G/Mingle (and, we know it's a success with 80% attendance, no-shows happened for variety of reasons) and 20+ interested in playing the slot pull (immediately afterward.)  Organized an earlier one this March on another ship, it was successful with 30+ attending and new friendships established.  But, was just one of the "many" CC attendees on a different sailing not too long ago, it was a disaster - zero efforts to mingle whatsoever, a substantial # came from elsewhere & boosted the purported headcounts.  The ones that showed up just sat in the lounge in small groups, no efforts by the organizer to introduce herself/others, acknowledge or do anything otherwise to mingle ... part of the reasons, I think, nobody on the Roll Call was willing or able to take the lead to keep track, someone else came along and ran it down the finish line (time, energy, commitment, willingness, and availability, etc. to be considered; and, to not expect hardly anything in return for the efforts.)  

 

It didn't/doesn't help when cruise lines, including NCL, virtually halted some if not all the Meet & Greet/Mingle fun out of it, with no senior officer(s) attending - however briefly & taking no questions - and watered down refreshments, the "motivations" for some to show up and meet other "strangers" onboard aren't strong or not at all.  The sailing's itinerary, full sea days and scheduling also come into play in terms of scheduling an ideal or at least more convenient time for the M&G/M ... and the venue itself (location-wise) also important - i.e. mega ships, the spacious specialty restaurant is better than the District Brew House for a larger group, especially for social distancing and mingling purposes.  

 

Last but not least, CC disabling permanently the one-to-one messaging with the portal's major revisions several years ago, IMHO, didn't help at all - pushing, at least, a few, over to other alternate platforms to "chat" directly.  I often read & look at the sailing's other roll calls, mostly before but also after "ours" to see and get a sense of what's going on, who else is doing what, and useful FAQ that other members might find informative & useful, i.e. Bermuda TA and ArriveCan.  There are others not exactly following the stated CC protocols but apparently, CC admin isn't always doing anything about it, if at all - sometimes, only if "reported" - I hope all these aren't spinning into the grey water drain lines.  Not here to suggest or tell CC on what, how and ways of restoring faith and its perceived influence as the 5% among cruisers that NCL (and, other lines) should look upon & listen.  

 

Let's face it, with the surging Covid subvariants and current wave, depending on the ports, not everyone is comfortable attending huge gatherings unmasked - just b/c some didn't show up or wish to attend the M&G doesn't necessary mean they aren't supporting or that the roll calls are hitting all-time lows ... expectations do count.  Several seasoned CC'ers on the upcoming roll call staying in Haven offered to show their suites to interested members privately - smartly & on request only, not doing a cabin crawl with a large group roaming the corridors & hallways, for healthy & privacy/safety reasons - make sense, huh.  

 

Furthermore, I see no need to ask, post & share "real" full names, hometowns and other personal biographical details, photos & basics, and, that we will be traveling & away for xx days ... so, just bring the U-Haul moving truck and help move valuable household belongings free.  For solo cruisers, is there really a need to collect stateroom # and email addresses, maybe but not convinced those private groups data are safeguarded well, not over our decade+ cruising.  In "my/our" other online presence, we do use other tools, apps & have affinities on other sites & platforms - just not co-mingling here.  Data breaches and cyber security leaks - to the extent that I can limit the exposure, less sharing elsewhere are best practices.  

 

That's our nickel's worth of food for thoughts.   

 

[JIMESOPUS]

Many of the stalwarts of CC have been slowly disappearing. Myriad of reasons for this but in my opinion it has to due with the current direction of cruising ( larger ships, laser tag and speedways ), cost of cruising ( increased fee's, specialty restaurants ), health and age. Age might ne number one reason, recent " improvements " here has made it difficult to roam around, I still miss that roll call carousel that within several clicks you could find you roll call.

I have joined the other site roll calls as a lurker using my secondary ID, the security is a joke and you never know who setup the roll call. One recent roll call was setup by a TA, who later PM asking me if I was interest in having her as my TA.

I'll keep on using CC, have one in January that I'm hosting the M&G. If folks don't come or don't mingle that's on them. 

[deefer]

On 7/25/2022 at 7:26 AM, Shellbelle28 said:

For all the past cruises I've been on, I've participated in a roll call. 

I'm on a sailing on the Sun in Alaska next month and there are only about 5 posts in our roll call and half are probably mine! Is it just the sailing I'm on, or are roll calls just not active any more? I know a lot of people are on other social media platforms, has that killed the Cruise Critic roll call?

We are currently on the Sun!  Our roll call had 2 people ….I responded to the initial post and then crickets!

 

I think the reason the Suns roll calls are particularly quiet is that it’s a small ship to begin with (less people) and then not sailing at full capacity.  We were told our sailing has only 1100 passengers.

 

 

[casofilia]

@LGW59

 

Why should private shorex discussion not happen at a M&G?

 

Because PRIVATE shore excursions  are set up in direct opposition to the ship shore excursions and you are a guest at a function hosted by the cruise line.   

It is only polite to not discuss them in that situation.   

Arrange to do it elsewhere is OK which is why I arrange a lunch to follow the M&G.

[weltek]

Hard for me to discern if it's covid or popularity of social media pages, or both. I'm a member of both a Roll Call and popular social media site for my December cruise. Both pages are very quiet/similar number of members. The "quality" of conversation on Cruise Critic is far better, though. I have zero interest in meeting the social media site folks based on their posts.

That's generally been my experience as time evolves between all message boards like this versus other social media. The quality of interaction is better on the message boards, but it's just not as convenient as the "all in one place app" that popular social media sites can offer. 

[Shellbelle28]

10 minutes ago, weltek said:

Hard for me to discern if it's covid or popularity of social media pages, or both. I'm a member of both a Roll Call and popular social media site for my December cruise. Both pages are very quiet/similar number of members. The "quality" of conversation on Cruise Critic is far better, though. I have zero interest in meeting the social media site folks based on their posts.

That's generally been my experience as time evolves between all message boards like this versus other social media. The quality of interaction is better on the message boards, but it's just not as convenient as the "all in one place app" that popular social media sites can offer. 

 My experience of the posters on the "other" platform is that they are like seagulls. They fly in, splatter crap all over the place either in the form of complaints or rudely worded demands for information, and then fly away, never adding anything of value.

[Goldconnection]

7 hours ago, LGW59 said:

All I can say is that I know I am in the minority when it comes to using (I don’t) social media 

Me two. I don’t do social media and my life has not suffered at all.

[GA Dave]

I have been on CC for quite a while.  Met some really nice people from here on cruises prior to the pandemic.  Noticed the changes happening during the shutdown and started researching chat pages about cruising on That Other Site.  Once I starting cruising after the restart, I noticed significantly more activity on That Other Site vs CC for specific sailings.  I actually have held a few M&G's from both CC roll calls and specific pages on That Other Site the last few cruises.  98% of the people who attended were from That Other Site.  Most I spoke with had never heard of CC.  The last M&G I held was a rousing success, with 70-80 people participating and lasting well past sail away.  Another I did not host but attended that was only advertised on That Other Site had a great M&G, slot pull, and cabin crawl.  I will continue to promote anything I host on both sites, but just expect the majority of people to come from That Other Site.

[LGW59]

45 minutes ago, casofilia said:

@LGW59

 

Why should private shorex discussion not happen at a M&G?

 

Because PRIVATE shore excursions  are set up in direct opposition to the ship shore excursions and you are a guest at a function hosted by the cruise line.   

It is only polite to not discuss them in that situation.   

Arrange to do it elsewhere is OK which is why I arrange a lunch to follow the M&G.

Then by your reasoning there should be no private shore excursions if they are in direct opposition cruise line if one is a guest on the line.  Which of course is nonsense.  I’ll enjoy my private shore excursions and talk about them when and where I decide.

[casofilia]

@LGW59

 

Then by your reasoning there should be no private shore excursions if they are in direct opposition cruise line ......,.

 

I don't know where you get that.   I am happy for people to make whatever arrangements they want to make regarding shore excursions.   I just do not think a M&G where you are a guest of the cruise line is NOT the place to do it.

 

If you are having dinner at A&B's place with half a dozen others do you openly compare, during that dinner,  that dinner with one you had at C&D's a few night's earlier?

 

Mike